Calvary Chapel River Oaks

Pastor Grady Clark: On this rainy Sunday, you could be anywhere else, but no, you're here in the house of the Lord. Amen. I was just thinking when we sang that song, the power of the blood, and in the power of His blood, the victory won at Calvary. I was thinking, if I shed my blood right now, you'd better go get me a bandage because I can't do anything for you.

His blood heals, repairs, restores, forgives, and redeems. Amen. All our faith, hope, and trust is in you, Jesus, and you alone. We can stand in His victory at Calvary because Satan's fate was sealed then. All the fallen angels' fate was sealed at Calvary, so we can stand in victory. Amen.

If we can all stand for the scripture reading this morning. It's going to come out of Psalm 51:15. "O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. These, O God, You will not despise." I want to reiterate: the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. Amen. Thank you. Now the word of the Lord.

Welcome everyone. So glad that you joined us. For those online, we welcome you as well. We're excited to be together. It's good that we can be together. We still serve the Lord in a place where we can actually gather together and not have to worry about somebody coming in, busting in the door and arresting us because we are reading and studying God's word. That day may come, but today, it's good to see all y'all.

We're going to continue our study in Mark chapter two. We're going to pick up in verse 13. Our title this morning is "Unaccepted Religion." Father, we ask that You speak to us this morning. It's Your word that gives us life. It feeds us; it sustains us. We don't want to just sip on a little milk this morning, Lord. We want to chew on it. We need substance that we can actually digest and process, meditate upon, and then be transformed by so that we can continue growing in our relationship, Lord.

Truly, it's not about the prayer we prayed when we prayed it. It's about the transformation of the power of God in us from that day forward. It's not a once-and-done; it's an every day, every moment walk with You. Speak to us today, Lord. Teach us, walk with us, encourage us. Forgive us in all the aspects of doubt and all the aspects that we have given into the world. Forgive us for that, Lord, and take us now behind the veil in the presence of God that we may know, trust, and believe in what Your word tells us. We thank You and praise You in Jesus' name, Amen.

In our study last week, we saw that Jesus was healing a paralytic. He ultimately stated that not only does He have the power to heal physically, He also has the power and authority to forgive sins. He's the only one that can do that. Even the scribes and the experts in the Mosaic law knew that only God could forgive sins, but they missed the fact that God was among them.

They had that attitude in their heart: "Who is this that claims that he can forgive sins? Only God can forgive sins." They made a truthful statement, but God was with them. In this portion of our text, we saw that Jesus addressed the core problem of human existence. It's sin itself. That's the core issue.

In today's culture, there are thousands of writers and thinkers, philosophers, who tell us how to fix ourselves. We've talked about this many times. They address everything from health and fitness to mental health, financial health and guidance, and then relational health. No matter what they come up with, they're only addressing the symptoms of the problem of which a person faces, and only Jesus can fix that.

You can change habits, you can change your mind, you can change the way you do things, and it may improve certain things in your life. There's no doubt that if you exercise more and eat less of certain things and do different things, you can get physically stronger. But you're going to die. At some point in time, you're going to face that day which is already appointed by God. All the health that you've done and all the running, like I do, and all the things that I do to keep healthy and stay strong is going to come to naught because we are all assigned a day.

What we're talking about here is that all of the issues of our life—the sicknesses, the financial things, the relational things—all of these things are messed up and in imbalance because of sin that began all the way back in the garden. Jesus addresses that sin. He addressed it with them and said, "To prove that I have the authority to forgive sins, arise, take up your bed, and walk," and the man did just that.

This week, we're going to see that Jesus is challenged on different points: first, regarding who He hangs out with, and then second, fasting. I was going to get into the Sabbath, but it didn't get that far this time, so next week we'll cover that. Let's get started in Mark chapter two, beginning with verse 13.

"Then He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them." Remember, the crowds were still at this point following Him everywhere He went. He's teaching them basic principles of walking in faith, of understanding that they are sinners, of understanding they need repentance. He's teaching them in the basics. When He pulls the disciples aside individually, He teaches them more. He's teaching them about relationship.

We know, as we've seen in all the Gospels, the crowds follow not because of what they really want to learn from Him, but what He's going to do, what they can get from Him, and the big show. "Oh look, this is happening, that's happening. Let's see what He's going to do today." They were all following. As He goes by the sea, here comes the crowd again.

"As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, 'Follow Me.' So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples." Notice they do put tax collectors and sinners in this same paragraph together. If you ever eat with an IRS agent, tax collectors and sinners—I know there are some that are Christian, but we just won't talk about them right now.

It says here there were many, and they followed Him. "And when the scribes and the Pharisees saw Him eating with tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples..." Notice this too: they always go to His disciples. Why do they do that? Why don't they just call Him out right there and then? It's because here's how Satan works. He goes to someone to plant a seed of doubt in their mind. If he can bring division between him and a person that he follows, or he and the other disciples, then he's accomplished something. This again is how the scribes work. They're trying to bring division.

They come to His disciples and they say, "How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard it—because Jesus hears everything, even if you don't hear it out loud, He knows—He knew what they were thinking. He knew what they were whispering among others. He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

When you really process this down and think about who He's speaking to, He's speaking to the scribes and Pharisees. They were very religious people. They were the leaders of the people. They were the teachers of the law. They're the ones that assigned to them the sacrifices and assigned to them the dates and the seasons when they would come and bring their sacrifices. They're the ones that added more tradition in, and it became more about them being in control and power. This is who He's talking to.

He's using this terminology and saying, "I didn't call the righteous, but sinners." But really what He's saying is, "I didn't call the self-righteous. I didn't call those who are religious, who practice religion, who do all the right things and do it all in the right order." Even though they don't do everything right, they do all that right, but they add stuff to it that He didn't say to do. They weren't righteous, but they thought they were.

He's addressing them in this way because He thinks, "Okay, if you think you're righteous, I'll just let you keep thinking it. I didn't call you, you righteous person, because you're not going to hear it." Someone who's locked into their religion, someone who's locked into their way of doing things, someone who has lost sight of a relationship with Jesus but goes to church every Sunday and practices the same thing over and over, and they sing and they pray and they hear a message and they go home, and they come back the next week and they do it again and they do it again, but there's no relationship. There's no aspect of wanting to grow. There's no spiritual insight at all. It's just, "Yeah, this is what I do."

Christianity isn't what we do; it's who we are. There's the disconnect. There's the disconnect. Jesus sees this disconnect, and He's not going after them. I'm not coming after you. I'm coming for those who realize—number one, you've told them for the last 50 years, if some of them are out there, they're all sinners and tax collectors. They're all going to hell. So I'm coming to them because they probably, in their own minds, know they're sinners and know that they're not right with God. Unlike the other ones who think they are, they're right for the harvest because they need something they don't currently have. But the others say they already have it, so, okay, you have what you have, but that's not what I'm here for.

He said, "I have come to call sinners to repentance." So once again, Jesus now is on the move. This time He calls Levi the tax collector and invites Himself to Levi's home. It's a similar story to one we read before, but He invites him to break bread. It was the same with Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector in his town. You remember that; we read that earlier on. This is a story in Luke 19:2-7.

"Behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but he could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature." That would have been me. I probably would have been a tax collector. I definitely would have been a sinner. So one of the two, I'd have been trying to find out who this Jesus is. So he climbed a tree. He ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass by that way.

"When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said, 'Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.'" Here's the thing: the tax collectors and the sinners, they didn't expect Jesus to reach out to them, but they wanted Him to. It's the attitude of the heart that we're looking at. Zacchaeus didn't just want to know Jesus because of all the things He was doing. He was really curious. He said, "Listen, I know I'm not right with God. They tell me every day. Who is this Jesus who's doing these things of God?" So he climbed this tree. Jesus sees him. "Come down. I'm going to stay at your house." Same thing He just told this other tax collector. "I'm going to stay at your house."

Now, that's pretty bold. Jesus is like, "Come here. I'm staying at your house today." Wouldn't that be awesome? Well, guess what? He's staying at your house every day. The Holy Spirit indwells within you. So as believers, He's already in your house. When He called you and said, "Hey, this is who I am," when the Holy Spirit pricked your heart and you confessed with your mouth that you are a sinner and you believed in your heart in Jesus and you were saved, from that day forward, He comes to dwell with you. He said, "I'm going to come to your house."

That's the awesome God that we serve. He wants the intimacy. He wants the relationship. He wants to dwell with you. He doesn't just want you to pray a prayer and go about your business. That's religion. Relationship is different, and it's completely intimate.

He sought to see who Jesus was, so he ran ahead, climbed up the sycamore tree. Verse 5, beginning in Luke 19, verse 5: "And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him and said, 'Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.' So he made haste and came down and received Him joyfully." Again, the attitude of the heart. "But when they saw it, they"—they being the scribes and Pharisees—"they all complained, saying, 'He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.'"

The one thing that Jesus knows about religious people is that they're full of pride and they only want to associate with those of equal stature. If you're—and I'm not picking on you if you have a lot of money because if you're here and you have a lot of money, you're blessed and I know that you understand that it's from God and so you're not wrapped up into that aspect of it. But think about this: in our culture today, if you're wealthy, you hang out with wealthy people. You live in the wealthy subdivisions. You drive the same kind of cars. Now, that trickles down to the middle wealth too. The middle-income people, they all live in the same neighborhoods, they all have the homeowners associations. They all have everybody telling them they can't paint their mailbox blue if they want to, or they have to cut the grass, get the letter all the time. Didn't do this right, didn't do that right.

But they do it, not because they want to be a part of that, but because everybody else is doing it. That's what I want to do. And that's human nature. Wealthy people hang out with wealthy people; middle-wealth people hang out with middle-wealth people. It's just the way it is. People are drawn to those of whom they are like. But in Jesus, He's not looking to bring people into a wealth category or a standard of living category. He's looking at the heart of the person that's willing to say, "I don't want to be like everybody else. That's not been working."

Because everybody else is doing the same thing that I've been doing, and they have the same problems. A lot of them look good on the outside, but they're about to lose everything because they lost their job, or maybe they can't afford what they started out to do, but they wanted to look like they could, so they're all in this together. Then you have other people who put on a really big front in marriage and relationships, and then next thing you know, they fall apart because there's no substance. But they're still hanging out with all the other people and doing what the other people do.

They look down upon those who are of no good reputation, and they don't want to have anything to do with people of less stature and standard than they are. And also they have no desire to help those to come to the place that they dwell. In other words, a lot of the people who are in these scenarios and live these ways, they look down on people. They're not willing to help someone to come up a notch. They just don't even want to touch them, don't want to mess with them. It's the same way as we read the parable of the Good Samaritan. The man was beaten, robbed, left for dead. The priest came by—"Oh no, can't touch him"—walked around. Some other big important person walked around. But this other one comes by and says, "No, I'm going to help." The Good Samaritan helped him.

So what we're looking at here is we're looking at a group of people, and this is where Jesus is here. He's looking at this group of people who's pious. They have no desire to help anybody else. And they have this attitude: "Well, God helps those who help themselves." Have you ever heard that? Some people quote that as though it's a proverb in the Bible. It's not. It's a lie. God helps those who cannot help themselves and come to the point of realizing they cannot help themselves. And He said, "That's why I'm here. I'm here to help you."

I know that a lot of times you may think in your mind, "Well, yeah, but a lot of these people have put themselves in that situation." No doubt. Sometimes it's mental illness. Sometimes it could be drugs or alcohol that consumed them or other issues that consumed them and they lost everything. Gambling, whatever it might be. And they may find themselves in these situations. But when they meet Jesus and Jesus brings a transformation, He's touching the heart of the person not just because of where they are, but because of who He wants them to be. He meets them where they are, but He does not leave them where they are.

Now, that doesn't mean He's going to give them wealth all of a sudden and it's all about prosperity. Not at all. It means that their mind now is being changed, their heart is being changed and being transformed. No longer conformed to the world, but being transformed by the renewing of their mind. So who's a good candidate for that? Those who have it all together, the religious people, the wealthy people, all the people that have everything balanced out the way they want it? Or the people who are broken? As we read in our scripture reading, He's after those with a broken and contrite heart and spirit, because they come to the place where Jesus is all they have. He's not just something that they wanted to add to their life; He's everything.

This is the way it is, and you hear missionary stories happening around the world in these third-world countries and over in the places of Pakistan and Iran and places like that where the church is having to meet underground because of their government. But they know He's all they have because they're under such tight rule and reign and torment under the rules and regulation of Islamic law in particular that if they even speak out loud that they disagree, they'll chop their head off in a heartbeat. So Jesus is all they have. That's who Jesus is searching for. Jesus came to those who could not help themselves; it's to those He was sent.

Jesus, again, knowing the thoughts of the scribes and the Pharisees, says, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." When a man goes to the doctor—and I am saying man because men don't like going to the doctor. Nobody does, but women are more apt to go before a man will. "Man, I can fight through this. I don't have to see no doctor. They're just practicing anyway." I think I had said that this morning to somebody. "They're just practicing anyway, let them practice on everybody else. When they figure it out, then they can come see me."

But men like to fight through and hold off. When I had the diverticulitis back in 2016, I started having pain. It was after a business meeting at the church. During the business, I couldn't even stay for the lunch, and I left, went home. I laid around, moaned and groaned all day. Jennifer, off and on throughout the day, said, "You probably need to go ahead to the hospital." "No, I don't think I'm not..." Finally, one or two o'clock in the morning, I finally went to the hospital. By the time I got there, they said, "Well, you're going to have to have surgery." They had to transfer me from one hospital to another because they didn't have a bed for me, so I wound up in Rome.

I'm thinking, "Okay, they're going to give me an antibiotic, they're going to send me home, and then we'll schedule surgery and I'm going to come back." And the doctor bebops in: "Well, we're going to have to do surgery." I said, "When am I coming back for that?" He said, "Right now." He said, "I moved you to the front of the line. I had so much infection that another six hours, I'd have been septic, and after that, I would have died." But I didn't want to go see the doctor. Still don't want to go see him; I just pray that doesn't come back.

But when we do go to the doctor, it's because we know something's not right. Something is wrong. It's different. Another example, when Jennifer experienced her kidney stone. She had been having back spasms, she'd had problems in her lower back. She's got different pains that come and go. And so she was examining that when this kidney stone came on, and she was up and down. And I asked her, I said, "Where is this pain?" and she began to describe it, and I said, "That sounds like a kidney stone. That doesn't sound like a back spasm." And she even said, it's different than any pain she'd ever experienced. So, off to the emergency room, sure enough, that's what it was.

So you know something's wrong. You know you have an issue. And so you go to the doctor. He needs to address the problem. But first, one has to come to the realization that they're sick. Now, in the spiritual realm, it's harder to see because it's not necessarily, sometimes it is, but not necessarily physical pain. It's mental strain, mental stress, it's your world falls apart around you—again, relationships, finances, health, all of these things are going on around you. But until we come to the point to where we are willing to say, "I'm sick. I need help," that's when the Holy Spirit grabs the heart. That's when the Holy Spirit says, "I know you are, but I have the answer and it's Jesus." And that's when you grab ahold of the only hope that you have.

See, the scribes and the Pharisees, they had all the religious answers. They had all their pious groups of friends. They were all self-sufficient, and they also believed that they were special people. "We're set aside for God." Well, now we are set aside for God. In Jesus, we're set aside. That's what sanctified actually means, to be separated. We are now separated and we're being sanctified, meaning that our habits change, our lives change, we are being transformed. It's the process of sanctification. But in their mind, they were already set apart. "If you're not Jewish, number one, you can't come into our club. Number two, if you don't do everything we tell you, then it's all going to be your fault, period, and you can't come in."

They were elevated in their own way of thinking. They were special. God had looked upon them, in their mind, and saw how good they were. And those, unlike themselves, they're the ones that are rejected by God. So we'll show them no mercy. That's the attitude that they had. But Jesus wasn't there for them. Jesus didn't come for them because they couldn't receive Him. They had already in their minds established themselves as being righteous, holy, right with God. "Who is this man? Number one, He's not our Messiah because He didn't come in on a white horse with a sword destroying everybody and taking us and putting us in high authority and position. So it can't be Him. He's a donkey rider. No, no, that can't be right."

Matthew's account of this same story says this in Matthew 9:12-13: "When Jesus heard that, He said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.'" But then He goes on and He says, "But go and learn what this means." He's not going to tell them what it means; you go figure it out. You've got all the answers, you've got it all figured out, go and find out what this means. And then He says, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." He came with mercy. And He desires to be merciful. He's not looking for the sacrificial offering; He is the sacrificial offering.

Hadn't happened yet at this point in His ministry, but He came not to condemn, but to save. That was His purpose. And mercy is available to all who have the need for mercy, who recognize the need for mercy, who recognize they can't do it on their own, who recognize that no matter how good you are at this, how good you can do your job, how good you are in a relationship, how well you treat people—all the things that you do, you may be excellent at, but it does not save you. And there's no mercy in your deeds; the mercy comes to the heart. It's for those who know that they're not fine, that they need mercy. But to those who think they are, no mercy is available.

Matthew 5:7 says, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." And James 2:13 says, "For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment." The heart of God is that all men would come to Him. He wants and desires to show mercy to everyone. And you know the truth is, He is showing mercy today. And you say, "Well, look at this world, it's a mess. How can you say He's showing mercy today?" You see mercy today because He hasn't come and brought judgment yet.

He's still showing mercy to the sinners who have yet come to know Him. He's still keeping that door open. And again, you might think, "Well, my goodness, I wish He'd come on. Look how ugly everything's going." Yes, but look where we were before He found us. Before we surrendered our lives to Him, we were no different than those that we are now looking sometimes down upon or saying, "God, there's no hope for that person." But God will remind you, if you're humble enough to hear it, there was no hope for you either until you found Me. None of us are any better or worse than the worst sinner out there, except that we've been shown mercy because we needed mercy and we knew we needed mercy.

As I was preparing this message this week for this morning, I was impressed with this thought as to why the Lord placed on me such a burden to get outside of these walls, because you know I don't want to do that. I know most of you don't want to either. It's not comfortable, it's not easy. When it warms up, we're going to be doing that. We've talked about going out, taking the service out, ministering on the streets, doing some things out more than in here. But why has this been becoming more and more of a burden? And this is what I feel like the Lord said. He said CCRO, Calvary Chapel River Oaks, is not called to fill the seats with religious people. We do not necessarily do what other churches are doing.

I'm odd—first to admit it, not that you didn't already notice—both in personality and in calling. I'm not like everybody else. I've tried years and years and many times in my life to be like other people; didn't work. I don't think like people think. I can't conform the way other people conform. It's been a part of my life since I was young. And in one way it's obstinance, which is not good, because that's what kind of can take over the flesh. When you have an attitude that you question everything and you want to really, "I don't really know about that," when you have that attitude, you become obstinate against everything, and I battle that.

But the one thing I could not do when I was in school is be like everybody else. I was an oddball. I was alienated. I couldn't fit in with the crowd. And we had different crowds; I couldn't find one. In our day, we had the sports, the jocks, you know, they could do all the sports things. Well, I couldn't. Then we had the smart people—definitely didn't fit into that crowd. Then we had what we called—and I know it's not the proper term today—but the freaks. Now, the freaks were the ones who had their own area. They were the smokers, the leather jacket people, the people that were wild and rebellious. I didn't fit in that; I was wild and rebellious inside but not on the outside. So I didn't fit in that group. And then you had different computer nerds—I didn't fit in anywhere. So where do I go? I'm odd.

And it was in all of that, growing through all of that, moving through into my teenage years, into my adult years, still battling the same thing, that when I was finally broken before God, He revealed to me, "That's all part of My plan." What? You mean I had to deal with all that stuff and all those people and all that? Yeah, because you needed to come to the place where you were broken and I could show you I can use you in your oddities. I can use you in your brokenness, and you're not going to be like everybody else. And you're still going to be obstinate in some ways, which He still has to deal with me in my flesh.

And I had to learn I'm not always right. My wife helped me with that one. At least I let her think so. No, no, she did. She helped me with that. But on the other side of this, in the spiritual side, I'm not like other pastors, many of them. I can't conform to doing what other people are doing in their churches because they're trying to grow their church. I can't do the programs and the schemes, and I can't water down the gospel, and I can't not preach the truth of God's word, full counsel, though some are doing that to grow the numbers, get them excited. I can't perform for you.

The one thing I love about our little worship team here is the hearts of each one of the people here. They're not here to perform. They love Jesus, and they're sharing the gifts and talents that God has given them for His glory. And so when we play and sing, you're going to notice, if you notice real close, I'm going to miss a few chords. And I'm not going to be with them; I'm still odd, I don't... I'm trying to learn to conform with them, but I still miss one. We have a little running thing. I'll forget what I'm supposed to do and did so this morning. I think I forgot one of the songs that Debbie was supposed to sing most of the lead and I came in and did something and didn't even realize I was doing it until halfway through the song. But did she care? No, she was worshipping the Lord. She just had a look on her face like, "I don't remember that," because you weren't paying attention to that, you were paying attention to the Lord.

And see, that's what I'm talking about. But we're all going to have our failures; we're going to have our weaknesses. But I'm not like everybody else. I'm a regular person. I don't have any pretenses that I have it all together, because the minute that I tell you that I do, I don't. And I encourage you to come to that same attitude. You don't have it all together. You don't have all the answers. You know the one who does, and you put your trust in Him.

Jesus didn't come to call the religious, neither should we. My prayer is that as we lay down every teaching and every religious practice down—not just because they're all wrong, but just all come, "Lord, this is what I've been taught all my life. I was raised in this kind of church. I was raised in a Pentecostal church, or I was raised in a Baptist church, or I was raised in a church where we either excelled in the gifts or we didn't excel in the gifts, where we did this or we didn't do that, where it was more routine or more pious, if you will." I don't know, just all the stuff that you do.

We've got to come to the Lord and put all that at His feet and say, "I only want You in me, directing me in my relationship with You so that I can be effective as a believer." And my religiosity has to go. It cannot stay because if it gets in the way, I will find myself as the scribes and the Pharisees in a judgmental mindset, and Jesus is going to walk right on by and say, "Look, I love you, and I'm here with you, but you're wrong. Don't try to fill your seats with religious people."

One thing I have noticed over the years in Calvary Chapel, and we've been a part with them now for, well, in our 14th year. But a lot of times, a lot of people will visit when they're passing through because we're a Calvary Chapel. They only will go to a Calvary Chapel. And I'm thankful that they come. I know that their heart is for the Lord; I know they want to hear the word. That's one thing that we do is teach verse by verse, chapter by chapter. That's what a lot of people are looking for. But when they come here, and I know this has been said about us by people in the past: they're not like other Calvary Chapels. Hallelujah! I don't want to be. Not that they're wrong, just that that's not who we're supposed to model ourselves after. We're modeling ourselves after Jesus.

So the greatest compliment any of us can receive is, "You're not like other people that I know as Christians." Well, good! Let's sit and talk. Let's have a conversation. But we have to lay those things down.

Now, Mark 2:18-22: "The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. They came and said to Him, 'Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?' And Jesus said to them, 'Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.'"

Fasting was a big part of the Jewish faith and tradition, and it was a way of laying aside the flesh and seeking God for His presence or for specific need. Many times when they were going through a difficult time of oppression, they would call a time of fasting. Many times when they were caught in sin, like particularly when Ezra showed up and they had sinned against God, they had married people from other nations they weren't supposed to, they had all these things going on, they called for a fast and then they came before God and they repented. So there's a time of those for fasting. This was all throughout their history that they would do these things.

But, as in all things that God set for good, man muddies it up. All through scripture we see Israel fasting as a religious practice, but their heart was far from God. Isaiah 58:3-7 says, "'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls and You take no notice?'" This is the people crying out to God. "In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your labors." This is God speaking to them. "In the day of your fasting, you were just seeking for pleasure for yourself. You were exploiting your laborers. Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?"

And He goes on, "Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?" Do you see the difference between what they were fasting for—self-centeredness, evil—but they were fasting thinking God was going to bless them because they were doing their fast? He said, "That's not the fast I've chosen. I've chosen you to be a broken and contrite spirit." And not only that, but to let that affect other people that are broken and hurting and wounded and hungry. That's the fast that God has chosen for us.

Then we go to Zechariah chapter seven, verses 4 through 7: "Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, 'Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: "When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me? When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? Should you not have obeyed the words which the Lord proclaimed through the former prophets, when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous, and the South and the Lowland were inhabited?"'"

What has happened here is that fasting became a religious practice. And even though we're talking about John and his followers, they were fasting, but John probably called for that fast because he knew Jesus was on the scene. And you're fasting right before He comes, and you're fasting now to see what He's going to do and to be in prayer that God is using Jesus in the way He's called—He is the chosen one, He is the Messiah. So they were fasting in that regard. But His disciples didn't need to fast. There was no religious need for them to be fasting while they were with Jesus.

He was with them. He was speaking with them. But He told them, "Listen, when I leave and depart, that's going to be the time of fasting." And that's what they did in the upper room. That's what they did when Jesus died. They were praying, they were fasting. They were also fearful because they were a little disoriented. But look what Jesus did. In their prayer and fast, the Holy Spirit came as Jesus promised that He would. "I will send the Holy Spirit, and He will teach you and remind you of all things of which I have said and done."

And so that was the need for fasting. But here the scribes and Pharisees are using this against Him. "Look, you're just eating and drinking with sinners, number one. You're hanging out with all these guys, you're having a good time, you're doing all these things, but you're not fasting and they're not fasting. What's wrong with you? You're doing something wrong. You're not religious." And I'm sure Jesus said, "Hallelujah. No, I'm not. I'm not here for the religious."

See, they had hardened their hearts to the point that they just justified their sin, and in their minds, their fasting was a way to manipulate God. Basically saying God loves me and accepts me in my sin, and repentance isn't necessary, but I'll go ahead and fast. Not that He can reveal my sin, not that He can show that I'm a broken person, but I'll fast so that He will bless me, bless me, bless me, bless me, bless me. That's the wrong attitude.

When Jesus was with His disciples, there was no need for fasting. They didn't need to be searching for answers; He was their answer. And He's still the answer, and He meets the need through relationship with Him. And Jesus goes on to reveal another truth here that the scribes and Pharisees could not grasp. When He spoke about a new piece of cloth sewn on an old garment, He was speaking of Him bringing the new covenant. Not to replace the old one, but to fulfill it. But you can't tie the two together in a sense that you have to have the old covenant before you can receive the new.

And this is what was going on in a lot of cases after Jesus came and after the church was being planted. A lot of the Jewish people were going in and telling people, "No, no, no, you're not really a Christian, you're not really saved unless you now go back and adhere to the law and do all of these things." That's the old garment. Jesus fulfilled it, but now you don't go attach Jesus to that and say you've got to have it all. That won't work. They can't exist that way. And so He's saying, "Listen, I'm bringing something new. And if it's new, it will stand on its own. It will stand in Me. And in Me, I am the new piece. I am the new cloth, and we're going to sew this together all with newness and fulfillment of the old." We're not saying that the old is negated; we're saying it's fulfilled, so we don't have to go back to it and say I've got to live up to it. We're living in relationship with Jesus, not in relationship to the law.

And so that's what He's talking about here, but they couldn't grasp that. And it's the same thing with the new wine in old wineskins. Old wineskins get dry and brittle, and in spiritual sense, they get religious. Dry and brittle religiosity. But in Jesus, there's freshness, there's newness. It's the new wine. You can't pour a relationship with Jesus into a religion. You've got to get rid of the religion and live in the relationship. You're the wineskin. But if you're locked into your religious practices, if you're locked into all the things that you know has got to be done this way, and this is what so-and-so taught and this is right and this is wrong... If you're in that whole mindset completely, then you're not living in the new wineskin. You've got to live in the relationship. The new wine is alive and it's fresh, and it's only found in the hearts of those who are born again and who house the Holy Spirit.

All through Jesus' teaching, He was revealing that the old was coming to an end and the new had arrived. Remember what we read back in the beginning of the Gospel in Mark chapter one? Jesus began teaching and saying, "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." And in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus proclaimed this when He began His ministry as well. Luke 4:16-21: "So He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor'—not to the religious. 'He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted'—not those who feel like they're all in good shape. 'To proclaim liberty to the captives'—not who's free in their own mind. 'And recovery of sight to the blind'—for those not only physically blind but spiritually blind. 'To set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.' Then He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him."

And what He said was, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Bold statement, but God said it, so it was real. So Jesus here's making a strong statement to the religious people. Simply put: your religion is not working. I'm not pleased with it. It's unacceptable. And I believe He's making that same statement in our culture today. Some of the church—not all—has become like the scribes and Pharisees of His day. We're building buildings, doing religious things, holding onto our traditions, but only hoping to draw people in like ourselves who are religious and will do the religious things that we do the way we've always done them.

And I dare to say it out loud, but I'm going to: in some circles today, they wouldn't let Jesus Himself come into the church because He wouldn't fit in. He'd upset their apple cart. He wouldn't be doing it the way they've always done it. And they'd say, "No, uh-uh. We've got it together. We know how to preach, we know how to draw people in, we know how to set it all up. We've got this. We don't need You." And that's what's happening in a lot of places today. The sad truth is when they meet Jesus face to face, their religion will not be accepted, because God's not after those who are well; He's after those who are sick.

He's searching for the broken, the wounded, not for those who think they've got it all together. So as we go through these studies and we see what God is teaching us and showing us—listen, He's preparing us. I had no clue when we started this book—well, I did; when He told me we were going to do this book I kind of had an idea why. But more and more as I get into this study of Mark, I see He is literally laying a foundation for us to be prepared to go and meet the wounded and the brokenhearted. Because number one, a lot of them have been to a church, and that's where they got wounded and brokenhearted. And they don't want to come back. They don't want to go into a church building.

And then you have others who've never really experienced anything about God. They've heard about it, maybe when they were a kid and their parents took them to Sunday School and they went home and then they came back and picked them up. Or maybe they just didn't understand anything or haven't really been discipled to understand. Maybe they even prayed a prayer somewhere and just kind of drifted off. But they're hurting and they're wounded, and they're not flooding in the front door. Jesus traveled and went where the broken were, and He wasn't going after other church people. I don't want to fill this room with church people. I want to fill them with people who are hungry for Jesus and who want to share that love for Jesus with other people.

And they're not going to look like us, some of them. They're not going to act like us. They're going to be odd too. Come on in! Because it does flow from the top, by the way. Just saying. If I'm odd, well, look around. But the truth is, is that I don't want to engage with religiosity. I want to be real. I want to be real. I am the most imperfect person there is. I'm probably still dealing with some brokenness every day I have to bring it before God. Every day I see old habits rising up, every day I see old attitudes, every day, and every day Jesus patiently says, "Yes, that's who you were. This is who you are, and this is who you're going to be. And I'm working this in you."

And until each believer comes to that place within themselves and is willing to say, "I want to acknowledge number one where I'm at, the reality of it, and number two is I want to share the hope that I have." See, that should bring you hope. When you come to that place to know it's not about your religion, what you do or don't do, but Jesus in you, changing you, there's hope in that. Because the world is insane. And what's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Well, that's what we do in our religious circles. We do the same thing over and over and over, and people come and people go and people come and people go. But that's not what we're supposed to be doing.

We're supposed to be loving people, and they will still come and go, but I would like to think that some of the people that we meet and we engage with and we share a hope that we have and that deep love for Jesus that we have comes out in our conversation and we pray with people, that they may not—we may never see them again, but they left with an attitude of hope, not hopelessness. And that's what we're called to do. So I'm excited. I'm getting more and more excited. Hot dog! Fired up! Looking forward to getting out, but also looking forward to just seeing what Jesus is going to do as we go out.

And there's going to be hard times. It's not going to be all roses—"Oh look how many people got saved." No, I'm not looking for that. I can't save anybody; neither can you. But just go out with the attitude, "I love Jesus. I want you to know Him." Go from there. See what happens. Because people, God is moving. He—we may not see it on a mass scale. People are looking for the big huge things, like we've talked about so far in this study and all other studies. Don't follow the crowds. The crowds will distract you. Follow Jesus. It may be a one-on-one. It may be a big huge thing that He does, but it will be Him doing it, not us. And I want to be open to whatever He has. Amen?

So Father, we come and we thank You again for Your word, we thank You for Your challenge to us, for the exhortation to Your church, Lord, not to fall into religiosity. I don't want to be religious; I want to be holy in Your presence and relationship. Change me, O God, to be what You want me to be, and use us however You see fit. And we give You all praise, all honor, and all glory, for You, O God, are our hope. And we thank You and we praise You in Jesus' name, Amen and Amen.

Couple of quick announcements. Next Sunday, we are going to be having our business meeting. So know a lot of you may not be able to be here, but if you can, plan on staying because we're going to feed you. Basically, we're going to have the service and then after the service we're going to have the meeting, which will be very quick because Norman doesn't like to be in front of people, and Jack, he's all about numbers and stuff—it'll be just the facts, man, just the facts. So he'll knock it out pretty quick, and then we're going to have lunch and serving. If you have any questions regarding the church, regarding finances, regarding structure, anything that you would have, we'll answer—we'll answer it anytime, but that gives you the opportunity too to just say, "Hey, I was wondering about this," throw it out there. We're an open book. We'll tell you everything about all those kind of things, and then we'll have lunch.

And then I think, secondly, I don't know—do y'all know if we have any birthdays this week? But I know we got one next week, and she's not going to be here, so we're going to go ahead and sing Happy Birthday to Faith. She shouldn't have shared it! Because when she shared it, she said, "Ah, and I'm not going to be here next week," so good!

Group: Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Faith, happy birthday to you!

Pastor Grady Clark: Don't mess with me, Faith! All right.

Group: (Singing) The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and give you peace, and give you peace, and give you peace forever. The Lord be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace, and give you peace, and give you peace forever. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and give you peace, and give you peace, and give you peace forever. And give you peace, and give you peace, and give you peace forever. Amen.

Pastor Grady Clark: Oh Lord, You're worthy to be praised. To lift up the name of Jesus, Lord, it brings all unto Yourself because the focus is You. It's not us, it's not on what we get out of this deal, which is a blessing and we're thankful for it, but God, it's all about You. What You did, what You did on that cross, what You did when You rose from that grave, what You're doing as You're sitting at the right hand of the Father, Lord, You're interceding for us. You are preparing everything for us every moment, every day. And You sent us the Holy Spirit to guide us, to teach us, to counsel us, and to bring us into remembrance of all the things that You taught them. You're teaching us.

How can we not exalt You, Lord? How can we not cry out to the living God? For the word says if we don't cry out, the rocks would cry out. And indeed, Lord, so many times in our culture today, I think the rocks are crying higher than we are. But today, this day, today is the day of salvation. Today is the day if we receive You and walk in You and don't fall into the disillusion and rebellion, today is the day that we can cry out aloud with our voice and our heart. Praise You, Lord! Praise You, Jesus! Thank You, Lord, for who You are. Thank You, Lord, for all that You're accomplishing.

Thank You, Lord, that we can know beyond what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears and this culture in the world, Lord, that seems to be upside down. Lord, it's not falling apart; it's falling into place. It's falling in according to Your will and according to Your plan. May we not look and listen to the world and the answers that they offer. They offer nothing, Lord. No man can solve the problem that needs to be dealt with, and You dealt with it on the cross, Jesus. And it's sin.

May we continually be reminded that our relationship and our life is hidden away in You. We're not to succumb to this world, we're not to conform to this world, but we are being transformed moment by moment and day by day. And we are thankful and we exalt You. Let's sing that chorus one more time: we exalt Thee.

Group: (Singing) We exalt Thee, we exalt Thee, we exalt Thee, O Lord. We exalt Thee, we exalt Thee, we exalt Thee, O Lord.

Pastor Grady Clark: Amen. Thank You, Lord.