Coast Bible Church - The Awful Outflow of Outward Living - Audio

Teaching on Luke 11:37-54, Pastor Neil brings our attention to where we place our attention. Do we focus on outward appearances? Do we place expectations on others that we don't demand of ourselves? Or, do we choose to trust the Lord to accomplish His will as He works in each of us, from the inside out.

Duration: 40m
Broadcast on: 16 Nov 2014
Audio Format: other

If you have a Bible, turn to Luke chapter 11. If you don't have one, you can grab one of those red Bibles right in front of you. Matthew Mark Luke, third book in the New Testament, Luke chapter 11 will also be passing out a little note sheet here in just a moment. Well, it was pretty good to dedicate those children, amen? Five very special families and six very special children, we were honored to do it, and so thank you to each family that participated in that. Our prayers are with you. As Tom and I were arranging the series in Luke that we're in, we're in the Gospel of Luke, we've been going through it, not verse by verse, but we're selecting certain stories, and it just so happened that we selected a story that fell on baby dedication Sunday that in hindsight, it was probably the wrong selection for baby dedication Sunday, because you see today's message is about Pharisees and lawyers, and we're dealing with mom's dads and children, and what a segue, what a transition to go from mom's dads and children to the concept of Pharisees and lawyers in the New Testament. Isn't that just seamless? Can't you just see the smooth transition that we have right there, right? Good segue? Not hardly, right? You might be wondering, why are we doing this message today? Because as I prepared more for this portion of the Gospel of Luke, I realized how very Upper Po actually that it is for today, because you see so much of what these families go through on baby dedication Sunday, child dedication Sunday, so much of what they go through is getting everything ready for the day. Everything on the outside has to be perfect. All the family members, all the attire, all the answers, they want it to be just right. And rightly so, because we want to come forward and we want to tell the story and we want to explain what has happened in our family's life, and we want to have memories through pictures and video that they can last a lifetime. We do these things on the outside, rightly so to some degree. But then on the other hand, there's a part of us, and it's a part of the human condition, that for some of us, all we are is on the outside. And there's a lot of emptiness within. Today in the Gospel of Luke, we are going to look at a group of people, the Pharisees and the lawyers, and we are going to see the consummation of what it means to live on the outside. Stand with me if you would and join me in reading from Luke chapter 11. This is a lengthy reading, but we're going to move through it very quickly today. But I want you to get a full understanding of what is happening in this portion of the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 11 verses 37 through 54. Luke the writer comments in verse 37, it says, "And as Jesus spoke, as Jesus spoke, a certain Pharisee asked Jesus to dine with him, and so he went in and he sat down to eat. He saw it, he marveled that Jesus had not first washed before dinner. Then the Lord said to him, 'Now you Pharisees, you make the outside of the cup and the dish clean. But your inward part is full of greed and wickedness, foolish ones. Did not he, God, who made the outside make the inside also? But rather you should give alms of such things as you have. Then indeed all things are clean to you, but woe to you Pharisees.

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