Scripture

“How terrible it will be for you Pharisees! You give God a tenth of your garden plants, such as mint and rue. But you have forgotten to be fair and to love God. You should have practiced the last things without failing to do the first.”

~Luke 11:42, NIrV

Quote

Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Pharisees were very religious and thought themselves to be perfect but Jesus spotted two glaring sins: [1] They did not treat people fairly. As in the case of the banquet in Luke 14, where they used a sick man for bait, they used people instead of loving them. They violated the 2nd Commandment: they did not love their neighbor as they loved themselves. [2] They did not love God. They loved money, the praise of men, front seats in the synagogue, respectful greeting in the market place but they did not love God. They were strict tithers: they even tithed the garden herbs but they did not love God.

The Rich Young Ruler may have been a Pharisee. He was confident that he had kept all the commandments from his youth up but Jesus knew his heart. Jesus knew that he didn’t love God. In truth, he had failed to keep the very first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” The Rich Young Ruler had another god and it was before Yahweh. He loved his possessions much more than he loved God.

November 6-9 with Wade Morris

• Prayer Guide:
  • Nation
  • Revival
  • Sick
  • Brokenhearted
  • Spiritual leaders
• I did some calendar planning yesterday. I have six more Wednesday messages and not that

  many Sunday messages. I will {Lord willing, preach 4 times in the next 6 days and then I will be down to 8 messages on Sunday. Joe David will preach the morning of November 27. I will be able to finish 2 Corinthians on Wednesday night but not Luke. Chapter 15 will be our final chapter. Is it a coincidence that I finish with Luke 15 when it has been my favorite chapter over the past 20 years. One other thing that could happen on my final lap; the Cleveland Indians could win the world Series. It’s still possible.

• Happy Birthday Big Mama!
• THE GATHERING: tomorrow night at 6:30
• The MORGAN BAPTIST ASSOCIATIONAL ANNUAL MEETING is just a week away: we host it next Monday Night. Afternoon session begins at 4:00. It is a business session. The evening session begins at 6:30 and it is primarily a worship service. Anyone can come. Lord willing I will be preaching but I promise it will be short. Hailey Clark will be doing the special music in the night session. Bro. John and Joye will be singing in the evening session.
• Today, we visit New Hampshire. New Hampshire has lots of mountains and lots of trains. I think they have five major train rides featuring fall foliage.