I think some of you are still asleep, but other than that, all right, Alyssa is still asleep. Good to see you this morning. This is the day the Lord has made, and the song finishes, does anyone know how that verse finishes? This is the day the Lord has made, we will what? Cry and weep? Rejoice! Really? We will rejoice and be glad in it. How many of you feel like rejoicing this morning? A few of you. How many of you feel like going back to sleep this morning? You can do both. Yeah, two. OK. How many of you feel like hitting the person next to you? Okay, so we know who to watch out for now. Teachers, do you see who the troublemakers are? All right. So, yes, let's leave Rafa alone. Let's go over here and ask him. So, this is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. This morning, I was walking to school, and I looked to my right, and I saw this giant building. All winter long, this building has been under wraps because they've been building the building. It wasn't made yet. But now they've unwrapped it like a Christmas present. And it's all built. And it's beautiful. And I continued on walking. And I looked down the street. And it was so beautiful. There was this nice house. And there was this tree. And it had flowers and blossoms all over the tree. And I walk to school and I look from, you know, just that little, as you come in, and I look ahead and I see this tree that's bare, nothing on it. I think that's the fig tree. And then there is, is it figs? Something else. What kind of fruit is that? Pastor Chu always gives it to us when they get ready. All right. Anyway, there's a fruit tree that is bare. And then you look down and on the ground you see these flowers, pretty yellow and purple. And I was thinking, wow, this is awesome. It's spring. Spring has sprung and I'm so happy. Right? God has given us a beautiful, beautiful day. And you know, I think all nature wants to join us in singing praises to our God and King. So we're just gonna have one song this morning because it has, count them, one, two, three, four, five verses. All creatures of our God and King. Miss Lee, in the hymnal there, it's number, I think it's 33. So five verses of all creatures of our God and King. I'm gonna try to put it up here on the screen, if I can get that. Can someone get the lights in the back so we can actually see Up here. So it goes, maybe you know this one. All creatures of our God and King, lift. Let's see if it'll let me move it here. Lift. Lift up your voice and with us sing. What should we sing? Boo-hoo, baa-baa. No. Allelu, alleluia. Right? That's a good thing to sing. Allelu, alleluia. Continues on the next line Dow burning sun with gold and gleam Let's do this down to 200 you can still get with golden beam and Silver moon with softer beam gleam. Oh praise him. Oh praise him. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I Think we sang this with mr. Lashley back in the day, so you may know this. If you don't know it, listen to the ones who do know it, and we'll do our best. All right, so Mrs. Lee, Miss Lee, not Mary, Miss Lee, let's go ahead and sing All Creatures of Our God and King. Try to follow along. I'll try to make sure the lines are up there. All together now. Remember a voice and then let us sing. What do we sing? Alleluia, alleluia. Heaven and earth are full of you. And still I dream of someone new. Oh, praise you, oh, praise you. All right, I heard some of you singing. Good job. Let's go on to the second and continue on. Second verse begins. Oh, rushing wind that art so strong, you clouds that sail in heaven along. Oh, praise him. Alleluia. you ♪ O come all ye faithful joyful and triumphant ♪ ♪ O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem ♪ Sorry about that one. Fifth verse, when we get up there. All right. Let all things that are free and good bless. Oh Good singing. Let's now go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we do want to praise you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one. We thank God, who is our maker, for making all things and for making us. Lord, you have done all things well. We thank you for spring. We thank you for life. the life we see in the plants and the flowers and the clouds that flow along. Lord, thank you for a breeze. We pray that as we look at your word this morning, that you would have your way in our hearts and lives. We pray that your word would powerfully work in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright, you have your Bibles with you today, so take out your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7. and we're going to read verses 1 through 23 this morning. It is a long section, so I'm going to read it, and I'm going to read quickly, so you listen quickly and read along with me in Mark chapter 7. Okay, so I've got Mark chapter 7. You might have that as well. I'm in your Bible, Sam. So make sure that you're following along. And we will see what happens with that. Mark chapter 7. We're reading verses 1 through 23. I made it there myself. Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to him, having come from Jerusalem. Now when they saw some of the disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, that they eat their bread with unwashed hands? The he was not with them. Verse six, he answered and said to them, well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it's written, this is in Isaiah, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do. He said to them, all too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and he who curses his father or mother, let him be put to death. But you say, if a man says to his father or mother, whatever profit you might have received from me, well, that's korban, that's a gift to God. Then you no longer let that man do anything for his father or mother. Nice. Making the word of God of no effect through your tradition, which you've handed down, and many other such things you do. Verse 14, when he called all the multitude to himself, he said to them, hear me and understand. Understand this, verse 14, moving on to 15. There's nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him. But the things which come out of him, these are the things that defile a man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Now when he entered a house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. He said to them, Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him? Why not? Well, he told you why not. Verse 19. Because it doesn't go into his heart. But his stomach and his illuminated goes out from there. Right? Verse... Thus, what Jesus did by saying that, he purified all foods. He meant it okay to eat whatever you want, that your parents allow. So we're there. And so we come to verse 20. And he said, what comes out of a man that defiles a man? What are we talking about? What comes out of a man? Well, look at verse 21. For from within, from where? From the heart of men proceed evil thoughts. Have you ever had an evil thought? Adulteries, fornications, murders. I hope none of you are murderers, killers. Thefts. You ever stolen someone's pencil, paper, stickers? Thefts, covetousness. You look at those person's clothes, those people, and you say, ooh, look at those shoes. Covetousness, I want that. Wickedness, deceit, ever lied. Ludeness, an evil eye, blasphemy, saying bad things about God. Pride, foolishness. Last verse, verse 23. All these evil things come from within and defile a man. So what we want to see today and think about The title of today's sermon is, Are We Dirty Outside? Do we need to wash our hands? I hope you do wash your hands. Jesus is not saying it's bad to wash your hands. Please, go to the bathroom, wash your hands. Before you eat, wash your hands. That's a good thing. But, are we dirty on the outside? Are we dirty on the inside? What are our hearts like? Have you been washed clean by Jesus' blood? Or are you still eating nasty, dirty, yucky inside? That's what Jesus was pointing to. So we've talked about this. I think we talked about this a couple weeks ago before Easter. We saw that we have some dirty disciples in verses 1 through 5. In verses 1 through 5, we see in verse 2, the disciples did something that disgusted other people. They were eating, and they had not washed their hands first. And we all say, what, when people don't wash their hands? Ew, yuck, yeah, that's dirty, nasty, right? Your mom, your dad, would be very upset if you tried to eat lunch or eat supper without washing your hands, right? Or at least sanitizing or wiping them off or something, right? I mean, just imagine this morning, you know, you're going upstairs and, and then you go, oh, it's lunchtime, let me grab that apple. I mean, that's yucky. So the Pharisees and Jews, they were like, you know, we're on top of this. Boy, if you, before you eat, you wash those hands. You make sure your pot's in your, everything's clean and nice. Good stuff. So, you know, there's some reason here. There's a good tradition, but they're, they're all uptight and they get very, angry at these dirty disciples for having dirty hands. And the problem wasn't that they had dirty hands. The problem was, really, these people didn't like Jesus. And because they didn't like Jesus, they wanted to find fault with Jesus' followers. And people don't like Jesus. find a reason not to like you. Jesus said, if the world hated me, they will hate people who follow me. If you follow Jesus, there will be some people who do not like you. Not because you're bad, not because of any other reason, and because you follow Jesus. was. These people, the Jews and others, the Pharisees, were saying, your disciples are dirty. We don't like them. That's there in verse 5. They said, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? They eat bread with what? Unwashed hands. And so Jesus has a reply to that. Think about what's going on here. He goes to an Old Testament book, a man who lived 700 years before Jesus, and he quotes the man, the prophet Isaiah, who wrote it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And in Isaiah, it says this people has some nice things to say. This people honors me, verse 6 says, this people honors me with their lips. I love Jesus. Jesus loves me. Aren't we happy? Yes, we are. I'm sorry, I have no idea what that came from. Anyway, you say nice things, you say you love Jesus, but with your life, with your actions, your heart, Isaiah said, your lips are saying nice things, your heart is like, I have to be here in chapel right now. Your heart is far from me. You don't care about God's word, you don't care about God, you say the right thing, but you just don't. The heart and the lips, they're not, they don't agree. The heart says one thing, the lips say another. Basically, it's a case of hypocrisy. And so, what Jesus is saying by this, if your heart is wrong and your lips are right, guess what? Your actions are more important than your words. James says you can't tell someone, oh, you're hungry? Oh, I hope you get full. Oh, you're cold and you're naked? Oh, I hope you are warmed and filled. That's stupid. You're not helping. You're just talking, right? That is useless words, useless actions. And so what we see in verse 8 is that Jesus says that your kindness, your actions are more important than your cleanliness. Verse 8 says you lay aside the commandment of God and you hold on to the tradition of men. You care about washing pitchers and cups and many other such things. You're more concerned about having nice clean cups or clean hands than you are about making sure that people have food to eat. That they love God. That they love their neighbor. That you love one another. It's all about showing. It's all about saying. It's not about We can do the right thing. We can say the right thing. Hippocrates. There's a song that goes, Hippocrater, Hippocrater, say one thing and do the opposite-er. Right? You do the opposite of what you say. Or you, the life and the words don't match up. And so Jesus is saying, you're basically a bunch of hypocrites. Love is better than performance. Even if you're doing nice things, you're saying, oh, I'm going to give everything I have to God. Everything is Corban. And so because it's Corbin, when I die, right now I get to keep it and use it and do what I want with it. Sorry mom, sorry dad, you don't get any clothes, you don't get any food, you don't get any... I won't take care of you, but, you know, when I die, my stuff will go to God. And Jesus is saying, that's nonsense. God says, honor your father and mother, take care of them, love them, obey them. You're ignoring your parents. You're not obeying them. You're not taking care of them. True love. The greatest commandment is love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. The second greatest commandment is to love others as yourself. And so if you're going to love your neighbor as yourself, if you're going to love God completely, you can't just Say, oh, I love you. Or, oh, God is so good. God is good. I hope you do say you love your mom, your dad, your brother, your sister. But your words need to match your actions, and your words and actions need to match your heart. They need to be together. And they should be love God, love others. And so that's what Jesus says. And that's verses 6 through 13. And then the disciples say, huh? They don't understand. And so Jesus explains a little bit further, and he says in verses 14 through 16, notice he shocks his listeners. He says, verse 14, here I understand, verse 14, verse 15, nothing can go into a man from outside can defile him. What? That blows their minds. They say, yes it can. If I eat sausage or if I eat bacon or ham, That will make me unclean. What? But Jesus is making everything clean. He's saying everything that comes from outside and goes in, no problem. It's okay. We don't say that here at school. All right? But when you go from what's inside your heart and that goes outside your heart to your mouth or in your actions, that makes you really, truly dirty. It's even worse than picking your nose. It's worse than... We don't do that, do we? Yeah. But, and so Jesus explains, when does that mean in verses 17 through 23? He says, look, you eat your food, that doesn't make you clean, doesn't make you dirty. Why not? It goes in, it goes to your tummy, tummy goes, makes it smaller, and you get rid of it. You go to the little girl's room, you go to the little boy's room, and it's gone. No problem. It doesn't make you dirty, because it goes in, it goes out, no problem. But when you have something that comes from your heart, and it hurts somebody, like murder, or you take something that doesn't belong to you, like stealing, Or you do something that you should only do with your husband or your wife. That is bad. That makes you dirty. That is sin. And so Jesus says in his explanation, food leaves and it's okay, doesn't make you dirty. He says also that actions come from the heart and go out. So if you've got actions that come from a clean, good heart because you believe in Jesus, then you perform things that are pleasing to God because you love Him. You've trusted in Him. You believe in Him. You're doing it for Him because you love Him and because you love the people He loves. And God loves everybody. So that means we're kind to everybody. We should love everybody, especially other people who have believed in Jesus, because they are family. They have part of the family of God. Well, that's it. We started a little bit late, so we finished a little bit late. Let's pray, and then we'll get ready to head on to our next event. Our Father in heaven, we do thank you that Jesus teaches us Washing our hands are good. They help us. Food gives us strength. Clean hands helps us to stay healthy. But Lord, the most important thing is to have a clean heart. And the only way we can have a clean heart is by turning from those wicked, dirty actions. telling you we're sorry, getting forgiveness and trusting in Jesus Christ. Lord, if there's a boy or girl here who has not trusted Jesus, we pray that even today that little girl, that little boy, that big boy, that big girl, Have a wonderful Tuesday. I was looking at what your teachers sent me. They showed me that March Madness reading totals. You know, some of you read thousands of pages. It was amazing. I was like, how many books is that? How many pages is 1,000 pages or 2,000 or 3,000 or 4,000? I think some people read almost 5,000 pages. I was like, wow, that is wild. We'll see who read the most next week when we have our honorable chapel. See you next week. See you around. But for now, have a good day.