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August 22 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
5 Plays11 hours ago
If you would like to download my FREE calendar for keeping track of your commitment to read the Bible every day, you can find that on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/pages/read-the-bible-in-1-year
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In today's reading we will cover Matthew Chapter 12: 1-21, Mark Chapter 2:23 - Chapter 3:1-19, and Luke Chapter 6:1-19. Today we will read about Jesus being Lord of the Worship Day (Sabbath). In today's reading Jesus is met with legalism from the leaders, who were looking for ways to accuse him and his followers of doing wrong. Jesus told them that if they understood what "I desire mercy, not sacrifice" meant, they would not be angry with Jesus or his followers for what they were doing on the Sabbath. Jesus was angry because their hearts were hard and they didn't care about God.
In our discussion for daily application we will talk about our own tendency to want to be right and find ways to accuse others of doing wrong. Satan is the accuser and we are meant to build one another up, not tear one another down. God, who is the most right, has every right to be right, but He desires mercy, not sacrifice. We, too, need to remember to be merciful with one another and not focus on finding ways that others are doing wrong so that we might accuse them, but instead look for what others are doing right, in order to build others up. If correction is necessary, we need to be sure we are doing so in love, not just to be right. We need to make sure we have a heart for God rather than a heart for being right.
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Transcript
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome back, everybody.
Introduction and Welcome
00:00:05
Speaker
Thank you for joining me for today's daily reading through the Day by Day Kids Bible written by Karen Henley. Thank you for being here.
00:00:14
Speaker
You know what I'm going to say, whether you're on that podcast or whether you're watching the video somewhere. Thank you for being here. I'm so glad that God has drawn you to listen to his word here.
00:00:26
Speaker
If you are following along with your bookmarking ah commitment calendar, then go ahead and get that out in your sticker and or whatever you're using to mark that off because you are about to hear the Bible today.
Jesus Teaches Compassion Over Sacrifice
00:00:43
Speaker
Today, we are going to be seeing some of the same lesson that we saw yesterday, where Jesus told the Pharisees that go and learn what this means.
00:00:53
Speaker
I desire compassion, not sacrifice. Or really, it's he he said mercy, but we were talking about his compassion, being compassionate and merciful. if you I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
00:01:08
Speaker
So Jesus is going to say the same thing today, which tells us that it's a lesson worth repeating. And there will be additional application for us today with it.
00:01:20
Speaker
So let's go ahead and start our reading today.
Challenging Pharisaic Law with Compassion
00:01:24
Speaker
Our first section is entitled On the Worship Day.
00:01:31
Speaker
So it was a worship day and Jesus and his friends walked through some wheat fields. His friends picked some of the wheat and they ate it because they were hungry.
00:01:43
Speaker
Some Jewish leaders saw them and they said, you can't pick wheat on a worship day. It's against God's law. Remember David and his friends, Jesus told them, they were hungry.
00:01:56
Speaker
So da David went into the worship house and he and his men ate some of the special bread and it was bread made for the priests. Maybe you remember reading the law, Jesus said.
00:02:10
Speaker
It says that priests work on the worship day and God doesn't blame them. But I say that someone here is greater than the worship day.
00:02:23
Speaker
God's word says that he wants your kindness, not your gifts, said Jesus. If you knew what that meant, then you wouldn't be mad. We did not do anything wrong.
00:02:37
Speaker
People were not made for the worship day. Instead, the worship day was made for people. And I am the Lord of the worship day.
00:02:49
Speaker
Another
Healing on the Worship Day
00:02:50
Speaker
worship day came and Jesus went to the worship house and he began to teach there. There was a man in the worship house. His right hand was small and twisted.
00:03:01
Speaker
The leaders watched Jesus and they wanted to see what he would do. They wanted a reason to say Jesus did something wrong. And at last, they asked Jesus a question.
00:03:13
Speaker
Is it right to make people well on the worship day? Jesus said, let's say that you have a sheep and it falls into a pit on the worship day.
00:03:26
Speaker
Wouldn't you pull it out? A person is a lot more important than a sheep. So it is right to do something good on the worship day.
00:03:38
Speaker
Jesus looked at the man whose hand was small and twisted. Stand up in front of everyone, he said. Then Jesus turned to the people.
00:03:49
Speaker
Should we do good or bad on the worship day? Should we save lives or kill on the worship day? Nobody answered. The people were all quiet.
00:04:02
Speaker
Jesus looked around. He was very upset because their hearts were hard and they did not care about God. Then Jesus looked at the sick man.
00:04:14
Speaker
Hold your hand out, he said. So the man held his hand out and it reached out all the way now. It was all well.
00:04:26
Speaker
But the people got very angry and they began talking to each other and they started planning to get even with Jesus. And the leaders began making plans to kill him.
00:04:40
Speaker
Jesus and his friends went to the lake and many people from Galilee followed him.
Followers and Fulfillment of Prophecy
00:04:44
Speaker
People came from across the Jordan River. People came from Tyre and Jerusalem and many other places.
00:04:51
Speaker
There was a he ah huge crowd. Jesus had made many people well, so the sick people kept pushing toward him. They wanted to touch him.
00:05:03
Speaker
People controlled by bad spirits fell down in front of him. They called out, you are God's But Jesus was very firm with them and he told them not to tell anyone who he was.
00:05:17
Speaker
And that made the words of Isaiah come true. Long ago, Isaiah wrote, here is my servant. I chose him.
00:05:29
Speaker
He is the one I love. I am happy with him. i will put my spirit on him. He will tell all nations what is right and fair.
00:05:42
Speaker
He won't fuss and fight. He won't cry out. People in the streets won't hear his voice. A person who is sad is like a bent plant, Isaiah said.
00:05:56
Speaker
My servant won't hurt bent plants. A person who is glad is like a glowing candle. And my servant will not blow out my glowing candles.
00:06:09
Speaker
My servant will stand up for what's right, wrote Isaiah. He will win and the nations will hope in his name.
00:06:22
Speaker
Friends and helpers. Jesus went up on the mountain to pray. He spent all night there praying to God. In the morning, Jesus called his friends.
Selection of the Twelve Apostles
00:06:36
Speaker
He picked 12 of them to be his special friends and helpers. He chose Peter and his brother Andrew. He chose James and his brother John.
00:06:49
Speaker
He chose Philip and Nathaniel. He chose Matthew, Thomas, and Simon. This was Simon the Zealot. He chose another James who was the son of Alphaeus.
00:07:03
Speaker
And he chose Judas whose father's name was James. Then Jesus chose another Judas. He was called Judas Iscariot. He turned out to be an enemy.
00:07:16
Speaker
Jesus took these men to a big, flat place. A large crowd of his followers stood there. People had come from all over the place, and they were there to listen to Jesus.
00:07:30
Speaker
Some people had come to be made well. People bothered by bad spirits were set free. Everyone tried to touch Jesus. Power was coming from him, and he was making everyone well.
00:07:48
Speaker
And that's the end of our reading today.
00:07:55
Speaker
Did you hear our verse again today?
Reflection on Mercy Over Sacrifice
00:07:58
Speaker
Where Jesus said, God wants your kindness, not your gifts. Jesus told us today that if they knew what that meant, that they would not be mad at I'm going to read that out of the big Bible because it gives us a little more information, a little more A little more firmness.
00:08:24
Speaker
In Matthew chapter 12, Matthew records Jesus saying it this way. If you had known what this means, I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
00:08:35
Speaker
You wouldn't have condemned the innocent.
00:08:41
Speaker
I like the way that that is put. And I use the tree of life version of the Bible for those interested. I don't know if it varies a little bit in the NIV. That's the other one that I tend to read, but sometimes other versions or other translations ah put it very well to the different verses.
00:09:00
Speaker
Jesus said that he that the Pharisees and the leaders, they were condemning him. How often are we looking for ways to accuse somebody?
00:09:11
Speaker
Matthew and the the others notated that as well too. It says that they wanted a reason to say Jesus did something wrong.
00:09:21
Speaker
We can be very negative sometimes, can't we? Where we can be looking for ways to find that people are doing wrong instead of looking for things that people are doing Right.
00:09:36
Speaker
Jesus will tell us later. He says, if you want to correct somebody, take first the plank out of your own eye before you try to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
00:09:49
Speaker
We want to make sure that we are not looking for ways to condemn people, to find things that they are doing wrong. God looks at what? Our heart.
00:10:02
Speaker
Jesus knew their hearts. It says today that Jesus was angry because their hearts were hard and they didn't care about God.
00:10:13
Speaker
They were not angry on behalf of God. They were angry because they were looking for ways to find things that Jesus was doing and what what they considered to be wrong.
00:10:25
Speaker
And the leaders had become very legalistic.
00:10:31
Speaker
And That's where we try to break down rules and say, well, you can't do it this way. You can't do it that way. And a good example of this can be.
00:10:44
Speaker
Somebody told me actually it was my husband. ah He had he has a cousin in his family who is retired now, but used to be a police officer. And he told he told my husband one day, he said, you know, he said, as a police officer, he said, if I want to, you can't drive around the block without me finding something you're doing wrong and pull you over and give you a ticket for it.
00:11:09
Speaker
Believe me, I can find something to write them a ticket for.
00:11:15
Speaker
Now, what's interesting is this same cousin, now retired, ah then we went to go visit him several years ago, and he had become ah a leader in the Homeowners Association.
00:11:30
Speaker
And he liked to ride around on his ah utility vehicle, which is a little bit bigger than a golf cart. And he used to go through the neighborhood that was part of their Homeowners Association because he was looking for ways to to tell the homeowners that they were doing something wrong.
00:11:49
Speaker
And specifically, he wanted to check their water meters because they were all running off of a well. And he wanted to make sure that they weren't using too much water because, God forbid, in the future that that well should run dry. Now, they were all permitted to use water because it came from the well, and they were also connected to city water.
00:12:07
Speaker
But ah I guess the homeowners association had set up a limit for how much you could draw from the well versus using city water. I'm not real sure about that. But at any rate, he was going around checking water meters to make sure nobody was using too much water.
00:12:22
Speaker
And this just reminds me of that. he He still had that mentality of being ah police officer. He was waiting to write people tickets. He was looking for ways to find things that people were doing wrong.
00:12:36
Speaker
Now, you know that I like to share things about myself, too, that I can share with you what God has been doing in my life so that you can see my personal application on how God is teaching me these things.
00:12:48
Speaker
So when I had first ah graduated from high school, I had gone to work right away into a law office. So my very first job out high school was to work as a legal secretary.
00:13:03
Speaker
And i was I was good at it. I had been raised in a family business, so I was always very... um professional and I knew how to conduct myself and like that.
00:13:14
Speaker
And I learned how to prepare legal paperwork and such. and And eventually I moved on to other types of law offices and ah and I became very knowledgeable in the preparation of different types of paperwork and how to navigate the the court system with the the filing of papers and the court rules and such like that.
Personal Reflection on Legalism
00:13:37
Speaker
And so that I even at one point worked like a freelance paralegal type thing. And what this meant is that I was able to read documents ah and analyze to be able to read very carefully. That's when we read something very carefully, the word we would use to describe that is to analyze.
00:13:57
Speaker
And now I talked a couple of days ago about God being able to teach us how to be fishers of men and how to use ourselves for good versus using ourselves just for the world or for using ourselves the wrong way.
00:14:14
Speaker
So in my legal experience, I became very analytical And what that translated into was a tendency to try to and to to to hone in on whatever anybody was saying. And I found that I actually did this yesterday.
00:14:33
Speaker
where I was, i like clear, concise communication, which means I like for things to be very accurate so that we can communicate effectively. If we don't use the correct words, then people can misunderstand what we are trying to communicate if we just use the wrong words.
00:14:53
Speaker
And so I was having almost an argument where with somebody about what a department was called at work because they wanted to call it one thing. And I was explaining that technically that's not correct because it wasn't.
00:15:08
Speaker
and And so we we kind of debated back and forth. and ah But I noticed that I was having that same tendency again. So I can have a natural tendency to be analytical, to observe and be very good at seeing details.
00:15:23
Speaker
But there is a way to use that correctly. So what I noticed when I was working in the legal field was that all the time i would argue with people about everything they said.
00:15:36
Speaker
i would find what they were doing was wrong. They were saying something wrong. They were doing something wrong. They were doing something the wrong way. And we can have a tendency to be very particular and how we like to do things.
00:15:49
Speaker
And so we can be looking for ways to do things wrong, for other that other people are doing things not the way we think that they should be done. This is what the leaders and the Pharisees were doing.
00:16:00
Speaker
That's what I'm trying to explain to you. They were not unique in this personality trait. This is a very common personality trait. We can become what we call set in our ways.
00:16:12
Speaker
And they were very much set in these ways of legalism on what was correct and what was not. and they had And they were very nitpicky about these rules to the point that it was the rule that mattered.
00:16:27
Speaker
It wasn't God behind the rules. God is not nitpicky. Now, in a sense, he can seem very nitpicky because in the old covenant, he was very particular about all of the things that needed to be done in order for people to be considered clean, to be, ah to they had to separate themselves. They couldn't marry people from other nations, but he was doing so for reasons.
00:16:55
Speaker
What God always wanted was he wanted the people to be following them with his heart. And that's why Jesus said, I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
00:17:06
Speaker
God is merciful. We call that the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law. When people are following the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law.
00:17:18
Speaker
And the people in Jesus's time we were being beaten to pulp. with the letter of the law and with this strict interpretation without giving any weight to the heart of the matter.
00:17:38
Speaker
So God still said again, he says, they they have they are not filling themselves with me, but they are making cisterns for themselves, containers.
00:17:49
Speaker
And not only that, but the containers are broken and cracked. And they were not following God with their heart. They were not being merciful. So we want to be sure that we are not doing what these leaders were doing.
The Importance of Mercy and Focus on God
00:18:04
Speaker
And that as we deal with one another in our daily lives, and as we deal with other people around us, not just our family, but with people at work,
00:18:19
Speaker
ah that we are being merciful. So not only did I speak about mercy yesterday, but then I was so analytical yesterday. And was I correct? Yeah, I was.
00:18:31
Speaker
I absolutely was.
00:18:34
Speaker
But it didn't matter. It really just didn't matter. I just wanted to be right. Do we just want to be right?
00:18:45
Speaker
God is most right than anybody. He has a right to be right. But instead of just being right, God desires mercy. We need to make sure that when we are following rules, that we are not doing what Jesus said and not caring about God.
00:19:05
Speaker
Their hearts were hard. Are our hearts hard as we are trying to find ways to accuse people?
00:19:13
Speaker
Are we trying to find fault with people? ah we we Sometimes we can call that being holier than thou. Are we more righteous? Are we trying to act like we are better than other people? We are more right.
00:19:25
Speaker
We know more. We are more right than them. Who is more right than we are? Jesus? God? Sometimes it doesn't matter to be right. God desires mercy, not sacrifice.
00:19:40
Speaker
And we need to be sure that we are being merciful. So ah once again, we need to be merciful and to make sure we our hearts are for God and not for ourselves and trying to be right. so And that is our daily application today.
00:19:59
Speaker
What do you think? I know I am convicted.
00:20:06
Speaker
So I hope that you are encouraged though, and that you you do feel that God has lit your light and that you come away with ah some something to think about. We are to meditate on God's law.
00:20:20
Speaker
We are to meditate on God's word. So I pray that you have something to meditate on today and that the Holy Spirit will move you to catch you, as in to catch me, when I am tempted to just be right and to find a way to accuse so that I will not condemn the innocent.
00:20:41
Speaker
We've got to make sure we're not condemning the innocent. breaking reeds that are already broken, tender reeds or snuffing out lights. We're not meant to snuff out lights. We are meant to encourage one another and build one another up.
00:20:53
Speaker
We are meant to try to find right. Jesus shows us where we are doing well as well. And so instead of focusing on where we are doing wrong, I had to learn to redirect my analytical tendency.
00:21:09
Speaker
That I learned that i could use the ability that God gave me to look for things that people were doing good. And so now I have become someone who is encouraging rather than simply an accuser because Satan is the accuser. He is our adversary. He is an, he means the accuser.
00:21:32
Speaker
So when we have a tendency to do that, that is more of his tendency. We, however, are called to build one another up. to sharpen one another. And if we're busy tearing one another down, then that is not a God.
Engagement and Looking Forward
00:21:45
Speaker
So we need to take inventory of what we are doing and how we are doing it to be sure that what we are doing is done with the intent of building one another up, not to tear one another down.
00:21:59
Speaker
So thank you for joining me today. If you don't mind, please click that light button when you're done. You know the one. It's right over there or down there. I'm not sure where it will be, but it's it's down there somewhere.
00:22:12
Speaker
And if you know somebody who could hear this, who would benefit from hearing this message today, perhaps share it with them in some fashion. And ah hope you have a fantastic rest of your day here on August 22nd. I'm not sure if I remember giving the day earlier and in the beginning of this recording, but this is our August 22nd reading.
00:22:32
Speaker
And I hope that you have a fabulous rest of your day, whatever day you get around to hearing this August 22nd reading. And I will be here again tomorrow. See you then.