THE BREAKING OF TRADITION

I.                Mark 7:1-9; 13

A.     A tradition is a practice or custom handed down to;  oral man made laws handed down to one

B.     A man made law is definitely not the moving of the Holy Spirit

C.     God is always moving, always shaking, always pushing us out of our comfort zone- tradition keeps us stuck where we are comfortable- We come to church, we sit down in our seat, some of us even have special seats that we have assigned ourselves & if someone sits in our seat we become offended. An offended person doesn’t’ hear the word of God when it’s spoken, Gods word is very clear on that.

D.     Tradition keeps us stuck in the same place doing the same thing the same way with no life. You know what that is? That is what the bible talks about of having the form of Godliness but denying the power. II Tim 3:5 says: Having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away. In essence that’s someone walking around all put together, praise the Lord brother, Hallelujah God is good, I can lift my hands & praise God- yet when they leave the house of God- their true self & condition comes out. People like that can only play church for so long. God’s word says to turn away from such a one.

E.      Jesus broke the tradition of men. He healed on the Sabbath & they persecuted Him because of it. He already knew that He would be persecuted, rejected, betrayed, lied on, falsely accused- Did He say: Well, I know what My Father God has told me to do, but these men, they are going to really come against me so I better not heal you today, come back another day? No, He healed, it didn’t matter what day it was to Him, all He saw & knew was that healing was needed, help was needed & He was going to give.

F.      Moses- Lets think about Moses- God called him to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. Moses when he was called was definitely not a leader- I mean the man had a stutter. He was like “God, you want me to do what, lead these people, I have to talk in front of people & I have this stutter & can barely talk to myself let alone a nation of people. But, God chose him to do it. Let me tell you something if God has called you & chosen you to do something it doesn’t matter what it looks like to you, it doesn’t matter if you think that you can do it, it doesn’t matter if you’re not qualified according to tradition, according to man- If God said it, so be it.

G.     The children of Israel were stuck in tradition; they wanted to go back to what they knew because what they didn’t know, their destiny was too scary. They wanted to have the food they had before, they murmured & complained of the manna that God provided for them. Can you imagine that, God gave them food & they complained because it wasn’t what they were use to? As a result what should have taken 11 days, took 40 years. Then, even at that, it was only the children that made it to the Promised Land.

H.     All through out the bible, Jesus broke the traditions of man. He didn’t let the traditions of man hold him back from doing what His Father God had commanded Him to do. Jesus was the ultimate tradition breaker & we are to be too. He shouldn’t have even talked to the woman at the well. She was a harlot, she had 5 husbands & the guy she was shaking up with at the time wasn’t even her husband. She was a fornicator, yet He broke the tradition of man & prophesied to her to set her free.

I.        Church- we come to church, wow Pastor has to do it this way, the choir has to sing like this, this has to be done this way & that. Now, God is a God of order, so I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be order, I am saying don’t be stuck in tradition when the move of the Holy Spirit hits. God is always drawing us out of our comfort zone. All through out the bible, Gideon, Moses, Jeremiah, Joshua, Peter, Paul- all of them were removed out of their comfort zone, they broke the tradition of man to do what God had called them to do. Did they make mistakes along the way? Yes, they did- What keeps us stuck in tradition? Fear, doubt & unbelief. Fear will keep us from moving, fear will cause us to stay where it’s comfortable, fear will cause us to become apathetic, fear will destroy us if we let it!! Doubt & unbelief does the same. It says you can’t do that, God can’t use you; you’ve sinned way too much for God to use you. Wrong- Look at Paul, before his name was changed, he was Saul. You know what he did for a living; he persecuted, killed, & jailed Christians. He hated Christians. He hunted them down to destroy them. Yet, God chose him & chose to use him mightily. Ya, there are consequences for our actions & Paul had to go through blindness & having a donkey speak to him to get his attention, but God still had his way with him.

J.       It’s no different with us. What have you done that fear has caused you to not walk in what God has called you to? Do you fear man? If you are stuck in tradition, then you are living under the fear of man. You are walking in doubt & unbelief that God can really use you & do what He said that He was going to do.

  I challenge you to break tradition, to move out of your comfort zone, to defeat fear & be the leader God has called you to be.