August 25, 2025 • 27 mins
Do you ever feel like you're on a spiritual treadmill with God? Running faster, praying more, serving more—yet somehow not moving forward in your relationship with him? You're not alone.
Pastor Stephen Feith tackles this universal struggle head-on, revealing how our performance-driven culture shapes our approach to faith. When we treat God like a boss to impress or a coach deciding if we'll make the team, we transform what should be a loving relationship into an exhausting quest for approval we can never quite catch.
Through the powerful story of Jesus calling Matthew—a despised tax collector—and then dining with "sinners," we discover how Jesus redefined holiness. While the Pharisees built walls to keep "unclean" people out, Jesus built tables and invited everyone in. His revolutionary message, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice," challenges everything about performance-based religion.
This message speaks directly to anyone caught in the cycle of religious striving. Whether you're feeling spiritually inadequate, struggling with perfectionism, or simply exhausted from trying to earn God's favor, Jesus offers a liberating alternative: "Healthy people don't need a doctor—sick people do." The greatest spiritual sickness is thinking we don't need help.
Discover how mercy changes everything—how we approach God when we feel unworthy, how we relate to difficult people, and how we function as a church community. As C.S. Lewis wrote, "The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because he loves us."
Ready to unplug from the spiritual treadmill? Join us as we learn to receive God's mercy and let it transform us from the inside out. The Pharisee in us says "prove yourself," but the Savior before us says "receive my mercy." Which voice will you follow?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right.
Welcome to Madison ChurchOnline.
I'm Stephen Feith, lead pastor,glad to be back with everyone,
and I want to start with aquestion, which is do you ever
feel like and I think this hitssome of you really hard this
morning, from what I know in ourconversations you ever feel
like you're on a spiritualtreadmill with God.
(00:20):
You're running, running,running, sometimes faster,
sometimes slower, and when youlook around you haven't moved at
all.
You're still in the room andyou're moving, moving, moving.
You pray more, you read theBible more, you say you know
what, I'll volunteer a littlebit more at church, but you're
still in the same place.
(00:41):
Spiritually, you feel likeyou're sweating, striving,
you're spiritually exhausted orburning out and you're chasing
approval that you cannot quitecatch.
Now.
I think the reason that thishappens to us, spiritually, at
least in Madison, wisconsinlet's call it the United States
is because we live in aperformance-driven culture, and
(01:04):
what I mean is at work, you areonly as good as your last
project.
It's not a what have you donefor me over the course of your
career, it's a what have youdone for me lately?
Kind of questions At school.
Your worth is tied to your GPA,to your most recent test scores
.
In sports, you're defined bywins and stats and relationships
(01:29):
.
Even in our relationships, lovecan feel conditional, based on
what you're bringing to thattable.
Love can feel conditional.
The message is everywhere.
You see it on social media, youhear it on the radio, you see
it on TV, even when you'restreaming.
(01:49):
Do more, prove yourself, earnyour place.
And, without realizing it, wecarry that mindset to church, to
Madison Church, to whateverchurch we find ourselves in.
We treat God like a boss thatwe have to impress.
Jesus is watching.
(02:10):
We treat him like a coach,deciding like am I going to make
the team or not?
And I really want to make theteam.
We think if I just sacrificeenough, if I just give enough,
if I just behave well enough,maybe then God will accept me.
But Jesus tells us somethingradically different in the
(02:33):
passage that we're going totoday, matthew 9,.
If you want to follow along aswe conclude our series, jesus
says I desire mercy, notsacrifice.
Dallas Willard captures thistension perfectly.
He says I desire mercy, notsacrifice.
Dallas Willard captures thistension perfectly.
He says grace is not opposed toeffort.
Okay, grace is not opposed toeffort, it is opposed to earning
(02:56):
.
Effort is action.
Earning is attitude, and whatJesus is saying is stop trying
to earn what only mercy, whatlove can give.
Over the last six weeks, we haveseen how Pharisees sincere,
(03:17):
devout, faithful, religiouspeople missed Jesus.
Religious people missed Jesus.
They missed God in the fleshright in front of them because
they were caught up with aperformance.
They were on the treadmill,striving more, sweating more,
doing more.
And this entire series has beenabout holding up the mirror.
(03:39):
Not just talking about thePharisees 2,000 years ago in
your Bible, not talking aboutthe person you came with today
or are sitting by, but it'sabout looking at the mirror
myself and saying where's thePharisee who exists in me the
last six weeks we've talkedabout.
There's a Pharisee in me when Ijudge other people, but I don't
(04:00):
show them mercy.
There's a Pharisee in me when Iperform publicly, but I don't
show them mercy.
There's a Pharisee in me when Iperform publicly but I neglect
my private life with God.
There's a Pharisee in me when Iknow the right things, I can
quote the scripture, I know thetheology, but I don't live them
out.
And I think every week we'veall felt and walked away with a
(04:22):
healthy dose of conviction.
This series has been about me,it's been about you, it's been
about us.
And today we close with thefinal word, and one that ties
the whole series together,because Jesus isn't just
confronting the Pharisees outthere, he's confronting the
(04:43):
Pharisee in me, and he's sayingif you miss this, here's one
thing, and if you miss this,you're missing the entire thing,
and that is that faith isn'tabout what you do for God, it's
not about what I can do for God.
Rather, our faith is about themercy of God that comes to me,
(05:06):
the love that comes to me, thelove that sits at my table, the
mercy that changes me, not fromthe outside in, but rather the
inside out.
So, matthew 9, if we're readingfrom verse 9, as Jesus was
walking along, he saw a mannamed Matthew sitting at his tax
(05:26):
collector's booth.
Follow me and be my disciple,jesus said to him.
And so Matthew got up andfollowed him.
And so for those of you whogrew up in the church or you've
been around one of our teachingseries where we talk about Jesus
picking his disciples, thiskind of just sounds like another
one of those moments.
Jesus is walking around andsays, hey, you come, follow me.
Well, we've seen lots of peoplesay, yeah, sure, I'll do that.
(05:50):
But I want to point out thatMatthew's background and story
and even career makes this a lotmore difficult for him than,
say, maybe Peter James or John.
I mean, no doubt it wasdifficult for all of them to
turn their backs on family, onfriends, on vocation.
But Matthew, he was a taxcollector and that doesn't mean
(06:12):
he just made money for Rome, itmeans he made money for himself.
I mean he had a good career.
He could make as much money ashe wanted.
It was that kind of career.
He'd come over and he'd say Ithink you owe about this much in
taxes.
Now, how much was going to goto Rome and how much was going
to go to Matthew?
Only Matthew knows.
So he could be literally asrich as he wanted to be, and to
(06:34):
walk away from that into thepath of Jesus is a big deal.
And so, as you can imagine, yousee Matthew coming around.
You own property, or you have afarm or you have vineyards.
You see Matthew coming around.
You own property, or you have afarm or you have vineyards.
You see Matthew walking around.
You try to go hide, right?
I mean you don't want to talkto him at all.
Tax collectors weren't justdisliked government employees.
(06:58):
They were despised as traitors,especially the Jewish ones.
They worked for Rome, theoppressive empire that came in
and took everything over.
They conquered you, theyhumiliated you and now they're
making you pay taxes on land Godpromised to you and who's
collecting your fellow brother.
(07:20):
To be a tax collector was tosell out on your friends, your
families, your neighbor, yournation.
You were a traitor.
Socially you were untouchable.
Spiritually you were unclean.
A rabbi wouldn't have justavoided having a meal with this
person, as we see Jesus about tosit down and have a meal with
(07:41):
him, but Jesus wouldn't evenbrush up against him in public.
It's like when you're at thegrocery store and you get too
close to someone and inWisconsin we say, oh right, he
would have been.
Like, nope, out of the way, Ican't even touch you.
And so when Jesus comes toMatthew's booth and Matthew is
working and he says follow me,he isn't just recruiting another
(08:04):
disciple, he's tearing downsocial barriers, social barriers
.
This is a reason why Matthewshouldn't even be considered for
the job.
There's got to be a millionother people more qualified.
He's confronting religiousassumptions.
Up until that point, there's noway a traitor could be a
disciple of a Jewish rabbi.
He was redefining what it meantto be holy.
(08:28):
And Matthew doesn't hesitate,which likely means he's heard
some things about Jesus.
Up to this point, we're atMatthew 9.
So up until this point, jesushas been going around teaching,
doing some miracles, and so wordhas gotten back to Matthew.
He's considered it.
Jesus is there.
He says you know what I'vethought about it, let's do it.
Leaves it all behind.
(08:51):
A fisherman like Peter, james orJohn could go back to the nets
if everything failed.
Well, followed Jesus for fouryears.
Guy was killed on a cross,didn't work out.
I guess I can go back homeapologize.
You know, I was just doingyoung person things and, yeah,
we'll get you back on the boat,we'll get you fishing again.
But for Matthew, his career wasover now.
(09:12):
There was no going back to taxcollecting and he had already
cut ties with his family, hisfriends, his nation.
He was all in on Jesus, with nooption to do anything else.
If this failed, and as such weread later Matthew invites Jesus
and his disciples over to hishome as dinner guests, along
(09:34):
with many other tax collectorsand other disreputable sinners,
because when you're a Jewish taxcollector.
The only friends you have areother people who don't have
friends, other sinners and otherdisreputable tax collectors.
So Matthew throws a party thatno respectable Jewish person
would be caught dead attending.
But Jesus doesn't just join theparty, he sits down and
(09:58):
reclines at the table and heshares food and friendship with
these people.
And the Pharisees.
They see this and they'rehorrified I mean, that's putting
it lightly they're disgusted,they are appalled.
To them, holiness wasn't astate of being.
It wasn't something that Godmade you and said that you are.
It was about outward actionsand, as such, it was about
(10:21):
separation.
You had to keep yourself clean,keep yourself pure.
Avoid compromise, stay awayfrom sinners, don't associate
with them.
And so they asked Jesus'disciples, why does your teacher
eat with such scum?
Because in the Pharisees' eyes,this was unthinkable.
(10:44):
If Jesus was sinning who hesaid he was if Jesus was God,
the Pharisees concluded there'sno way he could be eating with
these unclean people, becauseGod is holy and God is clean.
And so there they felt likethey had Jesus caught.
See, stop, you're not thisMessiah, you're not this great
(11:04):
person.
To eat with someone 2,000 yearsago it had more strings attached
than it does today.
I mean you can go out and havelunch with a coworker you barely
know and it doesn't meananything other than you had
lunch with a coworker you barelyknow.
But back then it meantfriendship.
If I ate with you, we'refriends.
It meant belonging, we're inthis together and it often
(11:28):
implied an approval of their wayof life.
Now, if you knew all of that,going into having lunch with a
co-worker you barely know,you're probably going to want to
read their statement of faithand their political views.
Right, if it meant I'm going toendorse everything.
You're like.
I've got a few questions beforeI buy the latte.
Okay, it's at this point.
I mean the Pharisees.
(11:49):
It wasn't just about eating thewrong food.
He was eating with the wrongpeople and this was defilement.
Jesus, you're not holy, you'reno longer clean.
There's no way you're set apart.
And then Jesus confronts them.
He said healthy people don'tneed a doctor, don't need a
doctor.
Sick people do.
(12:10):
And then he added, talking tothe Pharisees now go and learn
the meaning of this scripture.
You know how audacious it wouldbe to tell the experts of
religious law hey, go and studythis.
I want you to show mercy, notoffer sacrifices.
You to show mercy, not offersacrifices.
(12:35):
I want you to show mercy, notoffer sacrifices, for I have
come to call, not those whothink they are righteous, but
those who know they are sinners.
And Jesus is quoting Hosea 6.6,a passage the Pharisees already
would have had memorized.
And so again, this whole thinglike study it.
They're like what do you mean?
Study it?
I got to memorize, I know allabout that.
(12:58):
In Hosea's day, the peoplethought God wanted if you're
reading the greater context ofHosea here they thought God
wanted more rituals, moresacrifices, more offerings.
But God keeps telling them Idon't want more of that stuff, I
just want your steadfast love.
They were offering all of thesethings, coming up with all of
these extra processes and rulesto make themselves like holy and
(13:20):
set apart.
Now God will love me, and theentire time God is like trying
to yell at them.
I just want your heart, I justwant you.
Jesus is telling the Phariseesyou've misunderstood.
Holiness, it's not aboutseparating yourself from the
sick.
Keep them over here, and I'mover here and all of us who
(13:42):
aren't sick.
We're kind of like this reallycool club that's not sick and we
don't hang out with anyonewho's in the sick club.
He says it's about how much you, it's not about how much you
sacrifice for God.
It's about how much you reflectthe mercy of God.
It's about moving towards sickpeople and offering them healing
, not judgments.
(14:02):
The Pharisees to the Pharisees,a sinner was anyone who broke
their rules and remember theyhad their own rules.
It wasn't just the law, butalso.
We get the elders involved andwe have all of these extra
things, the split hairs and readbetween the lines.
And to the Pharisees if youdidn't follow all of those, you
were sick, you were out.
(14:22):
But to Jesus, a sinner wasanyone who opposed God's will,
which meant the Phariseesthemselves were the sinners in
this story because they opposedGod's will.
And Matthew finds himselfwalking in God's grace.
The Pharisees consideredthemselves spiritually healthy
(14:43):
because they measuredrighteousness by their
sacrifices, but in reality, theywere blind to their own
sickness.
They thought they didn't need adoctor, and that is the
greatest sickness of all.
The greatest sickness of all isthinking I don't need help, I
don't need the doctor Now.
(15:05):
Certainly there are a fewdifferences between them and us
today.
For the Pharisees, holinessmeant staying away from unclean
people, but, as I alluded to atthe start of this, for us,
holiness often gets twisted intosomething else Performance,
image achievement.
We don't worry about brushingagainst the wrong person in the
(15:28):
street, but we do worry aboutlooking the part, measuring up
spiritually, keeping a record ofour cleanliness.
Well, I wake up and I read theBible at five.
Well, I wake up and I read itat 4.30.
Well, I pray for two hours.
Well, I pray for three hours.
Their trap was separation.
That's what got the Phariseesseparation.
(15:49):
Our trap is performance,religious performance.
And the heart of the issueremains the same, though,
whether it was the Phariseeskeeping away or us performing.
It's mistaking outwardsacrifice for inward mercy.
It's about mistaking grace forworks and works for grace.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once warnednothing is more dangerous than
(16:13):
the presumption of righteousness.
And that's exactly what thePharisees in our story fell into
.
They thought holiness camethrough extra sacrifices.
Well, if the law is thebaseline, we have to do more.
So we're going to do extrasacrifices, we're going to put
in extra effort, rules andseparations, and we're going to
(16:34):
get really, really good at themin such a way that the people
around us can't, so that theyknow how special we are to God.
But Jesus quotes one of theprophets, hosea.
He says remember, in Hosea'sday, israel was meticulous about
the rituals, but God calledthem out because their hearts
(16:55):
were far from him.
God did not want more burntofferings and God doesn't want
more performance from you.
Okay, he wants their and our,together, our love, our
faithfulness, our mercy.
Holiness doesn't begin withsacrifices we perform on the
(17:18):
outside.
It begins with mercy receivedon the inside and then it flows
to the outside of our lives.
We don't impress God with allof the outside stuff that we are
doing.
We invite God in, and his workin our lives leads to the
outside stuff.
So that's why Jesus can sit.
Jesus, the holy of holies,perfect, can sit with Matthew
(17:42):
and his friends, because mercytransforms the heart and then
life.
And it isn't new.
Hosea declared it, micahdeclared it, paul writes about
it From the beginning to the end.
The scriptures tell us outwardsacrifice will never, ever be
enough.
You can try Others have Others,continue to do so, but it will
(18:03):
never be enough.
What God wants is your heartalive with his mercy.
So we ask ourselves today whichvoice do I listen to?
The Pharisee inside of me thatsays prove yourself, stay away
from others, earn holiness bysacrificing, or the Savior
before us who says receive mymercy.
(18:25):
Come, sit at the table and letholiness flow from the inside
out by the grace I give.
And that decision isn'tabstract.
We're not having a theologylesson, nerdy stuff that's like,
oh, we'll talk about it in theclassroom, but it doesn't apply
to how I live tomorrow orWednesday or Friday.
(18:46):
If holiness starts with mercyin my heart, then the challenge
is to let that mercy flow out.
All we've been talking abouttoday is all of these outside
things that I hope changes mefrom the inside, and what we
need to learn and walk away withis mercy flows out of me.
So the first thing is thatmercy should change how I relate
to God.
Mercy in my heart changes how Irelate to God.
(19:10):
When I've had a rough weekspiritually and many of you know
what I'm talking about youdidn't wake up early and prayed.
You haven't touched your Biblein a couple of weeks.
We have spiritually neglectedthe things that we wanted to do.
I was going to fast on Thursday, but I didn't, and I was going
to go to small group butsomething else came up, or I
just didn't feel like it, orwhatever it is.
We slip into old habits when Isay, well, I can't connect with
(19:34):
God.
Now the Pharisee inside says Ican't come to God until I fix
this.
I'm a spiritual screw up.
God, I'm so sorry for missingprayer and not reading the Bible
and please forgive me so I cancome before you again.
Well, that's the Phariseesacrifice, thinking Mercy.
Inside out says come anyway,come as you are.
I know you mess up.
(19:54):
Jesus kind of gets that.
He was, you know, for all of usin the room today.
He was 2,000 years ahead of thecurve.
Okay, he knew you were going tomess up.
And so this week for you, whenyou feel unworthy, whisper this
truth God's love is a gift, nota reward.
God's love is a gift, not areward.
(20:17):
And then live like it's true.
Okay, don't just tell yourself,but then live like it's true.
Pray even when you don't feellike you deserve to Come and
worship, even when you feelempty, like you have nothing to
give.
Take communion, not as a prizefor a good week, but a meal for
a soul that is starving for itsSavior.
(20:41):
Second, mercy changes how werelate to the people we would
rather avoid.
For Jesus, mercy wasn'ttheoretical.
What was mercy in practice?
Sitting at Matthew's table,sharing a meal with outcasts,
the Pharisees built walls tokeep people out, and Jesus built
(21:02):
a table and pulled up a chair.
So who's at arm's length inyour life right now?
Maybe it's the difficultcoworker who's very hard to love
.
It's the neighbor who doesn'tfit in with everyone else, the
family member you'd rather notdeal with more than once a year,
at Thanksgiving, for like 45minutes because of boundaries.
(21:23):
Mercy moves us towards them.
That doesn't always meanthrowing a party, having a
banquet.
What it might mean to you thisweek is listening when you'd
rather disassociate and tune out.
It might mean showing kindnessinstead of writing someone off.
(21:44):
It might mean making room atyour table, maybe literally, for
someone you'd rather exclude.
Mercy invites us to buildtables, whereas pharisaical
thinking builds walls.
Who will you be and what willyou build?
Tables or walls?
(22:05):
One is the way of the Saviorand the other is not.
And finally, mercy changes howwe live as a church.
What if Madison Church wasn'tknown for how busy or polished
we are?
I've read the Google reviews.
That's not what we're known for, but I'm just saying like let's
throw it out there.
What if we were known for howmerciful and loving we are?
(22:29):
Instead, imagine someonewalking into this place, whether
a service or a small group or acoffee with you and saying I
don't know if I believe yet, but, man, these people love
differently.
Man, I experienced mercy likenever before.
(22:50):
That's the kind of church westarted 11 years ago, that we
wanted to start 11 years ago.
It's the kind of church Jesuscalls all of his followers to be
, and it's not something bigthat's going to happen
immediately.
It will literally as we hold upthe mirror.
It takes all of us to sit bythe person we see sitting alone
(23:12):
on a Sunday morning, to walkover and say hello to the person
who looks uncomfortable here inthis space, not knowing what
other churches they've been apart of or if they've been a
part of a church at all.
It's about inviting someoneover to not just share a meal
but to talk about faith and tolet them vent about how their
(23:32):
family doesn't love or acceptthem.
And you assure them that well,I do and Jesus does, because
mercy isn't abstract.
It's not a theory that we'retalking about this morning.
It's something that we do.
It's practiced in small,concrete ways that flows out of
the heart transformed by God'slove, and we show mercy as a
(23:56):
church because we are acommunity that God has shown
mercy to.
We're paying it forward.
The Pharisees show us what cango wrong when faith becomes
about proving ourselves, andJesus shows us what can go right
when faith becomes aboutreceiving mercies.
There's two different ways,there's two different paths.
There's two differentdestinations.
(24:16):
One is very liberating and oneis not.
And this is personal for me,because I've always been a
person who's been wired tostrive.
I've known forever Mom and dad,if you're watching.
I've known forever.
You've loved me, appreciate it,love you too.
I've never doubted my parents'love, even when I've screwed up
in major ways.
But early on I noticed afeeling I like, which was their
(24:41):
sense of pride in me when Iaccomplished something.
Mom and dad, not your fault,it's a personal issue I'm still
working through.
So, as such, I wanted to achieveand achieve more.
You know it was cool when Imade the football team, but then
I really needed to make the Ateam because it wasn't like good
anymore.
They just.
Well, you made the footballteam.
You've done that before, okay.
(25:02):
Well, I got to make the A team.
Well, you make the A team.
Well, it's not just good enoughto make the A team.
I want to be a starter, and notjust a starter on defense.
I want to play on both sides ofthe ball.
It was always moving upward.
Now I want my stats to bebetter than last year's stats.
It wasn't good enough just toget into the one that people
said was out of reach.
(25:22):
Last week Jason was here and hepulled out a medal right and it
said 4.0, valid Victorian.
You all applaud for him.
You know I got into Wheaton andhe did it okay.
So I just want to set therecord straight.
Jason, I had to do it.
It was this drive within me.
The good wasn't good enough andisn't good enough, and this
drive has followed me everywhere.
It me everywhere.
(25:49):
It's caused marital problemsfor me, always trying to outdo
myself.
It comes into my parenting.
When my kids don't do well, Ifeel like a failure.
That night I'm sitting downlike why didn't I do better for
them, as if I had anything to dowith it.
It comes into my ministry wheresomebody's having a spiritual
issue in the church.
I feel like a bad pastorBecause if I was good at my job,
how could you struggle?
I take too much on.
(26:11):
I know that this message isprobably more for me than it is
for you, the Pharisee in me.
When I look at the mirror, itsays prove yourself, work harder
, earn your worth, stephen.
And it's constant Work harder,earn your worth, stephen.
And it's constant.
It's constant.
It's always talking to me.
But then I come to Jesus'swords in Matthew 9, and he says,
(26:33):
stephen, I desire mercy, notmore sacrifice.
Jesus comes up and words I'm onthe treadmill and I'm pushing
faster, faster, faster.
Jesus comes up and words I'm onthe treadmill and I'm pushing
faster, faster, faster, faster,faster.
He comes up and he kicks theplug out from the wall and he
(26:55):
says slow down, step off.
Stephen, you want to sit withme?
How would you like the rest?
And I'm reminded his love isn'ta trophy I can earn, it's just
a gift I'm given.
Cs Lewis put it this way theChristian does not think God
will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good
because he loves us.
(27:15):
And that's what we remember aswe come to our communion table
today.
Communion isn't an activity toperform or a sacrifice to prove
ourselves.
Communion isn't an activity toperform or a sacrifice to prove
ourselves.
It's the table that Jesusreclines and says come and join
me when you gather.
The table is for sinners andit's for achievers, it's for
(27:35):
Pharisees and it's for failures.
It's a meal where he says sitdown, rest and receive my mercy.
The Pharisee in me says proveyourself.
The Savior before me saysreceive my mercy.
The Pharisee in me says proveyourself.
The Savior before me saysreceive my mercy.
Which voice will you follow?
All right.
Welcome to Madison ChurchOnline.
I'm Stephen Feith, lead pastor,glad to be back with everyone,
and I want to start with aquestion, which is do you ever
feel like and I think this hitssome of you really hard this
morning, from what I know in ourconversations you ever feel
like you're on a spiritualtreadmill with God.
(00:20):
You're running, running,running, sometimes faster,
sometimes slower, and when youlook around you haven't moved at
all.
You're still in the room andyou're moving, moving, moving.
You pray more, you read theBible more, you say you know
what, I'll volunteer a littlebit more at church, but you're
still in the same place.
(00:41):
Spiritually, you feel likeyou're sweating, striving,
you're spiritually exhausted orburning out and you're chasing
approval that you cannot quitecatch.
Now.
I think the reason that thishappens to us, spiritually, at
least in Madison, wisconsinlet's call it the United States
is because we live in aperformance-driven culture, and
(01:04):
what I mean is at work, you areonly as good as your last
project.
It's not a what have you donefor me over the course of your
career, it's a what have youdone for me lately?
Kind of questions At school.
Your worth is tied to your GPA,to your most recent test scores
.
In sports, you're defined bywins and stats and relationships
(01:29):
.
Even in our relationships, lovecan feel conditional, based on
what you're bringing to thattable.
Love can feel conditional.
The message is everywhere.
You see it on social media, youhear it on the radio, you see
it on TV, even when you'restreaming.
(01:49):
Do more, prove yourself, earnyour place.
And, without realizing it, wecarry that mindset to church, to
Madison Church, to whateverchurch we find ourselves in.
We treat God like a boss thatwe have to impress.
Jesus is watching.
(02:10):
We treat him like a coach,deciding like am I going to make
the team or not?
And I really want to make theteam.
We think if I just sacrificeenough, if I just give enough,
if I just behave well enough,maybe then God will accept me.
But Jesus tells us somethingradically different in the
(02:33):
passage that we're going totoday, matthew 9,.
If you want to follow along aswe conclude our series, jesus
says I desire mercy, notsacrifice.
Dallas Willard captures thistension perfectly.
He says I desire mercy, notsacrifice.
Dallas Willard captures thistension perfectly.
He says grace is not opposed toeffort.
Okay, grace is not opposed toeffort, it is opposed to earning
(02:56):
.
Effort is action.
Earning is attitude, and whatJesus is saying is stop trying
to earn what only mercy, whatlove can give.
Over the last six weeks, we haveseen how Pharisees sincere,
(03:17):
devout, faithful, religiouspeople missed Jesus.
Religious people missed Jesus.
They missed God in the fleshright in front of them because
they were caught up with aperformance.
They were on the treadmill,striving more, sweating more,
doing more.
And this entire series has beenabout holding up the mirror.
(03:39):
Not just talking about thePharisees 2,000 years ago in
your Bible, not talking aboutthe person you came with today
or are sitting by, but it'sabout looking at the mirror
myself and saying where's thePharisee who exists in me the
last six weeks we've talkedabout.
There's a Pharisee in me when Ijudge other people, but I don't
(04:00):
show them mercy.
There's a Pharisee in me when Iperform publicly, but I don't
show them mercy.
There's a Pharisee in me when Iperform publicly but I neglect
my private life with God.
There's a Pharisee in me when Iknow the right things, I can
quote the scripture, I know thetheology, but I don't live them
out.
And I think every week we'veall felt and walked away with a
(04:22):
healthy dose of conviction.
This series has been about me,it's been about you, it's been
about us.
And today we close with thefinal word, and one that ties
the whole series together,because Jesus isn't just
confronting the Pharisees outthere, he's confronting the
(04:43):
Pharisee in me, and he's sayingif you miss this, here's one
thing, and if you miss this,you're missing the entire thing,
and that is that faith isn'tabout what you do for God, it's
not about what I can do for God.
Rather, our faith is about themercy of God that comes to me,
(05:06):
the love that comes to me, thelove that sits at my table, the
mercy that changes me, not fromthe outside in, but rather the
inside out.
So, matthew 9, if we're readingfrom verse 9, as Jesus was
walking along, he saw a mannamed Matthew sitting at his tax
(05:26):
collector's booth.
Follow me and be my disciple,jesus said to him.
And so Matthew got up andfollowed him.
And so for those of you whogrew up in the church or you've
been around one of our teachingseries where we talk about Jesus
picking his disciples, thiskind of just sounds like another
one of those moments.
Jesus is walking around andsays, hey, you come, follow me.
Well, we've seen lots of peoplesay, yeah, sure, I'll do that.
(05:50):
But I want to point out thatMatthew's background and story
and even career makes this a lotmore difficult for him than,
say, maybe Peter James or John.
I mean, no doubt it wasdifficult for all of them to
turn their backs on family, onfriends, on vocation.
But Matthew, he was a taxcollector and that doesn't mean
(06:12):
he just made money for Rome, itmeans he made money for himself.
I mean he had a good career.
He could make as much money ashe wanted.
It was that kind of career.
He'd come over and he'd say Ithink you owe about this much in
taxes.
Now, how much was going to goto Rome and how much was going
to go to Matthew?
Only Matthew knows.
So he could be literally asrich as he wanted to be, and to
(06:34):
walk away from that into thepath of Jesus is a big deal.
And so, as you can imagine, yousee Matthew coming around.
You own property, or you have afarm or you have vineyards.
You see Matthew coming around.
You own property, or you have afarm or you have vineyards.
You see Matthew walking around.
You try to go hide, right?
I mean you don't want to talkto him at all.
Tax collectors weren't justdisliked government employees.
(06:58):
They were despised as traitors,especially the Jewish ones.
They worked for Rome, theoppressive empire that came in
and took everything over.
They conquered you, theyhumiliated you and now they're
making you pay taxes on land Godpromised to you and who's
collecting your fellow brother.
(07:20):
To be a tax collector was tosell out on your friends, your
families, your neighbor, yournation.
You were a traitor.
Socially you were untouchable.
Spiritually you were unclean.
A rabbi wouldn't have justavoided having a meal with this
person, as we see Jesus about tosit down and have a meal with
(07:41):
him, but Jesus wouldn't evenbrush up against him in public.
It's like when you're at thegrocery store and you get too
close to someone and inWisconsin we say, oh right, he
would have been.
Like, nope, out of the way, Ican't even touch you.
And so when Jesus comes toMatthew's booth and Matthew is
working and he says follow me,he isn't just recruiting another
(08:04):
disciple, he's tearing downsocial barriers, social barriers
.
This is a reason why Matthewshouldn't even be considered for
the job.
There's got to be a millionother people more qualified.
He's confronting religiousassumptions.
Up until that point, there's noway a traitor could be a
disciple of a Jewish rabbi.
He was redefining what it meantto be holy.
(08:28):
And Matthew doesn't hesitate,which likely means he's heard
some things about Jesus.
Up to this point, we're atMatthew 9.
So up until this point, jesushas been going around teaching,
doing some miracles, and so wordhas gotten back to Matthew.
He's considered it.
Jesus is there.
He says you know what I'vethought about it, let's do it.
Leaves it all behind.
(08:51):
A fisherman like Peter, james orJohn could go back to the nets
if everything failed.
Well, followed Jesus for fouryears.
Guy was killed on a cross,didn't work out.
I guess I can go back homeapologize.
You know, I was just doingyoung person things and, yeah,
we'll get you back on the boat,we'll get you fishing again.
But for Matthew, his career wasover now.
(09:12):
There was no going back to taxcollecting and he had already
cut ties with his family, hisfriends, his nation.
He was all in on Jesus, with nooption to do anything else.
If this failed, and as such weread later Matthew invites Jesus
and his disciples over to hishome as dinner guests, along
(09:34):
with many other tax collectorsand other disreputable sinners,
because when you're a Jewish taxcollector.
The only friends you have areother people who don't have
friends, other sinners and otherdisreputable tax collectors.
So Matthew throws a party thatno respectable Jewish person
would be caught dead attending.
But Jesus doesn't just join theparty, he sits down and
(09:58):
reclines at the table and heshares food and friendship with
these people.
And the Pharisees.
They see this and they'rehorrified I mean, that's putting
it lightly they're disgusted,they are appalled.
To them, holiness wasn't astate of being.
It wasn't something that Godmade you and said that you are.
It was about outward actionsand, as such, it was about
(10:21):
separation.
You had to keep yourself clean,keep yourself pure.
Avoid compromise, stay awayfrom sinners, don't associate
with them.
And so they asked Jesus'disciples, why does your teacher
eat with such scum?
Because in the Pharisees' eyes,this was unthinkable.
(10:44):
If Jesus was sinning who hesaid he was if Jesus was God,
the Pharisees concluded there'sno way he could be eating with
these unclean people, becauseGod is holy and God is clean.
And so there they felt likethey had Jesus caught.
See, stop, you're not thisMessiah, you're not this great
(11:04):
person.
To eat with someone 2,000 yearsago it had more strings attached
than it does today.
I mean you can go out and havelunch with a coworker you barely
know and it doesn't meananything other than you had
lunch with a coworker you barelyknow.
But back then it meantfriendship.
If I ate with you, we'refriends.
It meant belonging, we're inthis together and it often
(11:28):
implied an approval of their wayof life.
Now, if you knew all of that,going into having lunch with a
co-worker you barely know,you're probably going to want to
read their statement of faithand their political views.
Right, if it meant I'm going toendorse everything.
You're like.
I've got a few questions beforeI buy the latte.
Okay, it's at this point.
I mean the Pharisees.
(11:49):
It wasn't just about eating thewrong food.
He was eating with the wrongpeople and this was defilement.
Jesus, you're not holy, you'reno longer clean.
There's no way you're set apart.
And then Jesus confronts them.
He said healthy people don'tneed a doctor, don't need a
doctor.
Sick people do.
(12:10):
And then he added, talking tothe Pharisees now go and learn
the meaning of this scripture.
You know how audacious it wouldbe to tell the experts of
religious law hey, go and studythis.
I want you to show mercy, notoffer sacrifices.
You to show mercy, not offersacrifices.
(12:35):
I want you to show mercy, notoffer sacrifices, for I have
come to call, not those whothink they are righteous, but
those who know they are sinners.
And Jesus is quoting Hosea 6.6,a passage the Pharisees already
would have had memorized.
And so again, this whole thinglike study it.
They're like what do you mean?
Study it?
I got to memorize, I know allabout that.
(12:58):
In Hosea's day, the peoplethought God wanted if you're
reading the greater context ofHosea here they thought God
wanted more rituals, moresacrifices, more offerings.
But God keeps telling them Idon't want more of that stuff, I
just want your steadfast love.
They were offering all of thesethings, coming up with all of
these extra processes and rulesto make themselves like holy and
(13:20):
set apart.
Now God will love me, and theentire time God is like trying
to yell at them.
I just want your heart, I justwant you.
Jesus is telling the Phariseesyou've misunderstood.
Holiness, it's not aboutseparating yourself from the
sick.
Keep them over here, and I'mover here and all of us who
(13:42):
aren't sick.
We're kind of like this reallycool club that's not sick and we
don't hang out with anyonewho's in the sick club.
He says it's about how much you, it's not about how much you
sacrifice for God.
It's about how much you reflectthe mercy of God.
It's about moving towards sickpeople and offering them healing
, not judgments.
(14:02):
The Pharisees to the Pharisees,a sinner was anyone who broke
their rules and remember theyhad their own rules.
It wasn't just the law, butalso.
We get the elders involved andwe have all of these extra
things, the split hairs and readbetween the lines.
And to the Pharisees if youdidn't follow all of those, you
were sick, you were out.
(14:22):
But to Jesus, a sinner wasanyone who opposed God's will,
which meant the Phariseesthemselves were the sinners in
this story because they opposedGod's will.
And Matthew finds himselfwalking in God's grace.
The Pharisees consideredthemselves spiritually healthy
(14:43):
because they measuredrighteousness by their
sacrifices, but in reality, theywere blind to their own
sickness.
They thought they didn't need adoctor, and that is the
greatest sickness of all.
The greatest sickness of all isthinking I don't need help, I
don't need the doctor Now.
(15:05):
Certainly there are a fewdifferences between them and us
today.
For the Pharisees, holinessmeant staying away from unclean
people, but, as I alluded to atthe start of this, for us,
holiness often gets twisted intosomething else Performance,
image achievement.
We don't worry about brushingagainst the wrong person in the
(15:28):
street, but we do worry aboutlooking the part, measuring up
spiritually, keeping a record ofour cleanliness.
Well, I wake up and I read theBible at five.
Well, I wake up and I read itat 4.30.
Well, I pray for two hours.
Well, I pray for three hours.
Their trap was separation.
That's what got the Phariseesseparation.
(15:49):
Our trap is performance,religious performance.
And the heart of the issueremains the same, though,
whether it was the Phariseeskeeping away or us performing.
It's mistaking outwardsacrifice for inward mercy.
It's about mistaking grace forworks and works for grace.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once warnednothing is more dangerous than
(16:13):
the presumption of righteousness.
And that's exactly what thePharisees in our story fell into
.
They thought holiness camethrough extra sacrifices.
Well, if the law is thebaseline, we have to do more.
So we're going to do extrasacrifices, we're going to put
in extra effort, rules andseparations, and we're going to
(16:34):
get really, really good at themin such a way that the people
around us can't, so that theyknow how special we are to God.
But Jesus quotes one of theprophets, hosea.
He says remember, in Hosea'sday, israel was meticulous about
the rituals, but God calledthem out because their hearts
(16:55):
were far from him.
God did not want more burntofferings and God doesn't want
more performance from you.
Okay, he wants their and our,together, our love, our
faithfulness, our mercy.
Holiness doesn't begin withsacrifices we perform on the
(17:18):
outside.
It begins with mercy receivedon the inside and then it flows
to the outside of our lives.
We don't impress God with allof the outside stuff that we are
doing.
We invite God in, and his workin our lives leads to the
outside stuff.
So that's why Jesus can sit.
Jesus, the holy of holies,perfect, can sit with Matthew
(17:42):
and his friends, because mercytransforms the heart and then
life.
And it isn't new.
Hosea declared it, micahdeclared it, paul writes about
it From the beginning to the end.
The scriptures tell us outwardsacrifice will never, ever be
enough.
You can try Others have Others,continue to do so, but it will
(18:03):
never be enough.
What God wants is your heartalive with his mercy.
So we ask ourselves today whichvoice do I listen to?
The Pharisee inside of me thatsays prove yourself, stay away
from others, earn holiness bysacrificing, or the Savior
before us who says receive mymercy.
(18:25):
Come, sit at the table and letholiness flow from the inside
out by the grace I give.
And that decision isn'tabstract.
We're not having a theologylesson, nerdy stuff that's like,
oh, we'll talk about it in theclassroom, but it doesn't apply
to how I live tomorrow orWednesday or Friday.
(18:46):
If holiness starts with mercyin my heart, then the challenge
is to let that mercy flow out.
All we've been talking abouttoday is all of these outside
things that I hope changes mefrom the inside, and what we
need to learn and walk away withis mercy flows out of me.
So the first thing is thatmercy should change how I relate
to God.
Mercy in my heart changes how Irelate to God.
(19:10):
When I've had a rough weekspiritually and many of you know
what I'm talking about youdidn't wake up early and prayed.
You haven't touched your Biblein a couple of weeks.
We have spiritually neglectedthe things that we wanted to do.
I was going to fast on Thursday, but I didn't, and I was going
to go to small group butsomething else came up, or I
just didn't feel like it, orwhatever it is.
We slip into old habits when Isay, well, I can't connect with
(19:34):
God.
Now the Pharisee inside says Ican't come to God until I fix
this.
I'm a spiritual screw up.
God, I'm so sorry for missingprayer and not reading the Bible
and please forgive me so I cancome before you again.
Well, that's the Phariseesacrifice, thinking Mercy.
Inside out says come anyway,come as you are.
I know you mess up.
(19:54):
Jesus kind of gets that.
He was, you know, for all of usin the room today.
He was 2,000 years ahead of thecurve.
Okay, he knew you were going tomess up.
And so this week for you, whenyou feel unworthy, whisper this
truth God's love is a gift, nota reward.
God's love is a gift, not areward.
(20:17):
And then live like it's true.
Okay, don't just tell yourself,but then live like it's true.
Pray even when you don't feellike you deserve to Come and
worship, even when you feelempty, like you have nothing to
give.
Take communion, not as a prizefor a good week, but a meal for
a soul that is starving for itsSavior.
(20:41):
Second, mercy changes how werelate to the people we would
rather avoid.
For Jesus, mercy wasn'ttheoretical.
What was mercy in practice?
Sitting at Matthew's table,sharing a meal with outcasts,
the Pharisees built walls tokeep people out, and Jesus built
(21:02):
a table and pulled up a chair.
So who's at arm's length inyour life right now?
Maybe it's the difficultcoworker who's very hard to love
.
It's the neighbor who doesn'tfit in with everyone else, the
family member you'd rather notdeal with more than once a year,
at Thanksgiving, for like 45minutes because of boundaries.
(21:23):
Mercy moves us towards them.
That doesn't always meanthrowing a party, having a
banquet.
What it might mean to you thisweek is listening when you'd
rather disassociate and tune out.
It might mean showing kindnessinstead of writing someone off.
(21:44):
It might mean making room atyour table, maybe literally, for
someone you'd rather exclude.
Mercy invites us to buildtables, whereas pharisaical
thinking builds walls.
Who will you be and what willyou build?
Tables or walls?
(22:05):
One is the way of the Saviorand the other is not.
And finally, mercy changes howwe live as a church.
What if Madison Church wasn'tknown for how busy or polished
we are?
I've read the Google reviews.
That's not what we're known for, but I'm just saying like let's
throw it out there.
What if we were known for howmerciful and loving we are?
(22:29):
Instead, imagine someonewalking into this place, whether
a service or a small group or acoffee with you and saying I
don't know if I believe yet, but, man, these people love
differently.
Man, I experienced mercy likenever before.
(22:50):
That's the kind of church westarted 11 years ago, that we
wanted to start 11 years ago.
It's the kind of church Jesuscalls all of his followers to be
, and it's not something bigthat's going to happen
immediately.
It will literally as we hold upthe mirror.
It takes all of us to sit bythe person we see sitting alone
(23:12):
on a Sunday morning, to walkover and say hello to the person
who looks uncomfortable here inthis space, not knowing what
other churches they've been apart of or if they've been a
part of a church at all.
It's about inviting someoneover to not just share a meal
but to talk about faith and tolet them vent about how their
(23:32):
family doesn't love or acceptthem.
And you assure them that well,I do and Jesus does, because
mercy isn't abstract.
It's not a theory that we'retalking about this morning.
It's something that we do.
It's practiced in small,concrete ways that flows out of
the heart transformed by God'slove, and we show mercy as a
(23:56):
church because we are acommunity that God has shown
mercy to.
We're paying it forward.
The Pharisees show us what cango wrong when faith becomes
about proving ourselves, andJesus shows us what can go right
when faith becomes aboutreceiving mercies.
There's two different ways,there's two different paths.
There's two differentdestinations.
(24:16):
One is very liberating and oneis not.
And this is personal for me,because I've always been a
person who's been wired tostrive.
I've known forever Mom and dad,if you're watching.
I've known forever.
You've loved me, appreciate it,love you too.
I've never doubted my parents'love, even when I've screwed up
in major ways.
But early on I noticed afeeling I like, which was their
(24:41):
sense of pride in me when Iaccomplished something.
Mom and dad, not your fault,it's a personal issue I'm still
working through.
So, as such, I wanted to achieveand achieve more.
You know it was cool when Imade the football team, but then
I really needed to make the Ateam because it wasn't like good
anymore.
They just.
Well, you made the footballteam.
You've done that before, okay.
(25:02):
Well, I got to make the A team.
Well, you make the A team.
Well, it's not just good enoughto make the A team.
I want to be a starter, and notjust a starter on defense.
I want to play on both sides ofthe ball.
It was always moving upward.
Now I want my stats to bebetter than last year's stats.
It wasn't good enough just toget into the one that people
said was out of reach.
(25:22):
Last week Jason was here and hepulled out a medal right and it
said 4.0, valid Victorian.
You all applaud for him.
You know I got into Wheaton andhe did it okay.
So I just want to set therecord straight.
Jason, I had to do it.
It was this drive within me.
The good wasn't good enough andisn't good enough, and this
drive has followed me everywhere.
It me everywhere.
(25:49):
It's caused marital problemsfor me, always trying to outdo
myself.
It comes into my parenting.
When my kids don't do well, Ifeel like a failure.
That night I'm sitting downlike why didn't I do better for
them, as if I had anything to dowith it.
It comes into my ministry wheresomebody's having a spiritual
issue in the church.
I feel like a bad pastorBecause if I was good at my job,
how could you struggle?
I take too much on.
(26:11):
I know that this message isprobably more for me than it is
for you, the Pharisee in me.
When I look at the mirror, itsays prove yourself, work harder
, earn your worth, stephen.
And it's constant Work harder,earn your worth, stephen.
And it's constant.
It's constant.
It's always talking to me.
But then I come to Jesus'swords in Matthew 9, and he says,
(26:33):
stephen, I desire mercy, notmore sacrifice.
Jesus comes up and words I'm onthe treadmill and I'm pushing
faster, faster, faster.
Jesus comes up and words I'm onthe treadmill and I'm pushing
faster, faster, faster, faster,faster.
He comes up and he kicks theplug out from the wall and he
(26:55):
says slow down, step off.
Stephen, you want to sit withme?
How would you like the rest?
And I'm reminded his love isn'ta trophy I can earn, it's just
a gift I'm given.
Cs Lewis put it this way theChristian does not think God
will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good
because he loves us.
(27:15):
And that's what we remember aswe come to our communion table
today.
Communion isn't an activity toperform or a sacrifice to prove
ourselves.
Communion isn't an activity toperform or a sacrifice to prove
ourselves.
It's the table that Jesusreclines and says come and join
me when you gather.
The table is for sinners andit's for achievers, it's for
(27:35):
Pharisees and it's for failures.
It's a meal where he says sitdown, rest and receive my mercy.
The Pharisee in me says proveyourself.
The Savior before me saysreceive my mercy.
The Pharisee in me says proveyourself.
The Savior before me saysreceive my mercy.
Which voice will you follow?
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