Admonition Podcast

Aaron Cozort examines Jesus’ warnings against hypocritical worship, drawing on Matthew 5, 15, and 23 to show how outward religious precision can coexist with injustice, unreconciled wrongdoing, and hearts far from God. The lesson applies those passages to worship today, emphasizing repentance, making amends, mercy, and integrity beyond appearances.

Chapters

00:00 Opening prayer and the study of hypocritical worship
02:14 Matthew 5: righteousness beyond religious appearance
05:30 Scribes and Pharisees: knowing the law versus living it
10:17 Jesus judges the heart behind anger
11:07 Why reconciliation comes before the altar
15:35 Settle what you owe, even with an adversary
19:03 Matthew 23: leaders who teach but do not practice
22:36 How hypocrisy blocks others from the kingdom
24:19 Widows, exploitation, and the church’s response in Acts 6
30:17 False conversion and dishonest oaths
35:26 Neglecting justice, mercy, and faith
37:38 Tradition, outward purity, and hearts far from God
41:31 When confronting hypocrisy causes offense
44:03 Applying the lesson: integrity in worship
46:04 The Pharisee, the tax collector, and the prayer God hears

Creators and Guests

Host
Aaron Cozort

What is Admonition Podcast?

The Admonition podcast brings you Bible lessons and sermons from the Collierville Church of Christ with host Aaron Cozort. Each episode focuses on interpreting Scripture in its original context, exploring the background of key passages, events, and teachings. Gain deeper insight into God’s Word as we study together, applying timeless truths to everyday life.

Aaron Cozort (00:00)
Good evening.

Good to see everyone out this evening.

We're going to be continuing our discussion of worship. So encourage you, if you will, to open your Bibles and let's go to Matthew chapter five as we get started this evening.

And let's begin with a word of prayer.

Our gracious Father in heaven, giver of all good and perfect gifts, Lord, we come before you thanking you for the day you've blessed us with, thanking you for the weather and the beauty of the world that we live in, mindful of those who are dealing with harsh weather in one way or another. Lord, we pray that you give them comfort and strength and a place to escape from that and have shelter.

Lord, we pray that you be with those who are traveling and those who are away from us, give us, give them safety and allow them to return home safely. We pray for this nation. We put pray for its leaders. We pray for nations throughout the world, those that are politically allied with us and those that are not that are not, knowing that there are children of your kingdom and citizens of your kingdom in every nation under heaven.

Lord, we pray that you give each and every one of them ⁓ safety and peace, but also the ability to proclaim boldly your word, and we ask that you be with them, that they be able to do so without fear of ⁓ attack or or any sort of persecution. Lord, we pray that you be with those who are sick, those who are dealing with health issues. Pray that you give them strength.

and their desired health once again. All this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Matthew chapter five, ⁓ we discussed last week as we were in our class the idea of hypocritical worship and the fact that God rejects and has always rejected hypocritical worship. And we noticed a number of Old Testament examples concerning that. We're going to

Turn over and and look at some New Testament examples. This is one of those topics that actually, when you go through Scripture, there is no shortage of material. We could we could spend ⁓ a number of weeks, if not an entire quarter, just looking at examples of this throughout the Old and New Testament. It was a pervasive problem in the time of Scripture. And if it was a pervasive problem in the time of Scripture, I imagine it's probably not much different today.

Fact is that individuals at times and sometimes whole nations, as exhibited in the life of Israel, were those who would pledge verbal alliance to God and yet live a very different life. So we're gonna open up Matthew chapter five.

Matthew chapter five, Jesus says, You have heard that it was said to those of old, verse twenty one, You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment, and whoever says to his brother Racha shall be in danger of the counsel, but whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hellfire. Therefore now.

When you see the word therefore, what are you supposed to do?

Ask yourself, what is it there for? It's there because there's a conclusion being drawn. There are a series of things that have been stated that Jesus is drawing those ideas together. As a matter of fact, if you go back to chapter 5, verse 17, you'll notice that he says, Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall by no means pass from the law, till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men to do so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Now notice at the leading statement before Jesus jumps into, you heard it said of old, that you shall not murder, and whoever murders shall be in danger of the judgment. The leading statement before that is: if your righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of who?

The scribes and the Pharisees. What was a what was a scribe's role in the first century?

Copier. They didn't have the the Xerox machine, right? They needed someone who sat down with one document, sat down with a blank sheet of paper, and identically copied and verified that one document from one sheet of paper to the next sheet of paper, or one piece of vellum to the next piece of vellum, or one one piece of papyrus to the next piece of papyrus, or one scroll to the next scroll. Now in the

View of the law and in view of the scriptures, you had copyists, you had scribes who were so trained according to the Masoretic methods of the Old Testament law that they could tell you what letter would be on line 200 of the scroll if you went four columns over, because they wrote it all on a grid.

And they literally calculated if you went this many lines down and this many lines over, you would always have the exact same letter in the exact same spot.

They literally had memorized letter for letter the old testament law.

If they were of the best scribes.

And yet, what is Jesus saying about their application of the law when it comes to their righteousness? They're not following it. They're willing to memorize the very details, the very letters, the finest marking.

One jot, one till they're willing to devote themselves and their livelihoods to focusing so much on the scripture that they could guarantee an exact duplicate.

But they don't actually do what it says.

And then he describes the Pharisees. Now the Pharisees weren't of one particular occupation, were they? No. They were a religious group. They were a leadership group in some ⁓ significant way, but their primary focus was to say in the first century, you must keep the law completely. There were those in

The days of the Israelite nation in the first century that were very loose with the law. They they were, if you were to put it on terms of today, they were very liberal. They wanted a light application of the law. Pharisees were like way, way, way, way over here, polar opposite. They wanted a down to the letter exact implementation of the law, so much so that they would bind.

as Jesus puts it, incredibly heavy burdens on people who were ill prepared to bear the burden.

But in the same passage where Jesus said that they bind they bound heavy burdens, what did Jesus also say about their willingness to lift the burdens?

Not with one of their little fingers.

Jesus says, they'll bind heavy burdens on others, but they're not about to lift the burdens themselves. They're not about to do what they command others to do. And so Jesus will say that's by the way, what he says towards the end of his ministry. This is what he says at the beginning of his ministry except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall no

By no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Then he immediately jumps into murder.

Now

Most scribes and Pharisees, if they were good Jews, would they have in their minds, would they have ever murdered someone?

No, but who are they going to murder? Jesus.

But even more so, Jesus establishes here's what the law says: thou shalt not commit murder. But Jesus says, I want you to move past what the law says in the Ten Commandments to what does the law teach throughout the law in its completeness, and that is that if your desire

in your heart is to murder your brother because of your anger towards him, you're guilty before you commit the act.

That the desire of your heart is judged by God and not just the the action done by your hand. Now notice what Jesus says in verse twenty three.

Therefore, if your righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. And let's talk about your brother and loving your brother and hating your brother. And then he says, and therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember your brother has something against you.

As you as pause for a moment and ask yourself, why are they at the altar?

Worship because they were commanded to offer sacrifices. They were commanded to bring these offerings before God. They're there. It could be that they're there because they're offering a sacrifice in relationship to a sin they've committed. It could be that they're offering an atonement sacrifice. It could be that they're offering some other sort of sacrifice. It could be that they're there offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

They could be there for a number of reasons, but all of them are to worship God in accordance with the law. So they're about to come to worship.

And he says, and you get to the altar.

And as you're thinking about things, because that's what you're supposed to be doing when you worship, and you're thinking about your relationship with God, it might dawn on you that your brother has something against you. Now, when Jesus says here, your brother has ought or something against you, he doesn't mean, yeah, somebody's mad at you. That's not, that's not it.

This is ⁓ the idea of a legal action that has taken place where you are the guilty party. In other words, your brother has in some way been damaged by you legally, according to the law. Now, you could go through the law and you could find a number of reasons whereby that might have happened. If someone perhaps

stole someone else's lamb or ram or or or one of the flock or one of the herd or they somehow damaged one of the flock or one of the herd even accidentally. All of these type scenarios would be a reason in which someone says, Hey, I happen to know that my brother has a legal problem with me. I

am guilty of having sinned against them in some way. And Jesus' point is you show up to worship and you think, you know what? I've committed a sin.

Your natural first reaction would be, I need to repent to the Lord about that. I need to confess this to God, right? Seems like an easy, natural first reaction, right? Except Jesus is going to point out that may be your first reaction, that may be your first thought, not supposed to be your first action. Notice he says.

If you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.

Someone might come to this passage and they say, Well, I tried to reconcile with my brother and they wouldn't reconcile with me, so I'm washing my hands of it. That's not what Jesus means here. The law had very specific ordinances for if you caused harm to someone, this is what you're supposed to do to repay them. Jesus is saying, if you have not yet repaid your debt.

because of the sin you've committed against your brother, you go and repay your debt first.

Because you can offer all the sacrifices you want to the Lord. If you haven't repaid your debt, they're not going to do you a bit of good. Jesus is telling him, you go take care of the relationship with your brother, then you come and offer your worship. He says, agree with your adversary quickly. Now notice Jesus is going to give you even more depth into this. He says, verse 25, agree with your adversary quickly while you are on the way with him.

Lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer and you be thrown into prison. Here's a scenario that Jesus says, Listen, you owe someone money, and they are not your friend. You owe them something, or you've done some harm to them, and now they have a legal case against you, and they're your adversary. By the way, Jesus is pointing out this isn't just the law for your friends.

This is not just how you treat your family or your person that you like. No, this is how you treat your adversary. You go deal with them first, then you come back to the altar. And he says, and when you meet with them, deal with them quickly. Don't sue for the best scenario. Don't try and wiggle your way out of half of what you owe.

Because what the adversary's gonna do is he's gonna hand you over the judge, the judge is gonna hand you over the officer, and you're gonna go to prison and your sacrifice is still gonna be sitting there at the altar.

Surely I say to you, you will by no means get out till you have paid the last penny. Welcome to debtors prison.

That's he means. Welcome to bonded servitude until your debt is paid.

Now, Jesus is saying

You know you have some you have done wrong. You know you are guilty. And you show up to worship God and you're guilty? And you know it?

He said, you might as well not offer the sacrifice. Sacrifice isn't doing you any good. God refuses hypocritical worship.

And Jesus is making this point off of, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. This is a throw down accusation against the scribes and the Pharisees being guilty of this very thing.

But they got away with it because of their position. They got away with it because of their prominence in society. Matter of fact, you jump over to Matthew chapter 23.

Again, we're going from the beginning of Jesus' ministry, essentially, all the way to the end of Jesus' ministry to the very last week of his life.

But we read in Matthew chapter twenty-three, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat, verse one. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works, for they say and do do.

Jesus is going to introduce this whole section with, when the teachers of the law tell you what the law says, do it.

Why would Jesus tell them to do what they teach but not what they do?

It if their teaching originated with God's scripture, then is their teaching good? Yeah, their teaching is accurate to the level it's accurate to the scriptures. So if they tell you when you bring in your crops, what you're supposed to do is one-tenth a tithe belongs to the Lord. Now the Pharisees are going to tell you, and the tithe you need you need to measure out the

The ⁓ the thyme and the cumin and all the little tiny seeds and all the little tiny herbs, you gotta measure those two. One tenth belongs to the Lord.

And Jesus said, They're right.

But on the flip side, they've kind of forgotten mercy and justice and judgment.

He says, This you should do, while not leaving the other undone. So Jesus is going to say to them, Whatever they tell you to do, to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works, for they say and do not do, for they bind heavy burdens hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

And said they will lift this thing up and lay it on top of you and bury you under it.

But if you look for them to do what they've commanded others to do, you won't find it happening.

He says, But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feast and the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplace, and to be called by men rabbi, rabbi. But you do not be called rabbi, for one is your teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.

Do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father who is in heaven, and do not be called teachers, for one is your teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. But woe to you! And he begins now a series of woes, a series of condemnations against the scribes and the Pharisees. He says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,

Hypocrites for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, and for you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

Have you ever watched anybody play hockey before?

What does the goalie do?

His goal is to his purpose is to stop that puck from getting in that goal. Doesn't matter what he's gotta do to get to to stop it.

He'll knock you down. He'll push you away. He'll trip you. He'll send you flying. He will go diving to stop it. Anything he's got to do to stop the putt.

That's What the Pharisees were doing to keep people out of the kingdom of heaven.

They were supposed to be the teachers escorting people into the kingdom of heaven, encouraging people to follow the law and the commandments that would have ushered them into the kingdom that had been promised from days of old.

Instead they were throwing up roadblock after roadblock after roadblock to keep people out of the kingdom. He goes on to say, number woe number two, woe to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers.

Therefore you will receive the greater condemnation. Now this is a passage that ties directly back to Matthew chapter five.

Who had they sinned against? According to this verse.

Windows.

Why widows?

Have no standing under the law in the first century.

Their husband's dead. They have no legal recourse.

Now, you're gonna watch if you step over to the book of Acts, that in Acts chapter 2, as the church is established, Acts chapter 3, 4, and 5, one of the things that you're going to see is the church begins to care for its own. Those who had traveled in from far-off places to come to Pentecost and to Passover and had stayed there because they'd been converted.

And they were Christians now and they didn't want to leave. But all of their possessions and all their land and their property and all their income was in some far-off place. And so the Christians in Jerusalem started selling what they had and had all things in common. They shared with one another to be able to sustain everyone's needs. You get over to Acts chapter six.

And we find out in Acts chapter six that there was a daily provision for who?

For the widows.

The church was actively supporting daily the physical needs of the widows. That likelihood is this revolves around food, the physical food needs of the widows.

Now, in Acts chapter six, when you look at that, the apostles, as they're presented with a problem, they find out that there's a certain group of widows whose needs aren't being taken care of. Which group is it? The Grecian widows.

So, give you perspective. These were Jews, but they were Jews of Grecian descent. In other words, they were those who were born in areas that were not Palestine. They were not from Galilee. They were not from Judea. They were from places in Greece. And they were among those who had come into Jerusalem. And their somebody

Within the church, either intentionally or unintentionally not giving them their portion of the daily provisions.

But it's only happening to the Grecian widows, so which you think? It's intentional or unintentional. All right. So we've got a social problem going on here. Well, when this problem is presented to the apostles, the apostles determine something has to be done, but they also determine they're not the right ones to do it.

They say it's not appropriate for us to leave evangelizing, preaching the gospel, and prayer in order to serve tables. So they search from among themselves. They have the congregation and the church and the Christians present from among themselves seven men full of the Holy Spirit.

Those who are responsible, those who could take this work and oversee it and manage it. By the way, all seven of them have Grecian names.

So they take these individuals, they hand the responsibility over to them, and they say, go deal with it.

If look in the verses after that, you will find that the church starts growing significantly after that. Why? Well, one of the things that you find is now as a result of those things taking place, you begin to see priests converted.

Why would the taking care of widows end up with priests being converted? The answer is that's where the widows normally got their daily provision.

When the widows start getting provided for by the Christians, word comes back to the Jewish position that used to be in charge of providing for the widows, the priests.

And when the priests see what the Christians are doing for the widows, that is what converts them the willingness of the church to provide for Jewish widows and Grecian widows and for them to rectify the situation. Point all of that out to say here's an example of where the church is doing it wrong, and the church gets it right, and what does it end up doing? It ends up growing the church even faster.

They rectify what's wrong. But what were the what were the priests used to? The priests were used to dealing with the scribes and the Pharisees who were robbing the widow's portion.

They were taking what belonged to the widows for themselves instead of it going to the widows. And they were doing it because there was no legal recourse against it. So now notice what Jesus says further in Matthew chapter 23. He says, verse 15: third woe, woe to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites.

For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is one you make him twice the son of hell as yourselves.

You would think in God's eyes, as long as you are a winner of lost souls, all the other stuff gets ignored, right?

Not according to Christ. Christ accuses the scribes and the Pharisees of being hypocrites, being rejected by God, being those whose righteousness was not even adequate to enter the kingdom of heaven, because what they would do is they would travel over land and sea to find one Gentile, one pagan, who would hear the Old Testament scriptures and convert.

themselves to Judaism, including the process of circumcision, to come under the law, and then they would train him up to follow the traditions of the elders instead of the law.

They would teach him to follow the scribes and the Pharisees instead of the law. They would use the law to convert him, but then they would pattern his life after theirs.

And Jesus said, You've only made him twice the child of hell that he already was.

Because now you've taught him to not only know God, but to be a hypocrite in regards to God.

He goes on to say, Woe to you, verse 16, blind guides who say, Whoever swears by this temple, it is nothing. But whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it. Fools and blind. For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing.

But whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is obliged to perform it. Fools and blind. For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

You see, what the Pharisees had done is they had valued certain things certain ways. They valued the temple as being significant, and you know, if you swear by the temple, if you if you make a oath and say by the by the temple I will keep my promise.

So in practice what you do is you say, you know what, if you just swore by the temple, he's got an out. Temple's not mine. If you swear by your mother, well that's important unless your mother's dead.

Can't no no collateral there. Unless you hated your mother. No collateral there. You swore by something you didn't care about.

Jesus said, here's your practice. You make an oath by the temple and you intend to break the oath.

But then you teach people that if you make an oath by by the gold of the temple.

Now you gotta keep it. That's valuable stuff.

They go on to say, if you make an oath by the altar, you don't have to keep it. But if you make an oath by the gift that's on the altar, the sacrifice that's on the altar.

That's something valuable. You gotta keep it. Jesus points out that the gold is worthless.

Except the fact that it's sanctified and made holy by the temple that it's on.

They valued the gold. Jesus valued the one whose house it was. They valued the sacrifice. Somebody had to give up their hard-earned lamb in order to make that sacrifice. Jesus said, no, the lamb's nothing without the altar.

Because the altar belongs to the Lord.

Jesus valued what belonged to God. They valued what belonged to them. Notice what Else he says, he who swears by the temple

Swears by it and by him who dwells in it. He who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay the mint and the anis and the cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, you

Strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.

One of these days I want to be just one one thousandth as eloquent as our Lord.

At insulting people.

He said, you make a great effort to go consume a nap.

And you bitten off more than you can chew.

He goes on to say.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.

He said, I I I know what you do. You've got all these rules about washing things, about purifying things, about keeping things from being unaffected by the Gentiles or the Samaritans.

You wouldn't dare eat with unwashed hands lest you had touched a Gentile before you sat down to eat.

You've got the outside of the cup all nice and clean, but I'll tell you what's on the inside.

He said it's extortion, self indulgence. Turn over to Matthew chapter fifteen and Jesus further speaks concerning this idea.

Matthew chapter fifteen, then the scribes and the Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. He answered and said to them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honor your father and your mother, and he who curses father and mother, let him be put to death.

But you say, whoever says to his father or mother, whatever prophet you might have received from me is a gift to God, then he need not honor his father or mother. Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy about you. Now he's gonna go back into Isaiah chapter twenty nine, verse thirteen and fourteen, and he's going to draw Isaiah's words out and

Plaster them all over the scribes and the Pharisees.

He says, These people draw near to me with their mouth.

But their and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

And in vain they worship me.

You see, God has made it clear.

All the way back in the Old Testament, I don't accept hypocritical worship. I don't accept worship where you offer your sacrifice and not your heart. All the way to the New Testament where Jesus says, God doesn't accept hypocritical worship.

God rejects your alleged righteousness because your righteousness runs only skin deep. Your righteousness is performed when others are looking, not when you're by yourself. Your righteousness appears to be one way when it can benefit you, and it's an entirely different way when you can gain from damaging someone else.

Notice what they say, he says, verse 9. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. In the Greek, that doesn't quite come out the way that it does in the Hebrew. In the Hebrew, in Isaiah, what Jesus is saying is, you've taught men to fear me because of your commandments and not mine.

Remember those heavy burdens they'd laid on people? Those weighty things that they put on people? They put these heavy burdens on them and told if you don't do that, God's gonna get you.

And then they turned around and said, But you don't have to keep this thing that the Lord said you had to do.

He said, their fear of me is taught by your commandment and not mine. And then you subvert my commandment with yours. He says, when he called, or verse 10 says, when he called the multitude to himself, he said to them, Hear and understand, Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a man.

Then his disciples came and said to him, Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?

His apostles come to him, and if you read Mark's account, after he makes the statement about the filing of man, he goes in the house. He just walks off.

And the apostles come in after him and say, do you do ⁓ Do you know they were offended by that?

There are times

Where our teaching should offend people.

Not because the truth is offensive, but because hypocrisy is offensive to God.

And if people are living hypocritically in their lives, then they ought to be offended.

They ought to have someone stand up and call them out for the hypocrisy they're involved in.

Jesus said every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. You want to know what offends a plant? Ripping it out of the ground.

Rather catastrophic.

Jesus said, I'm here to rip some things out of the ground. Because what is that plant doing? That plant that, if you use another example, that produces no fruit, but it looks like it is. The fig tree that here it is, it's got all the indications that it should have ripe fruit on it, and yet it has no fruit on it.

Jesus said, that's consuming the ground. It's taking the nutrients. It's taking all the benefit. It's taking the life that the ground has, and it's soaking it up, and it's producing something that looks useful, but it's dead inside.

We ought to we all ought to be careful with our own lives. To be those who remember

That when we show up to worship and we realize that our brother, our sister has something against us because we've sinned against them and we have not reconciled with them.

Our worship is meaningless.

To the Lord.

We ought to be careful to remember that when we live one way to be seen by others, but live an entirely different way, separately when others can't see us, our worship is unacceptable to the Lord.

When we use God's commandments to convince others to follow us and then teach them to be something other than what God commands them to be.

Then God says I'll uproot you and I'll burn you in the fire when harvest time comes.

Because God does not accept hypocritical worship.

We need to be careful when we come before the Lord. There are many, many passages in Proverbs.

Where the Proverbs writer will caution individuals, hold your tongue when you come before a king. Be careful what you say when you come before a king. Be careful what you promise when you come before a king. Because he's going to hold you to every bit of it.

And when we come to worship, we're coming before the king.

So Jesus presented two individuals that came into the temple.

One a Pharisee, and he came in and he told God exactly how wonderful he was, exactly how great he was, and how honored God should be that he was a servant of the Lord.

And Jesus said, And here comes a publican. A sinner? Probably someone who's defrauded others. He's a tax collector.

And he comes in and he smites his chest and he bows his head and he admits he's a sinner and he's in desperate need of the Lord.

And Jesus asked the question, which one's prayer was heard?

We need to be mindful of our relationship to the Lord when we worship.