What is in Our Hearts Matter

Saturday, February 21st, 2026

4:28 pm

Good afternoon!  Today I am in Matthew 15:1-20 and Mark 7:1-23.  Some Pharisees and religious leaders went to Jesus and asked Him why His disciples didn’t follow their old tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.  Jesus replied by asking them why, by their traditions, do they violate the direct commandments of God?  One of the commandments they violated was honoring your father and mother, and anyone who speaks disrespectfully of their parents must be put to death.  But they say that it is alright to neglect their parents because they vowed that they would give to God what they would have given to their parents.  Cancelling the Word of the Lord for the sake of their own traditions.  Then Jesus calls them hypocrites, and tells them that the prophet Isaiah was speaking of them when he said, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God (Isaiah 29:13).”  Jesus told the people around them to listen, saying “It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth (Matthew 15:11).”  When Jesus left the crowd, His disciples asked Him if He realized that He offended the Pharisees by what He said.  And Jesus told them to ignore the Pharisees for they are like blind guides leading the blind.  Then Peter asked Him to explain the parable that says people aren’t defiled by what they eat.  Jesus asked them, “Don’t you understand yet?”  He tells them that anything they eat passes through their stomach then goes into the sewer, but the words they speak come from the heart.  That is what defiles them.  Then He tells them that from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, slander, greed, wickedness, envy, pride, and foolishness.  All these things come from within, and that is what defiles us.

Jesus knew the Pharisees' and religious leader’s hearts.  He knew their hearts were far from God.  They followed all the old traditions, many of which were man-made, putting them above God’s commandments.  Their old traditions made people disregard the true commandments of God.  The Pharisees claimed to know all about God, but they did not know God.  It is not enough to just study the Bible and act out religious obligations, God wants sincere hearts.  Hearts that are truly turned to Him.  And our actions and words that we speak show what is in our hearts.  If we have allowed God to change our hearts or if our hearts are stuck on our own selfish desires.  God doesn’t just want us to go to church and worship Him because we feel obligated to but because we truly want to be closer to Him.  We must allow God into our hearts and allow Him to cleanse and change our hearts.  Softening and turning our hearts to Him.  God’s Word is more important than any tradition that we could make.  

Have you allowed God to change your heart?  God wants us to be aware of what we say and do because the words we speak can really hurt people, causing people to turn away from God.  We must guard our hearts and minds from evil by being careful of what we take in, because everything either affects us positively or negatively.  Turning our hearts to God or away from God.  Jesus gave us a list of things that we can watch for in ourselves to know where our hearts are.  Examine your words and actions, and if they are turned towards God.  If they are not, ask God to change your heart.  He can and will.