CONTROL FREAK | Week 3 | Sermon · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Aug 5, 2024 · 49 min watch · 2 min read

CONTROL FREAK | Week 3 | Sermon

Big Idea

Quoting the message: Transformative faith is inside out, not outside in, end quote..

In Matthew 15, Jesus confronts the Pharisees' hollow, rule-driven religion and reveals that genuine faith originates in a transformed heart — not in outward religious performance or cultural control. Through the contrast between the Pharisees' prideful legalism and the Gentile woman's humble, tenacious trust, Pastor Bill calls believers to stop trying to control the world from the outside in, and instead surrender to the love of Jesus so that changed hearts naturally produce changed lives — pointing people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus.

Key points

1
1Outside-in faith is legalism — using controllable traditions to manufacture inner purity, which cancels out God's actual Word.
2
2Outside-in faith produces worthless words, worthless worship, and worthless wisdom because it makes self — not God — the center.
3
3When Christians react to the world from pride and fear rather than from a transformed heart, they miss the mission and make things worse.
4
4We are called to describe the heart of Jesus by the way we live — speaking truth in love — not to defend His honor through outrage or political activism.
5
5The Gentile woman models inside-out faith through humble worship, humble wisdom, and tenacious trust — qualities Jesus declares 'great faith.'
6
6Inside-out faith is a relationship of humility and trust, not a religion of pride — and it produces automatic, genuine engagement with God and others.
7
7Tenacious trust in Jesus — not in traditions, government, or outward actions — is what transforms the heart and fuels the mission.

Application

Pastor Bill calls every believer to do an honest heart check. The question is not whether the world offends you — it will — but whether your response flows from a heart transformed by Jesus or from pride, fear, and a desire to control. The practical next step is surrender: come to God with humble worship, align your words with His Word rather than your traditions, and trust Him tenaciously even when He seems silent. Stop trying to fix the outside and let Jesus fix the inside. When He does, loving others, engaging in community, and living on mission take care of themselves — because you are no longer drawing blood; you are pointing people to the One who already spilled His.

Take it into your week

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“then I actually watched what I thought would happen happened is not only did Christians we all got mad and offended and upset, but then we started fighting with each other out there over, well, what did it really mean? And then you ended up with this. It wasn't really about the last supper in that opening ceremony. It was the Greek honoring the Olympics and the Greek gods. And then they started fighting about that. And I go, what does that matter? Both of them are very non honoring to gods. So oh, good. They were just celebrating paganism and debauchery. I'm glad they stuck with their normal topics. The truth is there's something deeper than what happened. And I feel like my initial feelings would make me wanna respond out of I'm more worried about the action than I am about the why. And that will affect my response for what we're called to do from God's word. So I had to think about it. And then the way God is, I open up Matthew 15 to study it”
From the transcript
“So let's start in the first, like, 11 verses here. It says some pharisees and teachers of the religious law. They're the ones that knew the old testament. They led people, the people of Israel. They now arrive from Jerusalem to see Jesus”
From the transcript
“It says in in scripture in James 22 be doers of the words not just hearers of the words. Meaning you honor me with your lips. You say this, you say God's great and all this, but then you ignore what I've asked you to do”
From the transcript
“So Jesus then turns around in Matthew fifteen twenty one twenty. He takes him where he knew he was gonna go and you run into a certain woman that has this inside out faith. And it says in verse 21, then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon”
From the transcript
“Go read in the letters to the Corinthians in chapter six of I think it's first. It might be second Corinthians. He actually tells the Corinthians, would you look to Jesus? Today is the day for your salvation. And then he goes on this little paragraph of because here is what me and my partners did to bring the gospel to you”

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7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

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There is something deeply human about wanting a checklist. If we can just follow the right rules, say the right things, avoid the right people — we feel safe. The Pharisees had built an entire world out of that impulse. They had layered their own traditions on top of God's Word until those traditions quietly crowded God out altogether. Jesus does not mince words: 'Their worship is a farce.' That is a striking verdict — not about pagans, but about the most religiously devoted people in the room. Pastor Bill drew a sharp line here between outside-in faith and inside-out faith. Outside-in faith starts with behavior and hopes the heart follows. It uses controllable habits and cultural rules as a kind of moral fence. But the trouble is that fences don't change hearts — they just manage appearances. Jesus points out that this kind of religion can actually cancel out God's Word, replacing what He actually said with what we find more comfortable or convenient. The honest question for any of us is not whether we have traditions — traditions can be wonderful — but whether we have let our traditions speak louder than Scripture. Where might we be performing faith rather than living it? That is not an accusation; it is an invitation to look inward with honesty and to let Jesus meet us there.

For reflection

Is there any tradition, habit, or expectation in your faith life that you have been treating as equal to — or more authoritative than — what God's Word actually says?

Pray

Pray for honest eyes to see where tradition may have quietly replaced God's Word in your daily life.

Related passage

Related passage

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Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message in Matthew 15 puts two very different pictures of faith side by side — one obsessed with the outside, one rooted deep on the inside. Before we dig in, what's one word that comes to mind when you hear the phrase 'transformed heart'?

Discussion questions

1
In Matthew 15:1-9, Jesus tells the Pharisees their traditions have actually 'canceled out the word of God.' What do you think Jesus means by that — how can a religious practice end up working against the very thing it's supposed to protect?
2
Jesus describes the Pharisees' worship as 'worthless' because their hearts are far from God (Matthew 15:7-9). What's the difference, as this passage presents it, between going through religious motions and the kind of worship Jesus seems to be after?
3
Pastor Bill drew a contrast between 'outside-in' faith — trying to fix the world through control and outrage — and 'inside-out' faith that flows from a transformed heart. Based on what he described, why does the outside-in approach tend to make things worse rather than better?
4
In Matthew 15:21-28, the Gentile woman keeps coming to Jesus even when He seems silent and His disciples want her sent away. What does her posture — the way she approaches and persists — tell us about what Jesus calls 'great faith'?
5
Pastor Bill said we are called to 'describe the heart of Jesus by the way we live' rather than defend His honor through outrage or control. What might that actually look like when people around us say or do things we believe are wrong?
6
Pastor Bill framed the practical next step as surrender — humble worship, words aligned with God's Word rather than our traditions, and tenacious trust even when God seems quiet. As a group, how might that kind of inside-out posture change the way we engage with people who don't yet know Jesus?

Pray together

Ask God to do the inside work — transforming hearts so that love, truth, and genuine faith flow outward naturally, pointing the people around us to Jesus

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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CONTROL FREAK

Week 3 · 3 messages

Where these passages are preached

Matthew 15 James 2 2 Corinthians 6

Explore related topics

Control and Surrender Heart Transformation Humble Trust Inside-Out Faith Legalism vs. Grace

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