Five Good Reasons To Not Be Religious

[Music] we continue to meet as we have every session so far in response to God's invitation in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18 now it's communicated expressly here and we've quoted it every meeting so far come now and let us reason together but the the tenor of this passage the feel and the vibe of this passage is communicated all throughout scripture God invites inquiry he doesn't mind the hard questions and so today we're going to talk about again something I'm super passionate about five good reasons to not be religious which I frankly concede might sound a little weird coming from a pastor you know in a church setting with a group of people I that might sound kind of weird it might no it doesn't sound weird okay good I'm glad to hear that so what I'm gonna try to do today is paint for you a biblical picture and I believe a persuasive picture about that will sort of allow us to contrast the difference between religion and a relationship with God which is really the point okay and so five good reasons to not be religious and this is gonna be a lot of fun we're gonna start by just sort of orienting ourselves to probably something that many of us are aware of right we're here in Australia this particular series of slides that I'm going to read here comes from a 2014 survey done by a group an American group might be an international group titled the Pew Research Institute and they basically research matters of spirituality and of religious interest and they put these surveys out and these reports out these studies out regularly right and so back in 2014 they released a study that is in this particular case it's about America but I imagine that here in Australia and all over the world of course America being far and away the most religious first world nation right that's pretty much undisputed that first world nations when it comes to basic religiosity in terms of at least Christianity America is ahead considerably ahead of other nations Europe way ahead and even ahead of nations like Australia and so the thing I'm going to read you here is is specific to America but the principles apply even to places like Australia New Zealand Europe and other areas and so I want you to notice what this says it says Americans are becoming what are the next two words they're less religious Americans are becoming less religious judging by such markers as church attendance prayer and belief in God and the trend is more pronounced among young adults according to a poll released on Tuesday again this was in 2014 and the all of the sort of trajectory everything looks at it's a headed this way not just in America but all over the world the percentage of Americans who pray every day attend religious services regularly and consider religion important in their lives are down by small but statistically significant measures the survey found the trend is most pronounced again among young adults with only half of those born between 1990 and 1996 absolutely certain of their belief in God compared to 71% of what's called the the Silent Generation that is those born between 1928 1945 and this is representative of a long term sort of a steady decline that's been happening in religiosity and regular religious attendance all over the world and so if it's happening in America because America is really the bellwether of first world you know religiosity then it's going to be happening everywhere and Australia my experience here in the last five years in Australia has been that Australians are less religious and less religiously inclined and less biblically literate than your average American not by a longshot but by you know I can tell I can get a feel for the shape of it what I'm gonna try to do is again pull a bit of a fast one on you about this at the end but before we do that I want to spend the rest of our time setting up that punchline that's going to come at the very end and I'm gonna give you the five good reasons to not be religious so the first one is that religion usually gets God wrong another way to say that would be that religion often doesn't get God right okay what do we mean by that well we're gonna start by going to does anybody know who that face is up there who is that that's Brad Pitt right the ladies know the guys are like never seen him before in my life right Brad Pitt I'll tell you a funny cute little story about this I have a younger brother he's three years younger than me he's taller better looking more handsome funnier more muscular it's just like all the worst possible scenarios and I'm not even making this up I tell you the truth my younger brother looks a little bit like Brad Pitt and when I had all of my my girlfriends when I was in high school not that I had a lot I can tell you my two girlfriends and I'm gonna be totally honest here both of them would say things to me like this your younger brother is so good-looking he looks like Brad Pitt and so I have this sort of like distaste for this guy even though I've never met him but I'm gonna use them in an illustration here that I think you'll find really touching and frankly I think this is gonna resonate if not with you personally it's gonna resonate with people that you know and so you'll be able to nod your head in response to this famous Hollywood actor he was raised a conservative Christian and he's going to tell us here a little bit autobiographically about his conservative Christian upbringing and so Brad Pitt says this I was brought up being told that things were God's Way when things didn't work out hey that was God's plan I don't understand this idea of a God who says you have to acknowledge me you have to say that I'm the best then I'll give you eternal happiness if you won't then you don't get it it seems to be about ego and I can't see God operating from ego so it made no sense to me a big question for me was fairness if I'd grown up in some other religion what I still get the same shot at heaven as the Christian has it's easy to resonate with Brad's pit basic basic his basic critique here isn't it right the idea that everything that happens whether for good or for bad that's God's plan and it sounds very Calvinistic here sounds very presbyterian I don't know exactly what stream of Christianity Brad Pitt was raised in but it sounds sort of deterministic and then this idea that hey if you weren't born in the right religion in the right country sorry too bad for you you're those people don't get the same shot that you the elect the chosen people of God get and what Brad Pitt says here is frankly representative of the way that a lot of people think about religion and then by extension about God but what I want to try to do this morning is show you that the connection that's being drawn between their belief about religion which I actually affirm and agree with they then they draw a line out and say that must also be true about God notice how pit moves seamlessly between his complaint and his critique about religion to his complaint and critique about God now in fairness Brad Pitt's picture of God I mean we don't have to guess about what it is he tells us what it is is not the biblical picture or portrait of who God is and I'm gonna unpack that in in greater detail but what if we have the opportunity to have an audience with Brad Pitt or people that represent his way of thinking and say to them look if you want to reject God that is your full well within your intellectual freedom to do so but just to be clear the God that you are rejecting is not Neptune it's not Zeus and it's not the God that's being described here by Brad Pitt the God that you are rejecting is described in scripture in this way in first John chapter four verse eight we've quoted this several times already in our series whoever does not love does not know God because say these three words with me if you would because God is love now if you want to reject God be sure that you're rejecting who he is and not who he isn't right we want to be rejecting his actual character and not his not a caricature of who he you know is purported to be by religionists around the world now I'm suggesting that you don't reject God at all I'm gonna try to paint what I believe is a compelling picture as to why Brad Pitt's aversion to religion I can give a loud Amen to right but his aversion to God I can only give an Amen if it's the God that he's describing but the god of Scripture the the God that is depicted in this book is described in many and wonderful ways we're going to look at some of those as a God who in his innermost being an essence is a God of what word am I going to say here a God of love okay so let's continue to unpack this together in Matthew chapter 22 verses 35 to 40 Jesus was questioned by want by somebody in his day people were coming to him Jesus was very difficult to compartmentalize to put into a box right he didn't behave exactly like the sad sieze who are a part of the religious aristocracy of the day he didn't behave like the Pharisees who were sort of the religious traditionalists of his day nobody was quite sure where to put Jesus and so much of the backdrop of the Gospels is that Jesus is answering questions and queries from people who just don't know what to do with this guy right he doesn't talk like the others talk would get to that point in a little bit he doesn't act like the others act there's just it wasn't easy to put Jesus into the agreed upon religious boxes of his day and so this is one of those instances where a religious person comes to Jesus and has a question a very important question in first century Judaism then then one of them a lawyer asked him a question testing him and saying teacher what is the great commandment in the law in the Torah in the writings of Moses which is the greatest of the commands and this was a hotly debated this was a hot potato issue in first century Judaism what is the greatest of all the commands and depending on how Jesus answers this question or many of the other questions that they ask him they're gonna place him in one of those boxes in one of those compartments or pigeon holes and so the question is put to him what's the great commandment in Torah right of all the things that Moses wrote the 612 commands which is the greatest of them all jesus said to him fascinating the greatest command is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind this is the first and Great Commandment and the second is like it notice the first three words here you shall what's the word love your neighbor as yourself and then these words on these two Commandments hang all the law and the prophets the command to love the injunction to love the insistence to love is a bit of a strange command it's it's kind of a real luck what we might call a reluctant imperative it is an imperative to love but but to make it an imperative is a little strange we open talking just before the the program started about my wife and I see at the anniversary which we've just recently celebrated and I suppose that I am under some obligation to love her but it's it's a it's a strange way to even refer to it as an obligation because there's so much delight and there's so much pleasure and there's so much joy in loving her and so when Jesus is pressed by one of the religious people of his day what's the great command he immediately says well the great command for the Great God is to love him with all your heart mind and soul and the second is similar to it it's to love your neighbor as yourself so love as a command is a strange and somewhat reluctant imperative and so here we have just like to throw this out there is an obvious what I think is an obvious if God is not lovely and lovable then he cannot be loved right if God is not lovable and in his basic character and the person that he is if he's not lovely and he's not lovable then the command to love him is a exercise in futility right try to love the God that Brad Pitt was just describing or try to love the God that some of you might have been raised being told was the right God by well-meaning people right well-meaning people who might have even had a Bible in their hands knew you might have even been in a church lots of spiritual damage has been done and psychological damage and emotional damage have been done to individuals by well-meaning religiously minded people who were trying coercively and manipulatively to scare people into behaving in right ways am i telling the truth or not all right am i telling you the truth and so what happens is with a lot of people they sometimes need and I'll be really honest with you here they need a break from religion they need a break from church they need a break from religion they need a break from a community that might be a toxic community and they just need to go out and just shake out for a year or two or five or ten depending on the level of toxicity in that particular church or religious system and then what happens often is and I've seen this again and again in my own life in my own ministry people come back to a seminar like this or they come back to scripture and they're like man I had no idea because what happened was they were raised with a particular perspective and outlook and insistence that God was a certain way and now what they're doing is is they're coming up and I've had this happen so many times people are like are you sure God is like this are you sure God is as good as you're describing because they were raised going to a church and listening to sermons and and even to some degree perhaps reading the Bible and and what they're hearing from me is like very different what they're reading in scripture is very different and the brain is as it were almost being reprogrammed to think curricula correctly and accurately about God and that's what I want to talk about today how do we think correctly about God and from me I'm just gonna put my cards out on the table this is the thing that I threw in this morning that I thought I just got to go down that lane a little bit so we're we're going down a Main Street today five good reasons to not be religious but there's gonna be a couple little diversions that we're gonna take off that are not ancillary to the topic they're absolutely central to the topic but we're just going to go on little pathways of exploration here right so just come and wander with me down this pathway and it boils down to this phrase that's found in both the old and the New Testaments and the phrase is God's speaking and he says I desire mercy not sacrifice I desire what everyone mercy and not sacrifice okay what does that mean well let's first of all look at the Old Testament route the origin for that passage is hosea chapter 6 verse 6 for i desire mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge of god more than burnt offerings now i've purposefully italicized several things there to draw your attention to them i desire mercy right at the outset God says my desire for you for your attitude toward others for your general character is I want you to be the kind of person that desires mercy right number two I'm not interested in sacrifice now we're going to talk a little bit about that momentarily but God says look if you're given the choice between behaving in a merciful way or bringing some amazing sacrifice that you think will impress me or appease me or a swage me do the merciful thing not the sacrificial thing and then this fascinating little line here and the knowledge of God the knowledge of the one true God the knowledge of the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob that's what I'm after the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings now in order to really understand that verse and we'll come back to it in just a second I have to take another little detour to explain to you that one of the ways in fact one of the primary ways that the Old Testament communicates in is what's a poetry Hebrew poetry and it uses a form what's called recapitulation right recapitulation big word fancy word it just means to restate an idea to say something and then to say it again in slightly different language to make the same point and Hebrew poetry hinges on the idea of recapitulation unlike say for example much of English poetry which hinges on rhyme and meter not all of it but much of it right so we say roses are red violets are blue sugar is sweet and so are you right so there's a rhyme there and there's a metre there and you can immediately detect right you say oh that's poetry right even if it's written out poetry is written differently and and different cultures have their ways of communicating artistically or poetically the Hebrew way of communicating poetry was not rhyme and meter primarily it was it hinged on capitulation recapitulation so you're going to say something and then you're gonna say it again in a slightly different way and it's going to allow you to use more language more colors more hues to illumine an idea and I'll just give you a few examples of this so this is psalm 119 verse 105 this is an easy one probably a passage that many of you have heard before and the passage says your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path and so what I've done here on the screen for you is shown you how that looks structurally right you have an a/b structure thy word is a lamp to my feet and then that's a and a light to my path same thing lamp two feet light two path is recapitulation it's saying something and then it's saying it again with slightly altered language right let me give you another example another very well-known passage in the Old Testament Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 one of the Messianic prophecies one of these prophecies that anticipate a coming Messiah we'll look at this in our next presentation so this is Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 for unto us a child is born a and a son is given recapitulation say the thing say it again in that same chapter in Isaiah chapter 9 just four verses earlier in verse 2 we find this the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light a those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death upon them a light has shined you see how this works okay so now having say let's go back to our passage that we were looking at just a moment ago for I desire mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings now I'm gonna ask you do you see the a B there it might not be immediately obvious but when we lay these two things side by side this recapitulation within this verse an amazing point is going to emerge okay so let's look at it here for a I desire mercy and not sacrifice let's recapitulate that idea the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings whoa whoa whoa whoa you know what this is telling us this is telling us that the essence of God's desiring mercy is the same as the essence of knowing who he is God's desire for mercy is the same as knowing the kind of God that he is that's not the God that Brad Pitt described moment moments ago it's not the God so let's just put a really sharp point on this and then let's go look at several New Testament passages where this verse is actually quoted I desire mercy and not sacrifice and I'm suggesting here that to desire mercy and to know that God desires mercy is to know who he really is okay so notice this to actually know God is to live a what kind of a life merciful life Jesus in his opening address and what's called the Sermon on the Mount one of the most famous sermons ever delivered probably the best sermon ever delivered in Matthew chapters 5 6 and 7 jesus said blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy those people that are merciful those people that understand who and what God is have an access into God's actual character not a caricature of what he you know it's supposed to be no no no the actual thing that God is now let me give you several instances of this Isaiah chapter 11 verse 9 they will not hurt or destroy in all of my holy mountain and I've purposely italicized the word for for you so you can see what flows from that so notice what it says they will not hurt or destroy and all of my holy mountain think new heaven new earth right think think future think no sickness no pain no suffering no death why because they can't because notice what it says for for this reason the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord like the waters cover the sea people will behaving people will be behaving in loving kind and merciful ways why because everybody will know who God is the knowledge the true knowledge of the true God will be so ubiquitous so available that it will be like the waters that cover the sea and when we know who God is and then by extension who we are and who others around us are we will behave in merciful ways they're not going to hurt or destroy in my holy mountain why not because everybody will know who I am now with that in mind let's go to the New Testament look at a few passages here to this effect Matthew chapter 9 verses 10 to 30 and Jesus sat at the table in the house and behold many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples and when the Pharisees saw it they said to his disciples why because they didn't they literally didn't know they could not conceive of why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners because in their world so much of first century Judaism particularly with the religionists was trying to distance yourself from the unsavory them right whether that unsavory them were the Samaritans or that unsavory them was the Gentiles so that unsavory them was the lepers or that unsavory them was an unclean person that unsavory them was a Roman that unsavory them was a tax collector that whatever the unsavory them was much of the the burden of the conscience of the religionists of Jesus day was to avoid contamination was actually a verse and in the New Testament were some of the religionists of Jesus day asked it protested to Jesus and say hey um how come you don't wash your hands before you eat your disciples don't wash their hands before they eat now you might be thinking oh this is a matter of cleanliness wasn't really a matter of cleanliness because the idea of germ theory and the you know transmittable nature of germs that's not going to be known for like fifteen hundred years or sixteen hundred years or something long time so the idea was not a cleansing only like in you know the sense of get the germs off of you they didn't even know what germs were yet it was to cleanse yourself from contamination from the unsavory association with them and so the religious leaders of Jesus day again didn't quite know where to put Jesus because he certainly seemed to carry himself as a holy man and he carried himself and conducted himself like a rabbi but then he would just very easily very casually and very seamlessly and socially mingle with them in this case sinners and tax collectors and when these people ask this question they're asking a question they literally don't know the answer to why on what grounds what a holy man what a religious man you might remember a story in scripture where Jesus is at a person's house and there's a dinner going on and Jesus is having his feet washed by a woman she a woman of ill repute is washing Jesus feet and anointing him for his burial and nobody in the room except for Jesus and the woman knows what's going on here and the the sort of backchat the talk that white noise in the room is if this guy was really holy if this guy really was a prophet if this guy really was in tune with with God he wouldn't let that kind of a woman touch him he would know what kind of a woman she was but jesus knew exactly what kind of a woman she was and yet he was very comfortable freely associating with the unsavory them of the first century world and so they asked a question they really don't know the answer to why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners this was one of the chief critiques of Jesus by the religious people of his day when Jesus overheard the question watch what he does the way that he rebukes them gently softly firmly but but the way that he rebukes them is fascinating in light of our basic point here that the essence of what it is to know God in truth is to know this idea of I desire mercy not sacrifice knows what Jesus says when Jesus heard that he said to them those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick but go and learn what this means ah say it with me I desire mercy and not sacrifice that's Jesus answer draw the line there with me if you would the question was the question was why does this guy hang out with tax collectors and sinners Jesus answer is you need learn what Hosea 6:6 means go learn what it means that I desire mercy and not sacrifice let me just translate that let me take that one step further for you based on the parallelism that we just looked at you need to go learn who God really is because who God really is he's not only comfortable associating with them the icky unsavory them not only is he comfortable with it he desires it he longs for it you if you could go learn what this verse means and then he says just we know exactly what the point that Jesus was making because then he tells us I did not come to call the righteous but what kind of people sinners to repentance on another occasion Jesus this is also in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus was walking through the fields with some of his disciples and on the Sabbath day and his disciples started to pluck some grains of wheat of wheat and just you know rub it between their hands and just eat the little kernels right my grandfather used to have a large wheat farm several thousand acres and in Nebraska and we'd go up there when the wheat was was ripe and ready just ready to be harvested and we used to do the same thing we get these big heads of wheat in our hand and and you if they're actually quite soft and nice right wheat it's a little sweet and so the disciples were a little hungry there was no you know convenient stores in those days so they're just getting a little snack and the critique is raised against them some spies from the religious leaders come out and say all your disciples are doing that which isn't lawful on the Sabbath they're they're harvesting right they're threshing you know all of this sort of a thing and then Jesus basically responds to them and you know gives them several two illustrations from the Old Testament to say no no no you've missed the point here but here's what I want you to see the punchline of what Jesus says to the people who accused his disciples of breaking the Sabbath was this but if you had known what this means what is it say it with me I desire mercy and not sacrifice you would not have condemned the guiltless you don't know who God is and you don't know the essence of your own holy book it boils down to this idea I desire mercy and not sacrifice in a similar passage that's hosea chapter six hosea chapter six verse six very easy to remember Micah chapter six verse six I like it when those things line up and it makes it easy to remember Micah chapter six verse six says this with what shall I come before the Lord the Prophet asks and bow myself before the high God shall I come before him with burnt offerings with calves a year old is that what God's after will the Lord be pleased with I'm gonna turn the volume up with thousands of rams with ten thousand rivers of oil there's a certain logic to it right if the God that you're serving is a God that requires appeasement that requires that he be waged by things that you bring acts of devotion or sacrifices that you bring there's a certain logic to the idea that the greater the sacrifice the the more painful that it is for you to bring the thing well then the more that God would be happy right and so he says well I'm not just gonna bring one I'm gonna bring the best and I'm not just gonna bring the best what if I brought ten thousand rivers of oil and a thousand Rams and so Hosea makes the logical leap that every pagan religion would make as well right the bigger the sacrifice the more pleased God will be and so he takes the step from animals from agriculture to his own family should I give the firstborn should I give my firstborn son or daughter for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul I mean really there's a certain logic to it right if God is pleased you know moderately with a small one and and you know more with a larger sacrifice well then I'll just bring the ultimate sacrifice and got to be totally happy but notice what scripture says notice where we go with this we've already discussed in Genesis chapter twenty two in this series when God asked Abraham take your son your only son Isaac and offer him there on the mountain we've already been over that ground and what ends up happening is is at the very moment where Abraham is about ready to take the life of his son God says don't do it because the good news the gospel is not about you making a supreme sacrifice it's about you accepting that I have made the supreme sacrifice it's a beautiful story absolutely beautiful totally turning in a Copernican style revolution the orbit of reality on itself all pagan religions at some level are about the sacrifice that you make and of course the greater the sacrifice the better the sacrifice and God stop Abraham I'm just trying to teach you a lesson here this isn't about you making the ultimate sacrifice it's about you believing that I have made the ultimate sacrifice and he looks over and he sees a ram they're caught in the thicket enough time allowed we could go through and parse detail by detail point by point Genesis chapter 22 we've already done a little bit of that and we noted that basically what you're dealing with here is this this simple idea we did this in our sermon titled five good reasons to believe God is good is the gospel the good news the death of Jesus is it a two party transaction or a three party transaction the answer is it's a two party transaction it's God laying down his life for sinners Jesus is not a third party to the gospel Jesus is himself God in human flesh can somebody say Amen so this isn't like God saying look I'll show you how much I love you you know and offering somebody else this is God saying I'll show you how much I love you I lay down myself greater love has no man than this than a man would lay down his life for his friends and so when we go back to the Micha passage and Micah there's a certain logic to this well if if God wants offerings I'll bring bigger offerings I'll bring bigger offerings I'll bring Brinker offerings if God is really after offerings I'll bring the biggest possible offering I will offer my own child and yet God says in the plainest language in Scripture this is a detestable repugnant idea to him Jeremiah chapter 19 verse 5 they speaking of the Canaanite religions of the that area that Israel had occupied they have built the high places of bail that was one of those gods one of the gods in the area to burn their sons with for burnt offerings to bail which I did not command or speak nor did it come into my mind God says this idea is so disgusting to me so revolting to me so repulsive to me I never even thought of asking or requiring of somebody to offer their own child well what does God want then well we don't have to wonder because in the very passage where he says would God be pleased with a thousand rams or a ten thousand rivers of oils rivers of oil he tells us in that passage what he wants he has shown you O man what is good and what the Lord requires of you but to do justly what are the next three words to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God keep your sacrifices at home and go and learn what this means I desire what am I going to say I desire mercy and not sacrifice one of the most difficult things to come to grips with Frank lobby just straight up with you here I came in to being a follower of Jesus and a believer in Scripture from a like strong vegetarian background right I became a vegetarian when I was a teenager and I was really passionate at the time I didn't even really know that it was particularly healthy I've come to know that it's the healthiest lifestyle I didn't know it at the time my single motivation was animal rights super passionate about animal rights secondary motivation was the environment and so I was just really passionate about this so I'll tell you I'll be totally honest with you the people that initially made Jesus credible to me and believable to me were vegetarians they were people that were like no actually you don't have to be a vegetarian in order to be a follower of Jesus but there are really good biblical reasons to be a vegetarian if if you want me to show you some of those reasons and they showed them from showed me from Scripture that the original diet was vegetarian and that when God provided manna in the wilderness it was a vegetarian diet and it just I was like wow this is absolutely amazing because a hurdle for me as somebody who was really passionate about animal rights was the eating of meat and the animal sacrifices man I just read that stuff I'm like ah you read Leviticus and Exodus and fortunately I've had the privilege of reading several books like doctoral dissertations and in-depth books that describe what the sacrificial system actually looked like etc but here's my point what what God is doing there is he's actually saying over and over and over in Scripture I can show you many places where God says I don't want your sacrifices I'm not a bloodthirsty deity in fact when the sacrifice sacrificial system became so perverted and so estranged from God's original intent and Jesus shows up in the New Testament he goes into the temple and had been turned into base the monetization of sin and he says take this stuff out of here you probably know this you have made my father's house a den of thieves I'm not interested in sacrifices for sacrifices sake a sacrifice only has significance if it's infused with the correct understanding of that sacrifice for I desire mercy not sacrifice we now hallelujah live in a new situation a new dispensation where we don't bring animals to church in order to sacrifice them because the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world has died and no more animal sacrifices need to be offered can somebody attend any other animal lovers want to say amen to that amen to that but I just love this idea that even embedded in the Old Testament God's like I think you guys are missing the point and the prophets Micah and Hosea and the psalmist and others I could give you many passages say you know I think we might have missed the point on this animal sacrifice thing because God makes it absolutely abundantly clear I desire mercy the thing I'm after is mercy for you to receive the mercy that I'm offering and then you do extend that mercy to those around you not sacrifice I desire mercy and not sacrifice reason number two religion is probably the number one place to hide from God right our first reason was religion almost always gets God wrong right and and it's not just those pagan religions those other religions those outside religions that get God wrong even various versions of Christianity can get God absolutely wrong in fact you can even have a denomination that largely gets God right but then you can have local churches or communities that in that local church a community might have a toxic situation or a bad situation or a manipulative situation and they can get God wrong so when people say to me ah you know I'm nervy about church and I don't really like attending church I never feel like I need to get defensive to be like no no church is awesome you can't just say Church is awesome because people have been to churches where really unfortunate and bad things have happened that have corrupted people emotionally and mentally and spiritually right whether or not someone can attend find a local church with that they love and attend and I hope that can happen in your case I know it certainly has happened in mine here but even if you can't make sure that you're not throwing as Brad Pitt was God out with the bathwater the baby of God out with the bathwater of bad religion and we're gonna get to that point in a second I'm really excited so reason number two religion is probably the number one place to actually hide from an actual connection with God right in Matthew chapter 7 Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says these words not everyone who calls me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father in heaven many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in your name cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name then I will declare to them I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness and it wouldn't be a reach to say that Jesus could just as easily say here you never knew what it meant I desire mercy and not sacrifice you didn't know what that meant I know you call me Lord I know you think that you're that I'm your God but you're it's like it's like there's lots of people named David right and somebody might say Oh David's a real jerk that David he's a jerk man I live next door to him he was up late into the night playing his loud music and throwing beer cans over the you know the the fence and that David is a real jerk well I got good news for you that's not me there's lots of people named David right and there might be some really bad David's out there I hope not but there probably are some bad David's out there that you know given the opportunity they would kick you in the shins and you'd want to kick him right back in the shins right I Got News for you there's lots of people out there named God right just because somebody says David doesn't mean they're talking about me just because somebody says Gabriel doesn't mean they're talking about you or John means they're talking about you or Ruth means they're talking about you just because somebody says I don't believe in God I hate God I want nothing to do with God that may or may not be the God that you believe in and so these people are like Lord Lord and Jesus is like I think you're looking for another Lord Lord because I don't know you and you don't know me God is not an idea God is not a concept and God is not a philosophy he is a person and the only way to get to know a person is to draw close to them and it basically boils down to two is time and trust you could throw in a third truth all relationships like the anniversary that I have with my lovely wife here all relationships including the spousal relationship is built around three basic axes time truth and trust right you spend time together you're truthful with one another and you trust one another right and the only way to get to know God yes you can read about him and you can read various books about but at some point at some point you have to at least provisionally surrender your skepticism and spend some time with him and trust him and listen to his truth about you and interact with him on a truthful white time truth and trust just yesterday I was reading to some friends of mine a really fascinating testimony that I've read recently from Christianity today and it was the story of this woman who's a professor at MIT she talks in there about how her basic outlook and perspective on Christians was that they were ignorant misses they were stupid uneducated whatever and she met some really intelligent really lovely really kind people who were also followers of Jesus who invited her to church and she said well I can't go to church so she said no to church but then they said well maybe you should try reading the Bible and when she started reading the Bible she was feeling like she was having an encounter with God but this didn't like compute in her sort of you know binary mechanistic world she's like this can't be God talking to me through Scripture and she tells her story in there she tells her testimony in there and she came to encounter not an idea not a concept not a philosophy not a theology she came to encounter the Living God of the universe the God of Scripture and you can do the same God is a person he's not an idea right it's not just to know about him it's to know him and I'll give you a little challenge here if you're not already a believer just start reading this book right here the Bible starting the Gospel of John or the Gospel of Matthew starting the Gospel of John of Matthew even Luke would work as well starting one of those and just read one chapter every day and just pray a simple prayer that goes something like this God if you are real show me who you are and show me who I am as I read today amen and just watch what God does if God can show up to a skeptical antagonistic MIT professor I'm sure God gonna show up for you too he showed up for me about 23 years ago and he can show up for you too you can know not just about God in some religious sense you can know God in a relational sense Psalm chapter 27 verse 4 one thing I have desired of the Lord and that I will seek the psalmist says that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold and I love this phrase to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in a simple wow what a cool passage of Scripture to behold the beauty of God if you read Matthew Mark Luke and John as I've just described that you should do or encourage you to do you will come away with the sense that Jesus was indisputably a beautiful person and Jesus said if you have seen me you have seen God even people that are down on religion and down on Christianity are up on Jesus Jesus is cool he's like super cool not only is he cool he's uninvent able the things that he said and the things that he did in the way that he conducted himself he's his refusal to be put into any single religious box man you just couldn't have made this story up and I want to say this to you here if your internal picture of God isn't beautiful and lovable then that picture that you have in your mind is not the god of Scripture notice here again to behold one thing I have desired now just let me just unpack that little phrase there I have desired we've already read in hosea chapter 6 that God has desires the psalmist says I have a desire I want to dwell in the temple of God and to behold as Beauty conscious oh great you and I we have something in common you have a desire and I have a desire I desire mercy and not sacrifice so both of them have a desire and you know what the desire is it's the same God's desire is to be known and David's desire is to know God and so that's what you call a win-win situation can he say Amen God's like I want you to know who I am when those various people came to Jesus and raised protests about the way that he was behaving the way that his disciples was behaving we're behaving he said you need to go read your own Bible because Golar what it means I desire mercy and not sacrifice and come back to me cuz you don't know who I am and you don't know who my father was one time Jesus really stuck it in and twisted the knife a little bit he said you have never heard his voice nor seen his shape at any time I know that your Jewish people I know that you're the Covenant people have got but you don't know me or my father David says there's just one thing I want to know I want to know who you are that same David wrote in Psalm 37 verse 4 delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you here's our word again he will give you the desires of your heart when God gives you the true desire of your heart he gives you himself he doesn't just give you a religion he doesn't get just give you a bunch of ideas he doesn't just give you a knowledge when God gives you the desires of your heart the thing that he gives you is himself and check this out this is so cool there's that actually a little Old Testament prophecy in one of the minor prophets Haggai chapter 2 verse 7 that describes God like this is a fascinating little passage it says I will shake all nations and they will come to the desire of all nations and I will fill this temple with glory what a fascinating name what profound nomenclature for God the desire of all nations and other translations says it like this I will shake all nations and the one desired by all nations will come the one that all nations desire because everybody every single person on planet Earth has the same basic story the the variations on a theme are are you know infinite but the the story is largely the same I have fallen short of my best self I have fallen short of what I know I could be and what I should be and when we fall short depending on our coping mechanisms we get various levels and grades of shame and of guilt and of a self revulsion I mean everybody's got kind of the same story and and so that's why everybody when they encounter this guy Jesus they're like man that guy's really awesome if there's a god and he's actually like that man that's really great news I mean hadn't Jesus said that when I'm lifted up I will draw all peoples to myself he is the desire of all nations you can be driven by a frightening God but you can only be drawn by a desirable God one thing I have desired of the Lord and that's to dwell in the house of the Lord and to behold his beauty this picture that Brad Pitt paints for us of who and what God is is not a God that you can be easily drawn to and not only not easily drawn to Brad Pitt says I turned away from that God and from religion and I think that God would applaud Pitts desire to move away from that caricature of who he was I say it this way the true God of heaven and earth is not upset when an atheist dis believes in the existence of Zeus well I don't believe in Zeus either in fact I'm almost an atheist in this regard because I disbelieve in the existence of all gods except one right so when somebody has an ugly internal picture of God whether it's the religion itself that has painted that picture or it's a perversion of the religion that has painted that picture whatever it is if you reject that ugly undesirable non beautiful picture of God God's not threatened by that God takes delight in people rejecting who he isn't in the same way that when people say oh the David that I lived next to was a real jerk and I said well that's not me and they said I know I I like you David but I don't like that David be careful especially if you're a believer if somebody comes he says all you know I'm not interested in God I'm not interested in religion be sure that they're describing the same God that you love because there's a high chance that as in the case with Brad Pitt the God that they hate is a God that you also would not be interested in worshiping or serving a very great place to hide from God is in religion reason number three is that Jesus himself resisted religion that's a great reason not to be religious Jesus speaking of the religious leaders of his day again in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 15 verse 14 said leave them alone they are blind leaders of the blind and if the blind leads a blind they will both fall in to the ditch in Matthew chapter 23 one of the most powerful and and striking chapters in all of the Gospel of Matthew and of the New Testament Jesus says eight times this phrase woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites woe to you woe to you in very Old Testament prophetic Oracle doom Jesus here starts pronouncing woe why because not only these it's not only that these religionists got God wrong it's that they were forcing their wrong picture of who and what God was and what religion was on other people and Jesus is like it's doom for you it's doom for you it's doom for you Matthew chapter 7 verses 28 to 29 and so it was this is right at the end of Jesus Sermon on the Mount when he had finished these sayings this sermon that the people were astonished at his teaching well why what was so astonishing about his teaching because he taught them as one having authority and this is the key and not as the scribes and Pharisees he didn't teach like they taught in John chapter 7 they the religious leaders sent out some officers to arrest Jesus and I've always loved this story then the officers came to the chief priests and the Pharisees who said to them hey why didn't you bring him we told you to arrest him and their response was a was a stunned you know gobsmacked no one ever spoke like this man we couldn't bring ourselves to arrest him he was too beautiful he was too awesome he was too unique yeah we couldn't arrest that guy it was the religionists of Jesus day that hated him and eventually killed him so reason number three to resist religion is that you're only following in the footsteps of your Savior Jesus if you resist bad religion reason number four to state the obvious religion cannot save you only a true relationship with God can notice how clear the New Testament is on this point Romans chapter 10 verses 9 to 13 notice how easy it is if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead say these four words with me if you would you we'll be saved for with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture says whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame you confess you believe you are saved as what the text says there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same lord over all is rich to all who call upon him for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved it does not say whoever is a member of your church or of your denomination of your religion shall be saved it says whoever calls in truth on the one true God in sincerity of heart from their heart and makes confession with the mouth they will be saved we make it very easy to put God into a box and it's always a box that shaped exactly like our church our religion our denomination our perspective and God is a little bigger than that I want to tell you that now don't get me wrong I am persuaded that there are correct and incorrect ways to understand God this very point I'm making right here and I think there are communities of faith that are much closer to understanding who and what God is and I strongly advise you to find a community of faith a place where you feel comfortable and loved and where you can become all that you were created to be you can become the best version of yourself absolutely there are an infinite number of wrong answers to the question of 3 squared 3 squared is 9 there are an infinite number of wrong answers to that question right there's only one right answer that's 9 3 squared is 9 but there are answers that are much more wrong 3744 is much more wrong than 10 right and if you have in your life and in your community a let's say you don't have that perfect place where everything is exactly the same but if you have a 10 if you have something that's close then go there and throw all of your energies and your efforts into it and turn it into them to the 9 by the grace of God right are you with me on this Jesus not religion is the Savior and finally reason number 5 this is a big one according to Bible prophecy religion will be largely fallen in the last days now this might be new to some of you I'm gonna drop a bomb on you right here notice what jesus warned of when it comes to how we should think about and relate to religion in the last days this is what Jesus said he warned against false Christ's this is all this is first bit here is from Matthew chapter 24 against false prophets against miracle workers against wolves in sheep's clothing and against persecution by religion that's what Jesus said Jesus said be very wary be very cautious about religion the New Testament says the same thing it warns against coming any Christ in 1st John chapter 2 against wayward religious leaders in Acts chapter 20 a great religious apostasy in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 a man of sin acting like God also in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 and a Judas like betrayer again in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 the book of Revelation goes yet a step further it warns against enforced religious practice to fallen in persecuting Church a massive Church state alliance and the emergence of what's called endtime Babylon and all of this I mean from the words of Jesus to the words of Paul to the words of John in the book of Revelation they're all saying be very nervous about religion in the last days much of religion will be fallen in the last days because what really matters beloved is not religious affiliation but a vibrant personal connection with the one true God who is desirable and beautiful and who would say to you and to me go and learn what it means I desire mercy and not sacrifice I think these are five good reasons I don't know how you feel I feel like these are five good reasons reason number one religion usually gets got wrong reason number two religion is probably the best place to hide from God number three Jesus himself resisted religion we're only walking in his footsteps when we do the same reason number four religion can't save you anyway and reason five the Bible says be careful about religion in the last days because it will be largely fallen now I told you I was going to give you a bit of a punchline at the end a bit of a punch line where we revert back quickly to this Pew Research 2014 landscape survey that they did about the decreased religiosity in America and by extension if it's happening in America it's also happening in other first world nations and I would like to suggest here it might not be a bad thing in fact I'll go a little further that it's not a bad thing one of the main reasons that people are attending church less and less and they're calling themselves less religious is because the picture and poor trait of God that has been painted even by many Christian churches Allah brad pitt's and Brad Pitt represents many millions of people they're just saying you know what I've met so many people and not just for one denomination not just from the Catholics or just the Presbyterians or just the seventh-day evidence or just the Baptist or whatever said men I had a local church that was caustic and toxic I had to get out of there there are some systems of faith and denominations that paint a picture and portrait of God that deserves to be rejected and so when people are becoming less religious you'll often hear people say things like this I'm not religious I'm what what am I going to say I'm spiritual what people are meaning when they say that is I'm looking for something authentic and real and believable well so am i and yes I'm a pastor and yes I'm a Christian yes I'm a member of a local congregation and I'd like to think that our local congregation is becoming the kind of place where it's safe for people to come and people can actually find Jesus here but I'm going to tell you something lots of churches aren't that way and lots of religions aren't that way and no denomination has an absolute monopoly on having it all right and neither does every there's not a single denomination that has monopoly and having it all wrong there are as I've said here the 3-squared thing there are denominations that get much closer to 9 right I personally am a Seventh day Adventist and I am persuaded that the great truths the central truths of the seventh-day Adventist Church are as close as any I have seen to that which approximates what Scripture is actually teaching back to most cases I would say it is what Scripture is actually teaching but I I don't have any misgivings or you know I'm not under any illusion that being a seventh-day Adventist it's the thing that gets me access to God Jesus is the thing that gets me access to God decreased interest in religion might be a good thing from a biblical perspective because bad religion with a bad God at its center is worse than no religion at all some people are going to have to leave church to find God some people are gonna have to leave religion to find the thing that really saves and that's a relationship with God now I want to close by saying this in a perfect world in fact it doesn't mean have to be a perfect world in a good situation that's a better way to say it in a good situation you will find you might have to look and it might not be the biggest Church with the with the best rock-and-roll band and the the highest ceilings and the best sound system you might have to look you might just find a group of five or six people that are just you know quietly or it could be a larger church or medium-sized Church frankly the size of the church is basically irrelevant but I would like to suggest that you can find a church I believe in the vast majority of communities you can find a church of at least a few people that are meeting together in sincerity and in truth and who love Jesus but it may not be the church with the biggest show or the biggest advertisements or whatever it might be I implore you to find a body of believers a community of people that are scriptural that are passionate about God and that are passionate about service and that are passionate about one another find that community of people and make it even better than it was before you got there because you can find God in community you can find God in fellowship this idea that you're gonna go be a lone ranger off by yourself I'm not suggesting that in any way shape or form when I talk about a personal relationship now you need community we all need community we need to be surrounded by people that are heading in the same direction that we are headed in go find that church and if you find a church maybe it's not exactly the right answer that's okay maybe it's close go make it its pour yourself into it and do your best to make that community and maybe if it's not the whole church you get yourself a little small group in that church and you say we are passionate not just about religion in the generic sense we are passionate about a beautiful desirable God and we're gonna reel in other people who are similarly passionate about the one true God these are five I think really good reasons to not be religious but to desire a relationship with a beautiful desirable God who himself desires mercy and not sacrifice [Music] [Music]

Channel: Kingscliff Church

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Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Tue May 12 2020