Does God Care About Religion? | Romans 4 | Crossroads Daily

I love wings. Like I love hot wings, hot wings, all kinds of wings, right? Okay. So I, I, I love wings. Um, and so I make it a, because I love them so much. I make a point of at least once a month, I'm at the Oak Tavern getting a large of smoked wings and a nice drink, right? So good bone in, of course, only that's the only way that has become a religious ritualistic act, but it came out of love in the same way, prayer, Bible reading, pursuing God, pursuing people in your life, all those things. You can make those religious, but they follow relationship. That's so good. This is the crossroads daily, no experts, no perfect people, just honest conversations about what happens when the Bible shows up in real life. I'm Chuck. I'm Caroline. I'm Peter. I'm Chris. Thanks for joining us for Romans four. I want to start with this question. Paul asked this question in verse 11. No, in verse 10, he says, under what circumstances was righteousness is what he's saying, credited to Abraham. And he says, was it after he was circumcised or before circumcision was later on in the story, Abraham did this thing that was a religious act, right? That God had asked him to do. I mean, it was, it was a meaningful act, but a religious act. And it's interesting. Paul is poking at something there. He's saying, okay, so at what point did Abraham get the benefit of righteousness? And what he's saying is it was at the moment that he trusted God and stepped out into the unknown. That's when he received faith. And there's something that he wants us to get there. What do you think he's saying to us? What's relevant about that question for us to, as we think about Romans four. Hmm. For me, I always go back to, um, the phrase that someone said to me for the first time, probably seven years ago. And she said, God is obsessed with our hearts. And I think what this is talking about is it's when Abraham said, I believe I'm going to trust. I'm going to trust you, God. I'm going to take a step and whatever you're asking me to do. I think that's what that Yeah. Hmm. I think it's easy to look at this and be like, religion isn't helpful. It's not necessary. It's all about, you know, action or it's all about our heart. And in a sense that is true, but I think religion is so valuable, but it has to follow and come out of relationship. Yeah. Like, and so yes, Abraham was just, or Abraham was deemed righteous when he took a step of faith, but he, but he still, God asked him to do this religious act and he did it out of faith because he loved and had a relationship with God. So I'll use a, I'll use a funny example. Like I love wings. Like I love hot wings, hot wings, all kinds of wings. Right. Okay. So I, I love wings. Um, and so I make it a, because I love them so much, I make a point of at least

once a month, I am at the Oak Tavern getting a large platter of smoked wings and a nice drink, right? Bone-in of course only. That's right. Only way. Hey, if you're, if you're, listen, if you've never experienced the Oak Tavern, it's in Oakley, right in Cincinnati. Yeah. And it absolutely has the best smoked wings. So if you ever find yourself there and you want to have a religious experience, go to the Oak Tavern. But also that has become a religious ritualistic act, but it came out of love in the same way. Prayer, Bible reading, pursuing God, pursuing people in your life, all those things. You can make those religious, but they follow relationship. That's so good. That's good. That's so, so good. That's so good. And I think that's the application for us, right? Like Paul is saying like, you, you've, you've got to know how loved you are by God. You know, in a previous one of these, we talked about like repenting of the ways that we misunderstand God and realizing just how good he is. Like that's this faith journey that we're on. So in what ways are you inspired by Abraham's faith as you think about your own faith journey? I would, I'll, I'll say, I think verse 18 when it says in hope, he believed against hope. I think that's so inspiring. I can think of so many times when it's like, there's no hope here. Like how I have nothing to hope in that makes any sense. I'll, I'll, I'll share something super recent. Literally as I walked into this podcast, I got the news that my grandfather's health has deteriorated to the point where he's probably one step away from, he's in palliative care, one step away from hospice. And it's really hard. And you know, it's really hard on my parents, really hard on my family. And literally at the same day we get the news, we have a family, we had a family vacation planned for next week. A giant Oak tree fell on the house that we had rented and split it in half. So now the vacation is gone at the same time. So it's like one of those things where you're, you're walking in like, Oh, like I have no, can I do this podcast? Like, I have no idea, this is really hard. But hope against hope, my hope, my joy, my peace is not dependent on, at my best, is not dependent on my circumstances. It's not dependent on what's happening. I'm not sitting here saying I'm just happy and joyful all the time, because I'm definitely not. But I was able to walk in and just be like,

okay, I re-center on, okay, what matters. And yeah, so happy to be here with you guys. But that's just something that popped out at me as we read it together. Yeah, man, thanks for sharing it, just honestly. And can I just pray for you and your family, seriously? Yeah, of course. Yeah, God, I just, again, we're talking about Abraham's faith and trusting in your goodness. And Peter is here, and even him being here and sharing that is an example of him trusting in your goodness. So God, I pray for his grandfather. I pray for the journey that you have him on. God, that you would give Peter and his family peace around that. And I also just pray for his family as this vacation, and God, maybe, I don't know. I'm thankful they weren't there when the tree split the house. And I also just pray that you would just help them to see your goodness in this. There were times in Abraham's journey where he questioned, and he wasn't sure of the why or the wherefore, but God, you were faithful. And I just pray that Peter and his family would experience your faithfulness in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you so much. Yeah, man, thanks for sharing that. Of course, this podcast is just a small group now, so.

Yeah, there you go. Just being real, just being real. You better believe you're not the only person that probably needed to hear that, what you just said, hoping against hope. Yeah. That's a word for somebody today. How about you guys? How are you inspired by Abraham's faithfulness? What do you learn from his story? The thing that pops out to me, I'm so inspired by his patience. And maybe that's because I'm really bad at that. I'm a very impatient person. But for him to be so patient for so many years and just to believe that God was gonna do what he said he was gonna do, and then even when he made a mistake, for God to still honor what he said he was gonna do, and just the faithfulness that he has in that, and I don't know, I have so much awe around, one, the goodness of God in that space, because I love the Bible, because there's just so much humanity in it, right? We can see ourselves in every single person in it. But that is the thing for me, is just his ability to wait on the Lord. Yeah. You know, that makes me think about the fact that, you know, we're all in different places.

There are some people who are watching this and are incarcerated. You're a part of our church, and we love that. You are a part of our church. You're not like a part of our church. You are part of our church. You're our family. And I think about the patience needed when you're in a situation like that, the patience of trusting that God does see you, you know, that God hasn't forgotten about you, and all the different ways that that might show up. I think that's an encouraging reminder that, like, God's timeline spans our entire lives, and we can trust him, even in years and years and years of what seems like nothing happening. Right. That's really good. And it's so hard. It's very hard. I feel like I, it makes me think of the story of there was, when Jesus comes to the man, like, I think he says he's gonna heal his daughter, and then the man says, like, like, if you believe this can happen. He's like, if you believe, like, all things are possible. And he says, I believe, help my unbelief. It's like a hilarious sentence, but, like, I'm there so often, and that God doesn't, Jesus doesn't condemn him in that moment.

Or he's like, well, wait till you, like, get the perfect faith. Come back to me when you get 100%, right? Then come back, yeah. It's like, I don't know if any, speaking for myself, I don't know if I will ever have 100% faith in anything. Like, it might be, it's like, I just don't think I'm physically capable of, like, I'm so doubtful, and my mind is crazy, and, like, I can get so, like, twisted on what God's truth is. And, like, I need God to fill in the gaps of, like, all right, here's as much faith as I can offer, and I need you to pull me the rest of the way. And I feel like he does. Like, I've never seen him turn me away in a moment like that. Even if I've got, like, just a little mustard seed. That's right. He'll work with it, right? He meets us where we are. He meets us where we are. You know, in the old church where I grew up, one of the things I would hear a lot is, wait on the Lord, right? And, you know, that's what Abraham does. And that is part of our life of faith, is learning to wait on the Lord. And what I learned about waiting is, very rarely does God invite us

into a passive, do-nothing-at-all wait. There are definitely times when he says, take your hand off the wheel. There are definitely times when it's like, don't try to manipulate or control. But thinking of waiting and faith as an active trust. Active, A-C-T-I-V-E. Active trust. waiting is continuing to remind yourself of God's faithfulness in the past, continuing to trust him for the faithfulness you need in the present, and literally surrendering the future to him, I think is what it means to wait on the Lord. So wherever you find yourself, I pray today that you would engage in active waiting on the Lord.