God Hates Religion

Well, thank God for weakness I got gobs of it But he's faithful, isn't he? Well, what a wonderful emphasis this morning upon Christ and all that he's done at the foundation we stand upon. I appreciate so much the the emphasis of the Lord and I believe the Lord is wanting to take us into a deeper realm not to solve all the doctrinal issues But to know him better Because that's what it really comes down to You know, I Years ago every once in a while I'll start to write an article and I'll get two three pages in then I just kind of let it go and endeavor never quite gets never feel like finishing it, but One time years many years ago. Now. I started writing an article entitled God hates religion Thought that would be a provocative title But how many of you know, that's true and That includes the Christian religion Christian religion has never saved anybody Salvation is not through a religion Salvation is through a person and I just praise God for for the rebel simple revelation of that Because without that there's there's nothing I mean religion just tries to explain why we're here and where we're going and how to navigate life and it's a Philosophy is a bunch of practices a bunch of beliefs and people, you know, I'm part of this one I'm part of that one and all of it is empty Without the Lord himself without knowing the one who came and gave himself for us I just I just praise the Lord I've just had random thoughts and I'm just praying the Lord will pull them together I don't know how long but this is not going to probably take very long. But anyway One thing that was said this morning

Let me go back to the let me go back to the beginning because you think about the God of the universe He's all-powerful he's everywhere he knows everything And You know when you think about him interacting with his universe, what's the meaning of it from his point of view? He's certainly not doing some kind of science experiment to see how stuff works he knows Scientists are still trying to figure it all out There's only one thing and only one reason you can come up with from his point of view is that it's all about love and relationship Without that it's empty There is it means nothing and all of that if we could ever get a hold of seeing God's heart In what he's really after it will transform us and it will set us free because that's what God is. That's what he wants. Oh That we let the devil put up so many barriers You know you think about the very beginning when Adam and Eve sinned What was the first thing they did? Of course, they realized they were naked and they had to come up with something to cover that so they made some got some fig leaves Made aprons like that was going to do a lot of good Yeah, but then the Lord came and went down to spend time with them now, this is this is the Lord The one who knows everything the one who has all power. What's his heart? his heart was to spend time with these naked animals if you want to look at it that way and Actually, he just he just loved them wanted to be with them and wanted to wanted to share his love and his mercy and his plans and all of that with them and They were hit they were hiding weren't they? Well, we do that. Don't worry we let the devil talk us into Being uncertain and unsure and God wants to plant every single person here and everyone who may hear this On a foundation that's solid But the interesting thing is that The Lord doesn't say well, I guess they're not here or they messed up so we're done with that on to something else I got more important stuff. There's nothing more important to God Let that sink in there is nothing more important

Than bringing you into the center of his love and spending time with you That's hard to wrap our minds around Adam and Eve sure didn't get it at that point But what happened was oh, I hear the Lord. It was not. Oh, I hear the Lord. We better go running out We want to be with him. They wanted to hide So what happened? Adam where are you? It's always the Lord seeking us it's never us never starts with us seeking him that's his heart for you this morning I don't care who you are or what's going on in your life. God wants to reach out and embrace you and make you his own and fix whatever is going on in your heart and your life. The devil's going to do everything in his power to prevent that. Praise God. Praise God. I had so many streams of thought. One of them is this. We think of the Apostle Paul, for example, as certainly probably the greatest theologian the world has ever seen in terms of understanding the mind and the purpose of God, being able to teach it. Man, he had it. He would have been the ultimate theology professor. But yet you look at his personal testimony, particularly in Philippians chapter three. I'm not going to turn it because you know the scripture, but remember how he's trying to get across something to the people. And he's talking about his own heritage, which happened to be in a very strict form of the Jewish religion of his time. That religion was built on laws. And the whole idea is you keep the law and God will accept you, and you become righteous. And of course he caused all kinds of people to, you know, look down on people and all that kind of stuff. And it was a shock of all shocks when Jesus revealed himself to Paul's heart. Now God can save Paul, by the way. He can save anybody. He declared himself to be the worst, the chiefest of sinners, and that God did that for an example of what he can do. But praise God. But God showed him that he had a totally different plan, and his name was Jesus. And he realized that my righteousness does not come because of anything I can possibly do. I cannot qualify myself in any respect for what God wants to do for me. It has to be through him. My eyes have to get completely off of myself. That's the thing that's easy to say, isn't it? Not very easy to do, because the devil loves to point his finger at everything that's wrong with us, and try to create in our own minds,

oh that's a barrier. You can't really be with him right now. He doesn't want to be with somebody like you. You've got to fix it. You've got to do this. You've got to do that. That doesn't affect anybody here, right? Just like everybody at one time or another. But Paul spoke about the revelation of what God had done, and it was that Jesus did pay it all. My righteousness, it comes entirely because of what he did. And so Paul said, now I really want to dig into the theology. Well, I can't walk around anymore, can I? Not wearing a microphone. That's all right. Praise God. All right, I'll stand here then. I'll try to remember. But anyway, Paul, instead of saying, I want to be a great theologian. I want to understand all the doctrines. What did he say? What was the heart? You know, we've talked about how he's in a work in progress. He's forgetting. He's reaching. He's doing all of those things. But where does he start? I want to know Him. It's personal. It has to come down to a very personal relationship with the Son of God. Oh, I pray that God will help us. He's really kind of focused my attention on that, because if I have any gift at all, I suppose it would be teaching. I'll let you be the judge of that, any of that. But the danger in that is you can get down into a sea of ideas. Well, we've got to have the correct idea about this, the correct idea about that. When it all comes down to it, the ideas are fine. They have their place, but it's a person we need to see. And that person wants to be intimately involved in our lives every single day. If it does not translate into that, what is it? It's just religion. It's you come to church and you do the right stuff. You say, I believe this. I believe that. But what about the relationship? Are we walking with Him? Are we talking with Him? Are we trusting Him? Are we believing that we can actually come into the presence of a holy God? Do we really believe what this book says on a personal level? Or are you, or some of the folks here, you know, there's a lot of different versions of the Bible, and I've talked about this one before, but the EBM version is one I'm afraid a lot of people use. You know what that is, of course? Everyone but me. Everybody but me. All the glorious truths that are in there, but I just, oh, he wouldn't want to be with somebody like me. Do you know when you're at your worst, that's when he wants us to feel like we can come, not to say, oh, I'm embracing this, you're going to just have to deal with it, but no, to come and realize everything I need, including the grace, the cleansing, the forgiveness, the strength that I just found out I don't have and thought I did, everything comes from

him and his heart is longing just as he reached out to Adam, where are you? I wonder how many times he's saying that to me and to all of us. You know, what we need and what the world needs is not, hey, we got a great church, come down here, we got great music, we got this, we got that. We need to, it's got to be about Jesus. And what is it that we have to tell people? Of course, obviously show them, but I was thinking about something, I think Mother Steve mentioned, happened to mention this in the men's meeting in one context, and he was talking about how the Lord healed the man who was full of so many demons when he crossed the lake and this man had just, was in a mess, to say the least, and it was a legion of demons that had a hold in his life and he was just a, you know, psychological wreck, to say the least. And anyway, the Lord cast them out and he wanted to follow Jesus and what did Jesus say? Go tell them what I have done for you. You know, there's a lot of folks that will train you in before spiritual laws and go out and make converts. We have one message, it's what God's done for me. Has He done something for you? He wants to. That's His heart. Oh, I pray that God will help us, everyone, to just look to Him and have a testimony of His love and His mercy. I'll tell you, we have a foundation. I've debated whether this fits in or not, but I guess, you know, I'll just tell you a little bit about my own testimony. You know, I grew up in a preacher's home and the Lord just blessed me. It was just how He called me. It doesn't make me any better than anybody else. I have the same needs you do. Believe me, I do. But the Lord, I believe I had an encounter with the Lord when I was pretty young and the Lord helped me. I needed the spankings at times, for sure, like everybody, but the Lord blessed me and I remember as a teenager being challenged with the thought that I needed to give my life to the Lord and be willing to do whatever He wanted. And the emphasis, of course, was probably on ministry and missionary service and that kind of thing, which is fine. But the underlying principle is does my life belong to me or am I handing it over to Him and letting Him chart my course and do His will? That's what Jesus did, by the way, that's what it cost Him to be able to hand this salvation to us. Do we do anything less? So anyway, the Lord helped me to make that commitment and it seemed like the next thing was to go to a Bible college and I did. And thankfully, because I met my wife there. I'm so thankful. I hope she is a little bit. But anyway, she's put up with me for a while now. But anyway, there was a mixture of religion

and doctrine and, you know, all of the stuff that you tend to pile into serving the Lord. But there was some life and we encountered some life, thankfully. And I mentioned before, I won't go into the details, but there was a church in Brooklyn, not the Brooklyn Tabernacle, which was a little storefront at the time, but there was a church that had life. And they were a church that emphasized a lot of experience. And yet there was what was genuine there. And there was a hunger in us for something that was more than we just saw in our regular churches. I mean, they were they would come and say the right things and do the right things. And boy, you can do that so easily. How easily do we distill down this experience with a living Christ that God wants and we make a religion out of it without even meaning to. God help us. God wants to be a living, living God and his son, a living. the Savior in here changing hearts and changing lives. And there was something in us that hungered after that. Well, I'll tell you very briefly the same experience because the Lord helps me to see it in slightly different light as I go. And you know, this emphasis on experience as though there is this place in God where you can enter in and you can leave the place you're at now and you can get to a higher ground here and there's this experience that comes with it and you'll feel a certain way and you know, I won't go into the details but there was a lot of emphasis on that and I actually had people around me that it seemed like the Lord was reaching them that way and I wasn't. Or he wasn't reaching me. I was just kind of, okay, and I want more of him and what's going on here? What's wrong?

And I've talked about it, how I got mad at God. I don't know if that's, maybe it's an overstatement but I kind of did go into a serious pout and for several days, I just stopped spiritually. I didn't pray. I didn't read my Bible. I didn't curse God or anything like that. I just was numb and as the days went along, I just felt this quiet presence. As I look back, I didn't feel any condemnation. I mean, you know, how would you do if somebody acted that way toward you and you were trying to show them love? You'd be upset about it but I just felt this quiet presence and it wasn't out there somewhere talking to me. There was something down in here that was just there. Oh, praise God. The Lord wanted me to be on a foundation that didn't have to do with experiences and feelings. That was one of the things that was really important. God was doing something very special and very unique that has been a foundation in my life and I'm so thankful for it. Meeting me in a time when it was like he was saying there, I'm still here, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not giving up. I'm just sitting here waiting and I finally just realized what was going on, I guess and I came to a point where I just said, all right, Lord, I'll serve you if I never have a feeling.

Wouldn't that be a good place to be? We don't make conditions. We don't think how it's supposed to be. We just want him and we believe him. Now, where did this come from? Was that because there was some good in me? Did I initiate that? God put that in my heart. He came after me. I didn't go after him. That's what he, and he's after every one of you too, by the way, or he's got you, I'm praying. I believe he's got many here, but I'll tell you, there's a reality that God wanted, God wanted to put me on a foundation where I had a witness in here. When I was putting forth no, zero effort, I just wasn't going to do anything. He was just patiently waiting, patiently giving me a confidence on the inside that he was real and that I just needed to relax and trust him and let go and start and quit trying to tell him how to do his job. I guess there's a lot of different ways to look back and see it, but I see God trying to put me on a foundation. And the wonderful thing is, and again, I can't take any credit for any of this, was that not only did I sense a witness in here that he was still here and that his word was true,

but that I actually agreed with it when it came right down to it. Now, I didn't have the feelings to go with it. I was still kind of numb from that standpoint, but there was a yielding to that. There was a surrender, if you will, just a simple word. All right, Lord, your way, not mine. I'm trusting you. Every bit of that comes from him. Folks, if you've got faith, if you've got something like that down in your heart, you've got something that is worth more than all of the world put together because only God can put that in there. And I'm so thankful to this day that he did. And he has been, you know, talking about what he's done for me. I mean, so many years now since that day, God has been faithful. Yeah, I've had the spine tissue. experiences a few times, but that's not what it's about. My foundation is 100% what he did. If I never have a feeling, he is worthy of praise, and I have come to a greater realization in the last little bit of how much this needs to be a daily personal thing with the Lord. Now be careful you don't jump in the other ditch and try to make a religion out of that. I got to feel something. I've got to, oh God, I went five minutes and I didn't think about you. Uh-oh, you know, but there's a sense which I'm just committing myself to the Lord. Lord, I want your plan. I am resting in you even though maybe I don't even feel like it right now. Circumstances I would prefer they would be different. You know we talked about that last week that there's nothing that's accidental with

God. He uses it all, but there's just a sense of trust and a surrender that God is seeking from every person. He cares about you more than you could possibly imagine. The devil will put up every barrier that he can possibly think of to point out every flaw, every failure, every weakness, everything you've ever done and he'll tell you he wouldn't want to be with somebody like that or I've got to do something to be before I can come to him. You know when we come to him? When we're in need. You don't fix the need and say okay now I can go. That's the devil's thinking. Boy, if there is a voice telling you that, it's not God. God's Word is true and we need to learn to realize that it's that this this Jesus, He is the Word. He is the way, the truth, and the life, but He is the living Word. He's put this on in on pages for us and so that we can have it, but He is the author of it and He is the one who can take it and plant it in our hearts according to the current need. I want to have a heart that's listening. Yes, it's praying, but like like we've heard here so many times, we need to be listening because He longs to talk to us. I wonder how many times we're running around and we're hiding and we're doing everything in the world except here's the the creator of the universe longing to be with you, to spend time with you, to wrap His arms of love around you and say I am all you need. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere. What's that song in one of the one of the Kendrick Barlow movies, He never gave up on thee? Oh, He never gave up on thee. I thank God He never gave up on me. Here I am so many years after all that experience, I won't tell you how many, but a lot of them and God has been faithful. I can look back in my life and see how God has provided for our needs so many different ways. We've seen Him work. Most of the time it's not been a matter of feelings because God wants me to learn how to believe what He says and stand on it and reach out to Him and realize that He actually wants to be with me and He wants me to acknowledge Him in all my ways. Trust all the scriptures that you know very well that all have to do with a with an intimate, personal, daily relationship where you're talking to Him and you're listening and you're saying Lord I'm right I'm where I'm at you know everything is wrong with me but I'm

trusting you to work in me. You promised to do it and I thank you for doing it and I'm just gonna rest in that. When I have a burden yes I'll cast it on you and I'll give it to you but I'm gonna I'm gonna take the peace that you give me I'm gonna actually believe that you love me. That's an easy thing to say isn't it? But how many of you actually believe that the Creator of the universe not only knows everything about you including all the stuff that's wrong but He actually loves you and wants to be with you. All He wants is a heart that just lets go and surrenders and trusts in Him. There's nothing more important. He can help us with whatever things we need to know doctrinally I mean those are there's a time and a place for many of those things but I'll tell you the biggest thing you can have all of that if you don't have Jesus you don't have anything. All you got is religion. But the weakest, the one that devil attacks the most with accusations you're the very one that he's reaching maybe reaching out to right now I don't know. Have you ever come to know Him? Jesus prayed, see if I can quote it accurately enough, it's John 17 if you want to look at it near the beginning, this is eternal life, he's praying to his father, this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Not that you'd be a great theologian, this is a, this is a gnawing, a knowing him. Do you know him today? If you know him, do you walk with him? Do you look to him in your daily life? Do you truly commit your way to him or are you trying to plan it all out and take control? I'll tell you there's a God who knows everything about every one of us and he actually, I'm going to say it again, he loves you and wants to be with you. I want to be with him and I want to just let the barriers down, say Lord you know what I am. I don't justify anything, I come and I confess what I need, I need you. When I'm conscious of something, that's the wonderful thing, when he tells me I've done something wrong, it's never with a condemning spirit, it's with a loving heart that he reaches down and he calls me to come and says I've taken care of that at the cross, I just need you to come and believe and and just confess what the truth, believe it and look to me and I can make you so clean you could stand in the halls of heaven with all the holiness that's there and be perfectly at home

with me. That's incredible. I'll tell you we've got a Jesus who has promised never to leave us that means he's always with me. I don't have to feel it, I don't have to see some, you know, have some spine tingling experience or see some miracle or understand all the mysteries. I know what he promised, I know he doesn't lie. That means in my darkest moment, my most painful moment maybe, he's right there and he's holding my hand and he wants me to acknowledge him and be thankful and be restful and trustful. I'll tell you, God wants to do, wants to be more real in a personal sense to every one of us. I'll tell you, we're going to have something to tell people and it won't be, hey we got a cool church. I'll just leave that one alone. It will be, we have an awesome Savior. I want you to know what he's done for me. I want you to know the peace that he's given me in the midst of this crazy world. Look, I know all the terrible stuff that's happening but I have a peace with him because I know he's got control and I know that he's working out a plan that's going to end real well for those who trust him and so I'm just looking to him every day. I know he's promised to supply my needs and I just want you to know what he's done for me and I had a need in my life. The sin had a hold on me in this area and he set me free because I stopped trying and I started trusting in his power. See Paul said, I want to know him and the power of his resurrection and the, you know, the fellowship of his suffering conformable to his death and all of that. Those were the aspects of it but it all comes out of knowing the person. Do you know him? Do you walk with him daily? Do you believe he actually wants to walk with you? This means yes. No, I'll just leave that between you and the Lord but I believe that's God's heart. There's something about him that's still reaching out and saying, so and so, where are you? This is not about religion. This is about knowing me. We're going to spend eternity and I'm going to be pouring my love out on you in ways you can't even imagine. Let's start right where you're at. Whatever need you possess, let's just look to me and trust me and I've provided everything you need to take you all the way home. Just let go and trust me and get to know me in the process. In all the daily things, I want you to be able to tell people what I am doing for you and how real you are to me because that's what's going to change people's hearts and lives. That's what's going to set them free. I mean there's a time to tell them truth and God can unlock truth that we need because we need truth to counter the lies that rule over this world but that's just part

of the process. It all comes from a person and his name is Jesus. Do you know him? Do you walk with him? That's his heart. I just pray that God will make that more real to me, to all of us. So that we'll realize, hey, am I so busy, or am I so distracted, am I just practicing a religion, don't even realize it, or am I really walking with a living Savior who loves me and wants to be with me every second of every single day. Praise God.