Diabolical - Agenda # 4 - Death by Lethal Religion, Part 2

Have you ever been turned off by religion, by Christians? Do you realize that Satan's playing field is often the church and religion? That one of the places that he works his diabolical agendas the most is around God's word, God's people, traditions, and religion?

How do you separate Satan's work inside the church and what Jesus is really doing? That's today. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry featuring the daily Bible teaching of Chip Ingram.

I'm Dave Gruhey. In just a minute, Chip will pick up where he left off last time in his series Diabolical by continuing to talk about fake Christianity and dead religion. Sadly, we all know someone who's been hurt by the church or by Christians who really don't act like Christians, and it's frustrating because it distorts the true message of the Gospel. In this program, Chip breaks down five ideas we need to know about dead religion and explains what it really means to follow Jesus. There's a lot of helpful content to get to, so let's get started. If you have a Bible handy, turn now to Acts chapter 9 for part 2 of Chip's message, Death by Lethal Religion.

So here's the question I want to ask and answer. What's the difference between dead religion and a living relationship with God? What's the difference between a dead religion and a living relationship with God? And I want to suggest that Acts chapter 9 will give you a very clear picture of it. When we are seeking to make a point in our Western thought, we tend to outline either things inductively or deductively. Inductively is here's the point, here's the statement, and here's the five points that justify that. Inductively is we give all the pieces and then we come with a big, this is the point because of all the specific pieces.

This is an interesting, in Hebrew they use, it's called a chiastic structure, C-H-I-A-S-T-I-C. And all it means is when they want to outline and make a big point at times, not all the time, very often in the Psalms, often in narrative literature, is what they will do is they will outline it like this. Point one is the very first thing and also the last thing. So it would be like A and A. Then the second point, point B, would be the last thing and the second to the last thing so that that which is in the dead center is the main point. So it's kind of like one and five are going to contrast or compare, two and four contrast and compare. And so it's like if you're bowling, help me with this, if you're bowling, you got to hit the head pin, right?

Well if you were back here and you were setting them up, what you would do when you set up all the pins, you're setting up all the pins, they all veer toward the head pin. And the structure of this passage and the reason I put it like this, this is how the Holy Spirit put it together so we could see the dramatic contrast between religion and living relationship. Let me show it to you.

Look at this. Notice it opens with a Pharisee who is clean. It ends with a tanner who's unclean. The focus is what's Paul doing as the chapter opens? With murderous threats, he wants to kill people. The chapter ends with what? The focus is life. She's resurrected. The subject is a murderer in the opening chapter.

The subject is a doer of good work, someone who loves people. You'll notice that Jesus, what's he do? He rebukes Paul. But by contrast, he resurrects Dorcas. When Paul meets Jesus, he's blind. When Dorcas, did you notice the little phrase? When she's resurrected, it says she opened her eyes.

Those things aren't put there by accident. The author wants to carefully help you see the distinction. The apostle becomes an invalid and remember the story? The invalid becomes someone who walks and serves.

Both of them are told to get up. The apostle Paul says, God speaks to him and says, get up, go where I tell you this is what you must do. The paralytic is, he gets up and instead of going, all the people of Lydda come and they believe and they hear because of the miracle. The apostle Paul is healed to carry his message to the Gentiles.

This paralytic is healed very carefully in the name of Jesus. And so if you take those things, the core teaching and point is verses 20 and 22. If you still have your Bible, open it up.

I want you to see this. Verses 20 and 22, it is the dividing mark. It is the core. It is the main point between dead religion and a living relationship with the living God. Verse 20, at once he began to preach.

Notice in the synagogue, that's where the religion is. What's he preaching? Jesus is the son of God. That's deity. Jesus is God. Truth, person, not rules, not patterns, not ceremony.

All those who heard him were astonished and asked, isn't this the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among all those who call upon his name? Second point, when you meet the living God, your life changes. It's dramatic. It's different. There's a before and an after. I mean there's something that happens. Relationship with Christ brings life. Dead religion brings death.

Notice it goes on. And has he come here to make prisoners? And then here he is instead of prisoners, what?

He's setting people free. Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah. Here's what I want you to see.

Here's what happened. Two things. Number one, he had a 180 degree conversion.

The apostle Paul was sincere, devoted, smart, educated, a Roman citizen, wealthy. He had it going and I mean he's going like this and BAM! He meets the living God and now he's going exactly 180 degrees a different direction. It's called conversion. Webster's defines conversion as to turn from one belief or party to another. Those thesaurus synonyms are change, transformation, resolution, metamorphosis, reformation.

It's the making over of something from something into something new and different. The apostle Paul was transformed into something completely new. Everything changed. When he met the living God, his relationship with God changed, with the Jews changed, with Christians changed, with people changed, with himself. His perspective changed. He went from being a persecutor to a preacher. His values changed. He was a religious guy.

You heard Matthew 23. He was focused on fame, success, prestige, status and control. And now you can read 13 books that were penned by the apostle Paul and he was consumed with people, relationships, the hurting, the oppressed and serving. His goals changed. First half of this chapter, there was a man who wanted to rise to the top. Second half, there's someone who's concerned about reaching the lost.

In the first half, it's impressing his contemporaries. Now he's someone you'll hear over and over that he wants to please God from the heart and he went from persecuting Christians to proclaiming forgiveness to all the known world. You see, conversion is that point in a person's life when they fully realize that their way is not the right way. They may be devoted. They may be sincere.

They may be quote morally good. They may be religious but they realize that Jesus Christ and he alone is the answer to the most penetrating issues and problems of life. Why am I here? Is there life after death? Who is God?

What do I do to have a relationship with him? Christ is the son of God. He came and died for all. He rose from the dead to prove that it's true and he offers eternal life to whosoever would put their trust in him. And then you'll notice that after this 180 degree conversion, what do you have?

You've got 100% call and mission. You know, like he didn't say, oh, I'm so glad I met Jesus. But boy, I sure don't want anyone to know about it.

After a few days, he's in the synagogues. He goes, people, I was wrong. People, you've got to hear about this. People, you know, look at this and this and this and this and this. I mean, he was an amazing intellect.

Here's the question I have for you. Have you unconsciously, subtly been introduced to a religious system but maybe never had a Damascus experience? It's possible to intellectually believe in the Bible. It's possible to intellectually believe Jesus is God. It's possible to feel like you ought to and good moral people go to church at least once or twice a month. It's possible to actually think, you know, it's probably pretty important to give some money to help some other people and try and be a good person and follow the golden rule.

And you may even feel a little guilty when you do this or do that. Religion is one of the most diabolical ways to keep you from a living relationship with God. Conversion always leads to a calling. If there's a passion in your heart to follow, if there's a concern for others you didn't have, if there's an appetite for God's word because it's not about reading a chapter a day or coming to a service or how do I not feel guilty or will God be mad at me.

It's about I am deeply unconditionally loved and I want to get to know him. The apostle Paul would say he wants to know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering. He was passionate to know God, not perform, not become a quote religious person. To summarize, I put the product or results of religion at the top. I made a little cloud floating above religion. Religion results in control, fear and death.

That's what it does. Religious people are, man they're control freaks and they fear everything and they hate change. And it brings death, separation from God, separation from themselves. By contrast, living relationship results in power and love and life.

And here's all I want to say. Just ask yourself, are you experiencing the power of God? Is there a love of God in your heart?

Is there a living relationship or is it a lot of obligation, a lot of duty, a lot of aughts, a lot of shoulds. My parents went to church, now I go to church. I should be a good moral person. When you know the living God and the living God lives inside of you by the Holy Spirit as you've trusted Christ as your savior, there's a 180 that happens.

More or less dramatic depending on your background. But all I just want to do is shake all of us to say, wait a second. Even those of us that know Christ personally, religion creeps in. We make our own.

We have all of our own little groups. We make our own little religion. And the enemy gets inside our religious thinking and it's not whether what's true is not.

It's our way and how we see the truth and everyone ought to see it like us. Here's some, sort of some takeaways that I think are critical and important. What must we learn about religion? Number one, religion focuses on acceptance from the outside in and yet life occurs from the inside out.

I just always want to remember that. You might jot in there Philippians chapter three. The first half of Philippians chapter three, the apostle Paul talks about his outside in experience of being religious.

A Pharisee, tribe of Benjamin, according to the law faultless, self-righteous. And then in the second half he talks about the inside out. And he said, I consider all those things that literally the word is dung or rubbish. I consider all of that as rubbish compared to knowing him. And then he has this plea, I want to know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering.

There's this passion, it's personal, it's living, it's alive, it's a love relationship. Religion is always all these external things, patterns and rules and if you don't do it then you're guilty. And what about this and God loves you when you do these things.

He doesn't love you when you don't do these things. And it's evil. In the church it becomes legalism.

People with those heavy weights. It leads to this religion is rooted in performance, life is rooted in grace. See when you're a religious person the questions, it's not like you say them out loud, but they're built into your psyche. What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do?

How much am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to pray five times a day? Do I have to go on a pilgrimage? Or in our circles, do I have to read the Bible every day?

And how much of the Bible do I have to read? Am I supposed to give my money? If I'm supposed to give my money do I have to give 10%?

Is that 10% off the groceries or off the net? Do I have to read for 15 minutes or 25 minutes? Is like a mission trip like every three years, is that okay?

How much do I have to do, do, do? That's religion. If you're asking those questions you're missing the point. God doesn't need your time, God doesn't need your money, He doesn't need your short term trip.

See that's performance. The question that those in relationship ask is who am I becoming? Over performance in my notes I wrote Matthew 23 and put a circle around it.

Over where it says grace I put Romans 12 and I put a circle around it. Because see the test, the litmus test is not how much do I do, do I love people more? The issue isn't do I give off this or give off that, am I more generous? Do I care about people? Do I love God?

Am I open to Him? It's your money, what do you want to do with it? It's your time. I'll go every week, every month, once a year, never go. I just want to do what you want me to do, I love you, you love me, I don't have to perform. I'm saved by grace, I'm sustained by grace, I'm the object, I'm His son. God wants to put His arm around me, you're His daughter.

It's completely different. Religion chains people, binds people, makes them prisoners. Grace frees you. Third observation is that sincerity and devotion are no substitute for truth. Paul was sincere and devoted. Suicide bombers, sincere and devoted. Some of these wacko religious, quote, Christian sects, sincere and devoted, right?

How about, let's get it from out there to here. Some of us in this room, sincere and devoted. And we've added things and feel pressure and make up extra rules and take our rules and put them on other people.

And here's the thing is, is it true or not? Or has it just been handed down as one more layer of stuff, one more layer of obligation? Is your relationship with God a lot more like duty, obligation, ought to, got to, never measure up?

Or is it more like joy, passion, adventure? One is a relationship. The other is religion. Fourth, religion is easy to spot in others and nearly invisible to ourselves.

This is so painful. Because this isn't like, do you have a relationship or are you religious? That's certainly true. I will tell you that all of us that have a personal, vital, living, growing relationship with Jesus have parts of religious thinking in our brains. And the enemy wants to cause it to grow and to grow and to grow and give you false guilt, give you struggles with things. But where it's happening in your life or mine, it's almost invisible. I mean, I can look at other people and go, wow, boy, man, that's easy to see. It's just hard when I look in the mirror.

No, I think this is working pretty good. I think everyone should do it this way, exactly this way, think about this that way. See, religion produces very narrow, controlling people who demand others think and act exactly the way they do. Religious people turn people off. People in love with Jesus draw people like a magnet. I've been in missionaries' homes who are sincere all around the world and it's out of, see, they have such fear.

I've watched them, okay, everybody sit down right now, okay, I mean, this is a true story. Okay, we're going to, the Bible's really important and I've watched, you know, three teenagers roll in their eyes going, you know what, their body language is telling me as soon as I get out of this house, I'm leaving. Mom, dad, God, Bible, they're wacko. And out of all their fear, rules, rules, rules, they don't trust their kids. And instead of an adventure, instead of what does God want to say, how do we discover how much He loves us and what do you think about that, it's this top-down, harsh, legalistic, and they run.

Let me give you some symptoms of, since it's invisible, here's some symptoms and I'd like to say I did extensive research to figure out these symptoms but actually I looked in the mirror for about 33 seconds and these are symptoms. Religious people are controlling, religious people are resistant to change, religious people are critical of others, find yourself having little conversations in the car, even in your mind, you know, someone says doing that, you're just critical. Religious people have feelings of superiority, you're better than, smarter than, more holy than. Religious people, by and large, can be very unloving. What's right in their view, not necessarily scripture, but what's right in their view is more important than the person. Religious people are fearful of the future. Religious people are anxious and religious people are involved in political relational agendas in churches. Because see, when they start feeling they're going to lose control, like Paul, man, you got to clamp down on some people and you got to find some people that are on your side that will look like you and you have these little conversations about what they are doing, whoever they are.

I know way too much about this. I came up around a group and it wasn't their fault, it was me, but it took sort of the dynamite and night to glisten of my warped personality, deep insecurities and arrogance and so I was around a group that when I started to grow, I memorized a verse every day for about three years. I had a prayer list that got very long, I never went to bed, I never missed, I prayed all the time. I was the biggest religious jerk you've ever seen on the face of the earth and after about four years of that, I remember a conversation with a gal that I dated earlier in college and out of the blue, she said to me, you know, when I first met you and you were a new Christian, I was really open, it seemed like there was such joy in life.

I was really open to maybe exploring what it was all about. But if being a Christian and being committed is like you, the last thing I'd ever want to do in my life is be a Christian. I actually had to stop memorizing scripture, realize that God loved me when I didn't pray or get all through my list and I remember even as I was in seminary, I remember my wife and I deciding, you know what, if I didn't give more percentage every year, higher percentage, man, I got three kids, I'm in seminary with no money, giving more and more and more money away.

And behind it was this religious, I'm going to prove myself to God. And I had to learn about grace. I spent months in Galatians just saying, God, would you help me to grasp, you love me plus nothing, you love me when I blow it, you love me when I'm obedient. Now grace is what teaches us to grow. So it's not that we just say forget everything, but it's relationship. Notice the final point that's been very helpful is it is God's mercy that rocks our world to reveal our religion and birth the fresh new life. I want you to think mercy, God is so merciful.

Because see religion will eventually cause you to do one of two things, either hit the wall or become a hypocrite. I mean once you have rules, you make up the rules. Make them up today, then try and keep them perfectly.

No one can keep any rules. And so what happens is if you try and try and try and try like I did, I just burn out, I got so depressed. I got so depressed, it's like man, this whole other job of being a Christian, I was just ready to can the whole thing. Or what you do is you realize you can't keep them, but you want people to think you can, so you become a hypocrite, so you act like you're keeping them, but you really don't. And God in his mercy, you know what he does?

He'll break you. God in his mercy will allow a tragedy. God in his mercy will allow a car wreck, a divorce, a bankruptcy, a mate to walk out on you, a kid that says, you know, forget you mom and dad. And all of a sudden, all your rules and all your religion when you're hurting mean nothing and you find yourself, oh God, please help me, God, please, please, I don't know what to do, I don't have a job, I lost my home. I'll tell you what, religion doesn't do anything when you're in desperate need, right? And when you cry out in the midst of pain, you'll always answer. Because what you're looking for is someone to love you, forgive you, sustain you, and help you. And Jesus said, I'm near to the broken hearted, and I save those who are crushed in spirit.

And I'm for you. And I did not come to create a religion for new hoops for you to jump through. I came that you might have life, and you might have it abundantly. Have you been converted? Have you done a 180? Have you embraced Jesus, not religion? And if so, do you have a calling? Do you realize that you, in your hands and hearts and lives, are recipients to take the message of life? And you're a steward of the manifold mysteries of God.

He loves people. As we close today's message, I'm reminded of the opportunity I had last week to be in another state. And I did what was called a prayer breakfast, had about a thousand people from a very affluent community. And, you know, it's dignitaries and the mayor and city officials and the men in blue.

You know, it was a pretty in place to be. And they had a couple patriotic songs and a video of different presidents' quotes about their relationship with God. And then they kind of gave me 40 minutes to say whatever I wanted to say.

And I spoke on the difference between being religious and having a relationship with Christ. And I noticed that while I was talking, the local reporter was there, and I think she had been through chemotherapy because she had one of those do-rags on her head and a big camera. And she's taking a lot of pictures.

And I went through the process very much of what I explained here, but in just a little bit different format. And she walked up to me and she said something that I don't know anyone's ever asked me as clearly. And she said, I heard what you said today. And then she had this pencil out, like she's taking notes for the paper. And she goes, I'm going to write this down. I want to make sure I get it clear. But she said, if there's a difference between being religious and actually knowing Jesus personally, then how do you get that and how do you know if you have it? Do you hear what she said?

How do you get that and how do you know if you have it? And I explained to her, it's kind of like the difference between someone famous and whether that's a movie star or whether that's the president or someone that you can read about in People magazine. And you can know all about them.

You can know what they wear and where they live and what kind of food they like. And you can know about them, but you've never been in the same room, you've never shaken their hand, you've never looked them in the eye, and you've never shared hearts. In other words, you know about them, but you don't have a relationship with them. I said that's the difference between religion and a relationship with Jesus.

And what I would ask you right now, because I have met in these last ten days of travel so many people that have heard and believe and are moral and are kind and follow, quote, the rules of the Bible in essence, and they know all about God. But I was very aware that many of them did not have a relationship with God. They'd never shaken his hand. They've never received him into their heart. They didn't experience his love.

They were in their energy being religious, trying to be good people the way they were taught. My question is, could that be you? Do you know about God, or are you absolutely sure you know him personally? If you want to know him personally, he says this, Call to me, and I will answer you and tell you great and mighty things, and everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. In your heart of hearts, as from the sincerity of what you long for, ask God to reveal himself to you. Tell him you want him to forgive you. Tell him you want him to come into your life, and that you believe on what Jesus did on the cross, that he died for your sins and rose from the grave. Cry out to God today. He wants to have a relationship with you, not you just know about him. We just want to help you get started and say welcome to the family.

Now, here's Chip. I'm sure most of you realize that we are living in a unique moment in human history. I mean, I hope you can sort of get the lens pulled back just a bit beyond the virus, the vaccines, the economy, the politics, the division, the challenges for church, the world, and pause and realize you are living in a time of world history, that this will be one of those where we look back like the Reformation.

Every four to five hundred years, I mean, the world completely changes. And what I can tell you is every time that happens, there's a movement of God, because people are open, things are changing. There's a movement of God, and there's an opportunity. We've seen this happen at Living on the Edge. I've talked with pastors and Christian organizations.

They tell me the same thing. God is moving. Now is the time to act. You know, it happened in Jesus' day, and it was at a city that the disciples thought, there's no one there that could ever care about God. And a woman came out to get some water, and Jesus led her to the Lord, and then she brought the whole city out.

And the disciples come, and they watch this phenomena, this city, I mean, people coming out and wanting to know about Jesus. And He turned to the disciples, and He says to them, You say there's four months, and yet comes the harvest. In other words, hey, yeah, it's down the road, but I say to you, the harvest is white.

Or literally, the harvest is ripe. The time is now. God is moving. God is working.

I don't know what's gone on in your life, but I can tell you this, the time to act is now. And so I'm asking you, will you pray like never before, for your church, of course, for your family, of course, but also for Living on the Edge? And second, now's the time to give, to step out and say, Lord, I'm going to trust You.

We are taking steps like never before in resources, technology, and broadcast, but we can't do it alone. Would you stand with us? Would you take all those thoughts, all those intentions of, Hey, this sounds pretty good.

I think I'll do that later. Would you say, Today, I'm going to act on my good intention? And I'm going to tell you, God's going to bless that, because God's at work. If you believe God is calling you to join that future with us, we'd be honored to have you on our team. And while we're in our mid-year match, every gift we receive will be doubled thanks to some very generous friends of the ministry. So now is a great time to become a financial partner. To send a gift or to become a monthly partner, just give us a call at 888-333-6003. Or if you prefer to donate online, go to livingontheedge.org. App listeners, just tap Donate. For all of us here, thank you in advance for your support. You know, an easy way to share Chip's messages is with the Chip Ingram app. With just a couple of taps, any message you choose is on its way to your friend, someone in your family, or on social media to help others who could benefit from the truth of Scripture and its encouragement. And don't forget to include a quick note about how it made a difference in your life. We'll be with us again next time when Chip continues his series, Diabolical. Until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.