Are You Smarter Than a Religionist Part 1
March 29, 2009 AM
Dave Marttunen
Religionists will tell you that God loves us more when we do the right things. They will tell you that you can get closer to God if you do some things and don’t do other things. They claim that God will love you less if you break the rules and God will love you more if you keep the rules. Religionists will even tell you the rules: that you can’t drink alcoholic
drinks - ever, that you can’t work on a Sunday, or eat in a restaurant, and that birthdays, Christmas and Easter are pagan festivals that you must not celebrate. Religion is rule keeping. Religion has not understood grace. Religion is
a graceless effort to keep rules so that God will like us. Jesus changes all of this for us. He tells us plainly that he has ended the need to keep rules to find favor with God. He also tells us that his family, like any family, has house rules. The rules Jesus gives us—Love God fully, and love others like yourselves—is where he starts. But even these rules are not the basis for belonging to his family; they are the guidelines that keep the family living well. Religion steals joy, inspires the fear of what other people think and takes our attention off God, who loves us and died to redeem us.
Audio / Questions
Dave Marttunen
Religionists will tell you that God loves us more when we do the right things. They will tell you that you can get closer to God if you do some things and don’t do other things. They claim that God will love you less if you break the rules and God will love you more if you keep the rules. Religionists will even tell you the rules: that you can’t drink alcoholic
drinks - ever, that you can’t work on a Sunday, or eat in a restaurant, and that birthdays, Christmas and Easter are pagan festivals that you must not celebrate. Religion is rule keeping. Religion has not understood grace. Religion is
a graceless effort to keep rules so that God will like us. Jesus changes all of this for us. He tells us plainly that he has ended the need to keep rules to find favor with God. He also tells us that his family, like any family, has house rules. The rules Jesus gives us—Love God fully, and love others like yourselves—is where he starts. But even these rules are not the basis for belonging to his family; they are the guidelines that keep the family living well. Religion steals joy, inspires the fear of what other people think and takes our attention off God, who loves us and died to redeem us.
Audio / Questions
posted by Pastor David at
8:47 PM
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