260215 Knowledge of God vs Empty Religion

Jesus fulfills the covenant we broke. He bears the judgment we deserve. He restores relationship that we replace with empty religion. The courtroom that we enter and we came into with fear and judgment now becomes the place of grace. See, God is better at forgiving than you are at sinning. God is better at forgiving than you are at sinning. [00:39:25] (38 seconds)  #GraceGreaterThanSin

God is not saying make your rituals better. He desires that hearts be transformed. And here's the astonishing thing that God does. The one who brings the lawsuit is the one who resolves it. The judge steps down, removes his robe. The judge takes the place of the accused, and the verdict over you changes forever. [00:38:07] (38 seconds)  #JudgeBecomesSavior

In Jesus, you're no longer distant or abstract. You want to know what God is like. Look at Christ. Christ who came to eat with sinners, forgiving in our guilt, touching the unclean, and carrying our burdens and our sins to the cross. At Calvary, god's hissag becomes visible. Jesus fulfills the covenant we broke. He bears the judgment we deserve. He restores relationship that we replace with empty religion. [00:39:00] (34 seconds)  #ChristWithSinners

So you see, when God becomes an idea, we become the center. When God is reduced to a symbol, a concept, a religious accessory, something always takes its place, and what usually takes its place is us. Empty religion feels spiritual, but is awfully self centered. It's about what I want, what is comfortable to me, what works for me. It's me over any truth, and I become the beholder of truth. I define what is right and wrong. I make myself God. [00:30:15] (40 seconds)  #EmptyReligionExposed

God's accusations are not ritual failures. It's about relational betrayal. God doesn't first say, you didn't bring me flowers. You failed in keeping your rituals, or you're doing it wrong, and it's offensive. He didn't say, look. You didn't do it right. Are you supposed to bow three times, rub your head and your tummy at the same time? No. He says our relationship has collapsed to nothing. We are two ships passing who don't even recognize each other. It's heartbreak. [00:23:06] (41 seconds)  #HeartNotRituals

This is god's subpoena to Israel. God has issued a subpoena because the covenant love takes betrayal seriously. This is not a bitter, angry, revengeful husband, but a grieving husband. God isn't acting like a a distant judge calling strangers in a courtroom. He is the husband confronting his wayward wife, trying to keep her from the consequences of her action. [00:22:06] (36 seconds)  #GodTheGrievingHusband

What is he saying? A, the sin is never private. Sin is never private. We often treat sin as some personal preference, a right of my freedom, something that affects only me. Like, it's on my land. It's in my house. You don't tell me what to do in my kingdom. This is my world, my choice, and it doesn't affect anybody else. So if I find joy in it, it it it's not wrong. It's not your business. But scripture says otherwise. Our brokenness spills outward into families, into communities, into creation itself. [00:32:28] (42 seconds)  #SinIsNotPrivate

Hosea echoes this reality. One broken marriage echoes into children and grandchildren. Everyone suffers. Creation is groaning in the weight of human rebellion again. Paul says in Romans eight twenty two, creation groans in labor pains. It's groaning. Even creation is groaning. It's dying. It's hurting, and it's longing for Christ to come where there'll be a new world, a new earth in heaven. [00:35:05] (33 seconds)  #CreationGroans

The blessings of God overflows. We see this in scripture all the time. The blessings of God upon his people, and that's what he meant to do when he called Israel for you to be a light on the hill, for the blessings of God, the anointing of God to be upon you and flow to the world that they would all know the goodness of God. So when a church is healthy, all boats rise, all receive the greater blessing. But the opposite is true. When a church is unhealthy and they sink, all boats sink. [00:33:24] (33 seconds)  #BlessingsFlowOutward

Covenant life isn't bargaining with God. It it's living inside the grace that's already been given. We don't come to church. We don't come to the table and say, look, I sinned, so therefore, I I I lost grace. Now I need to get up another grace to fill the cup back up. The cup is already filled with grace. Covenant life means I am in grace. I am in his forgiveness already. He can't love me anymore. He can't love me any less. [00:42:31] (34 seconds)  #GraceAlreadyFilled

Have you ever driven down the road and then you don't and you get to your place, and you don't remember driving? Have you done that? Yeah. We've all done that. I mean, you were present, but you were not aware. And that's how sometimes that's how faith feels. You were present, but you were unaware. And Jesus says this in John seventeen three. This is eternal life, John seventeen three, that they know you. [00:40:19] (37 seconds)  #KnowingGodIsEternalLife

This is what he's praying. Praying. This is eternal life that they know you, god. Eternal life is not someday, some destination. It's knowing god now. That's eternal life. What we know, what we we experience in our hearts so just a little dimly will be fully illuminated in heaven. That's why it's so overwhelming because we get to really know all of God in heaven. [00:41:00] (32 seconds)  #KnowGodNow

Matthew seven, Jesus warns about this. He says that many will claim that prophecy cast out demons before miracles in his name. And he will respond to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you wicked workers of lawlessness. I mean, there's people who are doing miracles that look like only God can do and do it in his name, and yet they don't know him. And god cast them out. Because it's not about the work. It's about the heart. [00:26:42] (40 seconds)  #HeartOverMiracles

And the painful part is, sometimes we do the same thing with God. We give him gestures. We we we are giving ours, but we're not giving ourselves. And sometimes what religion does, it deceives us into thinking we know God because we know the things about him. Israel had the sacrifices. They had the festivals. They had the the the stories. They had his name, their identity, the Israelites given to them by God. [00:19:36] (36 seconds)  #StopGestureFaith

And the frightening thing about empty religion, it's how easy we fall into practicing it without noticing it. It just keeps happening slowly over time. And a habit forms, and we're blind to it, and then we become it. And you know how you know you get there? Because the next generation says, why do we do this? And you can't answer. [00:31:11] (34 seconds)  #InheritedEmptyReligion

He said, you had the form of godliness, but deny its power. You know all the rituals. You know the right things, but you don't understand the power of God that transforms hearts and lives. You're just working on the outer forms, thinking you're doing something for God, and it's not. [00:31:50] (26 seconds)  #FormWithoutPower

See, there's a difference between knowing about her and knowing her. Give them a card, chocolate, flowers, nothing wrong with it, but that could be anybody's gift. She wanted a gift that showed I knew her personally, intimately. Because you can know a lot about a person. You can know their biography, their accomplishments, reputation, and you get that mostly off from social media. You can know a lot about them, but you can and you can admire them from a distance, but yet you can still not know them. Have a relationship. [00:18:57] (39 seconds)  #IntimacyOverGifts

Because we struggle, we know all the right words. And we can know the right words, and we can know the right information. We can quote all the information in the bible, and yet miss his heart. And to be really open, it gets hard because it's easy over time, especially when you're in the ministry. You're doing it all the time, and you studied, and you made your life about it. It's easy for our heart to get calluses on it. [00:25:40] (41 seconds)  #AvoidSpiritualCallus

And this is not just an Israel problem. It's my problem too. Right? The culture is like an undertow. It is constantly pulling at us. And there's pressure in the world, and its laws are always upon us trying to shape us, mold us, and pull us, and separate us from God. I mean, I heard at with the conference this week, one guy said, if you think the 10 commandments are hard, try to live up to the law of social media. [00:28:03] (37 seconds)  #CulturePullsUsAway

See, this is the law at full strength. It shows us that empty religion does not merely fail to save, it actively damages the world that even God loves. And if this was a human relationship, this would be where the story ends. But this is God. And so number four, God's covenant love is not empty. It's not empty. [00:37:19] (26 seconds)  #CovenantLoveIsReal