TLA Sunday Service | 02/15/26 | When Religion Makes You Sick

Koheleth in Ecclesiastes exposes the emptiness of every human formula for the good life—pleasure, achievement, wisdom, control—and insists that even religious practice can become vain. Modern culture’s version of chasing identity through possessions and success mirrors that ancient diagnosis: the trappings of devotion can numb the heart rather than heal it. Medical iatrogenesis becomes an apt image: treatments that intend cure can cause deeper harm. Religion sometimes functions as a mask that hides pride, insecurity, and self-centered agendas.

Three symptoms mark a sick religion. First, selfish faith makes the self the center of gravity; worship and service become self-improvement projects or platforms for moral superiority rather than humble listening to God. Second, transactional faith treats vows and worship like bargaining chips, assuming God can be manipulated by works or promises; that posture slanders God’s character and misunderstands grace. Third, hollow ritual produces much busyness and many words but no weight; such activity resembles dream-smoke—momentarily vivid yet ultimately empty. The corrective for hollow religion lies in the fear of God: an encounter with God’s weight, glory, and holiness that displaces self-importance and restores awe.

Luke 7’s contrast between Simon the Pharisee and the woman who anoints Jesus illustrates the cure. Simon’s ceremonial hospitality masks contempt and moral calculation; the woman’s broken dependence models the posture of the beggar who receives forgiveness and therefore loves much. Christianity’s distinctive core remains the initiating, undeserved love of Jesus. That love frees people from carrying religious resumes and compels surrender—putting down the burdens and reaching up empty-handed to receive grace. Building an altar, here, means cultivating a posture rather than constructing furniture: a community practice of coming to Christ with open hands, childlike dependence, and a single aim to be formed by his love rather than to leverage him for advantage.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Self-centered faith masks pride Religious activity often becomes an exercise in self-display and self-improvement; attendance, service, and private disciplines can feed ego rather than expose need. True devotion reorders affections so God, not the self, shapes purpose and action. Sincere worship requires humility that listens more than it performs. [42:39]
• 2. Religion as bargaining with God Vows and bargains reduce God to a deity who can be bought by deeds, turning worship into a ledger of debts and credits. Such a transactional posture assaults God’s generosity and misunderstands grace, producing guilt, entitlement, or manipulation. Authentic faith accepts unearned mercy and refuses to negotiate divine favor. [49:45]
• 3. Ritual can become empty vapor Busyness, many words, and elaborate practices can feel spiritual yet lack spiritual weight—vapor that slips through the fingers. The danger lies in equating motion with transformation; activity without awe produces exhaustion not life. The remedy calls for encounters with God’s glory that lend substance to practice. [62:12]
• 4. Receive grace; become childlike The kingdom requires dropping credentials and returning to dependency: the childlike posture that receives rather than proves. Surrendering religious resumes frees hands to embrace the Giver and respond in love, not calculation. A life shaped by initiating, undeserved love flows outward in mercy, not moral pretense. [61:18]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [34:17] - Koheleth and Ecclesiastes
• [35:16] - Modern parallel: Fight Club
• [37:27] - Religion can be vanity too
• [39:05] - Iatrogenesis: cures that harm
• [42:39] - Symptom 1: Selfish faith
• [49:45] - Symptom 2: Transactional vows
• [62:12] - Symptom 3: Hollow ritual
• [66:46] - Simon and the anointing woman
• [74:38] - Building an altar: surrender and receive

Bible reading
Ecclesiastes 5:1–7 (ESV)
[1] Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. [2] Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. [3] For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words. [4] When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. [5] It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. [6] Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? [7] For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.

Luke 7:36–50 (ESV)
[36] One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. [37] And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, [38] and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. [39] Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” [40] And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.” [41] “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. [42] When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” [43] Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” [44] Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. [45] You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. [46] You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. [47] Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” [48] And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” [49] Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” [50] And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

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Observation questions

1. What does Ecclesiastes 5:1 say is better than offering the “sacrifice of fools”?
2. According to Ecclesiastes 5:4–5, what is the danger of making a vow to God and not keeping it?
3. In Luke 7:38, what specific actions did the woman perform at Jesus’ feet?
4. How did Simon the Pharisee respond internally when he saw the woman touching Jesus? [41:15]

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Interpretation questions

1. Why does the writer of Ecclesiastes compare empty religion to “a dream” and “many words” (Ecclesiastes 5:3,7)?
2. What does Jesus’ parable of the two debtors (Luke 7:41–43) reveal about the relationship between forgiveness and love?
3. How does Simon’s lack of hospitality toward Jesus reflect the condition of his heart? [01:06:13]
4. In what ways can religious activity become a “self-improvement project” rather than genuine worship? [47:03]

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Application questions

1. When you come to church or spend time in prayer, do you tend to talk more than you listen? What would it look like to “draw near to listen” this week?
2. In what subtle ways have you tried to negotiate with God or bargain for His favor (e.g., “God, if you ___, I will ___”)? [52:43] How can you shift from a transactional mindset to one of receiving grace?
3. Have you ever used spiritual disciplines—like reading the Bible, serving, or attending church—to prove something about yourself rather than to draw near to God? [01:03:16] What is one step you can take to recenter those practices on God’s glory rather than your own performance?
4. Like the woman in Luke 7, we are called to come to Jesus with empty hands and humble dependence. What “religious baggage” or sense of moral accomplishment do you need to lay down at His feet today? [01:14:04]
5. How can you cultivate a posture of “holy fear”—a sense of God’s weight and glory—in your everyday life? What practices or reminders help you remember His greatness?
6. Simon struggled with hidden pride and judgmentalism even while being outwardly religious. Where might similar attitudes be hiding in your own heart? [01:09:18]
7. What would it look like for you to respond to Jesus’ initiating love not with negotiation or performance, but with simple, heartfelt devotion like the woman who anointed His feet? [01:14:57]