Don’t become Religious (1)

   by Darryl Manning              6/24/01

The greatest temptation to a Christian is not the sins of the flesh. It is the temptation to become religious. Christianity is a love relationship with Jesus as the Son of God and Lord of life. Religion is a set of doctrines and forms of worship that are supposed to make one acceptable to God. When Christianity is forced into the form of a religion it ceases to be Christianity.

The Bible is full of stories of how people of God became religious and suffered for it. Cane developed his own sacrifice. The Israelites took the fiery serpent that brought healing from vicious snakebites and made an idol out of it. Gideon took some of the gold and jewels from those he conquered and made an ephod which the Israelites then worshipped.

What happened in all these stories is the same tragedy that happens to most churches and to new moves of God. People take the glorious items that God has used to bring about great victory and blessing and made them into idols. The greatest hindrance to new moves of God and a church that is on fire for God are those who experienced the last revival and became religious.

It was the followers of Luther who fought the work of John Wesley. It was the followers of John Wesley who fought the Pentecostal movement. It was the Pentecostal who fought the Charismatics. The freshness of each new work of the Holy Spirit soon became changed into the forms of religion and dead churches and dead Christians were the result.

St. Paul warned of becoming religious in 2 Tim. 3:5. He saw a time when the church would have a “form of godliness” but would “deny its power.”  We, at the House of Joy, have experienced a fresh move of God the past couple of years and now must be wary of turning this move into a religious form.

 

There is one clear sign that indicates a church has become religious. There is no power. No power for healing or miracles. No power that draws the unsaved to Christ. No power for living lives of godliness. There is no power because God is not present in these churches any longer.

In the Old Testament we read of a time when the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was covered by the mercy seat that was the place where God dwelt on the earth. After having the idols to their Gods broken in the presence of the Ark, the Philistines sent the Ark back to Israel. It was housed at a man named Obed Edom’s house for many years instead of being taken to Shilo and placed back in the tabernacle where it belonged.

The priests continued the worship at Shilo for many years without God even being there. In fact, when David became king he brought the Ark to Jerusalem and build a tabernacle there for it. All this time the priests were still at Shilo going through the forms and rituals of their religion still without God’s presence.

A church today can get so steeped in the forms and rituals of a past revival, they do not even miss God when He moves on to new things. You see, we must realize that the forms and rituals are not necessary to have real church. We must not make “gods” out of these things though some of them brought great blessing in the past. We must focus on an intimate up-to-date relationship with our God.

When God is present in the house of worship, the Word of God is present in power to save the lost, heal the sick, and minister comfort, joy, and peace. Communication also takes place between many of the congregation and the Lord himself.

In fact, real worship is communication and communion with God. God speaks to our hearts words that bring healing, deliverance, joy, etc. We respond by speaking words of our love and adoration for our wonderful Lord.

If we have allowed ourselves to become religious and are not having communication and communion with God any longer we need to take some active steps to change things.

First, we need to be aware of any “form of Godliness” that tries to attach itself to our lives. I heard of a man who would pray over some meals but not pray over every meal. He wanted to make sure his prayer did not become just a meaningless religious form.

Second, we need to go back and do the things God has spoken to us in the past. As I was preparing this message, God reminded me that He instructed me a few months ago to have our elders pray over every person in our congregation on a daily basis. I had neglected to obey this Word.

When we neglect the “words” that are spoken to us by God we cannot expect God to speak new words to us. As I was preparing this message I thought how desperately we need God’s direction in our church. But we cannot expect new direction if we have not done what God has told us in the past.

The third step is to seek a fresh relationship with God. Have a strong desire for God to speak to you every day but especially in the worship services. If He doesn’t speak, you will not really worship. 

Let me pray for us today.

Father, I ask that you will help us to be on guard for the insidious temptation to turn our relationship with you into mere forms of religion. Help us never to be satisfied with forms but become more and more hungry for communication and communion with you. Help us never to get so attached to any form of worship that we are unwilling to let it die if need be. Let us not be guilty of fighting new works of God that do not fit the forms that our relationship with You have taken. Let us be open to Your leadership in yielding ourselves to new forms of worship that bring us closer to You.

 AMEN