Confronting Religion Pt 1

that they really kind of needed to learn, a lesson that maybe they could begin to grasp now because they couldn't quite grasp the symbolism of what took place. And again, may I say, oftentimes in my own life, I would be interested to know how many times God has given me a practical teaching moment and I'm like, oh, I learned so much there when really I missed the bigger thing. And yet God in his patience was like, okay, you may have missed the main thing I was doing, but let's use this as a teachable moment anyway. Sidebar, let me teach you something really, really important that's going to carry you a long ways. And that's what he does with his disciples.

And so Jesus answered them. He says, how did the fig tree wither all at once? I love the thought of what the disciples' faces look like at this point in time. How'd you do that? How did, I mean, just all at one time. I've never even heard a time lapse and that's what it looked like. So Jesus answers them. He says, truly, I say to you, if you have faith, you will be able to do it. If you have faith, you will be able to do it.

If you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, it will happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing you will receive. Talk about a piece of scripture that's been twisted in ways it should have never been twisted before. And yet it happens all the time.

So let's, let's first of all, take the strength of what Jesus says here, because it can be my tendency to, to water down a little bit what Jesus says, because I know how people have twisted this scripture. And then let's put a tempering agent on it that will show us what Jesus really means by this so that we don't take it farther than it needs to go. Jesus says to them, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will be able to do what I've done to the fig tree. That's an incredible statement that Jesus makes there. He says,

if you have faith and do not doubt. Now, I don't need you to raise your hand, but who here struggles with doubt? I do, right? I struggle with having doubt. So I can take that phrase and go, but he says, if you have faith and don't doubt, then you can do this and even greater things than that. Let me ask you a question. In the midst of your doubt, are you still willing to take it to Jesus in prayer? You see,

I'm reminded of a story of Jesus healing someone. Matter of fact, we, I believe discussed it earlier in Matthew every now and then I get my gospel accounts confused. We discussed it earlier in Matthew, the, uh, the man whose child was demon possessed. And Jesus said, anything is possible to him who believes. Do you remember how the guy responded to him? He responded to him in this

beautiful way. He said, Lord, I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. I believe you. But help my unbelief. In other words, Lord, I believe there's a little doubt going on in there. And do you know

what Jesus did? He healed him. He healed that young man, cast out the demon and he was made whole again. You know why? Because he had faith. And even though he still struggled with unbelief, he didn't allow that unbelief to hinder him from continuing to pursue faith in Jesus. That's what it means by have faith and do not doubt. It doesn't mean that you don't sometimes struggle in the back of your head with,

I think, right? Lord, I know you can do this. I think, but you're my only hope. So I'm going to bring it to you. Lord, you do big things. I love the story of when Peter was put into prison there early on in the book of Acts. Remember that story? Peter was put into prison. James, the apostle had been killed. Herod saw that it pleased a lot of the Jewish people. And so he put

Peter in prison. And so all of the disciples gathered together at a home and they began praying that Peter would be set free. And they're praying, Lord Jesus, just set Peter free. We believe you can do it. Lord, we know that you're able to set him free from prison. Lord, protect him while he's in prison. Maybe even set him free from prison. Well, in the middle of the night, remember what happens? An

angel of the Lord comes, sort of wakes Peter up, gets him out of prison, walks him out the prison door, brings him to the house and he's knocking on the gate. Little servant girl goes to the gate and he's like, hey, it's me. I'm going to set Peter free. And so all of the disciples gathered together Peter, can you let me in? And she of course doesn't let him in because that's the logical

thing to do. She goes to the people that are in there praying and she's like, hey, Peter's at the gate. What do I do? And do you remember how they responded? They were like, that's just Peter's ghost. Peter's in prison. That's right. The great faith of the early church whom Jesus told to have faith and do not doubt. Even when Peter's standing outside at the

gate, knocking on the door, they still don't believe that God could have set him free from prison. Brothers and sisters, don't put yourself under the guilt trip of, I don't have enough faith. Having enough faith and not doubting means I am willing to continue to go to Jesus, even when it doesn't make sense. He says, if you have faith and do not doubt, you can do this very thing that I've done right now. Not only that, but you will be able to say

to this mountain, probably looking at the Mount of Olives, be taken up and cast into the sea. And it will happen. I don't know if you have all ever imagined what that might've looked like, but I have. And that's a really crazy thought, isn't it? A mountain just cast into the sea. You know, his disciples had to have been like, what? Now, to my knowledge, this has never actually happened. Does that mean it can't happen?

I mean, if God wants to do it, he can do anything he wants to, right? But a wise man once said, while we can believe that God can move, mountains, sometimes the greatest mountain that he moves is in you. And while I've never actually physically seen a mountain thrown into the sea, I think I've actually seen something greater than that in seeing some of the people come to salvation that have come to salvation, because he moved a massive mountain inside of them. I've seen what he's done in my own heart, and I've watched him move a massive mountain inside of me. I've seen him heal relationships.

I've seen him move a massive mountain inside of the hearts of two people that were very bitter against each other. I have seen God do those things. He says, if you have faith, then you can do any of those things. You can do amazing things in the name of Jesus. As a matter of fact, if that's not enough, he goes on to verse 22 to say, and all things that you ask in prayer,

believing you will receive. And you know what, brothers and sisters in Christ, I think sometimes we as believers, we as believers, we as believers, we as believers, we as believers, we as believers, especially in a conservative church could stand to get just a little bit crazy in the way that we believe that God can do things in prayer, to get just a little bit excited about what God can do in prayer. And instead of just immediately tempering it with, Lord, if it's your will, get real with how you pray about things and believe that God wants to do the craziest thing that you can imagine. Believe that God can do the most amazing thing that you can imagine.

I read a book, it's called Fresh Wind and Fresh Fire by Jim Zimbawa. I don't know if you've ever read that book, it's a great book. But in that book, he talks about the fact that his daughter walked away from the Lord and like, didn't just kind of walk away from the Lord, massively walked away from the Lord. They didn't know where she was, if she was alive, any of those kinds of things. And basically she was like, I'm not coming back. And he said,

I feel like Satan told me, I can't have you, but I am going to take your family one by one. And he said, I prayed and I prayed. And I prayed and I didn't even know what else to do. He said, we were in a prayer meeting one night in our church. And that prayer meeting one night, somebody came to me and they said, I don't know why, but we're supposed to focus this prayer meeting on your daughter.

And he said, I don't know what your theology is or how you handle prayer. And quite frankly, I don't care what your theology is because all I know is what I saw. And what I saw is brothers and sisters in Christ storming the gates of heaven to bring back a girl who was so lost that I didn't think there was any hope any longer. And he said, I came home that night and I told my wife, I said, it's done. If that doesn't do it, I don't know what will. And later that night,

his daughter came home. Sometimes we just need to get real serious about the way we do things. About the way that we pray. Sometimes we need to get a little bit bold and start saying, Lord, this is what your word says. Your word says that if I will ask, believing that you will do it. And sometimes as conservative Christians, we get a little too conservative about the way that we

pray. And maybe it's time that we start getting a little bit excited about praying about God moving in the lives of our families, moving in the lives of our city, moving in the lives of our nation and moving in the lives of our leaders. Maybe it's time we get a little bit more geeked up about it than we are sitting back saying, but Lord, I know that that's probably not your will, but maybe it is. Because that's a powerful statement Jesus just made to us.

And I think that sometimes we just need to take it for face value. Now, as I said, this unfortunately has been twisted. And the way that it's been twisted is that it has been twisted into a way to please our flesh. Where you can now begin to tell God what he's going to do. Lord, I believe that you're going to give me that house. And so I'm going to claim that house. Because your word says that if I will

pray believing, I will receive. And in so doing, we completely miss the entire point of prayer. You see, the entire point of prayer is not to align God's will with mine, but to align my will with God's. Which is why there comes a point in time when I have to say, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. Because if I'm being completely honest, there's been a few times I've gotten downright Pentecostal in the way that I've prayed for some

things. In particular, some healing in some people's lives. And you know what God has said? No. I'm going to heal them in a different way. I'm going to heal them in a different way. I'm going to heal them by bringing them home. And you know what? There's been times where God has said no. And I don't know where they ended up. Because ultimately, my job is to get my heart in line

with the will of God. Sometimes that means I need to get very bold in prayer like I just said. Sometimes that means when God says no, I take no for an answer. Just like with your kids, when sometimes you have to say no, they just have to take no for an answer. Because who Jesus is speaking to right now is disciples. Notice he's not talking to the crowds right now. He's talking to disciples. And as Chuck Smith always points out,

how do you define a disciple? A disciple is one who has denied himself, taken up his cross to follow Jesus. Well, he goes on from there. As they leave the fig tree and head into Jerusalem, we're now going to look at authority. And so as he comes into Jerusalem, it says, when he entered the temple, verse 23, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him

while he was teaching and said, didn't say that, by what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? And Jesus said to them, I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell me, I will also tell you, but by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John from what source was what was from what source from heaven or from men.

And they began reasoning among themselves saying, if we say from heaven, he will say to us, then why did you not believe him? But if we say from men, we fear the people for they all regard John as a prophet. And if we say from heaven, he will say to us, then why did you not believe him? In answering Jesus, they said, we do not know. And he said to them, neither will I tell you by

what authority I do these things. Jesus was the master of this, wasn't he? Gosh, I just, I've got to learn that anytime somebody asks me a question, I should immediately respond by asking them a question that if they refuse to answer, I'll refuse to answer theirs. It worked for Jesus every single time. Here's Jerusalem. And as he does, he goes into the temple. I love this about Jesus

because Jesus at his heart was a teacher. All he wanted people to do was to know the truth. And he spent his life everywhere. He went teaching people and that's exactly what he's doing. So paint the picture in your mind of what's going on. So he goes into the temple, undoubtedly, probably that outer Gentile court that he had cleansed the day before. And he's standing in

the midst of this temple. Undoubtedly, some people gathered around because he was probably talking to his disciples and his people. And he goes into the temple and he goes into the temple. He's just simply teaching them. We're not told what he taught them, just that he taught them probably similar sermons to the Sermon on the Mount or some of those kinds of things, perhaps

even talking about the suffering servant. Who knows? Maybe he was even teaching on Isaiah chapter 53. Whatever it was, he's teaching the people. And as he's in this open air marketplace, if you will, teaching the people, the chief priests and the scribes see him and they come strolling up. Now, you know, they didn't walk fast, right? Because those guys, they slow walked everywhere they went. At least that's how I picture it in my own mind.

Robes flowing, phylacteries popping, right? And they come slow walking up to him because undoubtedly they'd had a meeting slightly before that. They're like, Jesus sort of made us his midget yesterday. We need to figure out some things about him. We need to figure out a way to condemn him. Let's condemn him based on authority. Who gave him the authority to come into our temple,

to drive out our money changers, to overturn our tables? Who gave him the authority to do this? And then to speak in the way that he does. Out of the mouths of babes comes perfected praise. Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Who gave him this kind of authority? Let's ask him. This is a trick question because if he says his authority comes from God,

then we'll call blasphemy. If he says his authority comes from men, then we can say he has no right to do these things because no man has the authority to do what he did. Right? Jafar from Aladdin was putting his fingers together like that. So they come in and they said, notice it was while he was teaching. I think they interrupted him. And they said, by what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?

Two questions. By what authority are you doing these things? Second of all, where did this authority come from? And you know, they sort of like high-fived each other like, yeah, that's a good one. Uh-uh. And answer this one. And so Jesus simply stops. He looks at them and he says, I'll ask you one thing. And if you answer my question, I'll answer your question.

John the Baptist, where did his authority come from? Was it from men or was it from God? Now, this wasn't just Jesus deflecting the question with a question. This question had a point to it. And I want to point out why this is really important because John the Baptist was an incredibly inspiring character. As a matter of fact, John the Baptist was held in high regard

and respected by all. He was ultimately really kind of respected by the religious leaders. They actually more feared him, but he was respected by the religious leaders. But he was also massively respected by the common man because he lived as a common man, taught as a common man, and cared about the common man. And so Jesus asked him this question. Well, who gave John the Baptist his authority?

So not only was John the Baptist respected by all, but John the Baptist made some bold claims about Jesus. As a matter of fact, hold your finger here and go over with me to the gospel of John. There's two places that we'll springboard from. John chapter 1 verse 19 and John chapter 1 verse 29. So go over to John. Very last of the gospel accounts. Chapter 1. Look at verse 19. As a matter of fact, if you have a study Bible, it probably says something

like the testimony of John. This is John the Baptist. John chapter 1 verse 19 says this. This is the testimony of John. When the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. They said, so what then? Are you evil? And he said, I am not the Christ. And he said, I am not the Christ.

Elijah, he said, I'm not. Are you the prophet? He answered, no. They said to him, who are you? So that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? And verse 23 is what's really important to pay attention to. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord as Isaiah the prophet said. Now that statement that

John made was a statement that carried great power with it because before the coming of Messiah, one would come in the spirit and the power of Elijah declaring, make straight the way of the Lord. See why that's important, this question Jesus asked them? What did John the Baptist say of himself? I'm just a guy, but I'm a guy with a mission and my mission is to prepare the nation for the coming of the Lord who's coming right behind me. We'll go on down to one more place.

Go down to verse 29. It says, the next day he saw Jesus coming to him, meaning John the Baptist, and said, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he on behalf of whom I said, after me comes a man who is higher in rank than I, for he existed before me. I did not recognize him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water. John

testified saying, I have seen the spirit descending on me. I have seen the spirit descending on me. I have seen the spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and he remained on him. I did not recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, he upon whom you see the spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. I myself have

seen and have testified that this is the son of God. So when Jesus looks at the religious leaders and says, I have a question for you, and if you answer my question, I have a question for you, I have no problem answering your question. Who gave John the Baptist his authority? Because you see, if they say God gave John the Baptist his authority, then they have to acknowledge the fact that John the Baptist, who received his authority from God and declared that Jesus is the very son of God, the lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world, the Messiah that was to come. Well, then they have to explain why they've never really believed.

In Jesus. This is why Jesus can answer a question with a question, because he's the man, right? I remember having a kid in my Bible study one time, and he goes, man, Jesus can just be like stoplights and bubbles, and people are like, wow, because that's who Jesus is. Back to Matthew chapter 21. So Jesus says, you answer mine and I'll answer yours. And they began reasoning among themselves.

Okay. Again, I have a cartoon mentality in almost everything that I do, right? Now, the picture that I have is all of them huddled. Hold on. We've got to talk about this. They kind of huddle up together and they're like, this is bad. He just, this is not good, guys. We are in a really bad spot here. If we say that the baptism of John came from God, well, then he's going to be like,

well, why didn't you believe John then? And I hate that answer. If we say the baptism of John came from man, dude, the people, will excoriate us because everybody loves John. Everybody respects John. What are we going to do? You can picture him sort of talking amongst themselves, kind of ciphering a little bit, you know, wow, that's not good. That's a bad idea. What issue did the Pharisees,

the scribes and the chief priests have right now? They were dominated by two things. They were dominated by personal ideology, which could not allow themselves to believe in Jesus, and they were guided by popular opinion. You see, they had enough personal ideology that they could not allow themselves to believe in Jesus because after all, that would violate the tenets of everything that they believed, but they were guided enough by popular opinion that they couldn't reject him because they knew if they did, they'd face the wrath of the people.

What an unfortunate place to be in. I like to call it where most of the world is today because most of the world today, especially, on one particular side, has a tendency to be so guided by personal ideology that they can't acknowledge the truth. They can't acknowledge what sits right there in front of them, and yet so dominated by popular opinion that they also can't do anything about it. What an unfortunate place for people to end up, and I would say that there are more people that won't come to Jesus because of these two reasons than a whole lot of other things.

Well, so, as they're ciphering with each other, they're in their little huddle. Yeah, that's so bad. That's not going to work. They come back, and they're like, I guess all we could say is, we don't know. Yeah, let's say we don't know. That feels like the right thing to do, so let's say that. And they're like, okay, break. One, two, three, Pharisees. And they come back out, and they're like, we don't know. That's right. Fist bumps

all around, high fives. Jesus is like, all right, I'm not going to answer you either. Problem solved. He's like, you didn't answer mine. I'm not going to answer yours. We don't know where John's came from. Even though they did, they just didn't want to say. At this point in time, Jesus revealed their heart, and he identified their dead religion. He identified it through the cursing of the fig tree, and he identified it when they challenged

his authority. Because you see, their religion was dead because they'd stood up and said, I'm not going to answer yours. I'm not going to answer yours. I'm not going to answer yours. Stop seeking the truth. In at least two places in the Old Testament, we're told, if you seek me, you will find me when you search for me with all of your heart. In the Psalms, it says, he's not far off. He's not so far away that you can't get him. He's so

near to you. All you have to do is seek him. But if you don't seek him, you'll never find him. And that's exactly the place that they were in. They had all of the evidence laid out, in front of them. And yet, their hearts were completely unreceptive to it because their religion had become dead. Well, as I was thinking about this, I was thinking about the things that

sometimes can lead to dead religion, not only in the lives of these religious leaders, but they can lead to dead religion in the lives of churches. Because as I referenced in the portion on the fig tree, I don't think the nation of God is going to be the nation of God. I don't think the nation of God is going to be the nation of God. The nation of Israel in AD 33 is a whole lot different than the church in AD 2022.

We still struggle with this dead religion. So as I looked and have read scripture, I think there's four things, at least four things, four key things that lead to dead religion that I think we should examine in our own lives and in our own churches. Number one, the number one thing that leads to dead religion is legalism. Legalism. What is legalism? Legalism is adding to God's word. Really, in its simplicity, that's what it is.

It's interesting because I was teaching in Deuteronomy on Wednesday night. And you know what the, as Moses is declaring to the children of Israel, the need to be obedient, you know what the two things he tells them not to do are? Add to God's word or take away from God's word. Adding to God's word is legalism. You see, God says, do this. And we're like, let's do this

and these 39 other things. Because if those five things are good, these 39 other things are going to be good. And if those five things are good, these 39 other things are going to be good. Even better. As a matter of fact, I'm now going to focus on the 39 things and not the initial five that God told me. Because that's what legalism does. And you know what legalism always leads

leads to? It always leads to dead religion. Why? Because what have I sucked out of religion when I add legalism to it? I've sucked out my pursuit of God. What am I now pursuing? The laws I've added to what God's word has to say. I've tried to establish a righteousness of my own by what I've added to God's word. And I've stopped focusing on what God's word has to

say. Because you know what you realize? The more you get into God's word, you know what's main point is? You knowing him. You knowing the God that created you. And the only way you could know the God that created you is if the sin that separates you from him is dealt with. And he did that at the cross. So why are we adding to what God's word has to say? Because it makes us feel

better. Because we're checking. We're legalist people. We're law people. We like our seven steps, right? I'm pretty new to the Instagram machine, but I'm on there quite a bit. And I follow people that do workouts and diets and all these kinds of things. And you know what I have found? That all these people that put this stuff on there, there's always like five to seven steps to the correct kind of health. Five to seven

steps to this. If you just follow these five steps, listen, you know what that is? That's legalism at its finest. I'm not saying you shouldn't be a healthy person. You should. But that's what we tend to do with God's word. If you'll just follow these five steps, then you too can become the Christian you've always dreamed of being. You know what you find? The five steps don't get

you there. You know why? Because it's not about following five steps. It's about knowing your savior. Legalism always creates dead religion. And that's exactly what you see in the Pharisees. Legalism. Number two, licentiousness. Licentiousness. What's licentiousness? Taking away from God's word. Licentiousness can be defined as I get to do what I want to do. I take license to sin

whenever I want to. See, a lot of us have things that we know are sin and we condemn it in every form. But we also have things that our flesh really crave. And sometimes when we have those things that our flesh really craves, we give ourselves excuses for why that's okay. And we take license. Usually the one word we use for this is the word liberty. I find that liberty is another one of those abused words in scripture.

Well, you see, I've got the Christian liberty to do this. And you can't tell me otherwise because that's you judging me. And you should take the plank out of your own eye before you pull the speck out of mine. And you can be like, you're right. I do struggle with being judgmental. The Bible still says that's sin. And it says it pretty clearly. I've been amazed at the things

that people can justify with scripture. If you take it completely out of its context and you make it say what you want it to, you can probably justify a lot of different sins. But you know what justifying sin, you know what taking away from God's word does to us? It creates a deadness in our religion. Why? Again, let's take it back. It creates a deadness in our religion. Why?

Let's take it back to the book of Deuteronomy. Moses tells the people, you need to obey God's statutes and judgments. You know why? Because they are your life. They're your life. Because what you find, and those of you that have walked with God for any amount of time know this, when you're living in obedience to God, you are legit living your best life. Because you are living the most alive, joyful experience of your life. And you're living the

best experience ever. You know why? Because you're not hampered by guilt. You are not in bondage to sin. You are not in bondage to a habit. You are simply walking in freedom. You're walking in closeness with your savior and you're walking in the most life you've ever walked in. Why? Because these statutes and these judgments, this righteousness is your life. But when you walk in

licentiousness, when you walk in all of the sins of the world, because you've taken those things out of God's word, then you're walking in dead religion. I will guarantee that if you walk in sin, you will not have a vibrant relationship with your savior. I can guarantee that.

Number three, hypocrisy. Man. Okay, I'm going to take this from two different sides. All right. So hang with me for a minute. Let's take the word itself and talk about that, but then talk about how we all struggle with it. The word hypocrisy, if you look it up, simply means an actor on the stage of life. I love that definition, right? Isn't it Shakespeare that said, all the world is a stage, right? And someone in

Hollywood said, if all the world's a stage, I need better lines or something along those lines. An actor on the stage of life. In other words, you're one way in front of one group of people and you're another way in front of another group of people. When you come here to church on Sunday morning, you do everything the right way. You raise your hands in worship. You make sure you know where things are in scripture.

You can speak Christianese. You can say the right things. You can look the right way. And for most of Sunday, you may put up a pretty good act. But when you leave here, when it's the rest of the week, you drink what you want to drink. You smoke what you want to smoke. You say what you want to say. And you become just like all of the other people around you.

You see, that makes you an actor on the stage of life. When you're around Christians, you act like Christians. When you're around the world, you act like the world. And quite frankly, there is nothing that the world struggles with more than a hypocrite. And quite frankly, there's nothing that Jesus condemns more than hypocrisy. As a matter of fact, in the book of Revelation, Jesus speaks to the church of Laodicea. And he

goes, I wish you were one way or the other. But you're neither. You're just lukewarm. And I'm going to handle you in a pretty grotesque sort of way. That being said, we all as human beings struggle with this. I often hear people say, I don't go to church because of hypocrites. It's like saying, I don't go to the gym because of out of shape people, right? Listen, we're all recovering hypocrites.

I've said this before. It's what we all battle with. And the moment that we condemn somebody else and their hypocrisy is the moment we become that very thing ourselves. Because we all struggle with it, right? And it's an area we all have to continue to grow in. But we can't use that as an excuse to continue to live in it. Because that creates dead religion. Because there's no true vibrancy in my walk. There's

no true life in my walk because I'm never the same person anywhere I go. And pretty soon I go, I don't even know if I really believe anymore. Because I'm never the same. I'm never authentic. God's calling for authenticity in his people. He's calling for authenticity in who we are. Matter of fact, I was reminded this week, I was talking to somebody about the Sermon on the Mount.

And they said one of the things that stuck out to them was the phrase, blessed are the pure in heart. We talked about that phrase. Do you know what the word pure means? The word pure means undivided. The idea is authentic. Blessed are those whose hearts are undivided. But simply follow God wholeheartedly. That's what God's calling for us to be. But if we're

living in hypocrisy, we can't do that. And it creates dead religion. Number four, apathy. I was going to define it for you, but I don't care. I'm just kidding. That's a joke. Apathy means the lack of feeling or enthusiasm. Literally, it's the state of not caring. That's what apathy is. It means I just don't care anymore. more. And you know what? I think one of the, honestly, truly one of the greatest issues that

faces kids that have grown up in the church is apathy. I share this with my high school Bible kids all the time. Like you guys have grown up hearing God's word your entire life. Every single morning you've memorized scriptures, you've taken tests on it. The greatest issue that most of you are going to face when you leave this school is not becoming atheists, although that potential

is there, is simply living an apathetic life where you're like, nah, I'll go to church sometimes. I'll go, or I'll not go to church sometimes. I'll read my Bible sometimes. I'll not read my Bible sometimes. Church is okay when I'm happy about it. Church is not okay when the pastor says things I don't like, but quite frankly, I don't really care that much. That's apathy. Do you know Jesus

addressed this too in his letters to the seven churches? In the book of Revelation, it was to the church of Ephesus. Remember what he said about the church of Ephesus? In Revelation, Jesus said, hey, to the angel of the church of Ephesus, right? Man, you do some great stuff. You are solid in God's word. You study God's word. You know how to identify falsehoods when they come up. You guys are solid in some of those ways, but I have one

thing against you. You've left your first love. In other words, you don't have that passion anymore, right? It's a great old song that defines it best when he says, you've lost that love and feeling, right? That's the idea. You've lost that. And brothers and sisters in Christ, God desires for our relationship with him to be a vibrant, passionate, living, alive relationship. That's why Jesus told his disciples in John

chapter 15, he said, abide in the vine. That's an active and living relationship. Living relationship. Don't misunderstand me. There'll be times where there's not a lot of emotion there. That's okay. It has nothing to do with your emotions. It has everything to do with your drive. Because I guarantee if you ask some of the winningest athletes in the world, do you feel

like getting up every morning and working as hard as you do to achieve the goals that you achieve? They would say, nope, but I do. I do it anyway. You know why? Because I have a passion to win. I have a drive to win. Brothers and sisters, there will be days where you don't feel like a Christian, where you don't feel like pursuing God. Do it anyway out of a drive to achieve a crown

that is eternal and undefiled. Do it because of a drive to know a Savior who gave you life. Do it because of a drive to know a Savior who gave you life. Do it because of a drive to know a Savior who gave his life for you. You say, Ryan, I just don't have that drive. Then you need to confess that apathy to the Lord. You need to confess to him, Lord, I've come to a place where I am apathetic. Listen, there was a reason why God had to address

the church in Ephesus. It's because they had that issue. And the first thing they had to do with that issue was acknowledge, I have this issue. And you know what Jesus told them they needed to do? Therefore, return to your first love, repent, and do the first work. If you're here this morning and you've struggled with apathy, I want you to start thinking back to

what did you do when you first got saved? What'd you do when you first started walking with Jesus? You know what I did? First thing I did is I got out my Bible that I had gotten for Christmas that year that I didn't really care that I got for Christmas that year. And I started reading it, started reading in the book of Romans. I had no idea what I was reading. I was just like,

that doesn't make sense, but okay. I don't understand that. And then I came to Romans chapter five or Romans chapter eight, where nothing can separate us from the love of God. And I was like, well, that's really good. So I'm going to hold on to that. I pulled out all the old Christian CDs that I used to own. And I just sat in my room and I just worshiped the Lord. And so if I'm to repent and do the first works, if I'm struggling

with apathy for me, you know what I would go back and do? If I was battling with apathy, I just get my Bible back out again and I'd start reading. And I'd say, Lord, show me all those things you did before. And you know what else I'd do? I'd just start getting some worship music out and start singing praises to God. After I repented, I'd go back and do the first works. You know, that's all he wants

us to do. As we identify these areas that we struggle with in our own lives, the legalism, the licentiousness, the hypocrisy, the apathy, you know all we can do? Repent. Repent and go back and do the first works. Get rid of all that legalistic stuff that you're doing. If it's not in God's word, get rid of it. If it's in God's word, stop doing it. If you're not authentic, start being authentic.

If you're apathetic, start to care. Start asking God to put that passion back in your soul again. Lord, help me return to my first love. And you know what he'll do every time because I've seen him do it? He'll do that exact thing. He will restore to you the joy of your salvation. Amen? Let's all stand. I'm going to invite the worship team to come up to share that last song with us. And as they do, I would just like to

encourage you to allow the Lord to search your heart. Allow the Lord to search you and see if there's any of those things in you. And then just do the business with the Lord that needs to be done. Would you bow with me? Father, we come before you and Lord, I thank you for who you are. Lord, I thank you for the opportunity that you give us to be here, to be in your word.

And Lord, I just lift up the hearts and souls of every person that's here and every person watching online. Lord, that you would reveal to them in the same way that you did these religious leaders or reveal their hearts to them. And then Lord, give us the grace to do the business that needs to be done inside of us. And Lord, we just thank you for who you are.

Pray your blessing on the rest of our day. In Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed. Christ alone, my hope is found. He is my life, my strength, my song. This cornerstone, this solid ground. Firm through the fiercest drought. End. Storm. One heights of love. Depths of peace. Striving seats. My comforter. I stand.

Christ alone. Fullness of God in heaven. His gift of. By the ones he gave. His body. Light of the world by darkness. Slain. Then bursting in disease. Sin's curse at. Its grip on. With the precious blood. Built in life. No fear in death. This is the power of Christ. In me. First cry. To final bread. Jesus commands my destiny. No power of. In me. First cry. My own man calls me.

I stand. Lord, I just pray that if there are those here this morning that have never placed their trust in you and in you alone. Lord, I pray that today would be that day, God. Lord, I just pray that as we leave here today, I pray that you go with us, Lord. Help us to walk in you, Lord. Just to walk with you daily, Lord. Each and every day, God. We love you, Lord. We praise you and we thank you in your precious and holy name.

Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. Be blessed.