What Religious Leaders Rarely Emphasized

The Game of Church

Prayer.

The Tradition of Christian Church Practices

Show 43L What Religious Leaders Rarely Emphasize
Taped 7/18/2021

For nearly 2000 years people have been playing Christian church. The pastor dresses up in his Sunday’s best, and the congregation does the same. He passes a plate while people sing their hearts out to Jesus. He might then deliver a message that mightily stresses the obligation to conform themselves to the church's mission, its identity, its leadership, and its authority in the name of the Lord.

He tells those present that Jesus loves them . . . but they had better play along. That means they had better attend their meetings – including the social this Saturday night. And pay their tithes. Cause that 10% is just the minimum. And obey the Sunday laws – if you really want to please him. And pray. And dress modestly, stay out of the bars, put away them cigarettes and all such sinful appearances!

He may say that to be right with God it means fightin Satan with all your might and in all their free time, perhaps how to vote, and how to treat the faggots and lesbians and those women coming out of the abortion clinics. He might speak of excommunication for the wayward, God’s rejection of the lost or backslidden, and that he is pointing a crooked finger at anyone and everyone who believes differently than themselves – you know, them . . . Christ killin Jews and Carpet ridin Islamabads. And them Mormons, and the Whore of Babylon Catholics, and them evil whatchamacallits and this and that's.

And then the whole “game of church” that Sunday mornin wraps up with a frothing threat of a burning hell just waiting to consume anyone and everyone who won’t play along, who don’t abide by their authority, who ain’t ready for Jesus to return. For nearly 2000 years. Millions of people buying into this stuff. And perhaps to a lesser extent billions.

The Internal Spiritual Shift

But what most Christian leaders fail to emphasize is the clear message scripture gives about the shift that occurred in the world of religion due to Jesus Christ’s finished work. Don’t hear word one about that, do we? That shift. What shift is that?

A shift from the external to the internal. From written laws to the inward heart. I mean this ought to be the focus from every pulpit since Jerusalem was wiped out altogether, right? But NO. I mean what do people think passages like Romans 7:6 where Paul says:

Romans 7:6 “But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit."

Some people will say, “oh Paul is talking about the ceremonial law here. If that were the case, then how do you explain the line: “so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.“

Can you imagine a woman speaking to a pastor or bishop or priest or reverend today and saying to him: “My boyfriend and I moved in together last year and we consider ourselves married,” Could you imagine a person in religious authority saying in response, “that’s between you and God and what’s in your hearts?”

It will never happen! Because we play church and the rules of the church are that a man stands before a couple and says some words and that makes them married. What about the Spirit? What about the people and their liberty in Christ? What about their accepted responsibility before God for the lives they choose to lead as believers?

Religion wants performance. Hoops jumped. Forms completed and submitted. Percentages paid. They want baptism by immersion with the right words uttered but what about:

Romans 2:29 where Paul says: He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal. His praise is not from men but from God.

Circumcision (a type for all religious observances) is a “matter of the heart,” SPIRITUAL and not literal. Even in Paul’s day he said, referring to himself and the other apostles.

2nd Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, 6 who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, “not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

The Spirit Over Written Codes

Religious folk all over the world,

The Tension Between Church Practices and Spiritual Authenticity

Well meaning and sincere I’m sure, are taking that collection of Apostolic writings and citing it chapter and verse, like a written code – ignoring the Spirit and its fruit, which is agape loveSelfless love marked by patience, mercy, and humility—central to living in spiritual liberty..

All over the damn place churches are focused on building bigger churches, bigger campuses, bigger outreaches, covering the world with their missional efforts. But what about

Philippians 3:3 For we are the true circumcision, who worship God in spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh.

And again, what did Paul say in Romans 7:11

Roman 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

And in 2nd Corinthians 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

The Journey of the Heart

Folks, while the pastors and reverends ramble on and on about playing the game of church, with all of its demands and devises, God is looking at the hearts of all who claim him. Hearts that are humble before Him, contrite, real, authentic and spiritually driven and led to bear the fruit of the Spirit – LOVE.

The Danger of External Practices

External anything will always amount to fakery in the hands of men, idolatry, abuse, and laws that bind. But where the Spirit of the lord is there is liberty. I am not so sure liberty in Christ is possible when it is couched in the demands of men. But you never hear this preached. Never.