What does Jesus think about people who are spiritual
but not religious?
People who pray
but they don't have a personal pastor.
They have like a personal relationship
with God
but they don't have an official
membership with a church.
I bet you know a lot of people like that.
Maybe your son or your daughter
was raised in the church but now they are off at college
and they don't really have a connection.
Maybe someone in your family
or your best friend,
they were raised with a little Jesus and
they still say they believe in Jesus but just
unofficially in their own personal way.
Or maybe you're a person like that.
Maybe your grew up with more structure,
more community but
something happened back in the day
and you just don't have that connection.
And maybe you don't feel like you need it.
If that's you or if that's someone you care about,
I totally get that.
I mean, churches are filled with people
and people are far from perfect.
So many imperfect things
happen to people in churches.
I've heard so many stories of
people's parents who were quickly judged.
Who weren't shown much compassion
or grace or forgiveness and they walked away.
And their kids followed.
I've heard so many people who have
a strong prayer life, yet
they admit that church just isn't a priority
and frankly don't think that
that's a problem.
And I've heard even more stories of people
who've been wounded by the church.
Who've been hurt by people like me.
With a lack of compassion,
a lack of empathy,
a lack of patience that things blew up and
it made it really, really hard to return.
You might know that one of the growing,
biggest growing demographics of spirituality
in our country are people who are just that.
They're spiritual but they're not religious.
They self-identify as the "nones"-
N-O-N-E-S - because
a spiritual affiliation, a religious church?
They have none.
So the question I want us to wrestle
with today is this.
What does Jesus think?
What does Jesus think about people who are
spiritual but not religious?
Who have a personal connection,
but not an official membership?
Because, the truth is
Jesus knows.
I mean he knows all that garbage
that happened to your parents.
He know all the stuff that's happened to you.
He knows all the circumstances.
And even more,
Jesus hates that stuff more than you do.
I mean if you're disgusted with hypocrisy
and greed.
Of people who lead churches
but they don't have good Christian character.
I guarantee you that Jesus hates it
a thousand times more.
So the Jesus who knows all that -
what does he think?
I want to focus our attention today
on just one verse from the book of Hebrews,
chapter 10.
Apparently, way back in the first century,
just after Jesus returned to heaven,
people got in the habit of being spiritual
but not religious.
And that passage says let's not
get into that habit.
Let's encourage each other.
Let's spur one another
on towards love and good deeds.
This week I want to talk about the whys
behind that clear what.
Like, why would God insist on that?
Why would God want us to have some kind of
organization,
some kind of community,
some kind of authority over us
instead of just a personal relationship with Him?
I know that's a big question that
affects so many of us,
our friends
and our families.
Let's open God's word this week.
And let's find out why God wants us to be
rightly religious
and not just spiritual.
Would you pray with me?
Dear God, I pray for everyone
who has been wounded by the church.
I pray,
even thinking of my own sins,
I haven't always pastored
people well and I cringe to
think that they might not have a strong connection
with you because of me.
So I pray for forgiveness
for those who've hurt us.
I pray for forgiveness for myself.
I pray, God, that you would reconnect us
to a group of people who can encourage us
when we feel discouraged.
Who can spur us on
when we've gotten complacent.
And more than anything, who can lead us back
to you, your grace and your Son.
We pray these things, God, in your beautiful name.
Amen.
Give me one reason I should come to church.
That's what my soccer teammate
dared me to answer the other day.
I was casually trying to invite him to
come to our church and
and he stared back and me and said
"Give me one good reason."
And I tried all
the usual options.
Well, we have a lot of Jesus and the Bible
and prayer and
music and community.
And he looked right back at me and said,
"I already have all that"
You know, I thought about his answer
as I thought about this topic,
being spiritual but not religious.
And I realized that in our hyper-connected,
social media, digital world,
that it's probably really tempting
to think that we can do everything
in worshipping God
without being connected
to a religious community.
I mean, think about that, I might be an average preacher,
but you could podcast a thousand preachers
who are way better than me
or your local pastor.
We might practice for music
for Sunday but you can stream
the most amazing musicians
playing your favorite Christian songs
and worship Jesus in your car
or in the privacy of your own home.
We could pass an offering plate to
give generously to help the poor
and to spread the Gospel,
but you could go online
and make an automatic donation
from your bank account.
And we can talk about community and
Bible studies and meeting people,
but you're connected to hundreds,
thousands of people online.
So, it's actually a good question.
Give me one good reason.
Why would I be part of this official community
instead of just doing my own thing
in my way in my own time?
Well, the Bible has an answer to that question.
Probably a lot of answers, but
but there's one that's maybe tough to swallow.
But to me, it's essential
why I want you and I want everyone to be
part of a church community.
It comes from the profit Jeremiah,
chapter 17
where he said in verse 9,
Do you actually believe that?
The heart,
Jeremiah is saying, like
what's inside of you,
the place where you make decisions
and feel your feelings.
It's deceitful.
That means it doesn't tell you the truth
and you don't know it.
It's not just a lie that you see.
It's deceit. You don't see it coming.
He says that the heart is deceitful
above all things.
Like more than shifty used car salesmen.
More than compulsive liars.
Your heart, my heart,
deceives us all the time.
And if you and I believe that,
we would run
to a spiritual community.
We would never, ever think that
we could just be personally connected to God
and not need people outside of us to
correct us,
to confront us,
to encourage us.
To spur us on,
to remind us of Jesus's love
when we feel so lost.
I wish I would have said that to my teammate.
I think I need to find him
and say it to him again.
Why would you come to church?
Why would you need a pastor?
Why would you need people to
keep you accountable?
Because of your heart.
Your heart will minimize sin and
make too little of it.
Your heart will maximize your guilt
and forget about Jesus love
and his forgiveness.
Your heart will deceive you.
It is beyond cure.
You need us.
And we need you.
Why be religious and not just spiritual?
Because of your heart.
And most importantly because of the heart of God.
Let's pray.
God, I know those are hard words to hear.
We're taught in our culture this
exalted view of self-esteem,
that what's inside of us is
beautiful and it's true and
you just don't agree.
God, you see every human heart
and you desire to change our hearts
and make them true.
But we need help.
We need people outside of us.
The truth is not within us.
It's in your Word.
And so we pray that you would sanctify us
by the truth in your word that we hear
as we gather with other people in Jesus name.
That word is truth.
We pray it all in the name of Christ.
Amen.
Does your church tell you the truth?
This week we've been wrestling with
being not just spiritual,
but having some kind of
organized religion around Jesus.
But that begs the question:
Is that religion right?
Does that church tell you the truth?
When I ask those questions,
I think about John Vasconcellos,
an American politician
who lived and worked in California for many years.
Unfortunately, John was raised
in a church that did not tell him the truth.
All it said to him was that he was a sinner
who was rotten and corrupt and
deserving of hell and he
probably would never get better.
And stifled by that,
John had zero self-esteem,
zero hope,
zero joy.
Until he ran into a person
who told him something different.
This person wasn't from a church.
This person said, people aren't sinners.
You're not a sinner.
People are amazing.
And if you know the rest of the story,
John Vanconcellos went on
to be one of the founding,
leading people to bring the self-esteem movement
into our country.
The country followed John's beliefs
and his practices and they were all shaped out of
this corrupted view of church.
That all churches tell you
is that you're wrong, you're sinful,
you're corrupt and you're rotten.
That's not a good church.
That's not at all what Jesus taught.
Did he say that people are sinners?
That our hearts are deceitful?
That we need to be saved by his blood
on a cross?
Absolutely.
But, he said so, so much more than that.
And so, as you're thinking about finding a church,
and maybe for some of you,
reconnecting to a church for the
first time in a long time,
I want you to look for two things:
the two truths your church needs to tell you.
They need to avoid the
lie that you're too good.
And they need to avoid the lie that you're
too bad.
You're too good to need help.
You're too good to repent.
You're too good to be in spiritual danger.
You're too good to confess that.
You and God can probably figure that
and fix that out on your own
with just a prayer or two.
No, you need a church that tells you
that sin is serious.
Your heart is troubled.
You need a community to help you.
But, unlike John, you also need a church
that avoids the lie that says you're too bad.
You're too bad to be loved.
You're too bad for God to be with you.
You're too bad to be forgiven or saved.
You're too bad to confess that.
In a place like this, people would be disgusted.
I want you to find a church that
gets right in the middle.
Right in that sweet spot where Jesus wants you.
I think about some of Jesus's opening words
in the Gospel of Mark.
It says in Mark, chapter 1,
Do you hear those two things?
Repent.
Your sins are serious.
You're not too good to repent.
But believe the good news.
You're not too good
or too bad, rather, to have
something that really good in your heart.
To know that Jesus is your Savior.
That he's the one who rescues
and redeems you from all of your sins.
So, this week I pray you live in that sweet spot.
And as many of you search out
for that church community for the first time,
I pray that you would find it.
A church that calls you to repentance.
But then leaves you with the great news
of Jesus Christ.
Let's pray.
Jesus, thank you for telling us hard things.
It's never comfortable, in the moment,
to be called to repentance. But,
but you say sin is like a cancer
that you just want to get out of our hearts.
Thank you even more, Jesus,
for the good news.
That when we repent,
when we come to you with open hands
that you forgive and you cleanse and you save.
You don't just give us a second chance.
Instead you say it's finished.
And you promise that God will be with us forever
and delight in us as his children.
Help us to believe both things.
And I pray for every church, God,
that we would specialize in those two things.
That people would not be pushed away from
toxic religion
but find something beautiful
to pursue week after week
and year after year.
We pray, Jesus, in your name.
Amen.
It didn't take long to figure out why
this guy was spiritual,
but not very religious.
I was having pizza with my dad
and this older couple that we had just met the other day.
And my dad and I were kind of
giving each other some grief and
I was making fun of him
and he turned to the couple and said,
"Hey, a son is supposed to respect
"and honor his father.
"That's in the Bible, right?
And before they could answer,
I said, "Yeah but
"my dad goes to my church
"so I'm his pastor, and he's supposed to honor me.
"Right?"
And we both laughed but
the couple didn't laugh.
The guy kind of scowled back at me and he said,
"You don't have to honor your pastor.
"That's not in the Bible."
And gently, I kind of suggested,
"Well, I'm pretty sure it is."
And he snapped back,
"Well, I suppose you want me to give money
to your church, too?"
Wow.
I don't know the story, but
I would bet you a thousand dollars that there is one.
Sounded like this guy had a
really, really bad experience with someone
like me and maybe with a church like mine.
And I know so many people are in that situation.
They've had a bad run-in with a leader of a church.
Someone who was overbearing.
Someone who was too judgmental.
Someone who was quick to speak
and so slow to listen.
Someone who plunged into adultery or immorality.
Someone who was greedy and stole from the church.
Someone who really didn't care about the poor
or they didn't care about people at all.
Someone who was in it for himself.
And maybe that's your story.
Maybe you consider yourself a spiritual person
and you pray and you talk to God
but you just don't have a connection
because of something that happened.
And it that's true for you,
I want you to know that,
that Jesus gets it.
Jesus has some really specific descriptions
of what a pastor should be like.
You know pastors are people
and they're not perfect.
But he has a very high standard
because he knows how much
a compassionate, loving, patient
pastor can draw people
to the Word of God.
Or how quickly he can push them away.
So, let's think about pastors.
Let's pray for them today as we read
that description in 1 Timothy, chapter 3.
It says:
Part of me is
terrified by those words.
That's a really high standard.
But that's a great thing for us to,
to pray about today.
Some of you have been away from the church.
You haven't had a really great spiritual community
to encourage you and keep you accountable
for a long time.
Let's ask God to help us forgive
the pastors of our past and
reconnect in a really intentional way.
And even more, let's pray that God
would raise up really good people to pastor churches,
to draw people to the grace of God.
And especially our Savior Jesus Christ.
So, let's pray.
Dear God.
I think about the power of pastors.
I think about how many people love gathering
every Sunday with a community
because their pastor has loved them well.
And I think about all the people who have
walked away because they haven't been loved well.
I pray, God, for a spirit of
forgiveness for all those who have been wounded,
those who have been hurt. And,
God, you know so many who've been abused.
I pray that you could remind them
that that was a person.
That was not a church
and that definitely wasn't you.
I pray that you would draw them
back to your word and your people.
back to your word and your people. That they would find hope and encouragement
That they would find hope and encouragement
and a great community to pursue you together with.
And Father, I pray for pastors today.
I know that the temptation,
you say in the Bible that if
the shepherd is struck then
the sheep will scatter.
And if I'm struck and I give in to temptation,
only you know the damage and
the fallout that will happen.
So protect me and protect all of us who lead churches.
Help us to be respectable.
Help us to be loving people.
Help us to be gentle.
Help the doors of our homes to be open.
That we be hospitable.
Help us to not be proud but humble
as we serve just like Jesus did.
God, without you,
churches are going to be so dysfunctional.
It's going to push people away from you.
So, please God,
fix what needs to be fixed.
That people would be drawn
to the cross of Jesus.
We pray this in His beautiful name.
Amen.
Did you that in the Bible,
there is a time when God's people
tried to be spiritual
but not religious?
It's called the book of Judges.
And it was kind of like a 300-year experiment
where people believed in God
and they still prayed to God
but there was no king,
no authority, no structure,
no real organized religion.
Do you want to guess what happened?
It wasn't very good.
The people drifted.
Not just a little bit, but
way, way far from God.
And they didn't even know it.
If you read the tragic,
chilling, sinful
final chapters of the book of Judges,
you will find people who are surprised.
"Why is God letting this happen to us?"
They thought that they were doing everything
right, and yet everything was obviously so wrong.
It's kind of like when you're swimming out
in the ocean if you're on vacation at a hotel.
You don't have to try to swim away
from your original spot.
The water and the currents will just
take you to a place
that you never intended to go.
And I tell that you because this week
we've been wrestling with being "spiritual
but not religious."
And I know some of you have been disconnected
for a long time.
And I want to tell you this: if you do that,
you're not going to intentionally
rebel against God.
You're not going to one day say,
"You know what, God?
"I'm going to do whatever I want to do."
Just slowly, the world will shape you
and mold you and make you drift
from the beautiful spot where God wants you to be.
And maybe some of you know that's already happened.
Maybe you came across these videos and
it's really been a long for you since you were
connected to any kind of community,
any kind of organized religion.
And you kind of sense that your life
isn't where God wants it to be.
And maybe you wonder if that's you:
is it even possible to come back?
With all that baggage, with all that history,
with all that sin, could you come back to God?
Could you come back to a community that
worships God?
Now, I know the answer to that question
because I've read the end of the book of Judges.
The other day, I was preaching on the book
of Judges, and it ends so horribly.
And I was trying to figure out the good news.
And then I realized that the good news looked like this.
That there's another page.
That despite all these spiritual but not religious
people who had drifted so far from God,
God was not done with them.
I love how the book of Lamentations
says that God's mercy is new every morning.
Every single morning.
This morning.
And tomorrow morning.
There will be the mercy of God.
And so no matter how far you've drifted,
no matter how long it's been,
I want to tell you that God's mercy is for you.
And he wants you to be connected to a community,
to a great Christian church that rallies around
Jesus, led by a qualified
pastoral team
who's going to remind you of God's mercy.
They will call you to repentance.
They will address your sin.
And they will keep you right in that beautiful
spot that you know despite everything that happened,
you are loved and adored by God.
So let's pray.
Dear God, it feels like the days of the Judges,
when we all think that we can follow you independently
without a great community of faith.
And so I thank you for challenging us this week.
I pray that we can use these messages
and share them with the people we love.
So instead of drifting,
we will be drawn closer to you.
I pray for good churches.
I pray for courage.
And I pray that we will trust you.
That when you say we
should not give up the habit,
get into the habit of not meeting together,
that you meant it.
And you meant it for our good.
Thank you, Jesus, for loving us.
Thank you for seeking us
when we were wandering sheep.
Thank you for bringing us back into the flock.
We pray this all in your beautiful name.
Amen.