Living on the Edge

Dave Drury: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Have you ever been turned off by religion, by Christians? Do you realize that Satan's playing field is often the church, God's people, traditions, and religion? How do you separate Satan's work inside the church and what Jesus is really doing? That's today on Living on the Edge.

Dave Drury: Religion chains, grace frees. Well, that's the contrast at the heart of today's message. Chip Ingram continues in Acts chapter 9 with a closer look at what religious thinking actually does inside a person and how to tell the difference between someone who's performing Christianity and someone who's living it.

Dave Drury: I'm Dave Drury. This is Living on the Edge, and we're deep in a series called The Jesus Revolution, join the movement. To revisit or share these lessons anytime, just go to livingontheedge.org. After today's message, Chip will be sharing about our mid-year match, so stay right where you are. Well, now here's Chip Ingram with his message, Death by Lethal Religion.

Chip Ingram: Open to Matthew chapter 23. This is from the very lips of Jesus, this is his view of what religion does. How diabolical it is.

Chip Ingram: Then Jesus said, Matthew 23 verse 1, to the crowds and to his disciples. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees, they sit in Moses' seat, so you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

Chip Ingram: Now, listen to what he says religion does. They tie heavy loads and they put them on men's shoulders. Everything they do is done to be seen by men. They love the place of honor. They want the most important seats in the synagogue.

Chip Ingram: Skipping down verse 13, woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you shut the kingdom of God in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, and you will not let those who are trying to enter to enter. Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and then you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. These are not calm words.

Chip Ingram: This is Jesus attacking what's diabolical and what religion does to the human heart. And no one is immune over time to becoming religious. You can even make up your own religion. Secularism is a religion. Humanism is a religion.

Chip Ingram: So here's the question I want to ask and answer. What's the difference between dead religion and a living relationship with God? What's the difference between a dead religion and a living relationship with God? And I want to suggest that Acts chapter 9 will give you a very clear picture of it.

Chip Ingram: If you still have your Bible, open it up. I want you to see this. Verses 20 and 22, it is the dividing mark, it is the core, it is the main point between dead religion and a living relationship with the living God.

Chip Ingram: Verse 20, at once he began to preach, notice, in the synagogue. That's where the religion is. What's he preaching? Jesus is the son of God. That's deity. Jesus is God.

Chip Ingram: Truth, person, not rules, not patterns, not ceremony. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, isn't this the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among all those who call upon his name? Second point, when you meet the living God, your life changes. It's dramatic, it's different.

Chip Ingram: There's a before and an after. I mean, there's something that happens, relationship with Christ brings life. Dead religion brings death. Notice it goes on. And has he, he come here to make prisoners and then here he is instead of prisoners, what? He's setting people free.

Chip Ingram: Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

Chip Ingram: Here's what I want you to see, here's what happened. Two things. Number one, he had a 180 degree conversion.

Chip Ingram: The Apostle Paul was sincere, devoted, smart, educated, a Roman citizen, wealthy, he had it going and I mean he's going like this and bam, he meets the living God and now he's going exactly 180 degrees a different direction.

Chip Ingram: It's called conversion. The Apostle Paul was transformed into something completely new. Everything changed. When he met the living God, his relationship with God changed, with the Jews changed, with Christians changed, with people changed, with himself.

Chip Ingram: His perspective changed. He went from being a persecutor to a preacher. His, his values changed. He was a religious guy, you heard Matthew 23, he was focused on fame, success, prestige, status, and control.

Chip Ingram: And now you can read 13 books that were penned by the Apostle Paul and he was consumed with people, relationships, the hurting, the oppressed and serving. His goals changed.

Chip Ingram: You see, conversion is that point in a person's life when they fully realize that their way is not the right way. They may be devoted, they may be sincere, they may be morally good, they may be religious, but they realize that Jesus Christ and he alone is the answer to the most penetrating issues and problems of life.

Chip Ingram: Why am I here? Is there life after death? Who is God? What do I do to have a relationship with him? Christ is the son of God. He came and died for all. He rose from the dead to prove that it's true, and he offers eternal life to whosoever would put their trust in him.

Chip Ingram: And then you'll notice that after this 180 degree conversion, what do you have? You've got 100% call and mission. You know, like he didn't say, oh, I'm so glad I met Jesus, but boy, I sure don't want anyone to know about it. After a few days, he's in the synagogues. He goes, people, I was wrong. People, you got to hear about this. People, you know, look at this and this and this and this and this. I mean, he was an amazing intellect.

Chip Ingram: Here's the question I have for you. Have you unconsciously, subtly, been introduced to a religious system, but maybe never had a Damascus experience?

Chip Ingram: It's possible to intellectually believe in the Bible. It's possible to intellectually believe Jesus is God. It's possible to feel like you ought to and good moral people go to church at least once or twice a month. It's possible to actually think, you know, it's probably pretty important to give some money to help some other people and try and be a good person and follow the golden rule. And you may even feel a little guilty when you do this or do that.

Chip Ingram: Religion is one of the most diabolical ways to keep you from a living relationship with God.

Chip Ingram: To summarize, I, I put the product or results of religion at the top. I made a little cloud floating above religion. Religion results in control, fear, and death. It's what it does.

Chip Ingram: Religious people are, man, they're control freaks. And they fear everything, and they hate change. And it brings death, separation from God, separation from themselves. By contrast, living relationship results in power and love and life.

Chip Ingram: And here's all I want to say, just ask yourself, are you experiencing the power of God? Is there a love of God in your heart? Is there a living relationship, or is it a lot of obligation, a lot of duty, a lot of oughts, a lot of shoulds? My parents went to church, now I go to church. I should be a good moral person.

Chip Ingram: When you know the living God and the living God lives inside of you by the Holy Spirit, as you've trusted Christ as your Savior, there's a 180 that happens. More or less dramatic depending on your background. But all I just want to do is, is shake all of us to say, wait a second. Even those of us that know Christ personally, religion creeps in. We make our own. We have all of our own little groups, we make our own little religion, and the enemy gets inside our religious thinking and it's not whether what's true is not, it's our way and how we see the truth and everyone ought to see it like us.

Chip Ingram: Here, here's some sort of some takeaways that I think are critical and important. What must we learn about religion? Number one, religion focuses on acceptance from the outside in, and yet life occurs from the inside out. I just always want to remember that.

Chip Ingram: You might jot in there Philippians chapter 3. The first half of Philippians chapter 3, the Apostle Paul talks about his outside in experience of being religious. A Pharisee, tribe of Benjamin, according to the law, faultless. Self-righteous. And then in the second half he talks about the inside out.

Chip Ingram: And he said, I consider all those things that literally the word is dung or rubbish. I consider all of that as rubbish compared to knowing him. And then he has this plea, I want to know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering.

Chip Ingram: There's this passion, it's personal, it's living, it's alive, it's a love relationship. Religion is always all these external things that patterns and rules, and if you you don't do it, then you're guilty, and what about this and God loves you when you do these things. He doesn't love you when you don't do these things. And it's, it's evil. And the church it becomes legalism.

Chip Ingram: People with those heavy weights and it leads to this, religion is rooted in performance, life is rooted in grace.

Dave Drury: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll have more in just a moment. This month, Living on the Edge is participating in a special mid-year match. Every dollar given in June is being matched one for one by a group of generous partners who want to see this ministry go further. Your gift doesn't just help, it's doubled the moment it arrives. You can get all the details at livingontheedge.org. And stick around, Chip will share more about it before we're done today. Right now, back to the message.

Chip Ingram: See, when you're a religious person, the questions, it's not like you say them out loud, but they're built into your psyche. What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? How much am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to pray five times a day? Do I have to go on a pilgrimage? Or or or in our circles, do I have to read the Bible every day? And how much of the Bible do I have to read? Am I supposed to give my money? If I'm supposed to give my money, do I have to give 10%? Is that 10% off the gross or is off the net? Do I have to read for 15 minutes or 25 minutes? Is it like a mission trip like every three years? Is that okay? How much do I have to do, do, do? That's religion. If you're asking those questions, you're missing the point.

Chip Ingram: God doesn't need your time, doesn't need your money, he doesn't need your short-term trip. See, that's performance. The question that those in relationship ask is, who am I becoming?

Chip Ingram: Over performance in my notes, I wrote Matthew 23 and put a circle around it. Over where it says grace, I put Romans 12 and I put a circle around it. Cause see, the test, the litmus test is not how much do I do. Do I love people more? The issue isn't, do I give all this or give all that? Am I more generous? Do I care about people? Do I love God? Am I open to him? It's your money, what do you want to do with it? It's your time. I'll go every week, every month, once a year, never go. I just want to do what you want me to do. I love you, you love me. I don't have to perform. I am saved by grace, I'm sustained by grace, I'm the object, I'm his son. God wants to put his arm around me, you're his daughter. It's completely different.

Chip Ingram: Religion chains people, binds people, makes them prisoners. Grace frees you. Third observation is that sincerity and devotion are no substitute for truth. Paul was sincere and devoted. Suicide bombers, sincere and devoted. Some of these wacko religious quote Christian sects, sincere and devoted, right?

Chip Ingram: How about, let's get it from out there to here. Some of us in this room, sincere and devoted. And we've added things and feel pressure and make up extra rules and take our rules and put them on other people. And here's the thing is, is it true or not? Or has it just been handed down as one more layer of stuff, one more layer of obligation?

Chip Ingram: Is your relationship with God a lot more like duty, obligation, ought to, got to, never measure up? Or is it more like joy, passion, adventure? One is a relationship. The other is religion.

Chip Ingram: Fourth, religion is easy to spot in others and nearly invisible to ourselves. This is so painful. Cause this isn't like, do you have a relationship or are you religious? That's certainly true. I will tell you that all of us that have a personal, vital, living, growing relationship with Jesus have parts of religious thinking in our brains. And the enemy wants to cause it to grow and to grow and to grow and give you false guilt, give you struggles with things. But where it's happening in your life or mine, it's almost invisible.

Chip Ingram: I mean, I can look at other people and go, wow, boy, there's, man, that's easy to see. It's just hard when I look in the mirror. No, I think this is working pretty good. I think everyone should do it this way, exactly this way, think about this that way.

Chip Ingram: See, religion produces very narrow, controlling people who demand others think and act exactly the way they do. Religious people turn people off. People in love with Jesus draw people like a magnet. I've been in missionary's homes who are sincere all around the world, and it's out of, see, they have such fear. I've watched, okay, everybody sit down right now. I mean, this is true story. Okay, we're going to, the Bible's really important. And I've watched, you know, three teenagers rolling their eyes going, you know what their body language is telling me, as soon as I get out of this house, I'm leaving. Mom, Dad, God, Bible. They're wacko.

Chip Ingram: And out of all their fear, rules, rules, rules, they don't trust their kids. And instead of an adventure and instead of, what does God want to say and how do we discover how much he loves us and what do you think about that? Is this top-down, harsh, legalistic? And they run.

Chip Ingram: Let me give you some symptoms of, since it's invisible, here's some symptoms. And I'd like to say I I did extensive research to figure out these symptoms, but actually I looked in the mirror for about 33 seconds and these are symptoms.

Chip Ingram: Religious people are controlling. Religious people are resistant to change. Religious people are critical of others. Find yourself having little conversations in the car or even in your mind, you know, someone says doing that, you're just critical. Religious people have feelings of superiority. You're better than, smarter than, more holy than. Religious people by and large can be very unloving. What's right in their view, not not necessarily scripture, but what's right in their view is more important than the person. Religious people are fearful of the future. Religious people are anxious, and religious people are involved in political, relational agendas in churches. Because see, when they start feeling they're going to lose control like Paul, man, you got you got to clamp down on some people and you got to find some people that are on your side, that are look like you and you have these little conversations about what they are doing, whoever they are.

Chip Ingram: I I I know way too much about this. I I came up around a group and it wasn't their fault, it was me, but it took sort of the sort of like the dynamite and nitroglycerin of my warped personality, deep insecurities and arrogance. And so I I was around a group that when I started to grow, I memorized a verse every day for about three years. I had a prayer list that got very long. I never went to bed, I never missed, I prayed all the time. I was the biggest religious jerk you've ever seen on the face of the earth. And after about four years of that, I remember a conversation with a with a gal that I dated earlier in college.

Chip Ingram: And out of the blue, she said to me, you know, when I first met you and you were a new Christian, I was really open. It seemed like there was such joy and life. I was really open to maybe exploring what it was all about. But if being a Christian and being committed is like you, the last thing I'd ever want to do in my life is be a Christian.

Chip Ingram: I actually had to stop memorizing scripture, realize that God loved me when I didn't pray or get get all through my list. And I I remember even as I was in seminary, I remember my wife and I deciding, you know what? I mean, I just, if I didn't give more percentage every year, a higher percentage, man, I got three kids, I'm in seminary with no money and giving more and more and more money away. And and behind it was this religious, I'm going to prove myself to God.

Chip Ingram: And I had to I had to learn about grace. I just spent I spent months in Galatians. Just saying, God, would you help me to grasp you love me plus nothing? You love me when I blow it. You love me when I'm obedient. Now, grace is what teaches us to grow. So it's not that we just say, you know, forget everything. It's, but it's relationship.

Chip Ingram: Notice the final point that's been very helpful is it is God's mercy that rocks our world to reveal our religion and birth afresh new life. I want you to mercy, mercy. God is so merciful. Cause see, religion will eventually cause you to do one or two things, either hit the wall or become a hypocrite.

Chip Ingram: I mean, once you have rules, I you make up the rules. Make them up today, then try and keep them perfectly. No one can keep any rules. And so what happens is if you try and try and try and try like I did, I just burn out. I got so depressed. I got so depressed. I was like, I was like, man, this whole other job of being a Christian. I was just ready to can the whole thing. Or what you do is you realize you can't keep them, but you want people to think you can, so you become a hypocrite, so you act like you're keeping them, but you really don't.

Chip Ingram: And God in his mercy, you know what he does? He'll break you. God in his mercy will allow a tragedy. God in his mercy will allow a car wreck, a divorce, a bankruptcy, a mate to walk out on you. A kid that says, you know, forget you, mom and dad. And all of a sudden, all your rules and all your religion when you're hurting, mean nothing and you find yourself, oh, God, please help me. God, please, please, I don't know what to do. I don't have a job, I lost my home. I tell you what, religion doesn't do anything when you're in desperate need, right?

Chip Ingram: And when you cry out in the midst of pain, he'll he'll always answer, because what you're looking for is someone to love you, forgive you, sustain you, and help you. And Jesus said, I'm near to the brokenhearted, and I save those who are crushed in spirit, and I'm for you. And I did not come to create a religion for new hoops for you to jump through. I came that you might have life and you might have it abundantly.

Chip Ingram: Have you been converted? Have you done a 180? Have you embraced Jesus, not religion? And if so, do you have a calling? Do you realize that you in your hands and hearts and lives are recipients to take the message of life? And you're a steward of the manifold ministries of God. He loves people.

Dave Drury: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Wrapping up part two of Death by Lethal Religion. Chip has something to share about the mid-year match, so don't go anywhere. The full Jesus Revolution series is available message by message on the Living on the Edge podcast. Subscribe and never miss a lesson. Full-length sermons are also available through the Chip Ingram sermon podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.

Dave Drury: The religious person asks, how much do I have to do? The person in a living relationship asks, who am I becoming? That single shift, Chip said, is the difference between a life of obligation and a life of grace. He also turned the mirror on all of us because even those who know Christ personally can drift into religious thinking. Controlling, critical, fearful, resistant to change. Chip's been there himself. And he said the only thing that broke it was months in Galatians, learning that God loves you plus nothing.

Dave Drury: Well, here's Chip with a word about what a community looks like when it finally trades religion for relationship.

Chip Ingram: Have you ever felt like a a bit player in someone else's story? Like your faith is real, but I mean, your role is small? Like you're not really making much of a difference? Well, in Acts chapter 8, there's a man named Philip. He's not an apostle, he's not a famous preacher, just a faithful believer who went where God sent him and said what God told him to say. And because he did, the gospel entered an entire continent. You're not a footnote in the Jesus movement. There are no little people in the body of Christ. You are a participant, you are a part of a puzzle that God has started and is putting together until he returns and every piece of the puzzle matters. I'm teaching right now through the Jesus Revolution and one of the most liberating themes in this series is that God uses ordinary, available, willing people to do things that echo into eternity. No one in the book of Acts knew they were writing history. They were just showing up. That's all God is asking of you today. Show up. Give what you have. Your gift to the mid-year match is doubled the moment it arrives. Show up. Who knows, you might be someone's Philip that God will use to change the course of their life today and for all eternity. Imagine that.

Dave Drury: You don't have to be significant, you just have to show up. And right now, you can show up by joining the mid-year match where every dollar is doubled the moment it arrives. To give right now, just go online to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. You can also send your donation through the mail by writing to us at Living on the Edge, PO Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia 30024. Every piece of the puzzle matters. Give today. Again, just go online to livingontheedge.org. I'm Dave Drury. Coming up, the early church is thriving, and then two things quietly begin to drain the life right out of it. Chip Ingram names both of them next time on Living on the Edge.