From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Christianity is all about heart. It's not about checking boxes. It's not about keeping rules. It's about having a heart relationship with God.

That's why when Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart. All your strength, with all your mind, all that you have. But the first word is heart. Christianity is a heart relationship.

Guest (Male): Would you say that you have a religion or a true relationship with Christ? If you genuinely search your heart, would you discover that your religion is keeping you from the relationship with God that he created you to have to trust him from your heart?

This is From His Heart, and today we close out the month with a message that starts by going back to the story of the prodigal son. It's a lesson entitled Religion or Relationship. And from it, we'll discover the difference between the two.

If you miss any of this lesson, you can go back and listen online at fromhisheart.org, click the listen tab. There too, you can download a free MP3 of this broadcast or any from this month, as well as the sermon outline notes from Pastor Jeff. All for free at fromhisheart.org, click the listen link.

Open up your copy now of God's Word and turn to the 15th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. As Pastor Jeff Schreve begins to help us all understand that religion is not the goal, a heart relationship is.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Today we want to talk about something that seems strange, and that is the sticking point of religion. You know, when we say that, many people think, well, wait a minute, isn't religion kind of faith, isn't that all kind of mixed together? So how could that be something that would be a sticking point to moving on with God?

Well, when religion is self-focused and self-centered and self-righteous, and when it's keeping a bunch of rules and going through rituals and having a religious regiment that you do every single day or every single week, that can keep you from a true relationship with God.

Exhibit A is the class known as the Pharisees. The scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the religious leaders. They were the ones that were so far away from God. When God sends his son, they're the ones who say, this one cast out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. That's the decision that they made concerning Jesus. He must be of Satan. That's how far they were from the Lord and from the truth.

They didn't understand, but they were so religious. Religious but lost. I've entitled this sermon Religion or Relationship. Do you have a real relationship with God through Jesus Christ? Or do you just have religion?

Now, we're going to look at our poster child today, the other brother in the story of the prodigal son. He so often gets overlooked in that great story because we don't really know what to make of him. It's very easy to understand, well, the prodigal is a picture of a sinner who wanders from God, willfully wanders from God, he ends up in a terrible place. But then he repents and he goes back, and we love the story because it's a story of mercy and grace and restoration.

But then we forget about the back end of the story, and the other brother in the story. And really, when you look at Luke chapter 15, you realize that was the reason Jesus told the story. Look what it says in Luke chapter 15, verse one. Now, all the tax gatherers and the sinners were coming near him to listen to him. You'll read that phrase in the gospels, tax collectors and sinners, the tax gatherers and the sinners. It was just kind of a catch all for all the scum of the land.

The tax collectors were Jewish turncoats who had partnered with Rome to levy taxes on the people and they were notorious crooks and thieves. And so they were the worst of the worst, the tax collectors, and the sinners, the prostitutes and the thieves and the drunks and just all the scum and the, you know, the jetsam of the land. They all lumped them all together. They were coming near him to listen to him.

And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble. Diagosmos, they were grumbling among themselves saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. How horrible is that? And then it says he told them this parable saying, he starts off with the parables, in response to what they were saying, that this man receives sinners. Now the Pharisees and the scribes and the religious leaders, there's no way they would hang out with tax collectors and sinners. I mean, those people had cooties big time, and you didn't want to get near them.

And so they would say, you know, I'm a holy person, and you're you're the scum of the earth. Get away from me. You need to cry out unclean, unclean and leave my presence. That was their thought. And so Jesus, not only does he welcome sinners, he has the audacity to eat with sinners. I mean, they spend time together. They sit down at the table together. Who would do that?

And they would say, obviously this man isn't of God, because if he were of God, he wouldn't eat with sinners. But he cast out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. And here's why we believe that is because he hangs out. Who are his associations? He hangs out with sinners. One of his 12 is a tax collector, Matthew the tax collector. And so they would come at Jesus with all those accusations. They were sickened by what he did. And so Jesus tells the parables. And then he talks about a lost son.

The story of the prodigal, wasteful, dissolute, immoral son. And that story leads into the story of the other brother. So let's pick up the story of the prodigal son in verse 20. Just a little background, you know, he told his father, he said, Father, I can't wait for you to die. Give me the share of the inheritance that belongs to me. The younger son said that to his father. So the father did a shameful thing that the father would respond to that shameful request. The son takes the property and he sells it on the cheap, and he takes the money, and he leaves. Not many days after he gets his money, he leaves, takes everything he has, wastes his money on wine, women and song. As we're going to learn, he wasted it on harlots.

He ends up having nothing left. He spent it all. A famine hits the land. No one was giving anything to him. He attaches himself to a gentile, who, in order to get rid of him, just says, well, go out and feed the pigs. He doesn't really have a job, he just sends him out there to feed the pigs. He goes and he's at the pig sty and he's so hungry. He says, I'm dying here with hunger. He was longing to eat the pig slop, the pods that the pigs would eat.

And then he said to himself, he came to his senses, and he said, hey, wait a minute, don't my father's hired men? They have enough bread to eat. They're not eating pig slop. I know what I'm going to do, I'm going to get up and go to my father and say, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your day laborers, your hired men. And he got up and he went to his father, verse 20.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. Those are repeated kisses. And the son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his slaves, quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him. The best robe was the father's robe. Put my robe on him, the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, which signified authority, back as his son, and shoes on his feet, sandals on his feet, and bring the fattened calf, kill it and let us eat and be merry for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found, and they began to make merry. They began to have a big party. The whole village was invited to the party. That would be a good place to stop the story.

But remember it said, verse 11, and a certain man had two sons, two sons. So now we find out about the other brother, the older boy. Says in verse 25. Now the older son was in the field. And when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things might be. Hey, what is this? Why am I hearing this? Oh, I don't know anything about this. What is going on here?

Verse 27, and the servant was a young boy, that's the word for servant there is young boy. He said to him, Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound. Well, that's pretty exciting news. Your brother, he's not dead. He's alive, and he's come back home, and your father has forgiven him, and we're throwing a party because your brother was dead, so to speak, and now has come to life. Well, the other brother should be pretty excited about that. Uh-uh.

Verse 28, but he became angry and was not willing to go in. And his father came out and began entreating him, begging him, coming alongside him to encourage him to go into the party. But he answered and said to his father, Look, for so many years I have been serving you. And I have never neglected a command of yours, and yet you have never given me a kid, a young goat, that I might be merry with my friends. You've never thrown a party for me. You've never given me a goat that I can have a fun time with my friends. But when this son of yours, not my brother, but this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with harlots, you have killed the fattened calf for him.

And he said to him, my child, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to be merry and rejoice for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live and was lost and has been found. The story of the other brother. It's an interesting story. It's the story about a religious person.

Guest (Male): You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. And today's lesson, part one of Religion or Relationship. You know, here's the truth. People are tired of confusion and weary of shifting cultural messages. They want truth that they can depend on, no matter what comes. That hunger creates a tremendous opportunity for the gospel. And that is where you come in.

From His Heart is a listener-supported ministry. Pastor Jeff receives no income from this ministry. Everything you give goes to help us produce and distribute these programs on hundreds and hundreds of stations around the world. For your gift of support this month of any amount, we'd like to say thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's new six-message series, Faith Under Fire, a study of the book of Jude. Now, in the book of Jude, he urges believers to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. Would you consider a gift today? It'll mean so much to us, truly it will. Go to fromhisheart.org or simply call 866-40-BIBLE to make your gift. That's 866-40-BIBLE. Or go online to fromhisheart.org. Again, ask for the series, Faith Under Fire, a study of the book of Jude, when you make your gift today. Now let's get back to part one of this lesson, Religion or Relationship.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: This other brother represents the scribes and Pharisees. They find themselves in the story. Now, obviously, the prodigal represented the tax collectors and sinners. And all those people said, hey, I can relate to this guy who's at the pig sty. That's what I've done. But I came to my senses and I came to Jesus too.

And so as the scribes and Pharisees are hearing the story. Remember, the story has a lot of shameful elements to it. So the son asking the father for his share of the inheritance, that's shameful. You don't do that. I mean, even in our society, if you told your father, Father, I wish you were dead, just give me the inheritance that's coming to me. That would be a shameful thing. Shame there. Shameful what the son did. He shamed his father, he shamed his family, he shamed the community, the village, and then he went off and lived shamefully, and then he ends up at the pig sty, a shameful place, feeding the pigs, shameful job.

And then he leaves and he comes home, and what does the father do? The father sees him a long way off, feels compassion for him, and he girds up his loins, he takes his robe and stuffs it in his belt, and he runs through the village. That's a shameful thing, because men back then, they didn't show their legs and they didn't run. That was, you didn't do that. But he was willing to do that. And so he shames himself by running, he embraces his son.

And then they have a party to celebrate the shame. This is in the mind of the religious. It's like, good night. I mean, this is a shame fest. And where is the reason, where is the person that comes on the scene that says, stop the insanity? It's the other brother. He's angry when he hears this story. He's angry when he hears that the brother has come home. He is the poster child for the religious crowd.

And I want you to notice three discoveries from this wonderful passage, from the back end of this story, that give us insight into the life of the religious. And let me just say this, you know, there are those in the audience today, and you can relate to the prodigal son. Hopefully, everyone can relate to the prodigal son. But there's some that really relate to the prodigal son. But now, if you grew up in church, you're not going to relate as much to the prodigal son as you're going to relate to the other brother.

And many people who read this story, when they read it, they say, you know, I can see where he's mad. I can understand where he's upset at this. I can understand how his mind works. Well, we're going to see as we dissect this and discover some things, we're going to see what's really at the heart. So discovery number one, religious people are sinners of a different stripe. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

The prodigal is a sinner, and he's a very obvious sinner. He's a very open sinner. But the other brother is also a sinner. He's just a more hidden sinner. See, the out-and-out immoral people, they're very obvious in their sin. It's outward. You can see it like that, hey, you're living in sin. You're sleeping around. You're getting drunk every night. You're doing this, you're doing that, you're doing the other. It's just all out there in the open. Nobody has to say, I'm not sure if you're doing wrong. We know you're doing wrong. If you're a prodigal, but now a religious person, he's a sinner of a different stripe.

Because his sins aren't obvious, they're hidden. He doesn't have sins of the flesh. He has sins of the spirit. And he hides them very well. And so notice about him and the religious people in general, they're outwardly good and respectable. They like to be good and respectable. The other brother, he didn't leave the father, he stayed there. I'm here on the farm. I'm working for my dad. I am near my dad and we're doing things and I'm doing the things around the farm that he tells me to do that he gives me to do. And people would look and they'd say, oh, isn't it isn't it so sad about the younger son that went off and wasted his life. But Father, aren't you so good, Mr. Father, aren't you so glad that you have this wonderful son, this good son, this moral son, this respectable son. That's the picture of the religious person. Looks good on the outside.

The prodigal is a drunkard, the prodigal is immoral. But the other son is a teetotaler. He is a righteous person from the outward. I mean, you can check his computer history and he hasn't looked up anything that's bad. I mean, he just he just seems to be so straight laced, everything is good. He is outwardly good and respectable.

Secondly, the religious are outwardly dutiful and meticulous. When you start talking about a legalist, and the Pharisees and the scribes, they were legalistic. And the religious people, they're legalistic, means they're going to walk the line. They're going to they're going to live on the straight and narrow. They're going to make sure that they don't step out of bounds in any way.

Jesus said of this crowd, you tithe mint and dill and cumin. That's getting meticulous when you tithe mint and dill and cumin. Those are spices. And they would go and they would make sure that a tenth of their spices was dedicated to the Lord. Hey, that's got to go to the Lord. I mean, you know, you count up your parsley leaves and nine for me, one for the Lord. I mean, that's how meticulous they they would get. And Jesus said, you tithe mint and dill and cumin, but you forget the weightier provisions of the law, justice and mercy, things like that. You strain out a gnat and you swallow a camel. So their being meticulous was ridiculous. They're outwardly dutiful and meticulous, but here's the kicker. They are inwardly rotten and very far from God.

They're no different on the inside to the prodigal. And Jesus is painting a picture of two extremes. You have this this one way over here, this prodigal who's way at the pig sty that's just filled with shame, covered in guilt and shame. And then on the other side of the spectrum, you have this person who looks so good on the outside, looks so honorable, looks so righteous, but he's just as rotten on the inside.

On the inside. And the Bible says that the Lord, man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. And Jesus said to these guys in Matthew 23, you know, Matthew 23 is the chapter where he lets them have it, and it's the woe to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites. I mean, he just calls them out. And one of those woes was this, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly, you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Now, one thing that the religious has that the prodigal doesn't have is hypocrisy. The prodigal is out there. Everybody sees what he's doing. He's not pretending to be something he's not. But the religious is. He's pretending to be righteous when he's not righteous. He's a whitewashed tomb. And a whitewashed tomb looks good on the outside. As it says in Matthew 23, you look beautiful on the outside. And the interesting word that word beautiful can also be translated as blossoming.

So the religious guy can look, the religious girl, he she can look like they're doing so well spiritually, like they're just blooming and blossoming spiritually. And the Lord says, yeah, but inside you're dead, you're rotting. You're you're you're like a coffin filled with dead men's bones, you look good on the outside, but inside, you're rotten. And you're full of hypocrisy. You're a play actor. That's what that word hypocrisy means. It was people that would get on the stage and they would play a part in a play, and they would have a mask on. And the religious wears a mask that says, oh, you can't see what's in my heart. You can't see the lust in there. You can't see the greed in there. You can't see the idolatry in there because I'm wearing this mask. And you know, they had those little masks on a stick, you know, they'd put them on like that, hold them up to their face. And Jesus said, that's what you guys are doing. You're just play actors.

And you don't realize that the Lord sees the heart. I see what's in there, and you are rotten and you're very far from God. Now, in the King James, it says of the prodigal, he went to the far country. The far country. He went to the Gentile land. He he left the father and he went to a far, far place. Now, the religious brother, he didn't go to a far country. He wasn't far off in proximity to the father as far as outwardly. He was far away from the father inwardly. He didn't have a relationship with the father either. The prodigal, it's obvious he doesn't have a relationship with the father, he takes off. But the brother who stays home, he doesn't have a relationship with the father. He's far away inwardly.

And Jesus said to the Pharisees and scribes in Matthew 15, verse 8, rightly did Isaiah prophesy to you hypocrites, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. What is Christianity? Christianity is all about heart. It's not about checking boxes. It's not about keeping rules. It's about having a heart relationship with God. That's why when Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart. All your strength, with all your mind, all that you have. But the first word is heart. Christianity is a heart relationship. So right off the bat, we find out that the religious crowd, they are sinners of a different stripe.

Guest (Male): You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve today, in part one of the message, Religion or Relationship. Has it touched a tender spot in your understanding of your faith with Christ? Hey, maybe you've been going through the motions and acting the religious part, but in truth, your relationship with him is very distant or nonexistent. You're playing a part of the faithful follower, but it's all in your mind and not in your heart.

Or maybe you're listening today and you have no idea what a relationship with Christ is all about. We want to invite you to go to fromhisheart.org. There's an extensive collection there of materials from Pastor Jeff in different formats that will be a blessing to you and help you understand what being a follower of Christ, a child of God, will mean to you. Again, go to fromhisheart.org, click the Y Jesus link.

And remember today's message, Religion or Relationship, is from the four-lesson series, Sticking Points, Overcoming Obstacles to Faith. You can find out more about that when you go online. Well, that's all of our time today, but we want to offer you a big thank you for listening. And we trust you'll join Pastor Jeff tomorrow for part two of this practical message about the sticking point of religion versus a relationship with Christ. Be with us on Wednesday when Pastor Jeff Schreve shares real truth, real love and real hope from God's heart. Here on From His Heart.