Restoration 2018:  Our Picture of God

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Restoration Ministry

Dee Casper

Bad Religion

Father in heaven, I thank you for this privilege to be here, for the privilege to come into your presence.

And I'm just asking now that you administer to each of our hearts, and particularly those of us who've been hurt by religious people or teachings.

I pray that you'd speak clearly and that we would hear your side of the story today.

And we ask this now in Jesus' name, amen.

Some of you may be thinking it's a ban from the 80s.

There's a different bad religion we'll be talking about.

Some of this may be dated for some of you, but it was a big problem back in the 80s and 90s where they would have situations, even what happened in the early 2000s, where a guy who was a famous public speaker and televangelist was found in a hotel room with someone of the same gender who was a prostitute with drugs.

Bad religion, misrepresentations of God by religious people, rich mega church pastors maybe, Folks who just seem to be fleecing the flock to further their smiles or something else, their houses.

I'm sure you've never encountered any of these, but if you have, just in case I put them on the list.

Maybe being pistol whipped with the spirit of prophecy or the Bible.

Someone getting in your case and dropping a thus saith the Lord to let you know just how much of a loser they think you are, if you've ever dealt with situations like that.

By the way, I don't think you're losers and I'm really glad that you're here.

So I just want to make sure that's abundantly clear.

Maybe people wanting having more of a desire to be your conscience than your friend, right?

Maybe the crusty elder in your local church, someone who's just giving you a hard time.

Situations like this where God is poorly represented, right?

Now I remember hearing someone speaking a few years ago and they were telling a story about when they or someone they knew was speaking to a large group of young people and they asked these young people this question.

They said, what's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word Sabbath?

And 1 person raised their hand and their answer was, sit down, shut up, and color.

Because that was what their parents told them every Sabbath was to sit down, shut up, and color, so they clearly had a negative connotation and word association with the word Sabbath, right?

Seemed to have viewed the law negatively and the Sabbath negatively.

Now, what was God's ideal plan for religion?

Ezekiel chapter 36 gives us some insight.

Ezekiel chapter 36, we'll look at this verse a few times.

We already looked at it this past Sabbath.

We're gonna look at it again briefly today, but we'll really start to unpack it Thursday evening.

But Ezekiel chapter 36, I'll begin in verse 22.

His plan was for the nation of Israel to be a light in a very dark place, even where they were located geographically.

The Israelites were located in this perfect trade corridor, basically.

People coming from the north to the south, or from the south to the north, would be coming across Israelites.

And God intended that they would be winsome witnesses.

They would be people that the surrounding nations would think, Man, these people got it together.

The religion is attractive, the God they worship is reasonable, I'm in.

They were the evangelist that God employed to try to reach the world.

In Ezekiel 36, beginning in verse 22, it says, Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, I do not do this, what I'm about to do, for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy namesake, which you profaned among the nations wherever you went.

He's literally saying, look, I have to clean up the mess because you're making the surrounding nations want nothing to do with me.

And I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you profane in their midst and the nation shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God.

He says, when I'm hallowed in you before their eyes.

In short, the surrounding pagan nations will know that I alone am God when you look like Jesus.

They actually hate me because of your example.

And there could be people present today that are just having a hard time with desiring God because you've encountered people that sound like this.

They're making the name of God repulsive to the surrounding nations.

God seems to be distancing himself from this type of religion, and that's exciting to me, right?

That seems to be encouraging to me that if I've encountered crusty people in the name of religion who haven't given the best example of God.

I'm nothing like that I'm not okay with this and that brings encouragement to my soul and then God begins to explain in the next verses How he's going to do that and he's basically going to transform these people's lives through the power of the gospel, right?

Through an encounter with a new covenant, with the Holy Spirit transforming their lives, giving them new hearts, filling them with the Spirit, and then they treat the people around them vastly differently.

This is what God always wanted and it's what he's still wanting.

But a question could be, is it possible for someone to be redeemed from bad religion?

Can that crusty elder in my church really find a new experience and stop hurting our visitors when they come in?

When they don't have the ability to dress any nicer than what they have.

Maybe you've been in situations like this.

Or are they just going to be a continual problem?

Which, by the way, they're sincere as the day is long.

Every 1 of these individuals who are causing harm in the name of religion, it's not because they're horrible people and don't want people to love God.

They have a zeal for God, but Paul says it's not according to knowledge.

They just don't know how to channel this zeal.

They want people in heaven, and they want people to be saved.

We need to make sure that we don't make enemies of these individuals.

They're just misguided in how they're going about it.

They just need to know how to channel this zeal.

Well, in Acts chapter 26, the apostle Paul tells his testimony of what happened to him.

Now, before Jesus got a hold of Paul, what was he like?

He was bad religion to the nth degree, right?

If he found people who didn't want to worship God like he worshipped them, he sought them out and was going to kill them, right?

This is the extreme of bad religion in that sense.

But he's telling his testimony to King Agrippa, and this is how he tells it, beginning of verse 12.

While thus occupied as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O King, along the road, I saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun shining around me and those who journeyed with me.

And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting my people?

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Bad Religion

Transcript

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

The Conservative & Liberal Line

35m

When the Truth Stagnates

19m

Divine Assurance

The Man in the Shadows

1h 43m

The Three Angel's Messages

01 Wandering In The Wilderness

1h 20m

Surprise Attacks, Part 2

1h 16m

A God Worth Knowing

02 The Problem of Evil: Does God Care?

59m

Identity Theft

4. Lessons From 1888

1h

Experience The Power

It’s My Fault

54m

07 In Verity

51m

Prepare to Meet thy God

1- What Is the Church?

1h 36m

The Sanctuary, God's Answer to the Sin Problem

Why Jesus Waits

1h

What If It's Better?

Bad Religion

36m

Sound Doctrine