God Only Wants Living Sacrifices!

Judges 11:29-40 ²⁹ Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. ³⁰ And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, ³¹ whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

³² Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. ³³ He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.

³⁴ When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. ³⁵ When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.”

³⁶ “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. ³⁷ But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.”

³⁸ “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. ³⁹ After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.

From this comes the Israelite tradition ⁴⁰ that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

Our Pastor has been doing sermons from the book of Judges for over a month and they’ve all been really good. I especially liked his sermon from the above verses because I would never have gotten the meaning he did myself.

First of all he said that this vow was pagan. Jephthah was saying to God that he had something God needed and God had something he needed. So let’s make a deal!

God doesn’t need anything from us. What He does for us is for His own purposes and because He loves us.

Next, Jephthah was “Canaaniazed”. He was more influenced by the idol worshipping culture then the knowledge that he was supposed to be a light to them!

He also didn’t now God’s character or His will. All he had to do was read Deuteronomy 18:10 to know that God said “do not sacrifice your children!”

And he hadn’t taught his daughter the character of God either because she said “if you promised God then you must do it.” (my paraphrase.)

Then finally; no one stopped him. And this is really important for us because how often don’t we speak up when someone has a wrong belief. Or is worshipping idols. It’s easier to just let them. But we can’t do that.

We too are called to be lights.

Jesus, The Final Sacrifice

There are 350 references to blood in the Bible. There are almost 300 uses for the word sacrifice. Blood sacrifice is central in God’s plan to forgive His people for their sins. All of this points to the final sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

At the very beginning God had perfect fellowship with Adam and Eve. He gave them only one boundary: do not eat the fruit of one specific tree in the garden. He told them if they ate this fruit, they would die. This is important – the wages of sin is death.

They didn’t need to eat the fruit. Everything they needed was provided for them. But they did, and then were embarrassed when they looked at each other and realized they were naked. And the sin changed their relationship with God too. When He came into the garden, instead of running to Him, they hid.

God slaughtered innocent animals to make clothing to cover their nakedness and shame. Adam and Eve had never seen death before this. Never seen blood. This was a foreshadowing of an innocent third party killed for someone else. They saw that sin was very serious. Sin is a violation of the holiness of God.

The Jews made all kinds of sacrifices over and over and over.

Even pagan people used animal sacrifices to placate an angry god. They figured if they did something bad and a god had any concern for what was right or just, that sooner or later they were going to get in trouble for what they had done. To stop the god from being angry with them they decided they needed to offer him or her a sacrifice. If it was a small sin, it would be a small sacrifice. If it was a big sin it would be a big sacrifice.

So ancient religions understood sacrifice. Later they should have been able to understand the concept of Jesus as a sacrifice when it was presented to them.
But in pagan rituals, sacrifices were made by the people trying to placate a god and this was their error. In Christianity it is never the people who take the initiative or make the sacrifice. It is God who makes the way by which His wrath may be averted. And He did it because He loves us so much. “For God SO LOVED the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.”

What trips people up in understanding this, is it’s not the act (the sacrifice) that wipes out our sins. It’s the fact that God said that the act would do this and we BELIEVE Him.

We were told about the perfect sacrifice in Isaiah 53:1-7. The sacrifice would not be a lamb, but a person. And he would free people from their sins and save them from judgment. Hundreds of years later when John the Baptist saw Jesus in the crowd, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” He was telling us that Jesus is the ultimate Lamb, the innocent third party who would shed His blood as the payment for sinful people.

Jesus’ crucifixion was no accident. It was planned since the beginning of time. He went willingly. And He did it for us. He paid a great price. Anytime we think we have to do something to get saved, we take away from what Jesus did.

Making Great Sacrifices Conclusion

Later, God sent Jesus to show us His compassion. Jesus reached out to the people. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and brought back the lost. Spoke to their broken society. He gave Himself to them. He was compassion in action. Then He taught the disciples how to be that way.

One of his lessons was the parable of the servant who owed his superior a great deal of money, which he didn’t have to repay. And the superior wiped the ledger clean. But, then the forgiven man went to his friend who owed him a much smaller amount of money and demanded it. Jesus basically taught that this was unacceptable behavior. That those who benefited from the compassion of God ought to begin to discover a compassionate spirit within themselves.

The compassion of God is the very basis of our existence, our redemption and our survival.

So what’s stopping us? Well, some people don’t want to be taken advantage of and they worry about the con artists out there. Others worry about becoming a doormat. Still others feel like people in need are just lazy and to give them a hand out is the worst thing you can do.

But, Jesus simple said, “If you have been shown compassion (and we have) then you need to show it too.”

One of the things that most moved Jesus to tears was when He looked at people and saw how lost they were in spite of their potential. People are created in the image of God and still just don’t get it. If they would ask, God would come and live inside of them and be a refuge and a help. But, they don’t ask.

Compassion starts with an emotional response, then by a commitment to activity. Some of our time, energy and resources will need to be consumed. We can’t just say, “Oh that’s too bad.”

The story of the Good Samaritan was Jesus’ example of how it should be. The Good Samaritan went out of his way for the other man. It’s a longing to meet other people at their point of need in Jesus’ name. It’s wanting to be the means by which God answers their prayers and longing.

Jesus told us the story of the Good Samaritan to remind us of all the people around us who are hurting. The number 1 enemy of kindness is busyness. The Samaritan wasn’t too busy. He didn’t stop and consider if he had time to help or what he would get out of it. He just did it. It’s a fact of history that the Romans confused the Greek word Christos (Christ) with the word chrestos, which means kind.

When Abraham left his home to obey God he didn’t know all the joy and riches God would increasingly give him. He didn’t know where he would end up. He just knew the direction of his next step. And that there was no going back.

God has blessings, joy, love and fulfillment in store for those who fully respond to Him, which far exceed our expectation when we first set forth deliberately to commit ourselves to receive His promise by faith and to follow where He leads in complete obedience at any cost. But, we can’t experience it until we take the first step in faith.

Abraham was promised a blessing, but was also called to be a blessing to others. We are called to be a blessing to our family, our church, our workplace and our neighborhood too. Abraham’s blessings were not only to himself and his ever-increasing family, but also to generations. Our lives can be a blessing to future generations also.

When we start to live life on purpose. When we stay focused on God. We too can live lives that reach into eternity.

Making Great Sacrifices Part 6

The 2nd thing we should have if we are living a sacrificial life is a Servant’s Spirit:

In Matthew 20: 28 Jesus says, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.” And He wanted that attitude to develop in His disciples.

The key word is develop. The attitude of desiring to be served as opposed to wanting to serve doesn’t come naturally. Jesus had to tell us its better to give than to receive because we are born receiving.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church and complimented them on being a model church. Then he described their secret. “You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven.” Turn to God. When we become a Christian, that’s what we do. We demonstrate a desire to have a relationship with God, and then we begin to draw from Him what He offers and move constantly closer to Him. When we turn to God, certain things happen. First, we turn from idols. We can’t serve both. We must also serve Him well. Lots of people turn to God as a last resort. Their lives are a mess and they’ve tried to fix it themselves, but can’t. So they finally come to Him to fix what’s wrong. Which is ok, but then they have to do their part and quit treating God like a Genie in the sky and realize we exist to serve Him.

When we share the gospel with people in need we can’t leave that part out. To do this we have to concentrate on who God is, in all His majesty and wonder. Then we can show needy people how to come to Him, in glad submission with an overwhelming desire to honor Him.

The verse I mentioned earlier is Colossians 3:23-24. And the whole thing is “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” This doesn’t mean we have to get a job in the church. Whatever someone’s occupation is, and that includes housewife and mother, so long as it is compatible with God’s holiness, there’s an opportunity, by the person’s demeanor, by their commitment, faithfulness, energy and the way they go about their task, to serve God in any situation.

Getting up and thanking God for a new day. And at the end of the day, saying, “Lord, this is what I did today. I trust I brought you honor: I served You in my situation today.”

We not only serve God, we serve the Christian community. Paul tells us in Galatians 5:13 to serve one another in love. What would it be like to belong to a church where every member said, “Here I am, Lord, ready to serve You by serving my brothers and sisters in the community”?

When people stop sitting in the pew saying, “They’re not meeting my needs.” And start saying, “Whose needs can I meet?” Then the servant spirit flourishes in a congregation and you’ve got a church on fire!

Each of us needs to identify the way we are serving God. We need to identify the ways we are serving the church. This is our calling.

Many of us feel that society in general and the government in particular owe us something, when in actuality we owe our loving service to the world in the name of Christ. That’s the Christian attitude. It’s a free choice to make, but a necessary one to live out the Gospel. It’s a privilege to belong to God and also a responsibility to be called a Christian.

Paul said in Acts 27:23, “God whose I am and who I serve.” He said this while his ship was sinking in the Mediterranean. Things weren’t going well right then, but he kept his eyes on God.

God does have a plan. And it’s that one day Jesus will be acknowledged as Lord of all. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess Him as Lord. When that happens God will be recognized on the cosmic scale to all. That’s where we’re headed. That’s the future that Scripture gives us.

But, God has a personal plan for our lives too. Like the line in the old hymn: “There’s a work for Jesus that only you can do.” Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:17, “Do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”

In Colossians 1:9 he prays that believers will be filled “with the knowledge of His will.” Yet most Christians, if you ask them, say they don’t know God’s will for their life.” It’s possible that people like living this way because if it became clear they might have to do it! J

God’s will is excruciatingly practical. Here’s how it works: 1. God has a plan for my life. 2. God made me 3. God’s not stupid.

Therefore! God must have made me fundamentally ideal for what He wants me to do. So instead of waiting for organ music and lights flashing from the sky and a big voice booming out your name, he suggests getting a piece of paper and making a list of how God made you. Write down your abilities, your likes and dislikes and your experiences. Have someone who knows you well look at it. Then start to look for things that need to be done, that fit the kind of person you are. Then do them!

You may not do it well in the beginning, but don’t let that stop you. Do it the best you can and you’ll get better. If you continue to do it badly, eventually someone’s going to say, “For heaven’s sake, let me do it!” and either way, somebody discovers God’s plan! J

We’re not meant to be spectators in church. We’re not meant to put the Pastor on a pedestal because he’s the only one who can do God’s work. The church needs people with a servant spirit channeled into a sense of God’s purpose.

And not just the local church’s need, but also the world’s need. Jesus is going to ask us what we did on earth some day.

Making Great Sacrifices Part 5

More from my lesson from Chip Ingram's Book: Good to Great in God's Eyes: 10 Practices Great Christians Have in Common

One thing we should have if we are living a sacrificial life is an attitude of gratitude.

1 Cor.15:1-10: Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

9For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

The apostle Paul gives us insight into Christian motivation in verse 10 when he speaks about the grace of God. First he says “by the grace of God, I am what I am” and then he adds that God’s grace is not without effect. He says, “I worked harder than all of them.” And finally “not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”

If you remember, Paul actually killed Christians before he met Christ. God changed him and he had a lot to be thankful for – that God could use someone like him. So he’s grateful for God’s grace and then he’s motivated to work hard for God’s kingdom.

God is the creator and can deal with people as He chooses. He could punish us for our sins, but He’s given us a way out. Personally I don’t want God to be “just” with me. I want His mercy and grace! Justice means we get what we deserve. Mercy means we don’t get all we deserve and grace gives us what we don’t deserve.

God has figured out how to deal with us on the basis of all 3 at the same time. Paul says in Romans “the wages of sin is death”. If we were to get all we deserved, and admit our sin, we would get death. Thankfully God devised a way where He could give us what we deserve, but mercifully give it to us in a way that wouldn’t destroy us. He put us “in Christ” and when Christ was crucified, according to Paul, we were crucified with Him. But then God raised us up into newness of life with Christ and made us His children and gave us eternal life. A home in heaven. The Holy Spirit. He committed all of us to ministry and gave us the privilege of living now for His glory.

So Paul gets this. And in effect he says I can’t believe it! Me of all people! Invited by God to live this kind of an experience! Not because of who I am, not because of what I’ve done, but solely because of who God is and who I am in Christ.

Paul didn’t want this grace to be wasted on him. He worked harder than all of them because he understood what he’d been given.

The word for grace in Latin is gratia, from which gratitude also has its roots. That’s the key here. Grace is the root from which gratitude grows. When we really get this, it will keep us motivated. When we do God’s work we will often be overlooked, misunderstood, discouraged and maybe even tempted to quit, but we have an inner motivating power in us that has nothing to do with the reaction of people around us. We work “as if unto the Lord”. We do everything for His sake. We express our gratitude to God by doing wholeheartedly what He has told us to do in the Bible.

And Paul does this. You know God had Peter be the apostle to the Jews. He had Paul become the apostle to the Gentiles. Paul, Mr. True Blue Jew who had never associated with Gentiles before was told by God that they were to be his mission field. Must have been hard to swallow!

But, Paul did a great job. Even when they beat him up over and over. And threw him in jail. He just continued to give and give and give. Why? Because the Gentiles were so great? Or so worthy? No, because he was doing it as if unto Jesus Christ.

God’s power keeps us going. He gives us the Holy Spirit who gives us His own gifts, the fruits of the spirit. Those 2 things, the Holy Spirit and His gifts, enable us to do what God wants us to do.

God doesn’t tell Paul to be an apostle to the Gentiles without first giving him Holy Spirit. He doesn’t tell Paul to be a great writer of theology without giving him a mind that could grapple with theology. There is no such thing as an ungifted Christian. And we’re all different from each other. It’s like electricity. Plug in a microphone and it amplifies your voice. Plug in an air conditioner and it cools off the building. Plug in an organ and you get music. Same power. Different results. Every believer has the Holy Spirit and He’s the electricity of God. But, with our individual gifts, different things are going to happen when we plug in.

We’re given these gifts so we can do what He’s called us to do: enthusiastically and thoroughly: express our gratitude. If our church isn’t dynamic we might be trying to motivate people the wrong way. The only way truly successful Christians can be consistently motivated is to be constantly in touch with what it means to be a recipient of the grace of God.

Making Great Sacrifices Part 4

Continuing my lesson from Chip Ingram's Book: Good to Great in God's Eyes: 10 Practices Great Christians Have in Common

Romans 12:1 – In view of God’s mercy. Our sacrifice in living a Christian life is a grateful response that acknowledges the worthiness of God for all He has done for us.

Romans 12:2 - We have to start living in God’s way first and then we will begin to learn how good it really is and what His will for us is. We first step out in faith and then God will “grow us.”

I read somewhere that “Real religion is to draw our strength from God in order to give it to others. Real religion means taking our own needs to God – not so we get peace and quiet and undisturbed comfort, but so that we may be enabled graciously, effectively and powerfully to meet the need of others.”

Are you doing anything for Christ, who did everything for you?

Chip explains how in Romans Paul lays out a logical progression of what happens. Chapters 1–3 show we all have a problem with sin, but God solved that thru the gift of Jesus on the cross. Chapters 4-5 talk about how to receive that gift by faith. Chapters 6-8 tell by how dying with Him one is raised with Him to new life and now lives in the power of His Spirit. Chapters 9 -11 answer the question of Israel – how salvation relates to the Hebrews. And then chapter 12 is “now what” In light of all that God has done – how does He want us to live.

He has unconditional love for us - Great Christians know they don’t have to earn God’s favor. We are unconditionally loved by Him. We can’t do anything to make Him love us more – or less!

Our sacrifice comes not from a sense of duty, but gratitude. God doesn’t look at the size of our gifts, but the size of our sacrifice.

Chip gives an example of a 10% tithe with different incomes – how someone who makes $20,000 and gives $2000 as a tithe is really giving a lot more than someone who makes $200,000 and gives away $20,000.

He says that for the one with the higher income 10% is a gift – not a sacrifice.

People who make great sacrifices don’t think they deserve special treatment or a great reward” they’re just doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Chip said “if you want to be a good Christian, sacrifice everything. If you want to be a great Christian, sacrifice everything with passion.”

Making Great Sacrifices Part 2

We’ve heard over and over “If you want to know what you really love, all you have to do is notice where you’re giving your time, your energy, your money and your dreams. It might be your spouse, kids, jobs, hobbies, self…” All of these things we’ve allowed to get in the way at one time or another.

Chip Ingram, in his book, Good to Great in God's Eyes: 10 Practices Great Christians Have in Common says we should spend time thinking about what some of those things are. And we should ask God to highlight one area of our life that is not fully surrendered to Him. And pray for surrender and then do it.

He also says we need to grasp how love and worship were intertwined in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. That if we don’t grasp the nature of the relationship between them, we miss both the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice for us and the appropriate depth of our discipleship.

The book of Leviticus is the instruction book for Israel’s priests on how to lead the nation in worship. It talks about all the sacrifices they needed to be offering to God: sin offerings, guilt offerings, faith offerings, thanksgiving offerings.

God was training His people through the sacrificial system. Every sacrifice in the Old Testament pointed to Christ’s ultimate one – the once and for all one. All the sacrifices in the Old Testament had to be done and re-done; over and over. People had to understand; that access to God demanded sacrifice. Our sins needed to be covered. And that fellowship with God grows through sacrifice.

In this section, Chip used the story of Abraham and Isaac. And he had a good thought we should take notice of: “Abraham did what great Christians do, even when they don’t understand why or feel like they can: he obeyed.”

And he said, it’s best to obey early.

Sometimes God just wants us to show our willingness to sacrifice. He’s not proving it to Himself. He always knows what’s on our hearts. He wants us to realize it and admit it and be willing to show it and act upon it. This tells us that our attitude and hearts are important to God.

Chip says God periodically tests us for the singularity of our devotion through sacrifice. How tightly do we hold a relationship, a possession, a dream, a job? And he says it will hurt. The willingness to give it up won’t be easy. That’s why it’s called a sacrifice. Because a sacrifice isn’t a sacrifice unless it’s a sacrifice! But, it will demonstrate to you and others where your true love rests.

He said if that sounds cruel to us, we should know that God tests us out of His own goodness and mercy. He says good people left unchecked with good things overtime will drift away from God and the most important thing will deteriorate. So the tests for us to give up the stuff that gets in the way keep us close to Him.

God’s goal in our lives is to make us like His Son. In order for us to get there, there are a lot of rough edges that need to be filed. A lot of character development worked out. A lot of humbleness worked in.

Chip wrote though: if we really understand who Jesus is, if we really grasp the depths of His goodness and compassion, we realize that He only asks us to leave everything behind because compared to Him “everything” is second rate.

I've told the story of The Plastic Pearls in many Sunday School lessons: I'll tell it in the next post.

Good to Great – Making Great Sacrifices

I’m back teaching from Chip Ingram’s book,Good to Great in God's Eyes: 10 Practices Great Christians Have in Common

This is from the chapter “Making Great Sacrifices.” As I do with all my lessons, I’ve pulled in other information from various other places of things I’ve learned and read along the way.

Jesus said in Luke 14:33, “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

I think that one statement is a big part of the reason some people don’t want to become Christians. It’s their biggest fear. That God will ask them to give up all the fun stuff, all their money, all their comfortable things. Maybe some of their friends and activities… They don’t turn their lives all the way over to God because they’re afraid He’s going to zero in on that one thing they really want to hang on to and ask them to get rid of it.

And He might.

But, God isn’t in the business of asking us to do things we hate. He designed each of us uniquely. He gave us interests and talents and passions and personalities that are perfect for us to use in the body of Christ for His purpose. And using those things, knowing you are square in the middle of God’s will is the best thing in the world. God’s will is never bad for us.

But, following Him does almost always require giving something up. Following Jesus, picking up the cross; means we do have to become selfless. That it won’t be all about me anymore. That we’ll put Him first – His plans - His kingdom. We are not a disciple if following Him isn’t our top priority. And that does require absolute sacrifice.

But, listen to this:

Mark 10:29 -30 - "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life”

What the non-believers don’t understand is – when they fall in love with Jesus – pleasing Him, living for Him – isn’t really a sacrifice. It will be something they want to do and something they enjoy doing.

Bible verses about Sacrifices

Psalm 27:6 “I will sacrifice with shouts of joy.” – praise God in our trials.

Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.” – acknowledge we are sinners, repent and be grateful for God’s mercy.

Romans 12:1 “Be living sacrifices.” – give God all of us!

Ephesians 5:2 – “Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” - live like Christ.

Phil. 4:18 – “I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.” - use our money to help God’s workers.

Hebrews 13:15-17 – “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.” - Praise God and respect people placed in authority.

1 Peter 2:5 – “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” - Be part of the church.

Sun shining through the rain makes the rainbow. Spiritually, when a Christian consciously sees the smile and love of God in the midst of present trouble, then the true glory and beauty of that Christian’s life is revealed to the world. Trust His promises. Don’t waste a suffering!

Hypocrites!

In Isaiah 1:11,14 God says, “I have had enough of burnt offerings…your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates.”

What’s THAT all about?

Didn’t He spend most of Exodus and Leviticus telling Moses and the Israelites in minute detail about what festivals they should celebrate and how? What burnt offerings they should be making? What grain offerings? What peace offerings?

So why is a God who never changes telling them He now hates those things?

It is because although the people claimed to be close to God, they were really disobedient and just going through the motions. Religion had become routine instead of real. And God knew that.

Just like He knows today who is coming to church to really worship Him… and who is just coming. Who is singing hymns of praise… and who is just singing.

Jesus quoted Isaiah’s condemnation of Israel’s hypocrisy when He spoke to the Pharisees in Matthew 15:7-9, “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said: this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”

The key is faith not works.

Being a descendent of Abraham. Living in the Promised Land. Having trusted God at one time. None of these were good enough. We need to have faith in God. A personal relationship. That is why we are set apart. Ask yourself; are you relying on your Christian heritage? The rituals of worship? Past experience? Or do you have faith that puts you in a right relationship with your Heavenly Father?

God expects our belief in Him to penetrate all areas of our conduct and to extend to all people and circumstances. Amos 9:13-15