If we aren’t careful, religion will keep us from God. Religion isn’t unimportant. The habits of the Christian life center on Scripture intake, prayer, and fellowship. And God uses each of these important bits of grace to move our transformation forward. But we have a natural tendency to make the religious habit our goal instead of God. Jesus ran into these sentiments often as He dealt with the religious leaders in Luke’s gospel. They saw their sabbath keeping and handwashing as ends in themselves. This caused them to miss opportunities to serve God and love others. They couldn’t see people’s suffering through the demands they expected everyone to meet. They ignored the need for healing and kept demanding that people keep the rules. They had more compassion for their thirsty animals than they had for broken humanity. Jesus offered a warning to hypocrites like them: Not as many of them would be in the kingdom as they wanted to think. The kingdom would start small, but not because only the religious would be there. It would start small because so many religious people wouldn’t make it. They trusted their own self-righteousness instead of the righteousness of Christ. They tried to keep the rules instead of repenting of their rule-breaking. They loved themselves too much to show love for others. And we often think in the same way. We keep the rules, and we condemn those who don’t, often missing the ways they are suffering and need healing. By God’s grace, let’s set aside the hypocrisy of self-righteousness and embrace the compassion of Christ. The same compassion He has shown us through Christ. – Pastor Rory
Sunday at Liberty
9AM: Parable of the Talents–Matthew 25:14-30
10AM: Pastor Rory–A Heart That Loves–Luke 13:10-21 (sermon notes)
6PM: Church Family Meeting
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