What is Your Religion Worth?

Mark 7:31–37 (ESV) ³² And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³ And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.

(MULTILINE REVEAL BIG)

³⁴ And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” ³⁵ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

This particular miracle was evidence to the people that Jesus was really God in a body come to save them.

Isaiah 35:4–7a (ESV) ⁴  Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not!

     Behold, your God will come with vengeance,  with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”

⁵  Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

⁶  then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

(MULTILINE REVEAL BIG)

³⁶ And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷ And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

(MULTILINE REVEAL BIG)

James 1:17–27 (NLT) ²⁶ If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.

• Religion means 

¹⁹ Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. ²⁰ Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.

• Do people know YOU are quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry? 

²¹ So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.

• Filth would have brought up this image

Zechariah 3:3-4 (NIV) ³  Now Joshua [the high priest] was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. ⁴  The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.”

• So “get rid of all the filth” means “get rid of all your sin”

²² But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

• Millions of people today will hear the Word. But how many lives will be different afterwords?
• People want better lives

(MULTILINE REVEAL BIG)

Romans 12:2 (NLT2) Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

• God wants change.

1 Timothy 2:4 (NLT2) [God our Savior] wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.

• But things have to be done.

Romans 10:13-15 (NLT2) ¹³  For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” ¹⁴  But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? ¹⁵  And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

(MULTILINE REVEAL BIG)

You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

• We have to work at this.

John 6:28–29 (ESV) ²⁸ Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” ²⁹ Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

• Believing God is work because to believe means to the extent of complete trust and reliance.

(MULTILINE REVEAL BIG)

James 1:27 (NIV84) Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

• It’s work to believe to the extent of relying on that belief, bhis is how we grow spiritually; it’s how we are formed in the image of Jesus.

(MULTILINE REVEAL BIG)

• But I don’t want to give the impression this is a self-help sermon.

Philippians 2:13 (ESV) for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

(MULTILINE REVEAL BIG)

1 Corinthians 15:10 (ESV) But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning.

Get into the Word regularly.

Know God will speak to you.

He will quicken you to WILL and to DO what he says.

Then do it.

(MULTILINE REVEAL BIG)