Religious People, Stiff Necked and Angry — Shane Idleman

The title is, Religious People Are Often Stiff-Necked And Angry. Now, if you know it, this will step on toes, I know it will. But if you know of any religious people, if you know of any religious people, and at the end of this sermon you'll know what religious people are, get the sermon on your way out and just say, hey, you might want to check this out.

You know, just leave it on the coffee table, just drop it on the front seat of their car, leave it on their desk at work. Because religious people, I actually have a heart for religious people, because I was one.

Religion Versus Relationship With Christ

I'm a good person, I have a Bible, I live in America, I'm good with God. And I actually have ministered to family members, one of them is dying of cancer. And when we talk about this subject, they'll say, well, Shane, I'm good, I'm a Baptist, or I'm a Methodist, or I'm a Catholic, I'm good, but they're religious.

So you don't count on your denomination when you stand before Christ, you count on the cross. You will be able to stand before God and say, because of what Christ did on the cross, I can be allowed into the kingdom of God.

No denomination will ever save you. And that's my concern for some of these churches that are caught in the religious system. There's some here close by our church, there's some in Lancaster, they're religious, they go through a bunch of rules, but they don't have a relationship.

And often religious people are often stiff-necked and angry. And I'm going to draw this from Acts 7, 44, if you have your Bibles, you can turn to Acts 7, 44. But let me just throw this out there as an introduction.

Religion says, I have to follow rules. A relationship with Christ says, I want to follow His plan for my life. Perfect example of this, follow rules, follow rules. I wrote an article, I don't even know if you have it, it might be on entertainment, but we released an article about the Filthy Shades of Grey that's out, that new movie that's out, and there's about 50 ,000 shares of it in four days.

So we're getting lots of Facebook, lots of emails, people are like, that's legalistic, people should have the freedom to do whatever they want. You can't tell people to... See, that's, I have to, I can't go see that movie, oh darn it.

It should be, I don't want to. I don't want to see pornography on the film. I don't want to, I have this desire to follow Christ. So it's not have to, I want to. That's a difference often between religion and relationship.

Because of my relationship with Christ, they're not rules to me, they're the plan for a healthy marriage. And I want to follow those. So religion says, I have to. Relationship says, I want to follow his plan for my life.

Religion says, I have to go to church. And I hear people say that a lot, I have to go to church. No, you don't. You should want to go to church. Here's a good test, time to get offensive right off the bat.

If you're sitting there going, another song? You have a heart problem. Because I, oh, five songs. I hope this guy is not long-winded today. Man, there's something wrong with your heart. Most of us are back there going, why stop the worship?

Let's just keep worshiping. Shane, can you just not give a message today? And that has happened before. That actually has happened before. And at the risk of being repetitive on this, I think it's important.

I actually, there was a second service in Lancaster. I couldn't even come up to preach. We just need to keep worshiping. And somebody actually left upset. They got mad at the other, I came here to listen to a message.

Well, hello, you need worship. You need, you just, you're running from the very thing you need. So if you're saying another song, young adults do this. Because I sit in the back row, oh, I hate this song.

I can't wait to get home and listen to my secular music that feeds my fleshly passions, but I don't like worship. The reason you don't like worship is because your heart is not right in the sight of God.

You need spiritual resuscitation. Because it cries, Abba Father, there's nothing you can do about it. It's just, I love to worship. You'll love to, you love to worship. You should not be bored with worship.

That's a relationship. Religion offers a set of rituals. A relationship with Jesus offers a guiding light. Religion is man's attempt to find God. You search all the religions of the world, and I've read up on a lot of them.

They are attempting to find God somehow. But relationship, or true relationship with Christ is God reaching down to man and saving man. Big difference. Now, Acts 7, 44, boy, let me set this up a little bit.

Because some of you weren't here. Stephen, who was a disciple, early disciple, he's actually the first martyr, was accused of blasphemy. So he's giving this long discourse showing why it's not blasphemy, it's the truth.

Stephen, the Tabernacle, and the Presence of God

And the religious leaders don't like what he's saying. So he's about to finish up. In 7, 44, he talks about the tabernacle in the wilderness. God, this is an interesting concept as well. God would have a tabernacle in the wilderness.

They would enter through this certain area, and then the Holy of Holies is this final place where they would go make sacrifices for the people. That's where God would dwell. That's where his presence would dwell.

So sometimes people think, well, isn't God everywhere? Yeah, but when God's manifest presence shows up, you know it. You know it. You study any revival in church history, and they knew it. God showed up.

It goes from a boring dead service to a service where you don't get home until midnight tonight when God shows up. There's something tangible. His manifest presence, the closer you draw to God, the closer you'll feel that.

So there is something different and distinct. I pray for revival all the time because of this. But then Stephen says in verse 48, however, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands. As the prophet says, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool.

Can you believe that? Heaven is my throne and earth. He puts his feet on earth as his footstool. What house will you build for me, says the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest? Has not my hand made all of these things?

And I thought for a minute, we're going to put up a slide real quick. That's God's... That's where he sits on the... You see yourself there? Can you see your house? You can't even see earth. That's where we are.

God sits on that. And I just got so... He sits on every problem, every situation you're going through. He owns all that. He created all that. So look to the great God. How great is our God? The worship song says it.

Look to him for everything. Not the news, not the government, not this. Oh, what's going on? He created that. He holds all of that together. Every time I see that picture, I go, why don't one of those little stars hit us?

There's billions and billions. And as I'm studying for the debate, just the magnitude, the mathematical equations for all of this to work to support life, the gravitational, it's just amazing. And then you see in the middle, a black hole.

And that black hole is where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. Not even light escapes. They say it's a place of outer darkness. Whoever read that before? Just interesting stuff. So that's your God.

That's his throne. Earth is his footstool. He dwells in... I mean, if we just concentrate on how great our God is, your problem would go from very big to very small. When you focus on who he is. So that's what Stephen is reminding us.

Stiff-Necked Hearts and Resistance to the Holy Spirit

But then Stephen turns his direction in verse 51, and probably he's not trying to win a popularity contest because they've been rejecting God. They've been rejecting Christ. They've been rejecting his message.

He says, you stiff-necked. Uh-oh, you stiff-necked. You know what that is, right? You get your neck, you stiff-necked. You're arrogant, you're proud. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in your heart and your ears.

So uncircumcised, your heart needs to be rent open. It needs to be humble before Lord. Stop stopping up your ears and start listening. God, what do you want to say? Speak, your servant is listening. So he's saying, you don't do that.

You always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.

That time a serpent will get you killed. You stiff-necked people, you religious leaders, you killed Christ, you killed the anointed one, you killed God's Messiah. Everything the angels foretold, you are murderers and the Messiah's blood is in your hands.

What happened? Time to kill this guy, right? Stephen is on a course to being martyred. But let's stop there for a minute. The reason the stiff-necked, the neck reflects the heart often. Think about that, the neck.

You know when somebody, they don't want to get arrested. What, what'd you say? The neck goes back. The gangbangers, right? I won't try that. But you know what they, the neck is up. What'd you say to me?

It's this position of arrogance. But the teachable broken person is God. Just they're broken, they're humbled, they're bent over. They're not stiff-necked. Bowing down and lowering a head is often a mark of humility.

That's why we do it when we worship. Now there's nothing wrong with praising God and you're looking up to God, but a heart that's worshiping is a heart inside that's bowed down, that's humble before God.

And what he's saying here basically is we are stiff-necked when we reject the will of God. So a person who is rejecting the call of salvation, especially in our nation, look, we got Bible apps, we got preachers on TV, we got guys on radio, we've got churches, we've got everything.

You've got the conviction of the Holy Spirit. You've got all these things. You've got friends. And they keep rejecting it. They're rejecting the counsel of God. They're stiff-necked and they're proud and they're arrogant when they're rejecting God's will.

Now bring that into personal application. I believe that we can be stiff-necked when we personally are rejecting God's will. Is there areas sometimes that God is, you know he wants you to do, but you're stiff-necked about it?

Please shake your head yes, because I don't want to be the only one. Stiff-necked, arrogant. And I would encourage you this morning, humble yourself. Humble yourself. Take that stiff neck and turn it into a humble heart.

Circumcise your heart. Remove that fleshly aspect, the heart that is preventing you from hearing from God. Then verse 54, when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart. I bet they were. And then they gnashed at him with their teeth.

It's a grinding of teeth. You ever seen people that angry? Just they're so mad, they're gonna explode. Their face is red and they're just so mad. And I've noticed that when it comes to religious, when it comes to topics like this, that's why they say don't talk about religion or politics.

When you talk about these things, people get very, very mad. They go from very nice to very mad, gnashing their teeth. I remember, you're in Lancaster, for the other people that haven't been here, coming very long, you probably won't, but I was given the privilege, I guess it is, to go to a Mormon bishop's house.

And after about an hour of hearing them, I kind of broke it down. He said, so you're saying that the Book of Mormon is from the devil? Yeah, I think it is. You would have thought you just lit his house on fire.

Get your shoes, get out of my house. Within one, two, within about three minutes, we were out of his house. What happened? You're sitting there, nice, cordial. Let's just dialogue. Sure, you want to dialogue while you're doing all the talking, but then when you challenge him with, here's what the Word of God says, and they gnashed, I mean, he was mad.

He would have killed me if he could. If it was not against the law, I would have been dead. What stirs that? It's that demonic element. The demonic element that's working in an unbeliever's life gets upset when you shine the light of Christ into their eyes.

It's nothing new. So they were cut to the heart, they gnashed with their teeth, but he, Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God. And Jesus, standing at the right hand of God, and said, look, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

This is just like when he says, I saw the glory of God. It's what I mentioned to you before. There is a time, sometimes, the more you press into worship, the more you press into God through fasting and prayer, and as reading his word, he'll start to unfold things.

The glory of God will fall upon your life. It reminds me of Isaiah in the sixth chapter. When it was in the year that King Uzziah died, he said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. The train of his robe, his entire robe filled the temple, and the angels were there singing, holy, holy, holy is our God.

He got a glimpse of God. He was in God's presence. And what did he say? Oh, wonderful. No, he said, oh, man, I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. I'm not worthy to stand in front of your presence.

When God reveals who he is, when you're standing in the presence of God, you are not haughty and arrogant, lifted up. You are broken before him. You see your sin. I mean, if you ever opened your eyes spiritually, and you see the depravity, you have to weep.

And God says, I will fix that problem. I'll touch his lips with the coals that were on the altar representing the sacrifice, and he was made clean before God. But he saw a glimpse. Moses saw God. Paul experienced Christ.

There are times where you will experience the power of God in your life, and that's what was happening here. The closer we draw near to God, the more we will reflect his glory. Glory is radiance. It's nature.

I think it comes from a Latin word that has to do with being renowned, famous. This renowned aspect, this glory of God, it will be reflected in your life. The closer you draw to him, the more you reflect that.

That's why I talk about entertainment often, and I weave it in sermons, because if you're 50 shades of gray versus drawing near, what are you going to look like? What are you going to resemble? What's going to be in your heart?

What are you going to be filled with? You reflect who you spend time with. Also, we see here that Bible preaching cuts to the heart. True Bible preaching will cut to the heart. Yes, it encourages. Yes, it uplifts.

But if it's all about love, which I've talked about often, so I won't take this rabbit trail, even though I'd love to. If it's all about the good things and not the things that cut the heart, change doesn't take place.

Because what happens, it cuts to the heart, and then you point to Christ. It cuts to the heart, and then you point to Christ. It cuts, and then you show the answer. Christ being the answer. So on this, what do you do when you're cut?

What do you do when you're cut, when you're badly wounded emotionally? Are you mad and defensive, stiff-necked, or are you open and teachable? Ouch. When you're cut, are we in defensive mode, or are we open and teachable?

It's interesting, this word here, he says, they were cut to the heart. And then I immediately think of Acts chapter two, when Peter preached his first sermon, and he said, you stiff-necked people, basically, you killed Christ.

You put him on the cross. They were cut to the heart, and they said, Peter, what must we do to be saved? So you have this group, what must we do to be saved? And this other group, we're gonna kill you.

All has to do with the heart. I bet Steve was going, darn it. I wonder what happened with Peter. I wanted all these people to repent and follow God, not be the first martyr, not be stoned. Think about this, he preached the gospel.

They took him somewhere where he was probably down low, and they threw large stones and boulders at him, hit his face, crushed his skull. They were stoned for saying this. And I believe that God allows us to be cut to reveal the heart.

God allows you to be cut to the heart to reveal the heart. And if you're here this morning being cut by a lot of these words, he's wanting to show you what is in the heart. You remember, you ever have little kids, and when a package comes from FedEx, I mean, you have to open it right then, right?

Or you're never gonna, like, Daddy, what, what, what, it came in the mail. What's in it, what's in it? I don't know, I have to cut it open. Same thing, we have to be, when we're cut, it reveals the heart.

My mom used to tell me when I was little, and I didn't like it, because it was usually applied to me. But she would say, when a vessel is struck, what's inside spills out. So when you're cut, does humility and gentleness and meekness and understanding and grace and goodness flow out?

Or when you're cut, does anger and cursing comes from this? And does this come out? And you're like, where did that come from? I'll tell you where it came from. It's what's within. That's why, see, now you're seeing why spending time with God is so important.

In the morning, your devotional time and your worship time. And if you're crying out to God, you spend time with him in the morning or in the evening, whenever, and you're just full of his spirit. When you're cut or when something happens, grace will flow out.

Every, love will flow out because it's been what's coming inside. Now, nobody's ever gonna master this perfectly. But when things happen, what comes out? Here's the best way to do it and not beat ourselves up, is when we're cut, when we're challenged, when we're all these things, what comes out?

What comes out? Is it a consistently anger? Is it consistently cussing? Is it consistently backbiting? If it's consistent, then there's a well there that needs to be dried up and replaced with living water.

Because everybody slips now and then, right? I have not perfected yet when I hit my hand with a hammer to say, glory be to God. Or my kids do something. You little rascals. Get over here, you little guys.

It's what comes out. So just be careful in this area. We're talking about stiff necked and being angry, but it's really what is in is what is coming out. Verse 57, then they cried out with a loud voice.

Stephen convict them, he challenged them. Then they cried out with a loud voice. They stopped their ears and they ran at him with one accord. And they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Saul, Stephen, and the Power of a Transformed Life

Saul right now is the Apostle Paul who has not yet been converted. So Saul hates Christians. Now be encouragement to you who are upset at your past. Not too many people can compete unless you've been killing Christians.

Don't regret or don't let your, it's okay to regret and learn from, but don't let your past stop you from moving forward with what God wants you to do. God will use your past. He used Saul's training and his teaching and his upbringing.

He used all that past to get him where God wanted him to go in the future. So they cast him out of the city. They stoned him. They laid their clothes down at the feet of a young man named Saul. They would probably take off their jackets.

They'd take off their clothing because you can throw a rock a lot harder, right? When you get the stuff off of me and stoning him and Paul, Saul held those things. So they stoned Stephen and he was calling on God saying, Lord, Jesus received my spirit.

Then he knelt down and he cried with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. So Stephen's getting stoned and he says, Lord, do not charge them.

Why? Because he's filled with the spirit of God. When you're filled completely with the spirit of God, overflowing, those are the things that come out. Jesus dying on a cross, just got hit and beat up by his creation says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

Not Father, judge them. Bring the hammer, drop the hammer, get me off this cross. Kill these Romans, kill the Jews, start over. It's this aspect of forgiveness. And I've noticed that a forgiving heart often doesn't have an angry heart.

But when a person holds on to unforgiveness, that will foster anger. Unforgiveness and anger go hand in hand because it's the nature that you're holding on to unforgiveness is that same nature that drives anger.

I'm unforgiving, I'm mad, how could they? I'm angry. It's the same, it's a one-two punch. That's why when the Bible says, don't let bitterness or wrath or anger, all these things, let them be put away from you because God knows it has to do with spiritual healing.

Not to mention the physical benefits. Do you know the physical benefits of being joy-filled and full of the spirit and not having anger, all these toxic emotions that wear the body down? God knows what he's doing when he says, put these things away.

So being receptive is a good indicator of humility since we're talking about anger and pride. Being receptive is a good indicator of humility. Now this should have read, once he convicted them, they cried out to God, they opened their ears and they embraced him.

That's what humility would have done. They were not humble and teachable. Anger is a byproduct of being stiff-necked. But watch out also, I just put this this morning, watch out for false humility because false humility goes around with a facade and just trying to be humble, but really they're not.

They often come, oh, I'm just humble, I'm just meek, I'm just mild, but they are explosive at home or when challenged or when upset. False humility is dangerous as well. Now while we're on this, I thought I might just give you a few facts on anger.

Four Sources of Anger and the Need for the Cross

If you need help in this area, just in case you didn't know, most men do need help in this area and women as well, but mainly I've seen it in men. What you're filled with eventually comes out. We already talked about that.

Stephen was filled with the spirit, but these men were filled with rage even though they were religious. So when it comes to anger, what you're filled with is what's going to come out. Number two, selfishness and pride are the fingers that pull the trigger of anger.

So those things have to be crushed, selfishness and pride. Isn't that why we get upset? Selfishness or pride and it hurts and we get upset and we get angry. Things aren't going according to my plan. I didn't like that to happen.

You're overriding my authority. All these things, selfishness and pride often. Now number three, I was going back and forth on whether I should say this or not, but it's important. If you struggle, if anger is a big deal, watch what you're consuming.

Watch what you give your body. If you drink monster drink, you will become a monster. That high level of caffeine, you are in fight and flight mode. That's what it does. It puts your body, come on, come on.

Yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready now. No, the anger, that just fuels anger. So be careful. Medication, certain things. What we feed our body plays a huge role in what comes out. Why would you give yourself something on an ongoing basis where you're always in fight or flight mode?

You can't relax in traffic. Can't relax when somebody challenges you. Can't relax when the kids get, nothing. Because you're always in fight. I'm so angry, Shane, I need help. God, I need deliverance.

Well, remove all that junk. No, I don't want to do that. Just give me deliverance without the obedience. I always tell people, caffeine, nicotine, all those things that will play a huge role in anger.

And then obviously the fourth one is when we live in habitual sin. What I mean by that is when there's areas that we just keep falling in and falling in and falling in and we walk around as a defeated Christian, are we happy?

Or are we upset? And angry. We're upset and angry because we're trying willpower. I can't overcome this. I can't overcome this. And we just get through life not spirit-filled, not leading people to the cross, not being used of God.

We just walk around angry and defeated. Angry and defeated. They go together, don't they? I'm defeated, I'm angry. I can't read the Bible. How did that happen? How do I keep falling into sin? Why is this?

And we just stay in this cycle of anger and defeat. Anger and defeat. What's the answer? Take it to the cross for the love of God. Take it to the cross. That's the whole point of a message should point back to Christ and the cross.

You take these things, say, when you pray, Lord, I am an angry person. Confession, Lord, I need help. Dependence, Lord, I'm going to work on this. Obedience, confession. Dependence, obedience. You open that.

You say, Lord, help me in this area. I've seen Him change raging men into mild and meek men and women. I've seen God do it. I've seen it. I've seen the dangers of anger. I've seen how it hurts families and destroys marriages.

Ecclesiastics 7 .9. Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit. That's a tough one, right? You feel it ever rising up? You know, it just started in my feet. Now it's in my knees. It's about ready to be right here.

It's coming out. But he says, do not be quickly provoked in your spirit for anger resides in the lap of fools. So when you feel it coming up, do something. Pray. Remove yourself from the situation. Take a drive and put on worship.

You have to offset that. Proverbs 15 .18. A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel. So quick test. Please don't raise your hand. Do you like to stir the pot?

Or do you like to, what it says at the end here, calm the quarrel? Be the peacemaker. Now it's interesting on this peacemaker thing. A .W. Tozer said that God calls us to be a peacemaker, but not a peace negotiator.

You don't have to negotiate the truth and kind of compromise things to make peace. A peacemaker is not a negotiator where they negotiate. They come and they make peace and they help to calm the storm, not increase the storm.

You know those words that trigger, your spouse or family, don't you? Come on, guys. You know how to throw a little bit of fire or no, sorry, a little bit of gasoline on the fire. Let me do a little bit of gasoline over here, a little more gasoline over here.

And then how could you gasoline and why don't you do this gasoline? Well, you're never this gasoline and just constantly doing it. Bible says put that away. This is an interesting challenge in the Bible on these types of things because the Bible says put these things away.

Do not do these things. Put off this. And we're like, but I'm trying, I'm trying. I just can't do it. If you're a believer, you can. If you're a believer, you can do what the Bible commands you to do through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Here's what it looks like. God, I have an issue with anger. I have a problem with anger or there's a situation. I do this quite often. Lord, this is making me upset. Please, God, just show me what to do here.

I'm just gonna just give it a day. I'm just gonna seek you and you just calm that spirit. You just calm that anger. Or you can start dwelling on it, right? You know what, God, you guys are not, you know what I'm saying, right?

Okay, good. You just dwell on those negative thoughts. You just dwell, how could they and why I need to tell them off? I need to give them a piece of my mind and it just keeps increasing and increasing.

And then we get to Acts 8. Now, Stephen is dead. And then Saul, it says, now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time, a great persecution arose against the church, which was in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

Persecution, Evangelism, and the Spirit-Filled Church

So the apostles stayed there, but this persecution began to move the people out. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, who will become the apostle Paul, he made havoc of the church, entering houses and dragging off men and women and committing them to prison.

That's what Paul did. So we see here that Paul was stiff-necked. Paul was saying, how dare you challenge how I was raised and how dare you challenge what I believe? And you'll see that in the church.

Even, I mean, we all get kind of defensive on this, right? When somebody challenges, that's why I think it's hard to get into some of these false cults, false religions in America, because they've been raised in that.

Grandpappy was raised in that. My mom and dad raised me in that. I've been raised in that. We are good people. How dare you now come and say that we are wrong? How dare you stiff-necked and arrogant?

And when I talk to groups like this, often I'll say, what's the Bible say? I mean, well, yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, what does the Bible say? Because see, the truth always invites scrutiny.

The truth always invites scrutiny. A person has a problem with the Trinity, look at the truth. A person has a problem with this, creation, look at the truth. A person has a problem with a prophet in their religion came to receive truth that doesn't line up with Scripture, what does the Scripture say?

It's actually very easy to determine what the truth is if you look at the Scriptures. So Saul, Paul was stiff-necked. How dare you challenge me? How dare you challenge how I was raised, what I believe?

He was taught he was a Pharisee. He was raised up by one of the top Jewish leaders and he knew his stuff. So this is a perfect example of religion versus relationship, isn't it? Look at the Apostle Paul who is well-qualified, Saul back then, well-qualified to preach, well-qualified to tell people about God.

And then here comes Stephen, probably not been a convert very long. I mean, the church, I don't wanna speculate here, but the church is not very old at all. And he's filled with the Spirit, he's preaching a gospel.

Here you have this guy who's a Pharisee, who knows the Bible inside and out, and he's on his way to hell. Had he not been converted, Saul would be in hell. So we see religion versus relationship. Folks, they read the same Old Testament.

Stephen, Paul, they read the same Old Testament. They saw the prophecies in Zechariah. They saw the prophecies in Isaiah. They knew about the Messiah. They had the same thing. That's why religion often looks like relationship, but it's got a blind, it's got a veil on their face.

So they go through the same motions sometimes. They'll say the same things, but it's like a programmed robot of religion and going through the motions of prayer, saying the same things and the same type of things, reading this in Latin, doing this in prayer, and all these things.

It's just the same religious emotion that has nothing to do with relationship with God. Because relationship is on fire for God. It's doing different things. And this is, I want to bring this up. I think it's important because, and you, most of you know my heart, it's not to name these different religions, but I have to, to tell you the difference in what's going on.

Say that the building down the street or other ones in town or other groups that are not big organizations as well, that are not what we consider Christians. They often say, look how structured we are, Shane.

But you guys are all divided in all these different denominations. You've got, right, because living children are living. Dead children are not. Living children need rules, dead children don't. So when they have this form of, every church does the same thing.

We've got this order of events and we do the same thing, the same book of this, the same, the same. We look identical, we look cookie cut. Right, it's religion, not relationship. So when the church is living and vibrant, growing, you've got people exercising gifts of the Spirit here.

You've got different denominations that believe in this. That's why you have the Baptists. They emphasize Baptists. You believe in Pentecost because they emphasize the book of Acts and Pentecostal and charismatic.

Then you have Reformed, where they take their theology from John Calvin and Calvinism and total depravity of man and unconditional election and limited atonement and irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints.

And they have this theology formed around it. And the group, people that believe that will hang out with that group. People that believe charismatic will hang out with that group. People that are non-denominational come here.

And we're all living and vibrant, trying to live the message of the gospel while bringing the message of the gospel out. That's why we're promoting this class is because we're not just, oh, that sounds good.

Let me just go home like that. No, we're here to bring it out to others, to get it out to people who don't know the gospel. If not, we're just getting fat on the gospel. And we need to lose some weight.

How do you lose weight? You get it out, you get it off. That's how you burn calories. All calories are, this is stored energy that I have not used yet. And it's not healthy. Good energy that's stored is not healthy.