Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Welcome to the Life Refresh podcast. My name is Ryan Robinson, and if you are looking for a podcast that is designed to uplift, encourage and revive your heart, mind, and spirit, you're in the right place. Welcome to the journey of Becoming the version of You God designed from the foundations of the earth. Now let's begin. Hello ladies and gentlemen. This is Ryan Robinson back again at Back Again with the Life Refresh Podcast. I'm excited to finish conversation that we had around religion and relationship. Uh, two things that you don't necessarily are synonymous, um, when it comes to spirituality, but these are some things that do come up in conversation in regards to, uh, what is religion, not having a religion, and then what does it mean to those who do? And then those that do, how do they continue to maintain it even though they may have times when life happens or circumstances.
Speaker 0 00:01:05 For example, a pandemic decentralizes scatters people and messes up their regular routine Sunday. And what does that do? So I'm gonna pick up a little bit on the re religion part. I'm gonna do a quick synopsis and debrief of what that was and our, what we talked about, um, just getting right into it. Uh, religion in itself, and by the way, I should have prefaced all of this, that I don't consider myself a religious person. Yeah, you, you, you, the preacher that is on the podcast said that he's not religious affiliated with a particular denomination of spirituality. But me, myself, I don't really consider myself a religious person. And I hope at the end of this one, you'll understand why. But two, also be intrigued in some cases to kind of understand what that means for you. Um, so religion by definition is a belief in a God or group of gods, or system of beliefs and ceremonies, uh, and rules, I'm gonna say that again.
Speaker 0 00:02:06 It's an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a God or a group of gods. And again, these beliefs are held tightly to a particular group of people. Um, what's interesting about this is that religion is a set of beliefs and is focused on what can one do to please God so that they don't face punishment or wrath. This is the part that I think challenges everyone because most of the time in particular, we talked about the 10 Commandments, um, and again, those 10 commandments and we went in depth a little bit on what the law is and all those kinds of things. But the thing is, it, it, it is really hard to, some of them are really easy to avoid <laugh> cuz they're very, very drastic. Like, thou shall not commit murder. That's kind of a, uh, that's a easier one <laugh> to avoid.
Speaker 0 00:03:08 But there are some other ones that, you know, not coveting your neighbor's, um, material and, uh, keeping the Sabbath day holy. Uh, those are some things that are in itself hard to do, some again, easier than others, but still a challenge in itself. And the thing is, the problem with any law or any kind of system of thinking or belief is that once you've broken it, you've broken them all. There isn't one thing, no one says you've broke the speeding ticket law. You've broken the law if you get pulled over and are caught going above the speed limit at a certain, uh, mile per hour. So you are breaking the law. No one ever says which law people just know you got pulled over at the end of the day, you broke the law. And that law could be comprised of one to 10 to 20 things that could have, uh, caused you to get pulled over.
Speaker 0 00:04:06 At the end of the day. It could have been that you were speeding in a, in a, uh, construction zone. You didn't turn your signal on when you were trying to make a left turn. There could been some, any line, honestly, any kind of issue or challenge that could have kept you from getting to your destination ticket free. But if we've broken the law, we've broken it. And religion keeps that kind of score card that if you don't do the things necessary to be in good standing or right standing with God, you are therefore disqualified, not wanted, um, written off in many cases. And that is, uh, uh, what really makes people get away from it because we have so much shame around not being all that we can be or what we are supposed to be. We know what we need to do. We know what's right, we know what's wrong.
Speaker 0 00:05:08 And the hardest thing for people to do is to get it right, try to get it right, and then still get it wrong. I'm gonna say that again. The hardest thing to do is try so hard to get it right and still get it wrong. And I, it, it is something that I feel that many people, particularly in my generation or maybe generations beforehand, begin to have questions of, does God still love me even though I can't, uh, if I have this problem, if I have this challenge that I I I continue to go down this path even though I've done my hardest. I've done my homework, I've read the research, I've put a plan in place, and I still after all my effort and I'm am unable to pull myself together and be religion does that to us. And in fact, you know, religion has a way of exposing the things that we can't do.
Speaker 0 00:06:05 Now, this is the thing. There's nothing in itself. Religion brings us to the end of ourselves because there's some rules and things that we just can't do without God. Um, like I said, I brought up the 10 Commandments, but there's more, there's more things that you cannot do separated from God in many cases. And that's one of the reasons why God gave, gave the law, was that man had to be in a certain circumstance and understanding that, you know what, as much as I ha as much as I try how hard I work, my work is as filthy rags as the word says. Until we have someone who can be a substitute for us in our challenges and our lack of being able to complete the demands that have been put on us, that will satisfy the judgment of God. And, um, Jesus, I believe is the perfect instance to that.
Speaker 0 00:07:01 So with all that being said, we have all of these things that we've put on ourselves as far as what you can't wear, what you can't do, what you can't say, what you can't watch, what you can't hear. The thing is, there's things that say you couldn't. Again, no one's saying you can't, probably a good deal for your soul <laugh> if, if you don't listen to certain things or watch a certain film or certain shows. But at the end of the day, no one's making you do anything. It's a decision. But a lot of things, when it comes down to biblical or any kind of thing, there isn't any word or anything like that that keeps you or demands from you, these kinds of things. So religion really sets up rules, rituals, deposition oneself to be correct. And I talked about a few groups found in the Bible like pharisees, sades, and zealots and sins, which did these people, groups did their best to make themselves relevant, knowledgeable in all things concerning the law.
Speaker 0 00:08:04 But they missed Jesus when he showed up on the case because he didn't show up the way that they intended or way they thought he would. And this brings us to relationship and relationship is dealt with in the form of Jesus Christ. Okay? Um, and relationships. So let's, in keeping the definitions, uh, together, let's look again at Miriam Webster's definition behind the word relationship. Uh, the first definition, the way in which two or more people, groups, countries, et cetera, talk to behave toward and deal with each other. Okay? Another definition, the way in which two or more people or things are connected, okay? So a relationship with God involves accepting Jesus, Christ's Lord and Savior and having a personal relationship with him. Most people hear this and like, what does that mean? Okay? And I'm just gonna make it real quick, understanding of salvation and what that means from a context of Christianity.
Speaker 0 00:09:18 Um, Christianity is founded, um, on the basis that Jesus Christ, which where Christianity comes from, uh, or Jesus, the anointed. That's what Christ means. Anointed is believed to be the son of God. Therefore, him being the son of God is the gateway by the name of Jesus. The Bible says, by the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Now what does that mean, Lord, if we're looking at the historical word of Lord, Lord is a phrase by which someone or something is, has power, authority, or influence over something. So the thing is what we're saying when we say Lord, is that means you are over me. You have submitted your life or your, or areas of your life over to a higher authority, which is God. Now, why do we mention Jesus? Jesus is believed to be the human representation of God on earth.
Speaker 0 00:10:32 He is the godman. He is both fully God and fully man, who is God enough to do miracles, heal the blind, open the ears of the deaf, uh, heal supernaturally in many different ways, but also human enough to be able to connect with our frailties, to understand sorrow, to understand frustration, to understand pain, to understand sacrifice, to understand hunger. The Bible says we do not have a high priest who has not been aware of our infirmities. He knows and has experienced, he's walked in our flesh again. We believe by faith that he is, that Jesus is who he says he is, and that he was resurrected on the third day, which we celebrate as Easter to be seated at the right hand of the Father after being crucified. So Jesus is the perfect example of what relationship looks like to us with God. Okay? So that is why we needed a blueprint in order to understand what it looked like.
Speaker 0 00:11:43 So Jesus, Jesus' name, he has a name that's been given to him that has authority over all things because he is indeed the son of God. That's why people say when they, they pray in Jesus name is a name that has authority above every name in the earth. So therefore, we use that name in prayer because we're not going under the authority of Ryan cuz I don't have no authority, <laugh> not in the things that Jesus has as a representative of God in the earth. I don't have that kind of authority. You might be able to use my name in different places, but when you're talking about healing, when you're talking about, uh, deliverance, when you're talking about being connected to people in a natural, supernatural way, in a natural way, you can't do that apart from God. And Jesus is the bridge by which we have this relationship.
Speaker 0 00:12:37 So Jesus being the God man has sent Jesus to save us from our sins. And when we get saved, we are reconciled to God. Meaning we are made righteous with God and we cannot have a relationship with God without accepting Christ. So this is the thing, the only effort that one has to do is to accept Christ as Lord and Savior in order to be right with God. Period, point blank. That's it. That is it. It is not of your works. It is not your list of accolades, it is not the many hours of volunteering that you've done. It has nothing to do with the work that you do, but has everything to deal with, or excuse me, everything to do with the work that Jesus did on the cross on your behalf. And the thing is, it is God's willingness that he loved us so much to give us an opportunity to come back to him.
Speaker 0 00:13:39 John three 16 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that who so ever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Period. Y'all, whether you got saved 20 years ago or you got saved today and confessed to Jesus' Lord and Savior, that's it, y'all. That is the only thing that builds you back into relationship with God, right? Standing, right standing with God. Now the thing is, after that, there's a process I talked about earlier. We confess and believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, right? So that is in the book of Romans. Um, if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, that God, excuse me, if you believe, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the den, you shall be saved.
Speaker 0 00:14:40 Actually, let me run that back. Okay? Here's here it is, Romans 10, verse nine. Inten says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Period point blank is that simple. Then the parts of that, as you're growing and learning about God, you will start to awaken the spiritual being inside of you because now it is connected back to the source. You'll start to change your life. There's gonna be some habits that get really hard to continue to do now that you have an awareness of God in your life. And then there's this piece called giving your life over to the Lordship portion, uh, which which is called, um, sanctification becoming like God, which is an own process as your entire life.
Speaker 0 00:15:44 There's some things that I used to do being a high hot tempered individual, uh, believe it or not, <laugh>, um, that I don't do anymore. And it's because of continued revelation of God and fruits of time and study and discipleship and all kinds of things, right? So some of the things that are not good for us, we allow us to, well, God will allow us to re release those unto him. And, uh, again, it's real. I know it sounds so easy, it sounds super comp. It doesn't sound complicated at all. In fact, it is that simple to get started. Um, another scripture. It's says Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 21 says, for he, God made him Jesus, who knew no sin to be sin force that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. That is a point that when we are in Christ, we are righteous through him and not apart from him.
Speaker 0 00:16:51 Which means that when someone is not born again, it means that they are not righteous. So the world may say that you are a good person, but they're not righteous before God. And this may be hard for many people hearing this and grasp, because we equate good works to good people, which again, is true, they're good, but they're not righteous. And righteousness can only be declared by God himself. Um, and that's in God's word. It is again, it's it's a matter of faith. It's a matter of trust. Um, so many people, again, when it comes to works, people come up with the religious rituals that are made to help them be cleanse from sin and actually make themselves acceptable to God. So this is how relationship and religion get all mixed up into this kind of ugly looking, uh, swirl of spirituality and religiosity that makes it really difficult for people to understand where we, where we are with God.
Speaker 0 00:17:53 So the thing is what we equate to. So once we understand, again, I, I said this because we've confessed with our mouth the Lord Jesus, that seems so easy to us and sometimes easy we can't trust as humans. It, it, it when it comes to easy. Like what's the catch, y'all? I, I I, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't understand how it's that simple. Well, God made it that simple. Uh, God made it that simple to bring you back to relationship with him. And again, because of our human nature to mistrust, we just don't naturally do it. So we then go to religion, which says, all right, because it was a little easy, I'm gonna add a extra layer to this thing. So, um, I'm not going to eat meat on one day and I'm gonna do, uh, this ritual the next day.
Speaker 0 00:18:43 And then, and then I'll, I'll, I'll feel worthy enough to, to be accepted. And then ends up happening is, and then you have someone who did the basics. He, they didn't eat, um, meat and then they had another day of, of spirituality. Well, then you have someone who's trying to annie up that. So what ends up happening is now you are competing with one another on who is the most righteous based on the works. Because as human beings we understand that. We understand that we can work our butts off. If I work harder than you, I can do this. But the thing is, working harder doesn't always mean we're working smarter. It means that we're always working towards something, some kind of desired outcome that honestly our works don't necessarily equate to particular outcomes. I'll give a perfect example. Someone hits the lotto who has not been the best person when it came to finances.
Speaker 0 00:19:38 Did you work for that? You worked for the money to spend, but you thought A plus B should equal C and you would get it. But the thing is, life isn't fair. I don't don't, I don't understand either. I would love to win the the lotto. But the thing is, are we gonna trust God in the matter? I mean, I'm not the, the Bible says the reign falls on the just as well as the unjust. Everybody get blessed by God. Cuz by default we're God's creation. That's how religious rituals actually tarnish relationship with God. Because we see and compare ourselves to other people and think that, you know what, they're a little bit, they're a lot more holy than I am. They, they have the words down. They know the scriptures, they know all that stuff. So then we disqualify ourselves because we don't think that we're good enough for that.
Speaker 0 00:20:31 Mm-hmm. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You are good enough because it's not of your works. It is not of your works. Bible says. So. You can't work for the, for delivering. You can't work for salvation. You know what your religiosity says about you to Jesus. It means that you are more powerful than what Jesus did on the cross. That's what it says. And like I said, my name doesn't have a whole lot of weight in other places, uh, outside of, of my little area. But understand this, God deeply wants to have relationship with us, but our human nature just puts so many things over it and that we have to follow these rituals and call them spiritual in order to be able to have relationship with him. But this is the thing. This is what matters to God. What matters to God is that we have a personal relationship with him through Jesus.
Speaker 0 00:21:28 Not how much money we have, not how much time we spend, um, what we say, how we say, how we pray, how we don't. If we have the words and then be honest, this is going to throw some people for a loop. Even when people go to church and just go to church, it becomes a religious practice and exercise and a habit that does not bring them closer to God. It's just a check on the box. You can go to church and still not have a relationship with God. I'm gonna pause right here just for you to let that sink in. There are people who go to church every single Sunday, and they don't have a relationship with God. They confess Jesus probably, they believe in him. They haven't gotten past confessing and haven't gotten to communicating. This is the thing, y'all, God knows all, everything I believe.
Speaker 0 00:22:19 I believe He knows everything about each and every one of us. He knows our hangups. Bible says He can count the numbers of our heads, of our, of the hairs on our head. All of them are numbered. He knows our tears. Who wouldn't want to get to know someone like that's that intentional, that wants to connect that deeply. But for those that do go to church, not everyone that goes to church is someone who has relationship with God. So going to church is not a means of salvation. Only Jesus is, we go to church to hear God's word and have fellowship and grow in our relationship with him. In the context of community, that's when you see people you haven't seen. You go through the exercises, you join groups, you go out to breakfast, you go out to lunch, you have some coffee with someone.
Speaker 0 00:23:08 Dad is the ideal portion of us building relationship with one another in the efforts of us getting better and getting sanctified and growing in God and understanding and building awareness of who he is in our lives. That's it. I know it sounds, uh, I I really just wanna touch on this because it was something that I felt like people were like, oh, I don't go to church. Well, I was like, I, I don't, I don't, you'll necessarily need to go to church. You need to have community. You need to have an understanding that God is who he is and he wants a relationship. He doesn't need you to do anything. The work's already been done. I believe it's amount of resting, it's amount of resting in the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross at the name of Jesus. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Speaker 0 00:23:56 That's it. And then you begin the journey of being better, of being a pass through to blessing people. All those kinds of things. Most of the time y'all, we have good people in the world and I'm, I'm, I completely agree. We have morally standing people, but because they're doing good, they're doing good in their own effort. So it's like trying to drive a car and missing pieces to it. You might have the spark plug, but you don't have all the cylinders running at a hundred percent in the car. You have some gas, but it's on fumes. You know, you don't, you're not a full tank <laugh>. You're missing pieces. If you've ever had a old car, you know there's some pieces of that car that start going out as you ride it throughout the years and miles. That's what doing good works is like without Jesus, without God doing it with you.
Speaker 0 00:24:50 You're just literally working yourself down and down and down and patching yourself up. And then it becomes a religious activity that you become used to all the time. And, uh, you know, God doesn't want religious people cuz you can do things without having a heart in them. There's people who, who date their spouses and don't have a heart behind it. <laugh>. They're just comfortable. There's people that go to work half-heartedly. They do a great job, but their heart's now all in it. It looks good on the outside, but God knows the heart. In uh, verse Samuel chapter 16, this is in the Old Testament. The prophet Samuel is mourning the, the disobedience of the first king of Israel, king Saul. And Saul is struggling throughout his time and he's in mourning and he, God tells Samuel, says, Samuel, get up. He said, I have rejected Saul.
Speaker 0 00:25:48 He said, man, looks on the outside, but I God, look at the inside, look at the heart. And he finds David, who is noted to be a man after God's own heart. Man wasn't perfect, but he had relationship with God and his relationship with God gave him access to him in ways that affected his life and lineage for generation to Jesus. So the more of all of this <laugh>, as I go into religiosity for morals, you want relationship over religion. Point blank period. If you need some help and understanding what that looks like, you know, feel free to reach out. I love having this conversation with people. There's nothing that you can do to make yourself perfect. The work has already been done. All you have to do is accept the present. Accept a gift that's freely given to you and may be challenging at first, but I guarantee you'll be much better later on. Alright, that's it for the Day's podcast. Tune in to the next one.
