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.
Speaker 0 00:00:31 Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to Life Free Fresh podcast. You know who it is. This is Ryan Robinson. Glad to get back to the podcast. Um, I got some great things coming down the pipeline for us. Um, I'm really excited we're gonna be posting a little bit more consistently, um, in the next few weeks. Well, going forward, I should say. Um, I'm excited about it. I have so much content and just have, need some help getting it out. So I love the fact that, uh, you know, we have, we're gonna be able to get more content to you all. I've gotten some really good feedback from many of you. Uh, and if you haven't provided any, please, um, reach out. You can go to the website, Ryan, r i o n robinson.com, share some information, uh, of, uh, what you guys find valuable in, uh, this podcast.
Speaker 0 00:01:29 Uh, and I, long story short, I really want to bring a very practical, relatable perspective to a very, to a topic that many people get nervous about, which is spirituality and not offending anybody. We can have a friendly discourse about many things, but in order to have sensible and very strong conversation about religion or spirituality, in that sense, for many people, you have to understand what's going on. You need to be able to speak appropriately to it, but do it in a very loving and kind way. And I really am excited to kind of bring this series to you of teachings and it's really <laugh> entitled religion versus Relationship. Now you're like, Ryan, wait a minute, religion versus relationship. What is that all about? You know, as many of you all know, I'm a, a Christian or believer in Christ, and, um, depending on your, your experience, um, with that, uh, it has either been a good one or a bad one.
Speaker 0 00:02:40 Um, or somewhere in the middle where you're like, and hate it, didn't love it, didn't really do anything for me. That's fair. But this is something that I find as a teacher and a minister of the, of the gospel that we don't actually break this down because we are known a lot more from the bad things that we've said versus the things that we are and things that we do. So I want to bring a very practical, very clear description and clear delineation between religion and relationship. So this is gonna be part one of many. I don't know how far we're gonna get to, but I wanna define this because religion has such a, a negative connotation in certain circles, but relationship has a pretty positive one. So what's the difference between the two? So I'm gonna start off with some baseline definitions, okay? So we can kind of get ourselves understanding what culture says about religion, and then we'll go into what the Bible says about religion.
Speaker 0 00:03:52 Then we'll give some historical context to it, and then, uh, talk about relationship and what that looks like. But, uh, Miriam Webster's definition of religion is a belief in a God or a group of gods. That's one. Two, an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a God or a group of gods. The informal definition is an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or a group. Okay? So in a nutshell, all this to being said is that religion really focuses on following a set of practices and beliefs, and one gets punished for not following them, or there are consequences related to them that may not be contributed or may not be aligned with the God of that religion is prescribing for a certain outcome in one's life. So it's focus on what one can do, and that's the key.
Speaker 0 00:04:52 It is focused on what a person can do to please God or group of gods so that they don't face punishment or wrath. Okay? So many of us, and this is something that we have done in our parenting, right? We have made <laugh>, um, sometimes we do things so that we don't get in trouble, but we also don't do things which we don't see often, but we don't always do things in order to please someone. So if you know that someone you care about likes roses, but you decide to get them daisies, ah, that's not really good. That's not really good foundation. So they're the cr the craziest thing is that doing a particular action, like getting roses, there's a clear motive. Oh, I wouldn't call it clear, I would call it those motives could be either motivated by I don't want to get you mad, or I'm there to please, but if you just go off the path and get daisies instead, then that's complete.
Speaker 0 00:05:57 Like, I just really don't care. I'm just gonna give you what I want to give you. So the motive of religion is really rooted in fear. It's rooted in the fact that I don't want to get hurt, I don't want to get punished, I don't want to do this, that, and the other. So in the Christian world, we see this kind of play out in, uh, many, in many times where if you don't necessarily have a relationship, sometimes you, you are inundated, <laugh> with this level of fire and brimstone that if you don't do something, there's consequences. And in cases, in, in the case of the Bible, there is, it is true. I believe that it's true, but that's not the motive. I'm not trying to scare someone into doing something. We want to build relationship in Christianity. There is a sense of building relationship with God versus just doing the things that God said and making sure you don't get in trouble.
Speaker 0 00:07:05 Okay? So we see this. So the thing is, in many cases, it makes it very difficult to motivate people to do good in response to being loved first by a good God. Most people feel like they have to earn God's love. Again, going back to being focused on what one can do versus what they shouldn't do. So let me give some context to some of these things, because many people have, uh, hung their hat on a couple things. One that I'm gonna highlight is the 10 Commandments. Uh, many people know what the 10 Commandments are or are, I would say have at least heard what the 10 Commandments are. And many times, many people have actually hung their hat on what the 10 Commandments are as a, an area by which people should live their life to, um, and what they should gravitate to. So I'm gonna read some of, I'm gonna read the 10 Commandments, so you have an idea of what they are.
Speaker 0 00:08:08 10 commandments. First one, thou you shall not have no other gods besides me. Number two, you shall not make any idols before me or any graven images. So the thing is, God does not want any gods in front of him. So the first one, you shall not have no other God besides me. You shall not make any idols. The number three, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Number four, remember to keep the Sabbath day holy. Number five, honor your father and your mother. Six, you shall not murder. Seven, you shall not commit adultery. Eight, you shall not steal nine, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor in 10, you shall not covet. Okay? All of these are things you need to do, okay? So the way the scriptures are set up, or at least the 10 Commandments are set up, is the first four Commandments Deal with your relationship with God, okay?
Speaker 0 00:09:05 No more. You can't, don't worship any idols besides God. Don't make any <laugh>. Don't misuse God's name. Keep the Sabbath day holy in honor of God, right? The rest of them are all centered around your relationship with your neighbor, your with man, your mother. Honor your father and your mother. Don't murder, don't commit adultery. Don't steal, don't lie. Don't cove it. So all of those things have to do from five to 10. Have to deal with your relationship with man. Okay? So these are found in actually two places in scripture. Uh, first Exodus chapter 20, verses two through 17 in Deuteronomy chapter five, verse six through 21. Okay? And many actually think like these are it <laugh>. These are the, these are the, the Hall of Fame items for living a good life, which I'm not mad. I think you need these, I think you need to know, like you shouldn't murder <laugh>.
Speaker 0 00:10:03 I mean, that one is kind of given, right? But the thing is, most people, it's some of these other ones in here, are really kind of hard. I mean, you know, don't lie, don't steal, don't misuse God's name in vain. And honestly, number two, do not make any idols. We make idols out of our jobs, out of our children, out of our homes, out of, um, whatever you have your, your role models. We've made gods out of things. Actually inanimate objects that can't really speak to us. They don't do anything for us except make us feel good. I would rather have a God that I, that is bigger than me, than one that I can carry around either in my pocket or carry around in my house. So that's, again, that's me personally. But again, all of these are actually good stuff. These came from God himself, right?
Speaker 0 00:10:54 But you know, these were used. God used these to help us understand that because of our human nature, we can't do these without God. Try. Um, well, some of these you can do <laugh>, you may not, you don't need God. But depending on the circumstance, you might not do it or you might steal, right? There's certain things that you just, we've just attributed to us not being, um, spiteful or wrathful or vengeful enough to commit. But you break one of these, you actually break them all. The goal was to be perfect in all of these, to know them backwards and forwards. Now, even beyond the, the greatest hits or the top 10 commandments that God has given, God also issued to the tribe of Levi, which is a book called Leviticus, which has additional rules, regulations, how things should be done. It is so much, y'all, you couldn't even keep it <laugh>, you can't even keep it.
Speaker 0 00:11:59 So I'm gonna give you one example and we break it all the time, okay? Um, there is a law that had to be said is that the clothing that you wore had to be of one kind of type of material. So if you're wearing a cotton shirt, you have to wear cotton pants, <laugh> at the same time. You could not have two different materials. If you were going to wear one, you needed to wear it all. You can't do denim and then do cotton, and then be in good standing with God. I actually disqualified you. So that means you were unclean. You had to go kill, uh, dove or kill a bull and make your atonement through that sacrifice to let God know that you were sorry and that you ascend against him. It's a lot. It's a lot. So the thing is that there's nothing wrong with some of this stuff, right?
Speaker 0 00:12:53 It's, the thing is that it is the thing that leads us to recognize that we just can't do it. And actually, this is the problem is that many of us know we can't do it, but we don't go to the next step to figure out what do we do when we know we can't do all of these and fulfill all these commandments and all of these things. And this is where we've gotten off the beaten path. And most people just give up and quit. Be like, well, what's the use? I can't keep any of these. Religion teaches us if I can't do it, if I don't do it, I get in trouble. I'm gonna get punished. That's it. So because of the pain or perceived pain of not following these items, instead of seeking the next answer, most people just fall off and quit and don't find what that next level is.
Speaker 0 00:13:54 Okay? So what ends up happening is religion is really a outpouring of one's self to feel ego, to let themselves feel better, to feel known, and be able to make yourself seem better than you are. So I gave an Old Testament reference for the 10 Commandments, but throughout scripture going into the New Testament, which enters Jesus the Messiah, Emmanuel God, with us, into the narrative, which is God's love story, to bring us back to himself, there were people that were still following the rules of the time of, of the law of Moses. So it literally became, for lack of a better word, a, a club to uphold the pit, the, the rituals and traditions. So in the Bible, these individuals throughout the gospels were called Pharisees and sades. Pharisees being those who were astute in the law, they knew all 620 some odd laws. I mean, y'all, this was like, I mean, it is for real like <laugh>, how real these guys are.
Speaker 0 00:15:15 I mean, they were, they went to school for this stuff. I mean, I know we have, you know, seminaries and things, but like to go to school to learn 600 plus odd scriptures or laws, and then live them out yourself. I mean, it's a lot. It's a lot. Y'all. So the Pharisees were those that practiced and, uh, worshiped in the synagogues and those kinds of things. While the sades were kind of an upper class, an upper class sect of Jews that, um, were writers contributed to a lot of the writings and things at that time, and they maintained a purity. So that was their biggest thing, is that I don't want to get touched. I don't want to get bothered. I am going to keep myself pure and away from those individuals. Now, there's other groups like ASEANs and zealots, excuse me, zealots being those who are super, who took the scripture.
Speaker 0 00:16:21 And in the scripture it says that the Messiah was going to come back and to release the, the Jews from their bondage. Now, giving some historical context, at the time of Jesus, during this time, uh, Jerusalem was under Roman control. So because of this perspective, they believed that based on the coming of the Messiah, the king of the Jews, he was going to actually overthrow the Roman empire coming in, in warrior gear and everything to take out the Roman empire and restore Israel to his rightful place. But that didn't happen with Jesus. He came for a different reason. He came to redeem people. He came to redeem people who believed that he was who he said that he was. And the thing is, y'all, those people got mad at Jesus <laugh>. They're like, wait a minute. You, you, you, you, you aren't, you're not doing what you said you were supposed to do.
Speaker 0 00:17:28 And that set some disappointment. So the thing is, these groups, the Pharisees, sades, the sins, zealots were constantly concerned about their rituals, traditions, people pleasing how they give, who should be allowed in the temple, who should be qualified to give certain sacrifices. I mean, some of the stuff that they did was so outside of what you would consider loving to do, and this is the thing y'all, religious people challenged Jesus. Jesus was in front of them the whole time and they didn't recognize Jesus as the Messiah. They heard about all these miracles, heard about all of these healing, heard about, and heard him actually teach, and they still didn't believe him. Now, granted, Jesus looked like a normal dude. So of course many people are trying to figure out like, is he really who he says he is? Or he's a blasphemous person? But I'm gonna tell you this, what tricks a lot of people up is that actually Pharisees, sades and those individuals were the culprits for working to get Jesus crucified religion when it threatens our lifestyle and what we do, and also uproots what work we have done to prove ourselves worthy of something, instead of getting mad at the circumstance and changing your belief system, they just decide, you know, we're just, it's easier to kill one person than for us to change our entire life and have a new perspective.
Speaker 0 00:19:15 I mean, I have a bit of empathy for these guys cuz they've committed their entire lives to doing this. But understand that Jesus came to redeem the sinner. If you don't think you're sinning and you don't have a problem, there's no need to go to the doctor. If you break your leg and you feel that it's not broken, then you don't need to go to the doctor. But if someone, someone who had leprosy, someone who was blind, someone who has lived a unholy lifestyle, y'all, they were like, look, this is me, y'all. This is what I am, this is what I've done and I'm not proud of it, but here I am. And Jesus was like, all right, I can work with that. I can be honest, you can be transparent. I see you, I understand you. Let me heal you. Let me bring you back to a point of, of renew a redemption, a point of growth and development to where you feel like loved again because you are loved.
Speaker 0 00:20:13 And even then it takes some time. But I wanted to give this foundation because many of us are doing things but not being better. I'm gonna say that one again. Some of us are doing things but not being better. You can do all the habitual things you want to and still not be the right person for the job internally. There's no way that you can sustain it if you are a liar, trying to be honest. Hear me now, if you're a liar trying to be honest, you're going to lose every time. Why? Because you identify yourself as a liar and you are trying to be honest. Instead, change the narrative and say that I am an honest person and I'm working on getting better at it. And then because you've made a shift in identity, you are now able to be completely and utterly honest with yourself that you are wanting to be a better person.
Speaker 0 00:21:13 Therefore, better people have better actions. If I know better, I should do better because I change who I am. I can do something different. You if you want to get up consistently or go to bed consistently at the same time, you have to be a disciplined person. So you need to put the thing away, whatever that's keeping you and just deciding, you know what? I'm gonna be a disciplined person. You're not gonna do it overnight. You gotta give yourself some grace, which we will talk about in relationship because that's the thing that happens, is that you can be truthful to yourself. You can be honest and it'd be hurtful. But the Bible says in John chapter one, that Jesus came in grace and truth. You need both. You need both. Because in the context of relationship, if you only got truth, you probably wouldn't like that friend, cuz that stuff hurts.
Speaker 0 00:22:04 The truth hurts y'all. But if you only had grace, you'd have a relationship with no boundaries. So that is why you need to have both grace and truth in relationship. There's no grace in grace and truth in in in religion. It is what it is. It is black and white. You break it, you're done. So in order for us to not feel convicted, to not feel bad about ourselves, we completely write everything off and be like, you know what? I broke it. That's it. I'm not gonna beat myself up. And we never, ever explore the relationship that God has in store for us. I'm gonna put it this way, religion was designed to help you understand and realize that you need God. No one can fulfill any of those things that I mentioned earlier, which means you need God in order to do it. But we go to everything else.
Speaker 0 00:22:55 But no one knows. How do I go to God? What does that even look like, y'all? What does that even look like? Well, it looks like relationship and we'll get to that in the next podcast. I really, I know this is a tough subject for many people I know, I know there's plenty of religions. I'm not bashing anybody. I just want people to understand sensibly that religion, I'm not a religious person. I'm a, I'm a relationship person. I'm a spiritual person who seeks relationship with God. Because these are the things that once you become honest with yourself and say that, you know what? I'm a mess. I need help, then God can come in and help you. But if you're always a human doing, you're gonna be stuck doing and trying to prove your value to yourself and to people and to God and all that, that stuff is just, is just widening it down.
Speaker 0 00:23:47 So either way, next podcast, we're gonna talk about relationship and then I'm gonna add some more definitions and things to that. But then after that, what we're gonna do is we're gonna go to the Bible. We're gonna talk about why it's important, what Jesus talked about when it came to relationship, and what did he say about all these rules we should handle and what do we do with the 10 commandments and the things of Moses and this, that, and the other. Jesus had an answer for that too. It's much simpler than what we think. So please stay tuned to this podcast. Tell a friend, tell someone. I think many people really need this. So like I said, get you guys in the next
Speaker 2 00:24:25 One.
