What Is Needed in Religion? Relevancy
Introduction:
What would you think if I told you of me going to a doctor and the doctor
telling me I have hypertension, high cholesterol, and needed to lost weight. He
then prescribed a diet, medicine, and exercise routine if followed will improve
my health. But I really don’t like this doctor because he is irrelevant. If he
wanted to be relevant he could give me some free coupons to McDonalds or
Wendy’s of Taco Bell and then he will be relevant to me.
You
would probably think that I am crazy. But such is what is happening in religion
today. Most people see God, the Bible, and religion in general as being
irrelevant.
Relevant
– bearing upon
or connected with the matter at hand, pertinent
Relevancy
– the relation of something to the matter at hand
Irrelevant
– unrelated to
the matter being considered
I)
The Numbers Tell the Story
A)
One out of five people that attend worship services have no idea of what the
most important outcome of worship is.
B)
40% say they attend worship services on a regular basis but the numbers say they
are lying.
C)
Many do not see a connection with religion and morality.
D)
Less than 7% of Americans are asking, “How can I go to heaven?”
E)
Conclusions
1.
Most people see religion as being outdated and not relevant to their daily
lives.
2.
They do not see a connection to morality and God.
Percentage
of adults who view certain behavior as morally acceptable (2003)
 |
61% of adults view gambling as a morally
acceptable behavior. |
|
Enjoying sexual thoughts or fantasies about
someone 59% |
|
Living with someone of the opposite sex without
being married, sometimes called co-habitation 60% |
|
Having an abortion 45% |
|
Having a sexual relationship with someone of the
opposite sex to whom you are not married 42% |
|
Looking at pictures of nudity or explicit sexual
behavior 38% |
|
Using profanity (36%) |
|
Getting drunk (35%) |
|
Having a sexual relationship with someone of the
same sex 30% |
|
Using drugs not prescribed by a medical doctor
17% |
3.
God and religion has become more social oriented and less spiritual. Therefore
more people are saying they are “spiritual” and not religious.
a. They see church buildings as tombs and worship as boring
b. Remember the movie “Sister Act?” Early in the movie they show the
Cathedral. The nuns are singing some dry and worn out song, the organ is playing
but barely audible, the building is almost empty and those present are old
people. By the movies end the nuns are grooving to some new more modern song,
the organist is getting with it, the building is full of young people and they
are clapping. What has changed? Everything! But is the change for good or bad?
II)
The Slide Toward Irrelevancy and False Solutions
A)
The church of the 1st century was and is relevant, Acts 2.22-24,
36-27
1.
Every person has a soul and is need of salvation, Acts
16.30
a. How can you get more relevant than your soul? It is uniquely yours,
eternal, and will exist beyond the grave.
b. The Bible tells us about sin, defines sin for us: transgression of the
Law of God, 1
John 3.4. Without the Bible we would not know sin or
even the difference between good and bad or right and wrong.
c. The Bible tells us how to be saved from sin and go to heaven, Acts
16.31-33
2.
Every person faces trials, temptations, sorrows, and just plain problems. Tell
me a person that is immune to these things.
a. How can I overcome my problems? Not by drugs, or materialism,
or intellectualism. Ecc. 1. 2-11
b. The point of religion is not to hide from our problems but deal with
them.
c. Some times the answer is patience, endurance, and to wait for the
Judgment Day.
3.
Family problems are common – husband/wives not getting along, divorce, child
rearing issues, financial problems, etc.
a. The Bible addresses these issues – husbands love your wives as
Christ loved the church, Ephesians
5.
b. Train your children, bring them up in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord, Ephesians 6.4.
Talk to them, teach them about right and wrong and God says so.
B)
The slide toward irrelevancy
1.
Many people see religion as irrelevant because
a. They do not read it and/or don’t understand the Bible. They see it
as being outdated and speaking to a vastly different culture.
i. Part of the problem as been religion itself saying “Now it is
different.” NO, it is not! There is nothing new under the sun, Ecc. 1.9
ii. God is the same today as before,
Hebrews 13.8-9
b. They do not like the answers they are getting.
Isaiah 30.9-10
i. Folks the Bible condemns sin and the only solution is repentance!
ii. You can not soft sell repentance, Matthew
3.17
iii. It is not up to the Bible to conform to our likes and politically
correct language but for us to be converted, Romans
12.2
c. They deny the spiritual nature of man. Humanism has changed the
way most religious people think.
i. Morality is subjective and situational
ii. Man is all there is and there is no future judgment or reward of
heaven. If such is true then religion is indeed harmful.
iii. You can either believe in creation or evolution but if you choose
evolution you must explain why we love and sacrifice for those we do not like and how we got here.
iv. You see love is relevant to all of us.
2.
Replacing relevancy with irrelevant matters
a. As many rejected the Gospel of Christ they replaced it with a
social message.
i. While listening to a supposed scholar on religion he spoke of the
“god of the slaves” verses the “god of the masters” and explain
“black religion in view of the black culture. I thought we have one
God, Ephesians 4.6. He is the
God of the blacks, whites, red, and
yellow man.
ii. This segregated God allows man to view God as we view each
other.
b. Spirituality is replace by social functions.
i. Did Jesus really die so we can have coffee and donuts in the foyer?
Or, a place to recreate?
ii. The more physically orient religion has become the less relevant
because man’s greatest need is not physical but spiritual.
c. Less God and more exultation of man. Jeremiah
2.31-32
i. Resulting in less Bible and more human philosophy. Or ritualism.
ii. What the Bible says about teen pregnancy is replaced with what our
society says about teen pregnancy. What the Bible says about
family problems is replaced with our societal needs. The Bible does
speak about relevant issues today but we must allow it to be relevant.
iii. To do that we must speak plainly what the Bible says. Not skirt
issues or dilute the truth.
Conclusion:
Jesus spoke of relevancy in His parables: the heart of man is addressed in the
Parable of the Sower, the responsibility of man to his fellow man in the Parable
of the Good Samaritan; and the consequences of man rejecting the Son of God in
the Parable of the Vineyard.