"The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in. His father came out and begged him, but he replied, 'All these years I've slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!' Luke 15: 28-30 (NLT)
Look, from a worldly perspective this son is absolutely right, no? Why should the son who made all of the bad choices be celebrated? Why should he be rewarded? But aren't we glad today that God does not reward us according to our iniquities?
he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. Psalm 103: 10 (NIV)
This third son approached the Father with a religious spirit. We know the spirit. Someone who has spent his time close with the Father without actually knowing Him. Someone who served the Father, worked His lands, but deep in his heart it appears to be more out of a sense of obligation than love. The religious spirit starts to work in the logic and thinking of the world into his relationship with God. Look at how the spirit of religiosity destroys the true relationship. The son refers to his time with the Father as "slaving for Him." We too can start to begrudge the time we spend in ministry activities and start to make it about us instead of about Him. We can confuse our tithing as beneficent sacrifice on our part instead of being obedient to God. We can start to think that we are somehow doing a favor to the church by merely attending. Essentially, the religious spirit takes the things of God and makes them about itself. It is a self-centered spirit. The same spirit can infect churches as the focus shifts from God to the preaching or from God to the awesome choir. It is a dangerous spirit because it comes on us unknowingly. We can start out on fire for God but somewhere amidst the drudgery of life we can start to evaluate things in relation to ourselves and how everything affects our lives instead of in relation to God and how everything affects the kingdom. The bad news is that the religious spirit is just as lost as the rebellious spirit. Neither of them has true relationship with God. Jesus says in the end there will be many who will have cast out demons and performed miracles in His name but He will say to them that He never knew them. Those are the people who have religion but no relationship. They are modern day Pharisees. They look the part. They speak the part. But in the end they have no part in Him.
The good news however is the Father will still run toward the penitent heart that was mired in the religious spirit as well. God is a God of another chance, not just a second chance. Wherever this devotional finds you this Fathers Day remember that if you are dealing with the rebellious spirit or even the religious spirit turn back to your Father and He will meet you where you are at. He will have a feast for you. He will comfort you. He has never forgotten you. And if you find yourself with the humble spirit hold tight to it. Don't let the world or religiosity creep back into it. Remember where God your Father had to reach to find you. By doing so, you will never have to go back there again.
Reverend Anthony Wade June 17, 2011
