March 2, 2008
SoulTalk
Think Beneath (Part III): The Traitor within the Camp
SoulTalk6.mp3
Pastor Wade Burleson
Emmanuel Baptist Church
Enid OK

I Kings 12:28(ESV)

28. So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, "You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt."

Jesus taught that the core longing of the soul is to know God as high and lifted up and to place ourselves beneath him, resting in his goodness and available for his purpose. This is what Larry Crabb calls the "first-thing" desire. Every other longing you have in life is a "second-thing" desire (personal success, the pleasures of family, health, friends, etc.). The central battle in the soul is keeping the first-thing desire (to know and enjoy God) in first place. The central deception in the human soul is to believe that second-thing desires belong in first place, and that the core well-being of our soul depends on them. The central point of SoulTalk is to awaken and nourish the first-thing desire until the passion for God becomes the all consuming passion of the soul. As we enter the battle we must know that there's a traitor within the camp. It is called "religion."

1. Religion offers a convenient plan to make life work better.
   The plans vary from religion to religion, but the message is ultimately the same in all. "Do this, and your life will go well." The religious leader Jeroboam illustrates this. Jeroboam led a rebellion against the rightful but greedy king of Israel. He formed a separate nation, the northern kingdom, and refused to let the people go to Jerusalem by establishing golden calves at Dan and Bethel and then told the people he gathered: It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods! (I Kings 12:28). The incentive for the new religion was not communion with God, but comfort in life.
2. Religion encourages people to look to God for cooperation.
   In essence, "I'm making my journey to Dan -- now, God, reward me for my obedience." The Pharisees took the beautiful and typical Old Covenant and made it workable. Whereas the Old Covenant of Law demanded absolute perfection in all matters, the Pharisees watered it down by adding hundreds of laws to be kept -- and feel good. Religion reduces God to a convenient and cooperative deity. Do your best; God rewards. Prayer turns into presumption, worship into negotiation, and obedience into pressure.
3. Religion has no answer for the person whose life doesn't work out.
   When things go well for the person who is religious, he feels good about himself. When things begin to fall apart, then either he or God is not living up to the bargain. Thus, religious people are puffed out, worn out, or burned out -- it depends. Religion says: Real life is enjoyment of blessings in this world which God gives to those who get it right. But Christ, through the power of His Spirit within us, says: Real life consists in dependence on God, clinging to him when everything goes wrong, trusting His love, waiting on the Spirit to draw us nearer to God Himself.

   God has not promised us a better life of blessings in this world. When we speak with people in an effort to help them live better so their life works better, we offer life management, not soul care. Soul care is communion with God as the priority of life.