Sunday Morning Service, 5/23/10

Songs

• [ Lord, I Lift Your Name On High]
• [ We Worship You]
• [ Oh The Glory Of It All]
• [ At The Cross]
• [ I’m Not Ashamed]
• [ All To You]
• [ Majestic]

Testimonies

Ed Howe

I’m thrilled and privileged to be here. First of all, I thank God for calling me into this ministry. I was nobody, but he counted me faithful. I’m thankful that later on this week, Pastor Paine invited me and Chris to his house and took time to share with us. That was a tremendous blessing. I’m from Waukegan ministry, but I still think of this place as my home, because I’ve known everybody here for years. What makes it home is Christians, the fellowship of the saints.

In Waukegan, brother Kenneth is doing a great job. I’m working in military ministry; the young guys are excited about giving Bibile studies on base. I was telling Pastor Paine that the fellowship afterward is just as important. I didn’t think these guys could talk, but they’re learning not only to talk, but to listen.

People might not know the type of person I was before I met this ministry. When I first came, I didn’t say a word to anybody for a whole year. People were wondering, “Can this guy speak?” But I was just soaking it all in. Now the young guys ask me questions and it’s amazing how God gives me the answers.

I just thank God for everyone here and that you’ve remained faithful.

Chris Ulrich

It’s been a very good trip. We planned this road trip not knowing there was going to be a conference, but we’re planning on coming for the conference as well. The last couple of days has been like a reunion. I’m proud to be a part of this ministry. I first got baptized at 16th Bay in Oceanview in 1988. I look at the way the economy is, and all the problems are real, but God gives us the strength and the fellowship and the truth, and that’s what really matters. I want to be prepared and ready for His coming.

We weren’t sure how things would go, but it’s been great, and everybody is looking forward to coming down for the conference.

Seppie Hoenes

I was baptized on April 24, 2005. I’m thankful for the early leadership I had. When I was married, (barely a week after being baptized), I struggled with why Dwight was always at the church. But now I’m thankful that he did; they put Jesus first, and not me. So now I put Jesus first, too.

Message: Relationship -vs- Religion

Pastor Paine

If this is your first time in church, I’ve got to imagine that you’re pretty excited about the guy in the tie getting up and talking about “yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter”. But let’s read:

Saul thought his mission and purpose in life was to persecute and yes, kill Christians.

“It is hard for you to fight my spirit, to deny that I am speaking to you about a change that you need to make.” There followed the conversion of Saul:

So here’s the question: What changed for Saul? His religion? Or his relationship?

How many think it was his religion?

How many think it was his relationship?

How many think it was both?

They both changed the same day, but they’re not the same thing. Today it is my prayer that we would be able to discern the difference between our relationship and our religion. I submit to you today that some of our frustration with our daily walk is just frustration with our religion.

The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression and maintaining freedom of the seas.

But there are a lot of things that those who are in the Navy do.

What is the mission of the ministry? What’s it called to look like?

Let’s suppose that in the US Navy, you really had a problem with the idea that enlisted and officers wear different uniforms, and you think that saluting is antiquated and should be abolished. That would irritate you every day, but it really has nothing to do with the mission at all.

Some of the things we do in ministry is simply about being effective, about making things work, and really don’t have anything to do with your relationship.

We should understand the difference between our relationship and our religion, and I contend that we need both. Religion is neither good nor bad, but it is essential, and in that context it is good. But it is sometimes frustrating, and in that context it can be bad. I grew up in a church where everybody stood up at the same time; everybody sat down at the same time; nobody said “Amen” out loud.

Some women would never consider going to church without having their heads covered with a physical covering. That’s based on scripture, but most of our women don’t have a physical covering for their heads. Do you think God can’t hear your prayers? I could have a study on why that scripture was written; it’s real. It’s scripture. It’s religion.

Peter was talking about baptism; he said that it was doing the right thing, but more than that, it is an inside-out event.

I would challenge you to examine everything you do for God: is it an inside-out event, or is it an outside-in event?

How many of you think that the proper way to squeeze toothpaste out of a tube is to squeeze the middle?

You’re all going to hell!

(Now, if you edit this message and that’s all you get …)

The ONLY way to squeeze toothpase is from the bottom!

I told my wife Debbie that the next time we buy a house it needs to have two bathroom sinks, one for her heathen toothpaste and one for me.

Debbie, I love you. And when I get to heaven, I’m going to miss you…

Now, I’ve got another deep spiritual question to ask you. A four-lane divided highway, fifty-five miles per hour: does anybody think that it makes sense? I think Jesus would drive seventy-five, don’t you?

But when I come to my senses, I drive fifty-five miles an hour. I obey the law. Really, on my way to seventy-five, I stop every time.

So as we look at this idea of relationship and religion, I would say that often the same identical action has different motives. Sometimes we only see the action; we don’t know the motive.

The devil doesn’t want us to be effective in ministry. There is a spiritual battle for that. One of the tools that the devil uses is all our our differences of opinion. Shall I jump right off the high diving board at the deep end?

Clothing: there are differences of opinion about what is appropriate. Clothing: religion or relationship? Some people think if you wear shorts, you’re going to hell. And some people are so angry about not wearing shorts… I was on base in Hawaii and there was a big sign. Even in civilian attire, you can’t wear shorts. I don’t know what happened; maybe somebody thought that if shorts were okay, then so were Speedo’s.

If we get angry about religion, we’ll hurt our relationship.

So my brother Gary was visiting not long ago. He said, “I was in an auto-parts store, and the guy in front of me got angry. He said, ‘You told me when I called that it would be thirty-five dollars, and now it’s sixty-five dollars!’” He was very angry. And the cashier explained, “When you called, you said that you needed this part for this model, and when you got here, I realized that you misspoke. The part that I quoted you won’t fit on your car.” And my brother said to the cashier, “That guy was so angry!” And the cashier said, “Sir, you don’t know what he’s going through. That thirty dollar difference might be the difference between his kids eating or going hungry this week.” And my brother said, “Wow! I never thought I’d hear theology from a clerk in an auto-parts store.”

Just like the US Navy has a mission, we have a mission. Jesus gave the great commission: that’s our mission, to go into all the world and preach the gospel. If we’re not good at understanding the difference between religion and relationship, religion will get in the way.

The CNO is the highest ranking officer in the Navy. For those of you in the Navy, do you think it’s possible that the CNO has at least one rule, one regulation, that in his mind, doesn’t make sense?

Yes?

Well, why doesn’t he change it? It’s reasonable to answer, “Because it works.” We’ve got to pick our battles on the battlefields of life. What we do matters, but why we do what we do matters more. There will be times in life when we will have to do the right thing to get our minds right.

Sometimes when we know what’s right, but we don’t feel like doing it… (fifty-five miles an hour? airbags, divided highway?) All I’m saying is, you can have a strong opinion about something when there’s a rule.

There is a guy who believes that the right way to handle a red light is to come to a complete stop, look both ways, and then proceed with caution. After his third ticket, his wife asked him why he keeps running red lights. He said “If there’s nobody around, then it’s perfectly safe to proceed with caution.” She said, “Well, obviously there was somebody around, or you wouldn’t have gotten a ticket.” He said, “Well, he was behind me, and at the time, he didn’t have his red lights on. All I saw was his headlights, and I figured he would want to go too. But it turns out that he had nothing better to do than to give me a ticket for doing something that is completely rational!”

Finally his wife made him raise his right hand and say:

I promise that I will never run another red light as long as I’m married to you.

So then one day, in the wee hours of the morning, he stopped at a red light. He looked left; he looked right; he looked behind him. There was nobody around. So he opened up his sunroof and got out his revolver and BANG! he proceeded with caution. Then he sent a money-order to the city to pay for a new light. (He didn’t send a check; he may have been crazy, but he wasn’t stupid!)

Sometimes you’ve got to do the right thing, and you know it’s the right thing, and you’ve got to just do the right thing until you feel right about it.

That’s why religion is important to a relationship.

What are you mad about? (I’m not joking; I’m asking.) I’m mad about a lot of things! In the church!

(If you’re visiting, I apologize; we really do have great spiritual messages here.)

I’m mad about a lot of things! How many of you are mad about something? Put your hands up.

I’m mad about some things in the church. (Why don’t you change them?) Because they work. The other day Darryl got saved. His name got written in the Lamb’s book of life. Do you realize? His relationship changed yesterday. But so did his religion. There are some things that he’s got to avoid today that he didn’t have to avoid yesterday.

There are differences of opinion, even within the same family, about what is appropriate. Ask ten different people about “modest apparel” and you’ll get ten different answers. I confess that I lean toward the lenient side of “modest apparel.”

Some things we do because they work. I was joking about the toothpaste thing, but for a little bit of our marriage, there were moments when I thought “I’ve got to kill this woman! I cannot let her live! The toothpaste!”

We get that upset about some things in our religion, but we’ve got to learn to focus on our relationship. One of the ways you can discern the difference is to ask, “Is it outside-in, or inside-out?”

Sometimes religion asks, “How much can I get away with?” and relationship asks “How much can I give away?”

Some religion is necessary to be effective. But without a relationship, it is all for nothing.

Religion asks, “What do I have to do”, but relationship asks, “What can I do?”

Do you live your life to finish well, or do you live your life just to finish?

If today you find your relationship strained, ask God how you can improve it. Ask God, “Help me to fight the battles that matter, and ignore the ones that don’t.”