We are considering something very briefly. We want to look at “How a Religion Was Born”, that is the title of our focus this evening. Perhaps by the help of the Holy Spirit, looking at how a religion was born, we can know how many religions were born. We can then understand the implication of being religious and if there is any benefit therein for us in the church or in the body of Christ. Let us quickly go to the book of 1 Kings 12, we will be reading a lot of verses there. But I want to talk very briefly about what happened before this moment. Now, for many of us, we know that Samuel was the one who was a judge and a priest over the people of Israel. At a point, his children began to misbehave and then the children of Israel began to complain, “give us a king just like every other kingdom around us.” And so, eventually a king was sought for them in the person of Saul.

 

Saul was a man who was above every other person around him. He was beyond his peers, so he became their king. And then God began to tell them the behavior of their king, “your king shall behave in this manner” but that didn’t deter them, they still went for Saul. Now, instead of Saul following God, like Nigerians will say “bumper to bumper”, he began to follow God anyhow. He was a follower but he was following God anyhow. God gave him a specific instruction, “go and destroy a people.” He went, he destroyed everyone in the city except their king. All the things he saw, he burnt many things, he now kept certain animals for whatever meaning, for whatever reason. Although, he said he brought them to sacrifice them to his God, but he disobeyed God. God said, “destroy all.” And so, Samuel by the word of the LORD came to him and said, “God would have established your kingdom if you had obeyed, “for to obey is better than sacrifice.” God shares His mind with you, you run with it. God comes to you in the secret place, He tells you, “my daughter, this is what I want you to live for” and then you live for it. The Bible says, that, is better than your sacrifices, whatever name you want to call those sacrifices. A yielded heart to the will of God, a heart that trembles at the word of God, a heart that is broken and of a contrite spirit. The Bible says, “such a heart is better than the heart that is given to sacrifices.”

 

So, since he did not obey God, God said, He has found a man after His heart in the person of David. So, David was found by God and David was sought out by Samuel. And he became eventually the replacement of Saul, the king over Israel. So, the primary thing is, God has a heart, and I’m sure we know the heart of God is still the heart of God. God has not changed His heart. And God said, “I have found a man after my heart.” So, what does He mean? I have found a man who is eager to hear me and who is willing to do my will. “Eager to hear me, willing to do my will!” So, I have found him. So, when God found such a man, God built a kingdom around him. God found a man who was willing to listen to His voice, who was willing to fellowship with Him.

 

You remember the Bible says by David, in one of the Psalms, He says, “as the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for thee oh LORD” not for the gods, my soul pants for you. Not for angel Michael, my soul pants for you. So, when God said, "I have found a man", God was actually correct. God had found a man who loved Him, God has found a man who was in love with Him, who also was willing to do anything for God. So that we understand how it all began. And then because David walked with God, because David was faithful to God, the Bible says, God promised to give him a son to reign in his place. And so, Solomon was found again as the one who would reign after David. The condition that God gave to Solomon was simple, “you see, whatever you ask me I will give you, but make sure you walk in my ways, make sure you do all my commands” and I'm not sure God has changed since then. “Walk in my ways,” what does it mean? Live my life because the ways of a man represent the culture of a man. When we talk about culture, we say culture is the way of life, the way, “walk in my ways”, the way of life of a people.

 

So, God also has a culture, you can call it Kingdom culture or you can call it God culture. God says, “the condition for your establishment in this Kingdom is that you walk in my ways, you behave like me, you pattern your life after mine and then you obey all my commands.” For to obey; the very thing that became a challenge between God and Saul. Saul was handsome, he was more handsome than many people around him, he was taller than everyone. He was a son of a rich man. Physically speaking he was there, he was okay. All he lacked was obedience to God. Saul will rather disobey God and please people than displease people and obey God. So, the issue with Saul was the issue of his obedience. You will not hear that Saul was committing adultery. Did you find Saul going into idolatry? All his problem was just obedience, complete obedience. And God says, “for to obey is better than sacrifices.” So, when God found David, the condition was also simple. And when God wanted to replace him with his son, the condition was simple: "walk in my ways, obey my command and if you can do that, I will build you a sure kingdom.” Every time God keeps talking about Him building His people a Kingdom, so that you understand the perspective of God.

 

People could have come from a very warped background. Every time they come into God, God keeps telling them, “welcome into the Kingdom” that's it. God welcomes you into the Kingdom. We know what we read in Colossians 1:12 in the previous week: “Thanks be to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has translated us, transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.”

 

He translates us into Kingdom. That's why Jesus said, “no one who comes to me shall in any wise be cast away.” Anyone that the Father draws, is the one that comes to me. So, when people come to Christ, when people come to God, God welcomes them into the Kingdom because He is their King. God is not the founder of a religion, so He doesn't welcome any human into a religion. God didn't create any religion, God create Kingdoms. And so, every time God is relating with people, God keeps saying, “I'm building you a sure Kingdom” it's about the Kingdom. “I'm establishing your reign” the only condition is that, you walk in my ways, is it not normal? If God will be committed into building your life as a kingdom, then He must be sure that the products, or the works of your kingdom will not be against His own works.

 

So, I'm sure we know that sometimes Nigeria has issues with the United States of America, especially in the area of sale of weapons, simply because they say, “there are issues of human rights abuses in Nigeria.” So, they say, as long as the presidency cannot control the use of weapons by the military, as long as there are human right abuse cases, they will not sell Nigeria these weapons. We will pay. Don't forget they are not free. Another scenario is when the United States Agency, USAID or any other development agency; DFID in the UK and different countries; the one in Japan, they normally give aids to developing countries. No agency of those countries, no international donor would willingly donate or support, give an aid to a nation that will behave inconsistent with the will of the nation. So, the giving nation has a will, they have an interest, as long as the receiving nation is willing to walk in their ways and obey their commands, then they will be willing to give the dollars and the pounds.

 

So, if God would support you, if God will uphold you; I'm sure we remember in Isaiah, when God was talking about Cyrus, who was not even a born again, who was not a lover of God. God said, “Cyrus my servant, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations.” Cyrus was a Persian, you know all those kingdoms of Medes and Persia, God was still calling him a servant, God said, I am upholding your hand. That's what God does, God relates, God deals with kings and royalties, and so God upholds them, God sustains them. When God taught Nebuchadnezzar a lesson, Nebuchadnezzar came to realize that there is a God in heaven who rules in the affairs of men. How does he do it? He does it through men. And so, any human that wants God to rule in his affairs, that wants God to rule through him, must only be willing to walk in the ways of God and obey all His commands, those are the two conditions. Saul couldn't fulfil it; he was replaced with David. David fulfilled it; God replaced him with his own son at old age. When it was time for the son to also go, the Bible says, “the heart of Solomon was no more with God, his heart has been turned to idols by his wives.”

 

Solomon, the Bible says, had 300 wives and 700 concubines, so many! He married so many wives and each wife came to him from their own country, with their own gods. So as the number of his wives were, so were their gods. I'm sure we remember that one of the first wives that Solomon married very early in his kingdom was the daughter of Pharaoh. Pharaoh was not worshipping God; Pharaoh was worshipping idols. In fact, at a point, Solomon built like a shrine even for the daughter. And that's how Solomon did for all his wives, and so he began to worship idols, because what? His heart has been turned away. God says, “I have found his father, a man after my heart.” So, it was the heart of David his father being with God that qualified him for getting royalty from God. The son was only expected to remain in the dominion, the kingdom as long as his whole heart was with God. And how can you prove your heart is with God? By you living the life of God and obeying all the commands of God. It has little or nothing to do with religion. It has everything to do with the Kingdom. Your king gives you an instruction you obey, your king has a way of life, you live it.

 

Now, when certain wives were married in the Buckingham palace and they were not the core British people, what did they take those people through? They took them, and they always take them, in case the new ones are coming, they will always take them through a sense of training or acclamation or indoctrination. They have to start behaving in a manner that suits the queen. They must be taught how to speak queen's English. Then, they must learn how to drink queen's tea, and be able to ride on queen's horse, everything has to do with the queen, right? Now what about a Kingdom that has a man as the king; or a king not a queen, so they will speak king's language, they will dress in the king's manner, they will think the way the king wants them to think, they do the king's business; that's walking in the ways of the king. So, it's kingdom, the expectation.

 

Do you remember what happened in the days of Daniel, the Bible says, Daniel and his brethren, they were captives, they were like slaves, but the king needed men to serve him. He said, "look for men in my domain who have no blemish, men who are smart; that's the summary, who are intelligent, and then subject them to training and let's find some of them who are able to serve the king." I'm sure you remember that not all of them served the king, it was only those who qualified, they went through three years training. They were taught the language of the Medes. So, they could speak their language, in three years they were taught. They were taught many literature. They began to read about the philosophers of the Persians, they began to see how the Persians organize their family, how they do their business, why? So that they can be suited to serve the king. It wasn't about religion, it was kingdom.

 

So, those who were qualified after training, they were enlisted as servants of the king. So, the condition must also be, haven been enlisted as servants of the king, they must continue to walk in the ways of the king, and they must continue to do his command. That was why when the king gave an order and he said, there is an image, and everybody must bow to the image, they were entering religion, right? So, they were expected to obey, but they said, "Oh king live forever, we won't be able to obey you in this matter". You are the king we are serving, right? But there is a greater King who is greater than you that we must never dis-serve, we must never dishonor. And so please King, we will not be able to obey you in this matter, we have been obeying you, but in this matter, because as you are a king, we have a King that is higher than you". Do you see it? Kingdom! Kingdom was a matter to them.

 

So, Solomon was not faithful to God again, and God decided that although He had promised David, he will always have a son reigning, it will not be like that again. “I am going to take these kingdoms away from him”. So, the whole Israel, which is made up of twelve tribes, God decided to collect ten from the son of David, Solomon. And then he gave him only one. But the way the Bible says it, the tribe of Benjamin, they have a way of going with the tribe of Judah. God says, he will give him one but that one also included the tribe of Benjamin. So, he had two, the tribe of Benjamin, the tribe of Judah out of twelve. And God says, “I won't collect these kingdoms when Solomon is alive because of his father. I'm committed to my promises. However, when his son comes, I will tear the kingdom when the son comes.” Solomon didn't do anything to fix the matter, he died like that. A man with great beginning, because he could no longer continue to obey God. He was no longer willing to live the life of God, he lost his kingdom in perpetuity, and so, his son, Rehoboam became king. And since God had already planned to scatter the whole kingdom, God raised a rebel within the kingdom, in the man called Jeroboam. Jeroboam was a good man. He had always been a good man. In fact, he was the one in charge of the labor force, he was so good. The Bible says, “Solomon considered him to be an industrious man” and so he put him in charge. But God raised him up, so to say, to rebel against Solomon, because of the evil of Solomon against God.

 

So, eventually to cut the long story short, Jeroboam who had to run away somewhere eventually came back to become the king over Israel by the word of God. Jeroboam was a good man, so to say, and a submissive servant of Solomon until the prophet of God came to him and tore a cloth into twelve pieces, gave him ten and said, “that is how God is dividing Israel and God is giving him.” He was specific. He said, “God is dividing it, and God is giving you ten.” We can find it in 1st King 11:26-40. We will see how the event unfolded; how Jeroboam became a rebel, what led to it.

 

Verse 30 says: “Then Ahijah took hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you.”

 

“Then Ahijah took hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces. And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel,” another word for the God of Israel is the King of Israel.  “Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you” did you see it, was it his idea? No, it was God's idea. Now, God actually fulfilled His promise to him. Judah and Benjamin remained with Rehoboam, the son of Solomon but Jeroboam took over. Not because he took it over by force, the people made him king. The people of Israel, they made him king. When we are talking about the people of Israel, we are talking about all the other tribes, right? Now, see what now happened in chapter 12. So, Rehoboam remained king in Judah over two tribes, now Jeroboam became king over ten tribes, so we now have a divided kingdom; the kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of Judah. So, the king of Judah, the king of Israel. And we can remember that it was because of God's judgment against Solomon that made Rehoboam not to retain the kingdoms. It was God's faithfulness to Jeroboam that made him king over. But see what Jeroboam did as soon as he became king, as soon as life began to go well with him.  And that led us to the title we are looking at, "How A Religion Was Born."

 

Let us go to the book 1 Kings 12:25-33, we are going to see the story there. The Bible says:

 

“Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt there. Also, he went out from there and built Penuel and Jeroboam said in his heart” there was no prophetic utterance, no man of God came to speak to him, no priest. It looks as if there was no priest over his life. There was no man of God. You know he was just a good guy, industrious, he became king. He didn't surround himself with men that will guide him on the matters that has to do with God. “And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now… at this particular time, the kingdom may return, see the word, Now, the kingdom may return to the house of David: If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of these people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.” Therefore, the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!” I'm sure we are seeing a replay of what happened when Aaron asked the people to gather their earrings and he said, "here is your god that brought you out." People keep being led into error. Where was that God when they were in bondage? He didn't show up, and then you now give another image that you have erected the honor that belongs to God, the praise that only God deserves. When God was showing His mighty hands, where was that calf?

 

“He built two calves and he say "oh Israel, here are your gods." Can we see how people could be gullible here? Didn't they know, the children of Israel, know God? But now, a man who was put there by God is now turning the heart of the people against God and saying, "here are the God's that brought you up." So, what is he saying? Worship them. And why was he giving them a new worship object? Because he was threatened, he was afraid, thinking, if this people go to Jerusalem. Why couldn't he summon a priest of God and ask, “what should we do?” Maybe God would have told him how to build a temporary tent, maybe God would have. He didn't seek God, he just sought advice. The Bible didn't even mention the caliber of people he sought advice from. And so, they told him what to do and he did it."If we allow this people to be going to their former headquarters, they will be finding that place attractive again.” I’m sure you know how beautiful the house of God was built by Solomon; this was just few years apart. So, He knew what he was telling himself, "this people once they see, they will leave me alone." But the question is, did the people come to him because the people wanted to come, was it not God that brought them? The man of God said, "God has purposed to do something and eventually the same thing God said he would do, God did. Shouldn't he know that it was God that made him king, and it is God that will make him to remain as king? So, he sought for help, he decided to help himself. He decided to build a religion. Two calved images that had never existed, he erected them and he mandated the people to be worshipping them.

 

Verse 29: “And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan...” It’s like he set them up in two extremes of the nation. Now, this thing that he did became a sin, can we see it? This very thing he did became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. It was very far but they were going there to worship. So, it was suffering, people began to suffer yet, they were suffering and worshipping idols.

 

He made shrines on the high places, and made priests… can you see him? who called him into the prophetic or priesthood. Was it called? You will soon find something else again in that verse. He was not a prophet, he was not a priest, he was not from the tribe of Levi ordained by God, but he began to do things. He was using his royal authority to perform something outside his role. He built shrines on the high places because of his own personal ambition, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi. It's as if the Bible was even reporting him. Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah… He did a replica of the original and offered sacrifices on the altar. You remember what the Bibles says, "for to obey is better that sacrifice, and to hearken is better than fat of ram" that's what he resorted to. He resorted to the second-best thing or the second thing. Even when you are dealing with God, obeying God, God considers it to be first class. Offering sacrifices to God, the Bible didn't say it's poor or it's never good. It says, "one is better." That shows you the degree of importance to God. So, the things that were not so important to God, they began to even do it to idols.

 

So, he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves… see it, he was sacrificing to the calves that he had made. He made a calf with his own hands, and he was sacrificing to it. You know like when a woman is being abandoned at a later point in marriage and she is like, "ah! I have really served you with all my life, all these years in marriage I have served you, I have labored" so it was as if all the labor were like to something that was not going to be rewarding. Something that was not real. So, he was sacrificing, he was laboring towards an object that was not real. He was serving his own fear. He thought within himself, he created, he imagined and he was serving his imagination. Sacrificing to his own thought, he was like a servant of his thought. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. So, he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart… it was all about him.

 

If you notice it, he was the one thinking about things and he was the one making it happen. If he thinks people should be worshipping his idol on the fifteenth, he makes it happen. If he thinks people should be worshipping "so, so and so" he makes it happen. And then, see what will happen, it will now become compulsory for everybody in the kingdom. Do we see it? So, what are the things that we are doing today as a people that we call religion that was not made by men? The Bible says, see verse 33b, it says, so so so in the 8^th month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart." Sometimes many people have asked question, "Was Jesus born in December 25th that we do Christmas so to say at December?" Who gave the date? Nobody wants to find out!

 

You know, I said something at the beginning that it was as if the children of Israel became gullible. He said, "here are your gods" and they should have known that those were not their gods. Didn't they know God before? We are not talking about shortly after Moses died, this was even after David. David showed them God, have we forgotten? They saw the mighty hand of God. Even when Solomon became king, they saw the hand of God. And now, a man now came suddenly, because he became the president of your country, because he is the president of United States or he is the president of an association, he now says, “here are your gods, here are the holy days, here are the festive periods.” See, the Bible says he created festive periods himself, "like this shall be Easter, this shall be." He created different things and people began to sacrifice on those days. How are we different from the Jeroboam period? How are we different? Have we been a people who are into religious practices because certain men have created them as a means to keep us under control? It wasn't because he loved the people, he didn't want the best for the people. He didn't actually want the people to leave him. He wanted to be in charge, he wanted to remain as king over them but the question is, was it not God that made him their King? If God makes you, the Bible says, "whatever God does is forever."

 

God is the only one that is able to make you a king and nobody can dethrone you, and if God dethrones you, there is no United Nations that can make you king. Instead of him to remain loyal to God, he decided to seek his own will. Many things have started in the world and it has become religion, and people thought it was a means for them to become a better people. See this pulpit, imagine somebody calling it my god and I should worship, I should sacrifice to it. The fifteenth of every month, I should be bringing goat and kill it on it. And he says, “this is my god.” Please, will doing it make my life better? It only keeps me in bondage. Isaiah 42:22 says, but this is a people, these people were not without kings, these people have always been with kings, and their kings most times has been responsible for their religion. Their kings have created religions as means to keep them in subjugation. The kings want to remain in perpetual relevance, and so they created a means, a means to keep them. They keep telling them, "sacrifice on so so, so days, pray on the high mountains", they build shrines, they say, "go and worship there." This is how you must dress and you must greet people in this manner, they created things. I'm sure we still remember that place in one of the epistles of Apostle Paul, when Apostle Paul was talking about how people became religious.

 

Religion has never changed anybody truly, it creates appearance. These are men that we will say that they have a form of godliness but they lack the power because all Jeroboam did was to do a kind of adaptation, this is the reality going on in the land of Judah. Let's replicate it in Shechem. Let's build a shrine in Dan, let's build a shrine in Penuel. Let people go to those high places and sacrifice. The people will think they are sacrificing to the living God, but they are sacrificing to a golden calf, the work of the hands of men. Colossians 2:20-23 say: “Therefore, if you died with Christ, from the basic principles of the world… can you see it, you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world that accompanies religions of the world. Why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations… so it is the religions that produces regulations for the people as means to keep people in subjugation. See what the Bible says, why do you subject? I am sure we know the meaning of that, why do you subject yourself to regulations? As if the regulations become your means of being subjugated as slaves or as servants. Verse 21, “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of, who? Men. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom… that’s it, you can't expect a whole king to create something that looks foolish, it will look attractive. They will tell you things.

 

When you see some monks, some religious high priest in many nations, the way they are quiet, the way they try to compose themselves, they try to sound wise. They tend to show you the picture; they know all things; they know how to fix all things. It says, "it has appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion" You created the religion yourself. False humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh…” It doesn't. When sins come, the Bible says, "what Jeroboam did became sin." The religion that Jeroboam created could not solve the problem of sin. So, we could be religious and be highly sinful. So, there are religious leaders who are sinners. They are rebels, they rebel against God. If God says, what the spiritual leader of Israel did became sin, it means the leader himself is a sinner, and the whole people were sinning.

 

In the book of John 4:4-9, what that man did that day became a pattern afterwards. John 4, because we know the story, it's the story of Jesus and the Samarian woman. The Bible says, Jesus, in verse 4, needed to go through Samaria. So, He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son. Now, Jesus approached that woman and said; the woman that came to fetch water, "give me a drink,” for his disciples had gone away, verse 8, into city to buy food. Verse 9, then “the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew” Can we see what the woman was talking about? You belonging to the tribe of Judah. That’s it oh.  The Jews are the Judah people. You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

 

Now, that place we stopped, the Bible says, there is a place the Scripture concluded in that place, even till this day, there have been such rebel or a rebellion against the house of David by the children of Israel. Since then! She says, "you a Jew," we are talking about two thousand plus years ago. "You a Jew, you are asking," Jews don't have anything to do with the Samaritans. "And what happened? “To your tent oh Israel! Let David and his people stay on their own, we stay on our own". And then, haven stayed on their own, because king Jeroboam did not want them to remember David again, he built high places for them to worship idols. So, since then, they've been worshipping idols. But let us see what happens.

 

When the woman realized that this man, she was talking to is not a normal person, so to say, he is not an average human, see what happened next. Let's jump to verse 19, after Jesus had prophesied and Jesus said, "the man that you are living with is not your husband, and you have had so so so number of husbands".

 

The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive You are a prophet. Our fathers, can we follow it? Our fathers worshiped on this mountain. Jesus was on their territory. Jesus was in the place or on those places where the children of Israel built in those days of Jeroboam. She says, “our fathers worshipped on this mountain.” The question we should be asking is: "who were they worshipping, what were they worshipping? “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” Can we see it? Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; can we see that? You worship what you do not know, almost saying you worship your own imagination or the vain imaginations of your fathers. We, know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews, deliverance is of the Jews, redemption is of the Jews. Verse 23, But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. For God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

 

If you flip it, you will understand that they have been worshipping in flesh and in falsehood. If Jesus mentioned something, he wouldn't mention what has been existing. If you have been drinking water every time you eat and Jesus comes to you in your dream and say, “my son, please be drinking water when you eat” does it make sense? You have always been doing it. But you are not drinking water, you are suffering from dehydration and Jesus appears to you in the dream, knowing that you won't hear him in the day time, He says, “my son, please when you eat, drink a lot of water.” It is because you have been lacking in it.

 

So, if Jesus says, "the Father is seeking those who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth", it means people have been worshipping in carnality and in falsehood. They've been worshipping the vanities of their imaginations. They imagine vain things, they worship it, they bow to them. Men create doctrines for them, they sacrifice along the lines of the doctrines. As far as they are concerned, they have peace in their heart not because the peace is real but because they have satisfied all the requirements of their laws, “every so so so we must do, every so so so hour we must pray, every so so so day, we must give, every so so so hour, we must sacrifice.” And they've been doing it, and so they believe, their minds tell them they are okay. Do you remember the Pharisee, the Bible says the Pharisee and the Publican? The Bible says, the Publican could not look up to God but was beating his chest and saying, "I'm a sinner, please just have mercy on me." And the Pharisee says, "Father, oh God, how are you? Hi! I worship you normally, daily. I fast so so so number of days a week, I give you the poor," what was he doing? And Jesus says, "and the Publican returns justified. So, what is the opposite of justified? The Pharisee returned condemned. That was a religious man, he was thinking he was okay, because he was satisfying the things he had read in the law.

 

Religion can only give you a false impression of justification of righteousness. You must get out of it, if you want to be truly justified and truly righteous. The Bible says, “God is seeking true worshippers, those who will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth” not those who are religious who don't know whom they worship, who worship vanity. Imagine sister Anjola just creating some things and just saying, "Bro. Gboyega, just pattern your life after them and then you will be fine" and then I forget everything I have always been doing or I will always do, I forget Jesus. And I say, "everything you tell me, I want to do" what has happened? Then, I have patterned my life after the words of men, the doctrines of men. Let every man be a liar, let God be true. But every man a liar.

 

If God is not in charge of your worship, if God is not enthroned in your worship. If they tell you, don’t worry, just extol, enthrone this particular spirit. As this spirit is lifted up, God is lifted up, that's a lie. If God is not enthroned in your worship, you are worshipping an idol. “We know whom we worship” you don't know what you worship, you have been worshipping vain things, you have been worshipping the traditions of men, your life has been built around what men have written in the past, what men have done. Some people went to the mountain without wearing any shoe because they saw an angel, they now tell you, don't wear shoes if you want to see God, has God commanded you so? Religions are the works of men.

 

"On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand." All other works of men sinks. On Christ whom God has erected, whom God has instituted. Christ the stone, the chief cornerstone, the rock of offence. Christ, the King of the Kingdom, on Him we must stand, any other ground, is a ground of religion, you sink in it. They asked Jesus, “Lord would you”, we know who you are, “would you restore the Kingdom”, we know you are the King. “Would you restore the Kingdom to Israel?” Jesus, he didn't promise them the thing will never happen. He said, “You shall receive power” that's all the Kingdom is all about, “when the Spirit comes upon you.” When the Spirit of the King comes upon you, the utterance, the aura of the Kingdom comes into you. Jesus didn't come to give you religion, He came to give you access into the Kingdom. “I am the way to the Father.”

 

I believe you have learnt something!

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Gboyega ADEDEJI!

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