Lost In Religion

0:00:00 – (Steve Gray): Hey, have you been lied to? Like, who are the lost in the Bible? And if you could find out the truth, it would set you free. Don’t miss the next More Faith, More Life podcast and I’ll tell you all about it.

0:00:12 – (Steve Gray): You were made for more than the status quo. I’m Pastor Steve Gray, and this is the More Faith, More Life podcast. This podcast is for Christians with an ambitious heart who want to be more for their family, do more with their career, and see more of God’s promises in their life. I’ve spent many years as a worship artist, minister, nonprofit leader, bold truth speaker, and most importantly, father and spouse. When I was in my early 40s, I was craving more.

0:00:39 – (Steve Gray): More from God and more from life. I’d done everything I was supposed to do. My life was good, but it wasn’t good enough. So I spent the following years diving into the word of God and searching for the biblical principles that would bring me closer to God and help my purpose and life flourish. That’s what I want to share with you. In every episode, you’ll get practical tools based on real life experiences that you can put into action to redefine your faith and ultimately your life.

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0:01:23 – (Steve Gray): Hello everyone, and welcome to another More Faith, More Life podcast where we’re going to dig into stuff in the Bible that you probably know a little bit about. But we want to clarify and make it more identifiable and applicable to our generation by identifying who these characters are in the Bible. And as I’ve said at other times, I want you to continue to watch and listen and tell your friends, because on this podcast at least, we’re digging into things that are clarifying the Bible and pushing away Kathy. And by the way, this is Kathy, Steve and Kathy.

0:01:59 – (Steve Gray): And pushing away the things that we thought were true that are keeping us from really connecting with God. We’re going to do that today, understanding what’s really going on in Israel and who the audience was, what what’s going on with them and what Jesus is trying to cure and trying to fix. Now, once we get that now, we can then apply it to what is our problem and what Jesus wants to fix in our generation.

0:02:26 – (Steve Gray): Okay, so we’re going to identify people. So what I want to do today is start with almost one of the most familiar passages when we identify the lost. And I called this lost in religion today. So we are where for the oh, and we’re going through a lot of every. Every podcast. We’re going through parables. Right. Okay. We’re. We’re at Luke 15.

0:02:47 – (Kathy Gray): Correct.

0:02:48 – (Steve Gray): All right, Read just the first couple of verses of Luke 15, which is not part of a parable yet. We’re going to identify some people.

0:02:54 – (Kathy Gray): Okay? Oh, okay. Yeah. Now, the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus, but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.

0:03:08 – (Steve Gray): Okay? So now we have the audience, and we have tax collectors and sinners that are considered outcasts and by their culture. That’s why the teachers of the law and the Pharisees are rising up saying, you know, you don’t associate with these people. Now, that’s not. In our culture. Our culture, you can associate with those people as a Christian. Right. But in theirs, you didn’t associate with them. And so there’s that going on.

0:03:36 – (Steve Gray): But also, we have to ask ourselves this question. Really, really important question. If you want to be accurate, you have to be able to answer this question. They are tax collectors and sinners, but are they part of the covenant that God made to the Jewish people? The fact that they’re a tax collector, does that mean no covenant, no promise? They can’t rely on any of the promises of God, which we would call the Old Testament.

0:04:05 – (Steve Gray): They’re called sinners. Okay, now, now we have to realize who is saying they’re sinners.

0:04:14 – (Kathy Gray): See, yeah.

0:04:15 – (Steve Gray): Jesus is not treating him like sinners. He treats him like people.

0:04:18 – (Kathy Gray): Right?

0:04:19 – (Steve Gray): They’re not. You know, we hear today we need to save souls. And you heard me say it once, we don’t need to save souls. We need to save people. They’re not souls. They’re people. These are people that the Pharisees identify as sinners. But why does Jesus reach out to them, though they’re outcasts in the culture? Because he knows they are people who have a covenant with God. But something has happened to them as covenant people.

0:04:50 – (Steve Gray): Jewish covenant people. We have. Now, that’s the first tax collectors. And then we have the next level, which we know. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees, which are. We already know, because we read our Bibles, that they are corrupt. Religion is corrupt, and it separates them. They’re okay, remember, which we’ll talk about later. The Pharisee and the tax collector who. He says, I’m glad. The Pharisee says, I’m all, I’m great.

0:05:16 – (Steve Gray): I’m glad I’m not Like that tax collector. So there was that separation. So who are the tax collectors and the supposed sinners? Maybe they were, but. Maybe they were. But Jesus is not treating them like sinners, is he? Because that’s the whole point. You’re not treating them like sinners. You’re treating them like people. And you’re not supposed to. So the Pharisees and that are upset. All right, now we have the context ready of the audience to understand the parable of the lost sheep.

0:05:51 – (Steve Gray): Okay, now, I don’t know if you need to read the whole thing, but how’s it start? Let’s get started. Okay, Jesus told them this is what comes next.

0:05:59 – (Kathy Gray): All right, suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

0:06:09 – (Steve Gray): Okay, let’s stop there. This is great theology that the church misses, and it’s terrible theology. Especially since the 1800s. It’s been worse, gotten worse. But anyway. All right, so let’s identify Jesus now, saying, suppose a man has 100 sheep. The hundred sheep would include everybody. Would it include the tax collector? Will it include the sinners? Okay, so he’s not saying so. Okay, so he has 100 sheep. So all the Jewish people are in this fold.

0:06:45 – (Steve Gray): They’re covenant people. But one gets lost, right? And so he says, wouldn’t you leave the 99 to go get the 1? You go get the lost sheep. All right, now our theology is going to rock here. Are you ready? Because Christianity today, modern Christianity, makes the lost sheep. An unsaved person, like almost 100% of Christianity across the board will say, who are the lost? They’re the unsaved. They don’t know Jesus.

0:07:21 – (Steve Gray): They’re uncovered. They don’t have a covenant. They’re not saved. They’re not born again. Those are the lost. But that is a contradiction because Jesus is including the tax collectors and the sinners. He’s not saying they’re unsaved or uncovenanted. They’re covenant people, and they are in the fold. And someone in the fold gets lost. So they’re lost. That’s why I called this today, lost in religion. These are not rebellious people, tax collectors and sinners. They are there listening to Jesus, right?

0:07:59 – (Steve Gray): And he says, you’re associating with these people. Yeah, and those people are associating with Jesus. It’s the Pharisees and tax collectors are laboring them as bad. But these are not people that are rebellious against God. These are People listening to Jesus. Well, but we make the lost. What? The people that don’t listen to Jesus, they don’t care about Jesus. They’re outside, they’re lost, they’re unsaved.

0:08:26 – (Steve Gray): But these are covenant people. What does this tell us? Why is Jesus so compassionate against sinners and tax collectors when the rest of them aren’t? And he’s compassionate to the Pharisees too. He’d love to reach them too, but they’re just so belligerent. Why is he so. Because in his view, the Jewish people, he said. And didn’t he say, I’ve been sent to the lost house of Israel? Israel’s lost?

0:08:56 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:08:57 – (Steve Gray): He’s referring to the lost as the most religious people on the face of the earth. And the only people that have a covenant with God on the face of the earth and ever have are the Jewish people, the Hebrews. They have a covenant, several covenants. Okay. Why is he so compassionate? Listen, this is. Listen, this is it. Because his. His covenant people who have promises from God that should be activated have gotten lost in religion.

0:09:33 – (Steve Gray): These are not non-religious people. These are not people. Because the Pharisees call them sinners doesn’t mean that Jesus doesn’t have compassion on them. And so the whole system is broken down in corruption. Now, before I get to one of the main points, let’s jump ahead to the next parable, which is short enough. Okay?

0:09:55 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah.

0:09:56 – (Steve Gray): And just tell us what just.

0:09:58 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah, it’s a parable of the lost coin.

0:10:00 – (Steve Gray): Okay.

0:10:01 – (Kathy Gray): Or suppose a woman has 10 silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds.

0:10:09 – (Steve Gray): Okay, we stop right there. She lost a coin. Where did she lose the coin? The coin is not out at the loss. She didn’t drop it down at the boot scoot and bar.

0:10:21 – (D): Right?

0:10:21 – (Kathy Gray): Right.

0:10:22 – (Steve Gray): The coin. There’s a coin that has been lost in. In the house. So something is lost in the house and he sent to the lost house of Israel. And he’s saying there are people, covenant people who want to serve God, want to do good, labeled, whatever, bad people because of the corrupt religion really, that separated them. We’re good, they’re bad. We’re the. We’re the. We’re the angels. They’re the devils. Okay, so it’s telling us something.

0:10:57 – (Steve Gray): People get. There’s people lost in the house. That’s who the lost are. These are covenant people who are lost in corrupt religion. They’re not unsaved. The unsaved aren’t lost. The unsaved are dead in their sins and trespasses. These don’t say they’re dead in their sins and trespasses. We know that’s true. We don’t know what kind of sinners they are. But remember the tax collector, he said, have mercy on me. A sinner.

0:11:30 – (Steve Gray): Why did he think he was a sinner? Did he think he was a sinner in his own heart? Or do you think he sinner? Because the Pharisee just said he was a sinner. See, the Pharisee yelled it out. He spoke loud enough for him to hear at least that he was being talked about. So you got to really think about this and apply it. And the application then is really, really important because as you know, then let’s repeat it.

0:11:52 – (Steve Gray): If you ask pastors, leaders, churches, you know, let’s go. We need to save the lost. They’re immediately. Oh, that’s an unsaved person. But scripturally, the lost are in the house. Now what are we going to do? Are we going to make the unsaved. Oh well, they’re really loved by God and they’re saved. We just need to go pull them back in again. But we say they’re dead. They. They’re outside the covenant. They’re not in the fold.

0:12:21 – (D): Right.

0:12:22 – (Steve Gray): So we’re going to go get you saved, you lost people, and we’re going to bring you in the fold. Isn’t that what we do? Yes, but that’s contradiction. The lost sheep was already in the fold, right? Am I right about that? He was already he. I made the sheep a he. I don’t know why. Could have been a sheep. But the sheep is already in the fold and, and somehow got lost in this religious system that in Jesus day is not working.

0:12:52 – (Steve Gray): So we need to have a new covenant, obviously, which he a better covenant. We need a savior, all those things, so we get a better covenant. Okay, but the application is a sheep is in the fold got out. Okay. A coin was in the house, in her hands. She dropped it, lost it, but she finds it and where was it? It was in the house all along, but lost in the house.

0:13:23 – (Kathy Gray): That’s very piercing.

0:13:24 – (Steve Gray): Yes. And people are. Millions of people will not want to hear it because they’re so. And I probably won’t change a thing. We’re still always going to call the unsaved the lost, but they’re not lost, they’re out. Okay, but there gives. Okay, but listen to this. When you call them the unsaved, the lost, it leans a little bit on universalism that all people are God’s children. We just need to go find them.

0:13:53 – (Steve Gray): Because they’re lost. But that’s not scriptural either. They’re dead and they need to come alive. Now these people would be more of the Good Samaritan story. They would be half dead, knocked around by religion. Okay, now why is that so important? Because in our day, the same thing has happened right through the centuries. Religion in our day has gotten corrupt. It’s not the kind of preaching and teaching that first century apostles did where you give everything or we learned last podcast, didn’t we? You have to give up everything to become a disciple, Right? And that’s not preached today.

0:14:37 – (Steve Gray): And so what happens is, if you don’t follow the pattern of dying to self, loyalty, sacrifice, giving all, which they did in their generation, what happens? Well, then you become nominal and you’re sort of just middle of the road now and you get lost in religion and it stops working. It stopped working for the tax collector, but they want it to work because they’re listening and following Jesus and Jesus is talking to them.

0:15:09 – (Steve Gray): So today what we call the lost is, well, they’re out there and Jesus is talking to. And they’re out there at the, you know, they’re out there at the park and they’re lost, you know, but they’re out there at the park, but they’re just listening to Jesus. No, we say they’re lost. Unsaved, living sinners lives right there. But the true lost today, the true hurting lost are covenant people that have gotten lost in religion.

0:15:34 – (Steve Gray): Remember when I’ve taught about Jesus says, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

0:15:44 – (D): Right?

0:15:44 – (Steve Gray): For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And he said all that. You know what, you turn that into a salvation message where we say, okay, the weary are the lost, the weary are the unsaved. So we start saying, come all you who are weary and. And heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And then we bring in, you’re weary because you’re a sinner. You’re weary because you’re unsaved. You’re weary because you’re living on drugs.

0:16:10 – (D): Right?

0:16:11 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah.

0:16:11 – (Steve Gray): Out of context. When Jesus came to them and said, come to me, all you who are weary. You know who he’s talking to? People who go to temple every day, sometimes twice a day, people who went to synagogue, people who tithe, people who sacrifice. But they were weary and heavy laden under a religion that, as they said, the Pharisees put all this on you, but they don’t lift a finger to help you. So they were beaten, all beaten up by a religion that put stuff on them but was powerless to help them.

0:16:47 – (Steve Gray): Isn’t that today? And so we get weary. So when Jesus addressed those people, if we lift it out and take it now, say, well, this is for unsaved people, then we’re taking it out of context. And besides that, he says, come all and I’ll. And I’ll give you rest. Right. Well, churches are full of people that are not restful, in turmoil. They don’t have that rest because they’re weary from a religion that doesn’t work.

0:17:17 – (Steve Gray): It’s powerless to get us out. So now we’re using self-effort. Yes. To be a Christian or they, in their case, they were using. And it was all self-effort. And Jesus was going to give them a power effort.

0:17:30 – (D): Right.

0:17:31 – (Steve Gray): There’s going to be a power coming.

0:17:33 – (D): Right?

0:17:33 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:17:34 – (Steve Gray): Which I’m going to talk about. You know, I love to talk about on the day of Pentecost, there’s a power coming, that it’s no longer going to be self-effort. Okay. But if we take these lost and make them unsaved people, then we’re trying to apply what Jesus is saying to the wrong audience. The right audience is Jewish religious people who were lost in corrupt religion because the Pharisees were corrupt. He said, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

0:18:09 – (Steve Gray): So the hypocrisy is here. The hypocrisy’s in the first line of what you read. The Pharisees are upset that Jesus is talking to sinners and tax collectors. Well, that’s hypocrisy because they’re not talking to Jesus. The sinners and tax collectors are listening to Jesus. They’re following him around everywhere. These are not lost like we make them lost. They’re lost in religion and need a new covenant. They’re lost and weary under the old covenant. They’re lost and weary under corruption, but they’re lost and weary under hypocrisy.

0:18:44 – (Steve Gray): And the hypocrites are the Pharisees and teachers of the law that are following him around but have no need of what he’s saying. So they’re the, if anything, they’re the real lost. You know, they’re the real lost. It’s the religious people. Religious people, covenant people. Now people can argue this all they want to if they, if they want to. But when he said, I’ve been sent only to the lost house of Israel, who is the lost.

0:19:14 – (Steve Gray): Well, anti-Semitism, anti-Jew, makes them sinners and haters of God, Jesus killers, you know, and all that kind of stuff. Not realizing he is trying to renew the covenant with them. Renew a covenant with these sinners. Renew the covenant. A covenant that works. But if you don’t live the kind of Christianity that the Bible presents to us, but you live like a culture Christianity, you know, that’s nominal.

0:19:50 – (Steve Gray): It’s just, you know, we just work Jesus in the calendar. It’s church, it’s soccer, you know, it’s movie night, it’s taco night, you know, whatever. And we work it in. And, you know, we’re not trying to be bad people, we’re trying to be good people, but we’re trying to be good people under our own strength. It’s self-effort, moralism. I’m trying to be a moral person, but I’m doing it. And sometimes I fail.

0:20:18 – (Steve Gray): I’m not talking about me necessarily, but I’m talking about everybody. Sometimes we fail, you know, that type of thing. Like, but, you know, that’s religion today. I love God, but have mercy on us. Thank you for grace. Because sometimes we falter and sometimes we fail, you know, okay, it happens. But you don’t get that attitude. If you read Paul or you read James or you read Peter, you don’t get the attitude as well. You know, I’m going to follow Jesus all I can, but sometimes I just don’t make it. And it’s just hard and it’s just difficult.

0:20:51 – (Steve Gray): And, you know, I just, I’m so busy doing so many things. You don’t get that attitude. These are people that are going around saying, give it all, give it all. Go the, Go the second mile. You know, don’t just go one mile. Go the extra mile for God. When you do that, see, you save yourself and then respect. You rescue yourself through the power of God to not fall into getting lost in religion. I’m going to church. I’m. I sing the songs, I raise my hands, but it’s just not working for me.

0:21:29 – (Steve Gray): Nothing’s happening. And I’m. We have arguments at home and they’re striving home and fighting at home. And my kids were at odds with each other and, and we don’t have enough money. We don’t make. We’re struggling financially. These are the people that are attending church Covenant people who have promises given to them, but they can’t reach them because it’s corrupt religion. That, that is nominal, that is convenient.

0:22:00 – (Steve Gray): That doesn’t cost us any. Anything at all, even loyalty, it doesn’t even cost us loyalty. It doesn’t cost a sacrifice. And so it’s so watered down into a commercialized religion that’s called Christianity. Well, it seems so convenient. It’s convenient religion. Right. But the problem is you, you get lost in it because it’s not the Christianity of the first century that the Jewish people were covenant people, but the ordinary folks going to synagogue, going to temple tithing, trying, giving sacrifices, making those journeys, you know, you hear about. They had to make their journeys with the Romans and they had to make journeys for the taxes and all. They’re doing all that stuff, but they’re lost in religion. That’s not working for them.

0:22:50 – (Steve Gray): And so he says, but come to me if you’re weary. The religious people, the people trying to be good are the ones that he calls trying to make this work in their own strength and good for them, good for people that try. You should. But this is more than just self-effort religion, trying to be a good person. You know, I just, I just think we ought to, we just need to be good people. Well, I hope so. You’re going to have good days and bad days, you know, but this is a power.

0:23:21 – (Steve Gray): This is a new covenant where Jesus says, I’m going to send my holy Spirit and empower you. Go, go until you get empowered. So we need the empowered church today that can scoop up the lost in what I think is the true definition. Yes, I don’t care if we call unsaved lost, that’s still going to happen. But that scoops up the lost in religion, brings them to an empowerment revival, empowerment of God. So then we can go out and be the light of the world and get those who need to be saved and born again that we’re empowered.

0:24:03 – (Steve Gray): But anyway, so that’s, that’s the real, that’s what’s really going on with the lost. And next podcast we’re going to talk about the prodigal son who was lost.

0:24:13 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:24:14 – (Steve Gray): And oh, but what a minute, Pastor Steve. Doesn’t his dad say he’s lost and dead and that which is dead came back? Oh, now we’re back to a dead person. Is that the lost? Well, we’ll have to find that out next week. We’ll define what was dead and what was lost. But anyway, so okay, not being critical, everybody’s still going to call the lost the unsaved cause. That’s just in our Christian culture. But for you listening today, you can look at your own life and your family and your friends and your church. And say, Pastor Steve, I get it. I understand what you’re saying.

0:24:48 – (Steve Gray): Because I myself or my friends or my marriage or my church feels like the people they’re doing, they’re going through the motions, but they’re just lost in religion, trying to do the right thing. But it’s not empowering, it’s not changing, it’s not life transforming, forming. So we’re just doing it under our own strength. And we’re weary and we’re heavy laden and we need some rest. And that’s why God says Jesus comes and scoops up the lost in religion and empowers them.

0:25:19 – (Steve Gray): That’s why we need revival in our churches. So more faith. Yeah, more faith in what I say and what more faith in these scriptures say. God will do this for you because he’s always done it for the lost that want to serve him. But they’re lost in the religious hypocrisy, the system. They’re lost within it and they want to be rescued. Good stuff. Don’t forget to go to stevegrayministries.com and get more books and stuff that will keep pounding away at hidden truths—that will set you free and that you might not hear in your church or you might not hear on another podcast.

0:25:54 – (Steve Gray): So this is a little different. We’re digging out stuff that, that can set you free by just defining context and applying it to us today. It’s a lot of fun to do too, and it’s powerful, isn’t it, when we put it in its original meaning. So, so glad you’d be with us today. I guess we’ll see you next time when we’re going to talk about the lost son and figure out who is he and what is he and how did he get back in graces with his father. Until next time. Bye. Bye.