DAY #19: December 24, 2010

Ephesians 1:4 (MB) says “Long before He laid down earth's foundations, He had us in mind, and settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love.”

I love that verse. God tells us that before He created the oceans, before He created the mountains, before He created anything, He had us on His mind. We have always been the focus of His love. How powerful is that? If we could just connect with that truth, it would change everything.

Starting today and for the rest of the year, I want to talk about being on guard Or better yet, not letting your guard down. It's so easy to do - especially at Christmas. We fall into old patterns of relating to our family. Old grudges re-appear. Old memories of hurt and heart ache.

Psalms 139:23-24 (MB) says, “Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I'm about; See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong— then guide me on the road to eternal life.”

This is so key, because it is so easy to let unhealthy stuff into our lives. Unhealthy thoughts, unhealthy emotions, unhealthy habits, unhealthy relationships. This unhealthy stuff can be toxic- poisonous if you like. Follow me on this… Jesus had to deal with unhealthy, poisonous people all the time of people.

In fact there were two toxic religious groups in His day. Two different parties. One was called the Sadducees, which were kind of the left-leaning, theological liberals of the day. The other group was called the Pharisees. They were the right wing leaning, conservative, legalists who saw as their whole job to go around to make rules and regulations for everybody.

Well, Jesus didn’t have a whole lot of use for either group and actually dealt with them quite frankly and blatantly. Jesus used terms for the Pharisees like they’re hypocrites. He said they’re blind guides. He said they’re vipers. He said they’re white washed graves. In fact He said they’re poisonous snakes. When Jesus tells somebody that you’ve got to figure they’re toxic. Not only did He warn the Pharisees that they needed to change but He warned everybody else and said, You need to stay away from them.

Luke 12:1 says, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees.” What’s He talking about there? Yeast in the Bible often represents evil. He said just a little bit of yeast can get in and leaven a whole batch of bread. Just a little bit of Phariseeism, a little bit of toxic religion in your life can ruin the whole batch. It can mess up your life. It can mess up your attitude. It can mess up your friendships. It can mess up your marriage. He says you need to be aware of the yeast of the Pharisees.

I hate to tell you this but 2000 years later Phariseeism is alive and well. There is still modern day Pharisees. In fact there’s a little Pharisee in all of us. So what I want to do this week is look at five toxic traits of toxic religion. When you see these, this is the religion you run from, you stay away from it. Then we’re going to look at how people become toxic. Then we’re going to look at how to deal with the toxic religion you find in your own life. The Bible says there’s certain things you need to do about it.

I love you guys. I'm praying you'll join us tonight @ 5pm for our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. It's mu favorite service of the year. Stay faithful. Stay the course. ENDURE!