Spiritual Isn't Enough

[00:00:00] Foreign. [00:00:06] Hi, everybody. Pastor Chuck here with another weekday podcast. And today I want to talk about when spiritual Isn't enough. [00:00:14] You know that phrase? I spoke about it this past Sunday in the chapel at Sugar Hill Church. When spiritual isn't enough. Not that phrase. I'm talking about I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious. That's the phrase I'm talking about. [00:00:29] It hangs in the air these days. You hear it everywhere. Coffee shops, university benches, whispered quietly outside, you know, by someone who's been wounded. They say things like, I still believe in something, but not the church, not the institution, not the structure. And beneath the whisper, often a story, sometimes your story. [00:00:54] I mean, you think about it. [00:00:57] It's a feeling of being burned or bruised or just exhausted by what felt like hollow routines, rituals without heart or faith packages. Yet another self help project that's just not grounded in something they know to be truth. [00:01:14] Here's the scandal. Jesus gets it too. [00:01:17] Nobody was tougher on empty religion than Jesus was when you read the Gospels. And the people who knew all the scriptures, who could ace any religious quiz, they were the very ones he challenged most. [00:01:31] Jesus calls out their lip service, their hearts that are miles away from what actually matters. [00:01:38] Jesus literally quoted Isaiah when he said, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. [00:01:46] I mean, that was his complaint. And it still echoes across American churches and followers of Jesus today. [00:01:56] Maybe, just maybe, the urge to be spiritual but not religious is one part of a bigger, wilder invitation. [00:02:05] Maybe it's God saying, walk away from the stale buffet line of routine, but don't stop there. [00:02:13] Don't settle for a faith that's like custom built for comfort. [00:02:18] Because if your God, little G, never disagrees with you, if spirituality, and I place that in air quotes, never costs you, it never changes you, it never pushes you, I mean, beyond what you'd pick for yourself. [00:02:35] You might just have made God in your own image. [00:02:39] I mean, think about it. Anne Lamott once said that, you know, we've made God in our image instead of us making ourselves into God's image. We know that's true when we believe God hates all the same things we do. Ooh, especially when we're talking about people sometimes, and I'm not saying all the time, we master the art for just being blah and settling for blah. [00:03:12] Here's the raw beauty. Jesus doesn't want the trappings of church or religion. [00:03:19] He wants your life. Not Sunday only postures, not ceremonies for ceremony's sake, but a living, breathing, disrupted, surrendered heart. [00:03:30] You know, if any of you wants to be my follower, Jesus says you must give up your own way. Take up your cross and follow me. Isn't that what we all sense deep down? Something more real, more risky, more alive. [00:03:45] So today, wherever you are, driving on a treadmill, pouring another cup of coffee, bring your whole story. Bring all your doubts, bring all your bruises. Maybe even bring your anger toward church. [00:04:00] Can I just. Just put it out there? God, he's not offended by your honesty, but just don't stop short. [00:04:08] That ache for the real thing, it's a holy hunger. It's a signal not to walk away, not to go it alone, but to start again, maybe with a messy people called church, stumbling and finding grace together. [00:04:25] Friend, you were never meant to do faith solo. [00:04:28] I mean, you take a cello, a cello solo is beautiful, but you make it part of a symphony. [00:04:35] Now, that's the church. [00:04:36] So if you've been content with spiritual but not religious, maybe today's a fresh invitation not to empty routine, but to the living, breathing, beautiful risk of Jesus and his people. [00:04:52] My friend, I trust that you take that risk and walk with the One who created you in his image instead of spending our time running, trying to make him into ours. God bless you, friend. Thanks so much for joining me on today's weekday podcast.