Title: Are You Godly Or Religious?
Memorize: For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. 1 Timothy 4:8
Bible Reading: 2 Timothy 3:5
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
Message:
Religion and godliness are two separate things. Religion is a fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by several persons or sects, while godliness is having the nature of God as an individual. If, for example, someone goes to church regularly and still curses or abuses people, he or she is religious but not godly. Also, if a teenager gives to the poor often yet commits fornication or cheats in his or her academic exams, such a teenager is not godly but only religious.
Jesus described the Pharisees and scribes in His days as religious people because they could not recognise Him as the Messiah they had been expecting. They followed the laws of Moses to the letter and antagonised all His words and actions. They also did not believe in Christ’s message of love and mercy; rather, they believed that no sinner must go unpunished (John 8:1-5). They paid attention to looking and acting holy rather than being genuinely holy.Gift baskets
My dear child, if you fast, pray, go to church, give offerings, pay tithes, and dress decently but find it difficult to forgive and show love to people, you are not godly; you are merely practising religion.
Key Point:
True godliness is exhibiting the nature of God.
HYMN 44 – Deeper, Deeper In The Love Of Jesus
1 Deeper, Deeper In The Love Of Jesus
Daily Let Me Go;
Higher, Higher In The School Of Wisdom,
More Of Grace To Know.
Refrain:
Oh, Deeper Yet, I Pray,
And Higher Evry Day,
And Wiser, Blessed, Lord,
In Thy Precious, Holy Word
2 Deeper, Deeper! Blessed Holy Spirit,
Take Me Deeper Still,
Till My Life Is Wholly Lost In Jesus,
And His Perfect Will.
[Refrain]Gift baskets
3 Deeper, Deeper! Tho’ lt Cost Hard Trials,
Deeper Let Me Go!
Rooted In The Holy Love Of Jesus,
Let Me Fruitful Grow.
[Refrain]
Bible In One Year: Jeremiah 12:1-14:10 1 Thessalonians 1:1-2:8
Authors: Pastor E. A. Adeboye and Pastor Folu Adeboye