The Motivation of Your Heart

Pastor Ben Diaz

Hello Church Family!

This week at church, Pastor Ben continued his series, discussing the differences between Religion and Relationship.

How many times do we get caught up in the "tasks" of the Christian life? For many of us, when we first received salvation, our hearts truly burned for the Lord. We desired to be close to Him and to be like Him. We would attend church every time the doors were open just for the opportunity to be in His presence. But as the years go by, so many of us grow cold and instead of attending church to receive revelation, build community, submit ourselves to godly leadership, we start going to church to simply say "Check! I went to church today."

That's when religion sneaks in. As soon as we start operating based on a checklist of Christian "to-dos" instead of operating out of desire to be closer to God and more like God, we have fallen into the trap of religion. Don't mistake this kind of twisted religion for what Jesus calls "true religion," which is to take care of the orphans and widows. But what we're talking about is the kind of religion that can be described as "man-made rules that make no sense."

It always comes back to the heart. During this series, Pastor Ben is kicking down a lot of sacred cows. One of those is that Jesus does not care what you can do for Him if your heart is not in the right place. If what you are "doing" for the kingdom of God is motivated by a to-do list instead of pure love and devotion to the Lord, He doesn't want it.

If you're trying to do all the right things but you don't have a relationship with the Lord, you are going to burn out. The oil of intimacy is what keeps us from running dry! We have to operate out of love; there's no other way. Our behavior, lifestyle, and character should all be the fruit of being in love with the Lord. Love will naturally produce behavior modification, but behavior modification can't produce heart transformation.

There is so much more in this message than can be summed up, so click here to listen to the whole sermon from Pastor Ben! Have a great week, and we hope to see you this Sunday!