In church yesterday we talked about Urban legends. Not the legend ‘do spiders lurk in airport toilets?’ But, legends like ‘all roads lead to God.’ Some people may say if you can get to the top of the house by ladder, rope or stair, why does it matter how you got there? The fact is you can’t get to Heaven by this way or that way, otherwise Jesus wouldn’t have said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but through me.” If there were many ways to get to Heaven then the world would be a happier place, with people going about their daily routine; praying 5 times a day, doing charity work, mediating on inner peace. But, there aren’t.

The first legend is that all religions are the same. Well, on the surface many religions may appear to have similar values or teachings, but delve into them and they are radically different. Most religions are all about ‘do.’ Do this and you are a good person, do that and you can earn points to cash into a Heaven ticket. But, Christianity is all about ’done.’
Jesus has done the work for you; He has paid the price for your sins. He has made up an offering to God that smells of sweet incense, all you have to do is accept.

Think of it like this: There are two county clubs across the street from you. One of them says that to get into their club you have to pay a billion dollars, do charity work for the poor every day for 5 years, pray 10 times a day and so on. You find out that even if you could do all of those things for them, once you get in you must act, speak, look a certain way or they will kick you out. Depressed you go across the street to the other country club. You ask ‘how much to join?’ They say ‘well, it’s a billion dollars’ (oh, great you think, just like the other one.) ‘But,’ they say, ‘it’s already been paid for you. This nice guy showed up and said, “Whomever wants to join, let them in and charge me.”’ Wow, that sounds pretty good. So you join, and you find that all of a sudden you want to show this person how grateful you are; so, you bake a cake for the homeless guy down the street. You want to talk to this guy so you start praying to Him, but it’s just like a regular conversation. You find that you want to please Him so you decided that you will be a better driver (sorry Denverites, I had to put that one in.)

See, the one club has so many restrictions you can’t possibly get in and when you ‘do’ stuff it’s more like servitude because you attitude isn’t right. The other club has you grateful that someone paid a price you couldn’t afford, so grateful that you start doing things to for the sheer pleasure of it, not to get a reward.

Some people might argue that if Jesus did all the work then I can accept His payment and just sit on my butt. Then when I say you ‘do’ things they say ‘hey, didn’t you just say that you can’t get to Heaven by doing stuff?’ Yes, but when you know your place is secure you’re doing stuff isn’t a selfish response to try to get something; it’s an act of love for the God that sent His son to die for you. Besides there’s this whole ‘fruit of the Spirit’ thing that you do in response to His lovingkindness. Jesus said that those who don’t produce fruit will be pruned from the tree, but He didn’t mean that ‘doing’ things would get you points. Again doing things for Jesus or praying to Him is what you do when you realize that your sin is like that filthy ring in your tub. It looks awful, it embarrasses you and you try to get rid of it by scrubbing away. But, Jesus comes in and scrubs the heart clean. Gone are the filthy sin stains, gone is the embarrassment, gone is the hurt from all the scrubbing you have tried to do. Instead you have a heart whole and shining, giving and living, happy and grateful for what He has done.

So, this was really long, but I feel like the message was really great and maybe someone needed to hear it.