Message: “Growing in Jesus vs. Religious Moralism (Isaiah 1:10-18)” from Dr. David Carey Dixon

A message from the series "Sunday Service." As we start off this new fall season, we want to avoid falling into our same old patterns and ruts from last year! We don’t want to be stuck in our old carnal mentality, but learn how to GROW in Christ. The invitation to follow Jesus is not about following a set of rules and practicing religious rituals (“moralism”). Moralism focuses on keeping moral rules geared toward producing a set of “proper behaviors.” But our first problem in life is not about following rules and staying within legal parameters; our first problem is relational, and this is why the solution had to be relational. God’s law was introduced through Moses precisely in order to guide His people toward right-relatedness – to God Himself and to one another. But our sin nature (our inclincation toward idolatry = our rejection of His authority) was too deeply rooted in humanity’s heart to be undone by our attempts at rule-keeping.