Summary: <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/westside-christian-fellowship/id386117063">If you want to stay up on the latest audio messages from Westside Christian Fellowship, don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes.</a><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="%22http://westsidechristianfellowship.org/WP/wp-content/uploads/Audio/2_19_2017_Religious_People.mp3%20</a"><br><br> </a><a class="twitter-share-button" href="http://twitter.com/share">Tweet</a><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="%22http://westsidechristianfellowship.org/WP/wp-content/uploads/Audio/2_19_2017_Religious_People.mp3%20</a"></a><br><br> Complete Sermon Notes<br> Religious People Are Often Stiff-Necked & Angry<br> <br> Religion says, “I have to follow rules.” A relationship with Christ says, “I want to follow His plan for my life.”<br> <br> Religion says, “I have to go to church.” A relationship with Christ says, “I want to position myself to learn more, worship Him, and benefit from fellowship.”<br> <br> Religion offers a set of rituals; a relationship with Jesus offers a guiding light.<br> <br> Religion is man’s attempt to find God; relationship assures us of His presence.<br> __________________________________________<br> <br> ACTS 7:44 – The tabernacle in the wilderness<br> 48 “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: 49 ‘Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord, Or what is the place of My rest? 50 Has My hand not made all these things?’<br> WOW – LOOK AT THIS:<br> <a href="http://the-superhero-multiverse-imvu.wikia.com/wiki/File:Earth_in_the_Milky_Way_Galaxy.gif" target="_blank">http://the-superhero-multiverse-imvu.wikia.com/wiki/File:Earth_in_the_Milky_Way_Galaxy.gif</a><br> <br> 51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, 53 who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”<br> <br> <br> The neck reflects the heart [uncircumcised].<br> <br> <br> Bowing down and a lowered head is often a mark of humility.<br> <br> <br> We are stiff-necked when we reject His will.<br> <br> <br> <br> 54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”<br> <br> <br> “Saw the glory of God.” (cf. Isaiah 6) – The closer we draw near to Him, the more we will reflect His glory (radiance, nature, light).<br> <br> <br> Biblical preaching cuts to the heart then points to Christ.<br> <br> <br> What do you do when you’re cut [badly wounded emotionally]?<br> <br> <br> KEY: Are you mad and defensive [stiff necked], or open and teachable? Cf. ACTS 2.<br> <br> <br> God allows us to be cut to reveal the heart.<br> <br> <br> ~ A package comes in the mail – “What’s this?”<br> <br> 57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus,
