If Christian’s were as serious about their relationship with God as God is about his relationship with them, what would the Christian church look like?

Christians who are serious about their relationship with God listen to God and do what he says. Christians who are serious about their relationship with God do not put their careers, their families, their entertainment or anything else above God. Christians who are serious about their relationship with God make time to open up their Bibles, read them and think about what those words mean to them.

We aren’t as serious about our relationship with God as we think we are. And if we run away from that truth with excuse after excuse all we’re saying to God is this: “I’m too selfish for you.”

God’s serious. I hope you are too. Because God seriously doesn’t want to see you go. He wants to see you as his child forever. When we look at the reality of sin in our life, we see how lost we really are. So what’s the way out of this?

Well, I’ll tell you what isn’t the way out.  The way out is not when we make more rules for ourselves and say, “Ok, I need to do this and this and then I’ll have done my part.” Because the second we go down that path we put all the focus on ourselves again. We’re destined to fail.

The way out is to listen first. Here's what God says to you: "I am your LORD who rescued you from slavery.” God is not turning his back on you today and he never has. God does not write you off as a mistake, a delinquent or a screw up. He knows how deeply you and I struggle with our selfishness. He knows how lost and trapped we feel by our sins. The guilt we all feel, he knows it. This is why he’s so serious with us. Look at how serious Jesus was when he cleared out the Temple. Jesus was cleaning out that junk so he could walk plainly through that Temple, ascend the hill of Golgotha and die on a cross. God loved his people too much to let his greatest act of love be drowned out by a bunch of money collectors and bleating sheep! And God loves you too much to let your heart be cluttered up by all the confusion of sin.

That same Savior, who cleared out the Temple, has saved you and me from our selfish natures. That same Savior lived a perfect life in your place to undo all the crimes we have committed against God. Jesus set things straight between you and God. “I am the LORD who brought you out of slavery.” So don’t be afraid. Yes, we have not taken God as seriously as we should and God has forgiven you for that.

Seriously.