I recognize the irony of that title in a time when nobody would want to go anywhere near a buffet line with looming concerns of COVID-19. However, I still think the illustration has something to teach us and how many Northern-American Christians approach the gatherings of the local church.

One of the number one things I hear from people who are trying to find a ‘church-home’ is “we just want to find a church that meets our families needs. Often, the heart behind that is good, but far too often still, that sentence means they are treating church gatherings like a buffet line; take what you want, leave the rest alone. Or maybe another good illustration to use is buying a home. When buying a home, we want to make sure it checks off all the boxes of things that are important to us and meets all of our dreams and desires for a house. This is a terrible approach to looking for a local church to plant yourself at.

Darrell B. Harrison once said, “The purpose of the Church isn’t to look more like you, the purpose of the Church is to make you look more like Jesus.”

We spend most of our time looking for the church with the music that we like, or the right atmosphere, or enough kids in the children’s ministry, or a thriving youth ministry, that we forgot that the purpose of biblical community is to exalt Jesus through His Word and equip the saints for the work of the ministry. We leave churches because they don’t have the right colored carpet long before we left because the pastor wasn’t preaching the Gospel. We are far more bothered by the lack of coffee in the lobby than we are the lack of prayer in the pews. At some point, we need to recognize all of our efforts to make our churches look good on the outside has caused us to become nose-blind to the stench of rotting bones from within.

I understand this is strong language and often the rebuttal is that “We are doing these things to remove barriers to reach lost people.” I appreciate the desire to reach lost people but I assure you that the ‘barrier’ for lost people to believe the Gospel isn’t your lack of a barista on Sunday mornings. The barrier is their sin, and the only way to break through that barrier is the power of the Gospel proclaimed. None of these things that I’ve mentioned are inherently evil (coffee, lights, music style, etc.), but we must ask ourselves if we truly believe the Gospel is enough to save souls or not.

At some point, we must realize that the gathering of the Church is meant to equip the saints to go into the world and make disciples. Jesus didn’t say “build it and they will come", He said, “lift me up, and men will be drawn” (John 12:32). In all of our efforts to find a church that meets our needs, we are starving ourselves spiritually because Jesus didn’t design his Church to be a buffet.

Please hear me: The Gospel is enough. His Word is enough. The Gospel is the only message that cures what it diagnoses. The Gospel reveals sin, and applies the blood of Christ for redemption. You can’t make the Gospel more ‘palatable,’ you can either proclaim it, or water it down. I’m not trying to come off as judgemental, but I do believe we are called to promote what accords with sound doctrine (Titus 2:1).

I’m not telling you that your church has to get rid of some of the comforts of modern life (I’d lose my mind if we had no A/C in Florida on Sunday Mornings), but I am suggesting that you check your heart and ask what you believe the purpose of the church gathering is. I am asking you to assess whether or not you have become a consumer of content, or are seeking to surrender yourself as a follower of Jesus in the context of a local body of other brothers and sisters doing the same. I am asking you to ask yourself if the Gospel is enough reason to make you desire to gather with other believers every single week in order to “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13).

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17

As Christians we believe that the Bible is God’s divinely inspired Word to us and that it is inerrant - it is Truth without any mixture of error. But I believe we have forgotten that it is also sufficient for all things that pertain to life and godliness. Of course, the Bible won’t tell you what school to go to or if you should do the Keto diet or not (although Jesus did say He is the bread of life). But everything we need to live as ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20) and walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel (Philippians 1:27), is given to us in Scripture.

Somehow we have begun to treat the Bible as more of a theological textbook than the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17) which we are given to fight the good fight of the faith with. The Bible is not only meant to teach you about the Character of God but has the authority and power to continue transforming you into the image of Christ. Many people in our world, and even among Christian circles, seem to often call us to put down our Bibles and put on love, but we woulnd’t know what the love of Christ is apart from Scripture in the first place.

We are certainly in a difficult, confusing, and fear-filled cultural moment. But we will not win the battle according to human wisdom and the elemental principles of this world. The Bible isn’t only for use in the pulpit, but is meant to saturate the hearts and minds of believers day by day in order that we may have the mind of Christ and carry the aroma of Christ with us wherever we go. When we believe there is any single issue we can face in which Scripture is not sufficient to inform and transform hearts, we’ve begun from a powerless and hopeless place.

Scripture has power not because it’s simply a collection of accurate stories about Jesus, but because it is God-breathed and points us to Jesus every single time when read properly. Its sufficiency applies to every area of life as a result.

I’ll never forget the man I once counseled who didn’t believe that God would love him and die for him. I spent almost an hour trying to convince him of the Gospel and it just wans’t getting through. All of a sudden, I decided to open my Bible and have him read a passage that spoke of the Gospel, and in an instant, his eyes were opened and he placed his faith and trust in Jesus. The Word is alive and active. When Scripture does not seem to be helpful in any situation, the deficiency is ours, not the Bible’s.

Often, we are afraid to bring the Bible into our conversations with others because it may make us sound “old-school” or make us seem like we don’t want to think with reason and logic. But I stand on the truth that “…the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25). I still believe in the Scriptures and their power to point us to Jesus in all things.

I believe that as believers we can face any issue in our world with an open Bible and know we have all we need. Yes, even for the issue you’re thinking of right now.

“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 3:27-28

One of my favorite gifts to receive (and to give to others) is a gift card to a nice restaurant. Food is definitely a love language of mine in case you haven’t figured that out yet. At the same time, one of the most frustrating moments of my life is when I show up at a restaurant that I have a gift card to, enjoy my meal, only to realize at the end that I left the gift card at home. In one sense, that meal was already paid for, but I’m not reaping the benefits of that reality at that moment because I didn’t bring the gift card with me.

I think that’s really similar to how many of us try to approach unity and peace within the body of Christ. Jesus, through His blood and sacrificial death, has purchased our salvation and broken down all walls of partiality and hostility that exist. And yet, we sometimes decide to leave the Gospel ‘at home’ (figuratively speaking) and try to pursue man-made and culturally constructed methods of peace and reconciliation. We are trying to create a unity that Jesus has already made possible through His blood.

Because we are “in Christ", we have also been perfectly united with our brothers and sisters who are also in Him. Jesus prayed this way in John 17:

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
John 17:20-23

This is yet another case where God has empowered us to do the very thing He calls us to; we are called to live in unity and peace with one another and we are empowered by the Spirit of Christ in us to do so. This is why sins such as racism or any other form of partiality must be confronted and repented of. It’s not just that we need to apologize and seek to find ‘common ground.’ After all, these sins don’t rise up simply because we can’t find enough common ground and get along - James says they happen because our “passions are at war within us” (James 4:1-3). So to get rid of hostility, anger, bitterness, wrath, etc, we must repent and seek Christ. He is our peace. He is our unity.

This also ties back to the conversation about seeking justice because James says, “a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” (James 3:18). We saw in the last blog post that righteousness and justice are the same word in the original languages of Scripture. If you want to truly see justice, sow the peace of God that was made available to you through the sacrificial death and atoning work of Jesus Christ.

Once again we find that the answer to the problems we see in our world and in our own hearts is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us lay aside the secondary and powerless systems for unity that our world offers and pursue the peace that only Jesus can provide through repentance and faith in the Gospel.

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Micah 6:8 (ESV)

There is much conversation about justice right now in our world - and for good reason. I don’t think I need to convince anyone that our world is broken. One of the many burdens on my heart is to ask the question: what is justice and who gets to define it? The above verse above sounds nice and fits well on our walls and social media pages in times like these, but it is often used to push any definition of justice that seems to fit the current cultural moment.

Let me be clear, I see the sin of racism* in our country and it is a wicked sin that should continue to be exposed and eradicated. It is a sin that God hates and therefore we are to hate. Sadly, it does still exist in our world and it is a good and right thing to protest against it, call for just political reforms, speak for those who are oppressed (Proverbs 31:8-9), etc. As many other people have already said, “It’s not a skin problem, it’s a sin problem.” We should not be able to stand by as other image-bearers of God have been murdered, treated unjustly, and oppressed for so long. I have no reservations about any of that.

What I’m trying to ask is “what is justice?”

I believe that God is the supreme ruler of the Universe. He is not only the source of Truth; He is Truth (John 14:6). Therefore, He is the only One with the authority to define justice. All other definitions will not only fall short but will ultimately result in injustice.

In the original languages of Scripture, the words righteousness and justice are the same word - there is no distinction. That means that in order to correctly define justice, we must also correctly define righteousness. God has not only given us a definition of righteousness but, through Christ, gave us Himself as the perfect example of righteousness. Even more than that, for those who repent from their sin and place their faith in Jesus Christ, the righteousness of Christ is imputed** to us and becomes our righteousness. We, who were justly deserving of the eternal wrath of God, have now been brought near to God by the shed blood of Jesus Christ because God satisfied his wrath and justice by pouring it out on Jesus Christ in our place.

And not only have we been freed from the slavery of sin, but we have been united in perfect harmony with our brothers and sisters in Christ. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). This is the Gospel and this is the hope for the world.

As we “mourn with those who mourn and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15), let us always remember that the only One who will turn our sorrow into joy is Jesus Christ. It is a good and right thing to pursue reforms and changes in law and our justice system - so long as they align with God’s Word and His definition of justice. But as long as we are seeking to change the hearts of men, our only weapon is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He calls His people to live justly in the world - reflecting His character - but that can only happen as the Holy Spirit of God regenerates the hearts of men and women and conforms us to the image of Christ.

Our mission in this world as followers of Jesus has always remained the same:

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:16-20 (ESV)

Make disciples and as you do that, teach them to observe all that God has commanded us - such as how to live justly in this world and to pursue justice in the places we live. This does not diminish the call to stand up to injustices such as racism - it shows us that The Gospel is the only hope for men and women to be reconciled to God and to have their hearts transformed to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God” (Micah 6:8).

In his book “Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian”, John Piper states:

“The gospel of Christ conquers our hearts and brings us to repentance and faith in Christ. Christ enters our lives and dwells within us. All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to him. He commands the unclean spirits, and they obey him (Mk. 1:27). Therefore, into the racial situation, the gospel brings the only power that can set people free from the bondage of the Devil. The Devil gives way to no other power than the power of Christ. And the power of Christ moves in the world through those who have believed the gospel and are indwelt by the Spirit of Christ.”

We are commanded by God’s Law to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) but are incapable of such love apart from the redemptive work of Jesus Christ to make us a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

This isn’t a call to stick our heads in the sand concerning sins and injustices such as racism in our world, it’s a call to remember that the transformation and justice we seek can only be found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us continue to expose the works of darkness (Ephesians 5:11) and shine the light of the Gospel for the salvation of men and women.

* A friend sent me what I think is a pretty good and helpful definition of racism: “Idolatrous self-love that allows for hatred against your neighbor because they don’t look like you.”

**taken from Biblestudytools.com - is used to designate any action or word or thing as reckoned to a person. Thus in doctrinal language (1) the sin of Adam is imputed to all his descendants, i.e., it is reckoned as theirs, and they are dealt with therefore as guilty; (2) the righteousness of Christ is imputed to them that believe in him, or so attributed to them as to be considered their own; and (3) our sins are imputed to Christ, i.e., he assumed our "law-place," undertook to answer the demands of justice for our sins. In all these cases the nature of imputation is the same ( Romans 5:12-19 ; Compare Philemon 1:18 Philemon 1:19 ).

by: Nate O’Brien

John Piper, during his fight against cancer, wrote a book entitled “Don’t Waste Your Cancer.” In it, he prayed that he would not waste the pain of his cancer by missing God’s good plan for him and hope-filled path for making much of Christ. To (possibly) a much lesser extent, I don’t want us to waste our quarantine. I want us to see God’s good plan for us and how we can make much of our Savior through times such as this. During the last several weeks, I have been helped by hearing from other brothers and sisters in Christ about lessons learned during quarantine. One of the themes of the responses I have heard again and again is that they have become more aware of their idols. I have heard the word “idol” defined several ways. I think my favorite so far is the description that God Himself gave in Jeremiah 2.  Although written immediately to Israel (as they had quite literally begun to worship false gods instead of Him), His words hold true today for all believers even in Jacksonville Florida during a quarantine. In these verses, we read: 

“Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
Jeremiah 2:11-13 (ESV)

Let’s work through this passage together and discover the full description given to us by God, the various idols we might be wrestling with, and what to do about them. 

Idols “are no gods”
There is only one God in all of existence. That one God is the God of the Bible (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 43:11, 44:6; Mark 12:29; James 2:19, etc.). He is the source of every good thing (James 1:17).  He alone can satisfy us - mind, body, and soul.  Idols are not Him by definition. They are substitutes for Him. They are anything that we elevate in importance up and over our God. We are commanded to love our Lord with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27, etc.). We are commanded to love Him with our whole self. We love Him, cherish Him, think about Him, and exhaust ourselves pursuing Him. Instead, we love, cherish, ponder, and work hard for many other objects of our affection and focus (i.e., people, places, things, hobbies, peace and quiet, food, etc.). Anything we turn to for satisfaction rather than Him, is an idol. Since He alone is the source of everything we need, the idols (which we perceive as little sources of those same things) are nothing.  They are paper tigers, so to speak. They have the appearance of something but none of its substance.

Idols “(do) not profit”
In Christ, we receive a glory that should belong only to God (John 17:5). We have an inheritance fit for the King of Kings (Ephesians 1:12), yet we turn away from that glory and act as if we are not children of the One God when we begin to go after idols. Idols are nothing.  They ultimately cannot satisfy us.  They are bloated with the false and empty promises with which we have stuffed them. God uses the picture of a comparison of a fountain and a cistern to demonstrate the deceiving nature of idols. A cistern was a massive pool carved out of rock and lined with masonry and cement. They could be as large as an acre of land in the time of Jeremiah. Given that machinery did not exist then as it does now, they involved great amounts of labor to construct. Their purpose was to collect and house clean water from the rains that fell. God would be, in this illustration, not a cistern but an ever gushing fountain of the purest spring water. A thousand weary travelers could always depend on such a fountain to have an unending amount of satisfying and refreshing water. By comparison, idols are not even good cisterns. They are “broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Instead of going to the source of living water, we can often insist on heading over to the broken cistern to look for a drink. Broken cisterns have no water. They are bone dry and yet we go again and again to them instead of Him. 

Idol Worshipers Commit “two evils”
God informed us in Jeremiah that, in our worshiping of idols, we have committed two evils. We have (1) “forsaken (God)” and (2) “hewed out cisterns for (ourselves).” We have abandoned the Fountain of Living Water and, in that moment that we set ourselves on that idol, renounced the God who loves us.  What a horrible thought. God calls out to the heavens and commands them to do three things.  He tells them to “be appalled…, be shocked, and be utterly desolate…” He commands all of creation to mirror His revulsion at such sin. Worshiping other “gods” is appalling. We don’t often think of our sin as disgusting and revolting, but it is to a perfectly Holy God. The fact that we would turn away from such a God should shock the rational mind. Those looking on such folly should be unconsolable in their horror and sadness. As if that were not enough, we commit another evil by trying to be God ourselves.  Although not immediately apparent, this text is stating that we are attempting to be gods. We are trying to create for ourselves what God alone is (the source of Living Water – of all things good, satisfying, wonderful, etc.). We are trying to be the little gods who create and control God.

Idols Can Be Detected
Now that we know what an idol is, we can begin to detect the idols we have. When we see a red light on the dashboard of our car, we know that it is a signal from our car to us that we have an issue that needs addressing. In Galatians 5:19-21, we are given some of the red lights (or “works of the flesh”) that we can be on the lookout for indicating that we have an issue under the hood of our hearts. Even though idolatry is also mentioned in this list, the root of all “works of the flesh” is idolatry. We read that “fits of anger” is a work of the flesh. Thinking back through our recent time at home, to what have we responded with “fits of anger?” For example, let’s say that I remember when, being on an important phone call, I erupted in anger at my children for being too loud. In that moment I forsook God and went to a peaceful and quiet phone call for my source of comfort when God alone is my comfort. The unrighteousness anger was the red light and the type of call I wanted to have was my idol. While this practice can take prayer and effort to grow in, it is essential for us to undergo to grow in the image of Christ. 

Idols Can Be Smashed
Let’s say that, while reading this, you have learned more about what idols are as well as how horrible your idols are. I have Good News for you. Your idols can be smashed to pieces. Back in the time of Jeremiah, God’s people build statues to worship instead of Him.  When they admitted their sin and confessed it, they typically smashed the idols to dust to show both their sorrow and dedication to God.  In a sense, we can do the same. Once we have identified idols in our lives, our great goal is to smash them to bits.  We can do this by:

1. Praying to God to show you your idols. It is only through a work of God that we can see them as our still sinful hearts love them and we will be blind to them at times. God might use His word, fellow believers, a spouse, and/or a friend or even child to point them out to us. 

2. Pay attention to your reactions. Whenever you can recognize that you have demonstrated a sinful response (check against Galatians 5, 1 Corinthians 15, etc.), seek to identify your idol. It has been helpful to me to write out the following and fill in the blanks as I go, “I forsook God in my __________ and went to ____________ for my source of ____________.”

3. Once idols are recognized, confess them to God.  Repent from them (turn in disgust away from them). Pray that God will grant you the gift of being appalled, shocked, and made utterly desolate by your idols. Put them off. Put on God as your source of ___________ (using the example above as your source of “comfort”).

4. See how wonderful His Good News is for you. Although He is rightly appalled, shocked, disgusted, desolate, and greatly angered by your sins, He has saved you. He sent His Son Jesus to take your place and pay the hell you deserve for your creation and worship of all of your idols (past, present, and future) by His death and resurrection. By meditating on the Gospel, your faith will grow.

5. Rinse and repeat. Unfortunately, our hearts produce idols at an alarming amount, at an alarming rate, and over and over again. We will have to break the same ones over and over. Do not be disheartened. Jesus promised us that He will make us more like Him (Romans 8:28-30; Philippians 1:6). The amount will go down. The rate will decrease. The repetition will gradually cease. Although we will not be sinless in this life, we will see slow improvements. 

Brothers and sisters, let us not waste precious times such as these. Even our sufferings, trials, and tribulations are good gifts from God that can be counted as JOY (James 1:2 [through verse 18]). One song that has helped me in my thinking through my own idols has been “Clear the Stage” by Jimmy Needham (referenced by Pastor Kenny in a recent sermon). I have included the link so that you can play it as you pray and begin to attack the idols of your hearts. 

 Father, we come before you in the name of your Son Jesus. We confess that we have often forsook you and created other gods in your place. We repent of them. We plead with you to show us our idols, to search our hearts, and especially bring to light those dark sins that we have hidden from ourselves. Grow our faith in you as we meditate on the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, strengthen us, and empower us to smash the idols we have built up in our hearts that take from you our hearts, minds, soul, and strength. Help us so that we might help our brothers and sisters in Christ. Please be with our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world that have it so much worse than we do. Have mercy on us and allow us to gather together again in person to worship you. Help us to never take that for granted again. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Song for Meditation: https://youtu.be/6smGew7dGto