False gods, False promises

I remember when I was sixteen years old I couldn’t wait for the day that I would have my own car. I had dreams of getting a car, putting some shiny wheels on it and some bass in the trunk to shake the windows of my neighbors when I pulled up. I had saved up my entire summer pay from working at Six Flags Over Texas as a Costume Character to get my first car.

My story of buying my first car is a little different from other people’s story of buying their first car. Most people have a story of going to a car lot with their parents to look at cars or going to someone’s house to look at the car with their parents and maybe taking it to the mechanic to check it out and all that stuff. BUT not me.

I had worked about fifty to sixty hours a week at Six Flags, and every time I got a check I put it into my bank account towards my car purchase. I couldn’t wait to buy my first car. Towards the end of the summer, I thought I had enough saved up to get a car so I approached my dad.

By the time I knew I had enough to buy a car, my mind was locked into buying a car. BUT my dad told me to wait and he said to keep working to save money. In my mind, I thought I had enough and that it was the right time.

Here is how it played out.

One day when my dad was at work, I decided to go buy a car by myself. I know what you’re thinking, is that even possible for a sixteen-year-old? And I would say it’s not only possible, it happened! One of my dad’s friends came to the house and asked if I was still looking for a car. I said I was and asked him if he would take me to the car auction close to the house. He took me there since it was less than two miles away. We were in the lane looking at all the cars pass by and there was a car that my dad’s friend said no one was bidding on but was a good car.

It was a black 2001 Toyota Corolla and he asked me if I wanted it. I was tired of waiting to get a car and thought I had finally arrived at the moment to get my own car. I told him I wanted to buy it. Well, I bought my first car. After the auction, we went to get the car to look at it more and to take it home. Let me tell you, there were so many things wrong with the car!

All the door handles inside and outside were broken. The signal lights were shattered. The exhaust was busted in so many places underneath the car. It didn’t have a radio inside or mats on the floor. The tint was peeling inside and the paint was fading on the outside. There were holes in the ceiling and holes in the seats.

This was a junky car.

I tell that story because the truth is in our lives when we feel it is taking long for God to accomplish his plan for us, we feel the need to take matters into our own hands which leads us to getting junk into our life.

When God says “wait I have something planned for your life that you’re not going to believe,” we get tired of waiting and take matters into our own hands, and what we get is junk in our life. Just like how I couldn’t wait to save up more and go with my father to get a decent car, we feel like we can’t wait on our heavenly Father to go with us into the life that he has promised for each one of us.

Waiting on God is important. And I want to show you why it is important to live daily in God’s presence where we can wait on him to provide for us all that we need in life instead of trying to do things ourselves and only end up getting junk in our life.

In Exodus 33:1-6, God is having a conversation with Moses about distancing himself from the Israelites because they chose junk, they chose sin, instead of choosing him.

Here is what it says:

The LORD said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

The problem in the story is that sinfulness caused a broken fellowship with God. When the Israelites sinned, they broke intimate fellowship with God. Just like when I chose to disobey my father, I broke fellowship with him. The Israelites were tired of waiting on God, and sinned, breaking fellowship with God.

You can see in the story that the people of God, the Israelites, had sinned towards God and God in return told them he couldn’t travel among them anymore.

But what exactly did they do?

In chapter 32 of Exodus, there is a story you may know. It is the story of the golden calf. The Israelites were in the area of Mount Sinai for ten months waiting for God to take them into the promised land. They had to be at Mount Sinai because that was where God was speaking to Moses, telling him to write down all the laws that were going to guard the Israelites as they moved forward. They had already been waiting for ten months but then Moses their fierce leader goes up on the mountain for forty whole days. Moses was their leader and he was gone for forty days. So it felt like to the Israelites that maybe Moses gave up on them and went on vacation or just abandoned them. But that was not true.

The people grow impatient and they rallied around Aaron, the half-brother of Moses, and begged him to make them a god that will go before them. Aaron gives in, and tells them to bring all of the gold ornaments and rings of all the people. He receives it, melts it, and makes it into a golden calf. Then he said ‘these are the gods, Israel, that brought you out of Egypt.’ They made an altar to it and made offerings to it. God who is everywhere, sees it, and tells Moses what is going on. He tells Moses to go down to them and says he is going to destroy all of them because they had chosen junk instead of him.

However, Moses prays on behalf of the people and God relents from destroying them. Moses then goes down with his aide Joshua, and this is how bad it is... Moses already knows what they are doing because God told him but when he approached the camp, he is surprised and is filled with anger to the point that he throws the tablets of the commandments on the ground. He threw it on the ground!

Moses then takes the calf and destroys it and separates those who are on God’s side from those who are not on God’s side. Moses returns to God to try to make things right. God sends a plague upon the people and says he will send an angel to go before them. That is how we get to chapter 33.

Now in chapter 33 God tells the Israelites that he will not go with them because of their sin. You can find that in verse 3. They chose junk over God so God could not have intimate fellowship with them. It is like how oil and water cannot mix together. God is a holy and righteous God and he cannot have intimate fellowship with his children who are saying to him, “we don’t need you!” The sin of the Israelites broke intimate fellowship with God that he could not travel among them. Instead he was going to send an angel to go in front of them.

Now you may be thinking what does this have to do with me?

The truth is our own sin breaks intimate fellowship with God to the point where we cannot offer him true worship and know his daily intimate presence.

Now, I want to make sure we understand some differences. As children of God, believers in Christ Jesus, we can break out of fellowship but not out of relationship. We are saved by God through Jesus Christ and are sealed by the Spirit of God believing this by grace through faith. And as long as we acknowledge Jesus is the Son of God and that it is by his power alone that saved us, we will have that relationship.

BUT, we can break out of fellowship with God.

Here is what I mean: When I was about six or seven years old, I was a sickly child which means I routinely went to the hospital to receive vaccinations and check-ups of that sorts. I remember a time when my mom asked the doctor to come to our house to give me a shot. My mom knew how much I hated shots so she called my older brothers and some other men who lived in the houses by us to come over. I was in the room sitting down and all of a sudden I see 5 men approaching me, and one in a lab coat. I tried to run but they grabbed me and pinned me down. My mom is in a corner saying “be gentle, please.” I’m crying and trying to shake myself out of the grips of the men but I can’t. The doctor gets the needle out of his case and I receive shots all over my body. After he was done, I cried and cried. Everyone left the room and I cried in the same position I had been while receiving the shots. Then I had this satanic idea. I was mad at my mom not understanding she was actually doing what was best for me. I was so mad I went to her room to see how I could repay her for my sorrows. The first thing I saw in the room was her brand new bible. I jumped on the table and without thinking any longer, I began to tear out pages in her bible. She comes in to check on me because she realized I stopped crying, then she saw what I was doing.

Why that story? When my mom came into that room and saw what I was doing, she was deeply disappointed in me. She maybe even thought I was possessed. Here is the point: When I sinned against my mom that day I broke intimate fellowship with her, BUT the truth is, she was, and still is my mother. We can lose intimate fellowship with God just like we can lose intimate fellowship with our parents but the relationship is still there if we are believers.

You may say “Well, I don’t build any golden calf idols or rip my parent’s bible.”

The truth is, we have more idols today than ever before. We have many idols (junk) that we put into our life as believers that breaks intimate fellowship with God. We can make idols out of our country, career/jobs, money, sex, power, success, control, or comforts where we love those things more than we love God. And all of those are surface level idols which means there is something even deeper in our hearts that is the breeding ground for those idols.

The biggest idol in our part of the world right now is comfort.

We come to believe the easier and satisfying something is then the better it is. But that is still choosing junk. Here is how Tim Keller, a pastor in New York describes idols.

          Anything more important to you than God.

          Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God.

          Anything you seek to give you what only God can give.

Anything you look at and say “If I have that then I’ll feel my life has meaning; then I’ll know I have value; then I’ll feel significant and secure.”

Anything that becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning in life, and identity.

We have to realize that because God is a holy God, he can’t have intimate fellowship with us when we choose idols. In the story of Exodus 33, his holiness and glory would have destroyed them since they had been worshiping idols.

BUT there is always good news with the God we serve. What’s the good news?

The good news is God is a gracious God who restores his intimate presence when we confess.

Look at verse 5 and 6 again of Exodus 33.

For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

Here is what happened… The people mourned and God tells them to take off their ornaments.

The Israelites mourned when in hearing the words of Moses because they knew they needed God to go with them. Then they removed their ornaments which were probably the same type of gold items they had used to build themselves an idol. Which means taking off the ornaments was a sign or symbol of remorse that the people acknowledged their sin.

They chose to give up what they used to sin against the Lord. They chose to give up anything that had to do with their idol worship from that moment onward.

But what does mourning or taking off ornaments have to do with us?

It means God can and will restore his intimate presence and fellowship with us when we confess that we chose junk over him. Just like how the Israelites mourned and took off their ornaments, we need to acknowledge our sin realizing it keeps us from worshipping God out of a pure heart. We also need to acknowledge that we desperately need God.

It’s like the story of the prodigal son who goes off to the far country to spend all of his acquired wealth. He couldn’t wait to receive his share of the property, and chooses to go spend it instead of staying in his father’s presence. He spends everything, and longed even to be fed junky pig food. But when he comes to his senses, he realizes his sin and decides to return to his Father.

God is a gracious God who always has open arms for his children. His grace displaces our disgrace in order to receive us home.

So what do we do with all of that?

We have to seek God to know him better in a deeper relationship.

Look at verses 12-14 of chapter 33 really quick.

Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Moses wasn’t the one that sinned but he realized along with the people that they needed God to go with them and not an angel to go before them. Moses knows that God’s grace and favor is seen in his going with them personally and intimately. If God goes with them, then all is well.

So there are two things that God promises him and these are two things we can ask God each day so that we will not choose junk over him.

Two things.

These are two things taken from verse 14 we can ask God for every day to have intimate fellowship with him and not go after any idols.

1) Ask God to show you his ways so that you may know him better.

When it comes down to it, the Christian life is knowing God intimately to act like him in every situation that we’re presented in life. God has his way of handling money, power, and success, and if we don’t know how he handles life’s challenges through his word we will always handle it like we want to and how the world does.

The second thing Moses didn’t ask for but God knows that he needs it in addition to going with them, and we can ask for this in prayer every day.

2) Ask God to give you rest.

Back to my opening story, if I would have rested in my dad’s word and waited to save more money and go with him, I wouldn’t have brought home a junky car. We need to ask God to give us rest so we can be satisfied in knowing him. Also that we can be satisfied in where he has us, where we work, the school that we are in, the family that we have, and the friends we have. Let’s ask God for these two things in prayer this week. Let’s pray saying “God, show us your ways so we can know you better, and God give us rest.”

It is a certain truth that sin breaks intimate fellowship with God, but God is a gracious God who will restore that fellowship when we confess, now it is up to you to ask God in prayer to show you his ways and give you rest so that you may not choose junk into your life.

That day when my dad came home he saw the car and asked whose it was. I said it was mine. That put a dent in our fellowship for a while because he wanted us to go look for a car together and buy the best one we could afford. I had used all the money to buy the car and now there was nothing left to fix what was wrong with it. The car sat in our driveway without any shiny wheels (it never got shiny wheels) or speakers in the trunk (it never got any beats) until I was ready to go to my dad and say that I made a mistake.

Let’s not choose junk over our heavenly father. False gods deliver false promises.

“Center Church” by Tim Keller – A Review

"Center Church" was published in 2012 by Zondervan.

Tim Keller’s Center Church is a must read for anyone desiring to do ministry in America or anywhere in the world in the 21^st century. The world is rapidly changing, and what is necessary is not abandoning orthodoxy in the midst of a changing culture but meeting people where they reside with the truths of the gospel. It will always be the great task of any believer to find the balance between ministering to the needs of people yet confronting them with the word of God that penetrates to divide soul and spirit.

Keller’s book is divided into three major divisions termed Gospel, City, and Movement. There are then eight parts below the major divisions which are termed Gospel Theology, Gospel Renewal, Gospel Contextualization, City Vision, Cultural Engagement, Missional Community, Integrative Ministry, and Movement Dynamics. 

The book begins by Keller illustrating how a church correctly builds a theological vision to reach people in a particular context. He writes that there is a middle space between doctrine and practice, “the space where we reflect deeply on our theology and our culture to understand how both of them can shape our ministry.” He calls that middle space, the “middleware” between “hardware” and “software” using technological language, to describe how churches actually implement their doctrinal beliefs into ministry.

Theological vision is important. He defines theological vision as “a faithful restatement of the gospel with rich implications for life, ministry, and mission in a type of culture at a moment in history.” Churches are established with the purpose of restating God’s truth to the community they reside. 

The challenge is some churches, if not most, struggle with faithfully restating the message of the gospel with rich implications. Some may faithfully state the message, yet may find it difficult to see the rich implications for life and community. Some may grasp the idea of the rich implications for life in a particular culture, however lose hold of faithfully restating the message. What Keller desires to get across to his readers is how to do balanced ministry emphasizing the truths of Scripture and its implications on culture. 

Keller carefully articulates the intricacies of doing balanced ministry centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ. He takes time to describe what the gospel is, what is not the gospel, and why the gospel is significant. He says the gospel “is news that creates a life of love, but the life of love is not itself the gospel. The gospel is not everything that we believe, do, or say. The gospel must primarily be understood as good news, and the news is not so much about what we must do as about what has been done.” 

In the story of the gospel, God enters into the world he created to bring them back into fellowship. The theme of the gospel is Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration, and Keller writes it “has supernatural versatility to address the particular hopes, fears, and idols of every culture and every person.” The wonderful news of what God has done through Jesus Christ for the world is that he has made it possible for humans to be restored into the image of Christ if we choose to believe.

Keller’s book was personally encouraging to me because of its immediate relevance to ministry. There is a spectrum where Christians implement their theological vision. We can be so dogmatic that we are repellent to the culture where we reside or we can be so relevant to the culture that we are indistinguishable from the culture. The challenge is faithfully restating the gospel where we live as we are transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit to live counter-culturally.

The gospel speaks to many aspects of life in spiritual, emotional, physical, relational, mental, financial, and vocational health. There is a need for a renewal in all these facets to be centered around the one who makes a renewed image possible, Jesus Christ. In ministry, we must remain extraordinarily focused on the truths of God, and his desire to reach people. God affectionately desires people to know him, and he has shown to go great lengths for people to know him while never compromising his character; that will be the challenge for us for the years to come. We must have the desire to see people come to know God through a relationship while never comprising the truths of who God has revealed himself to be in his word.

Next Keller talks about the city where life takes place. He describes that the city is humanity intensified where the very best and worst of humanity is realized. He writes that throughout the Bible, there is a tension between the city’s God exalting promise and its man-exalting shadow. The city throughout Scripture is described as a place built on selfishness, pride, and violence. However, God instructs his people to be the best citizens seeking peace and loving the citizens as they grow in number. In the end, Keller writes the “relationship between the people of God and the pagan city becomes a key aspect of God’s plan to bless the nations and redeem the world.” Jesus before he ascends, tells his disciples “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The gospel has now penetrated thousands of cities worldwide.

There is a great significance for ministry in the city, especially in America. Keller writes, “If the church in the West remains, for the most part, in the suburbs of Middle America and neglects the great cities, it risks losing an entire generation of American society’s leaders.” He illustrates how it has never been so important for evangelical Christianity in America to minister in the cities. 

The gospel must reach the city through believers who have a deep commitment for the city not necessarily to build great churches. Keller writes, “Christians in cities must become counterculture for the common good,” which means they have different values than the city, but are also committed to the wellness of the city. Believers must effectively engage the culture with the intention of carefully balancing different approaches to reach the culture.  Keller writes “The biblical material calls for a balance not of compromises but of ‘being controlled simultaneously and all the time’ by all of the teaching in Scripture.” As believers, we must learn to do ministry within the culture upholding biblical values while blending cultural and biblical insights in practice.

In the last three parts of the book, Keller describes Missional Community, Integrative Ministry, and Movement Dynamics. In Missional Community, he writes about the missional church that has as its major part witnessing to the world about Jesus Christ. For the Church to be missional, the members must be equipped for missional living where they reside becoming informal missionaries and good neighbors. In Integrative Ministry, Keller discusses the balance of ministry fronts, and connecting people to God, one another, the city, and to the culture. The main point of these chapters is that the church must emphasize five points in ministering, that is 1) worship, 2) instruction (discipleship), 3) fellowship, 4) evangelism, and 5) service (acts of mercy and justice and also integrating faith and work).

In summary, how a church implements their theological vision is significant. What I enjoyed most about Keller’s book is that it is saturated with the grand narrative of Scripture, and a careful understanding of history and anthropology. The book is filled with many ideas that could be at times overwhelming. However, I think Keller has puts into understandable language what many believers are struggling to understand about the balance between God's word and culture. I believe all ministers and church leaders in this generation need to read this book to understand the past in order to faithfully minister in the future.

K. D.