2 Peter 2:1-3, 9-10 “But false prophets also appeared among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their indecent behavior, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from a trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt passion, and despise authority. Reckless, self-centered, they speak abusively of angelic majesties without trembling,”
This last Sunday, our church in Anaheim, California welcomed guest preacher Pastor Chris Hilkin from San Diego, but was born and raised in the mid-West city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He told a funny story of how there was only one Japanese restaurant in town and about 20 years ago they served Shushi. But, it didn’t taste anything like what the West Coast knows to be real fresh Sushi, and loves to enjoy. I remember this same scenario happening in cities of both Missouri and Iowa where I have relatives living, except it was related to Mexican food. They have Mexican restaurants that serve Mexican food that cannot compare to the authentic Mexican Food available on Southern California. I find that the same is true of California of BBQ restaurants not being able to compare with authentic Kansas City Barbeque. The same is true with Pizza from New York or in Italy, and there are many more tantalizing regional and ethnic specialties that I could mention.
When you grow up eating mediocre to poor foods, you have a skewed view because you have nothing to compare them to. But, with genuine morsels of perfection, it’s like a choir of Angels singing on your taste buds. When you’ve tasted the “real deal”, then anything less is discernably obvious. Yet, growing up only tasting a cheaper imitation and not knowing that there is an authentic and delicious version tends to keep you from trying and discovering the amazing original delicacy; the one that is “right”, the mouth-washing way that it was meant to be. If and when you ever do try the true dish or item, it’s like Sam-I-Am in Green Eggs and Ham (you will eat it in a box with a fox, or in a house with a mouse. You will eat them here or there. You will eat them anywhere). The difference is night and day.
Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”
As you get older, you start to think to yourself, that if you had a bad experience for something and, in general, you just want to do away with it. I think that for a lot of us, when it comes to approaching Holy Scripture, in particular the person of Jesus Christ or the church, you’ve experienced or have been taught a version of Jesus that is kind of like fake Sushi. You see, once I tried the real thing, I realized my aversion wasn’t to Sushi. It was to a fake version of what Sushi actually was. Does that make sense? So often, when it comes to these topics, I wrestle with concepts of Scripture. Sometimes when you approach church over and over again, we come with doubts, problems, issues and wrestling. We have pain and suffering in our life and then we lay them on the altar of Jesus and say: “What do you have to say about my pain and what are you going to do with this?” Issues of metal health, miscarriages, infertility, divorce, betrayal and death?
There is something upsetting about the reality of life and living as a Christian in complete humble submission to the fact that the words of worship songs are beautiful, but sometimes hard and troubling. Like, “Lord, if you said it, we believe it.” We want that. If we could check a box and transform part of our heart, we would want that. But in full candor, this life sucks sometimes. Here’s an exercise: Read John 3:16, Romans 8:28, Jeremiah 29:11, Matthew 10:16, John 15:18, Isaiah 55:8-9 and say “Lord, if you say it, I believe it” But, you do not believe that! Do you know what I am saying? In John 16:33 Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” – and we say Lord, if you said it, I believe it. But, what happens when trouble comes along? What do we do? We cognitively know that these are part of God’s Word; it is all biblical.
James 4:2b-4 “Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
This fallen world is going to treat you like sheep among wolves. God said it in the Bible and we believe it, but then when it starts to happen, what do you do? Trouble in this world, what?! And there is this moment when, if you just grew up in a form of church or underneath a style of false preaching that was health, wealth, wellness, fun and socializing; that God is there, but He is the God of mountaintop experiences, and that if you earnestly believe something then God is going to do it for you. There is absolutely no biblical basis for that what-so-ever. And yet, we eat that “fake Sushi” so much that when the junk of life hits and you are kind of stuck there in a little bit of a dichotomy where you got this old fuzzy picture of Jesus and there is a fakeness to church in general that you’ve experienced growing up.
You go to church with the family in a car with everyone yelling at each other. Then you get to the church and everything is great. Home life may be a chaotic train-wreck, but not at church; it’s not allowed. You start to conflate two things into one. We keep getting a steady dose of not dealing with reality here and that God only gives us Bible verses that make us feel good. If we say and believe those, then what happens is that you go home and real-life hits. And so, when you turn and look at church, you say: the church doesn’t have anything to say about what I am going through. Nobody understands your pain because when you get to church, everyone is smiling on the outside, but torn apart on the inside. Where is the real Sushi?
Let's continue Pastor Chris' message and find the answer to fake Sushi in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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