Mark 4:18-19 “Now these are the ones [on whom seed was] sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the [fake Sushi] cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” [
What Jesus came to end was “fake Sushi”; the vain, mindless motions of religion, yet it is what we practice in most churches today. We go to church on Sunday and unrealistically think that being there is almost like a deposit that we make that God is going to bless our life. And if you are really honest about it, we have prescribed for ourselves these different fake recipes of spirituality which we think if we carry them on and follow through these things, then God is going to respond to my prayer-life in a way that I would, if I were Him; a God of our own making. So, why do we go to church? Well, we want to make a big withdraw later on about a big prayer that we want, so we have to put in our time now. Why are we giving money to the church? Well, we really want to see a return on our investment portfolio for heaven on earth. So, we have bought “hook, line, and sinker” this idea that God is the God of the good things for us and the kindness of a church building. Then, we go home and we experience the real brokenness of our condition and the weight of stress, misfortunes, health issues and people not acting nice or caring. And you sit there and ask: What do I do with the gab between who I thought Jesus Christ was and what I am experiencing?
One thing that we should take great encouragement in is when you truly open the text of Scripture in the Bible, what you get is that you find out that the picture you had about Jesus was maybe sold to you as a child and growing up is nowhere in the Word of God. You see, The real Jesus did not really fail you; the false, pretentious version of what you have been fed and then you believed in has let you down. It is not really God orchestrating; it’s just you with imaginary superpowers. It is my firm belief that for a lot of us and for a lot of our life, God was me; but He had true superpowers and I don’t. God spoke to all of us through the Prophet in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Almighty God, who spoke the physical Cosmos and Universe, Earth and everything in Creation into existence is infinitely more knowledgeable, infinitely wiser, and infinitely more powerful than we are, but we do not believe that to be true. The father of a child with a breathing issue with place a vaporizer with medication over the child’s mouth and nose to help remedy the situation, even though the child licks and cries because they don’t understand or want it. People on the father’s side would say: “that is a good father”, while those on the child’s side would say: that is a jerk, let her go and do what they want”. What I have to realize, if I actually believe that God is a “man of His word” and that “if He said it, I believe it”, that I am more alike that child when it comes to knowing the world, the wisdom of the world, the trials of this age, the way that everything works and the reason behind what is happening.
I am more akin to that child that doesn’t understand and wants to do what I want to do than I am than I am to the God of the Universe. But, we don’t! When we think about wisdom, we align ourselves right next to the Father God of the Universe and look at our life as if we also are Omniscience (All-knowing), we also are Omnipresent (Always present), we also are Omni benevolent (All-giving). We know that we can see and we know what’s best for ourselves, don’t we? That works out well until life happens. Unless you are in Fantasyland, in a complete state of denial and delusion about everything that is going on planet Earth (pandemic, war, violent riots, and crime), at some point, you have to look at the picture of God and church that you were fed or maybe this false version of “fake Sushi” you had and have to do something with it.
You either have to keep worshipping it, hoping that it changes things or that you are somehow brow-beaten into submission that this fake version of Jesus is really good for you. Or you have to get a new picture of who Jesus is. And the majority of us, what we do when we face that, the great resignation, the great walk-away from the church, 70% of our church-raised young adults when they graduate High School, will abandon their faith and leave the church. Why? Because they do not come around to worship the fake version of Jesus that they grew up with but does not match the world in which they live.
They do not want anything to do with it because they really hurt; they have pain, they have social and cultural trauma and chaos in life, so they say: this God is the God of the “mountaintop experiences” and of “good times”, and He has nothing to say about reality now. Because of the conflict between the false picture of Jesus and reality, they are in a wrestle and struggle now and doubt parts of the Bible and their own faith. Now, what are they going to do? And what is easier is to throw it all away. I am not teaching this message from a position of authority and strength. I am not the person on the other side of doubt and struggling in wrestling saying: “now that I have overcome I’m here to tell you unknowledgeable folks how to follow me”, at all.
After giving birth to their fifth child, Pastor Chris’ wife, Paige, started experiencing back pain, which was checked and ended up diagnosed as a pulmonary embolism (Pulmonary embolism is a blockage in one of the pulmonary arteries in your lungs. In most cases, pulmonary embolism is caused by blood clots that travel to the lungs from deep veins in the legs). She read of a woman, who after a childbirth developed a blood clot that traveled to her lungs, then to her heart and killed her. So, something clicked and she (a wholistic health coach) started thinking to herself, “is this going to happen to me too”? She started this journey of asking: God is this funny to you? There are examples of great people of faith in the Bible and beyond have gone through immense trauma and suffering. You realize that the true walk with Jesus should not be called a walk with God. Is your walk with God a stroll through the park or like someone is always trying to pelt you with a bowling ball, constantly dodging it with pain, heartache and grief, riddling your life? That’s how mine felt.
Let's continue Pastor Chris' message on false beliefs and reality of life and God in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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