Consumer Gospel

At our men's Bible study the other night I opened with some comments about the consumer mentality that exists in America. How easily that has invaded the church today and we have in essence a "Burger King" (have it your way) Jesus. In this sense we market the gospel to be a self help program, a gospel that can develop better leaders, fix a bad marriage, keep our children from rebelling, give better health, and even secure our 401 K plans via divine guidance and protection. So think about this for a minute, if Jesus can do all of that, plus I don't have to go to hell where I suffer for an eternity, and my sins can be forgiven so I don't go to bed with a guilty conscience, and you can convince me that God does have a wonderful plan for my life, then sure I will take Jesus - do you have more than one?

We have created in our consumerism a gospel of felt needs and we sell Jesus as the One who can fill the need. The Christian life becomes in essence an off shoot of going to the local Jiffy Lube where they roll out the red carpet and give you service in 15 minutes and you are on your way. I go into Christian book stores and see devotion books that are labeled a "5 minute time with God daily." And in my mind I am thinking "love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength." Folks there are 1,440 minutes in every day which means 1% of our day would be 14 minutes with God in the morning or evening for prayer and Bible. And yet for the American consumer who has little time for Christ other than Sunday, holidays and emergencies, we market a 5 minute devotion book. This is the day of "fast food" religious activity but it is not the gospel spoken of in the Bible. Something is wrong, desperately wrong and every fiber of my being wants to cry out REPENT AND BELIEVE!

I am drawn to the language in the Bible that the Lord Jesus Himself spoke when it comes to being a "genuine" Christian. Look closely at these words and compare them to the consumeristic gospel that exists for us so that we can have our "BEST LIFE NOW!"

Mark 8:34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. The context of these words are when Jesus first tells His disciples in plain language that He must go to cross and die and then 3 days later be raised from the dead.

The Christian life is about:
1. Denying self - in the day and time in which we live this is something I rarely hear talked about or preached. This is about us denying everything in our lives that could be a distraction from the real treasure and prize which is Christ Himself. As C.S. Lewis once stated "we have been so happy for years playing with mud pies in the streets and we have no idea what it would be like to enjoy a day on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Do you see how this statement of "deny yourself" plays out in a day of consumerism? Tell the people in church, it is not about what you can get from Jesus but what you are willing to give up in order to follow Jesus. Let me ask you a question - what are the things in your life right now that take your time and attention away from Christ? Is there something or are there things that you value here on planet earth that you value more than Him?

2. Take up your cross - Every day you must go to the electric chair, the hanging gallows, the lethal injection chamber and die. You are dying daily to everything that would keep you from the main thing and the main thing is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Check out this verse Romans 8:13 "for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live." The only way this can be done as you read carefully through this section of Scripture is via the Spirit by the very word of God! Are you in the word daily, consistently and getting saturated to the point that when others bump into you throughout the day you bleed Jesus. Please don't confuse DUTY with DELIGHT. Is Christ the passion and treasure of your life so that you are a man or a woman after God's own heart? 2Chronciles 16:9 “For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.

3. Follow Christ - this verb is written in the present tense which means to be a continual and habitual way of life. And once again if you were to ask in the context "how am I to follow Jesus Christ" the answer is as follows - by denying self and taking up your cross!

Please notice there is nothing in this verse about any guarantees to health, wealth and prosperity. He doesn't say follow me that I can fix the marriage, help with your time management skills, make you a better steward of the environment. Jesus did not come to be a "life coach" or a good example. Jesus came to reconcile us from the wrath of God. He absorbed, on the cross, the full wrath of God that we deserved and at the same time credited to us a righteousness that we did not deserve. It is the understanding of this grace, yes this AMAZING GRACE, that should overflow with delight into lives that are about denying anything that would take away from Him as our treasure and killing daily things like lust, envy, greed, jealousy, pride by His Spirit and through His word! (By the way this will take more than 5 minutes)

The Christian life is not about us! The Christian life is about Christ! The only right we have is the right to eternal judgment, damnation and hell. It is only through God's wonderful grace and mercy that He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. May in this age of consumerism and getting what we want when we want it, that we would be the people of God who live not for us but for Him and Him alone.

Blessings,