Our Best is Still Not Good Enough

A prominent Arkansas church ran a TV ad tonight during the local news. I've seen their ads before & thought they were very pop culture with a spiritual twist but tonight they way outdid themselves.

The pastor quoted the legendary coach Jim Valvano saying that the important thing in sports is not results but rather effort. And he related this to life saying, "So just give your best effort & let the results take care of themselves."

Now, I know his intentions. This church wants to appeal to a wide audience & get people in the door. I know he probably doesn't want to sound too "preachy" or "churchy."

BUT, & it's a big but, when we start quoting coaches for truth for living in place of the Bible, we have really erred as a church. There was no mention of the Bible, no mention of Jesus, no gospel tone whatsoever. In fact, the opposite is true. What this pastor was sharing was simply this: religion. Manmade religion.

Religion says, you must do this or that. You can do it. Give your best effort & you can make it. Try harder next time. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Do this & don't do that & you will arrive where you want to be.

And this is exactly what this pastor was teaching. There's only one problem with this: Jesus didn't teach religion.

In fact, Tim Keller rightly says that Jesus didn't come to establish a new religion but to replace religion with himself. Jesus' message was not "do your best & let the results take care of themselves." His message was, "You can't do it. Even your best effort won't get you anywhere with God. Religion can't save you. That's why I'm here to begin with. Trust in me. Trust in my 'best effort' not yours. Only then can you be made right with God."

As Tim Keller says, "The Bible is not about me & what I must do but about Jesus & what he has done." That's the gospel. He goes on to say, "All you need is need. All you need is nothing."

We don't come to God with our best effort & get the result we want. What we get with our best effort is hell. What we get by trusting in Jesus' best effort is heaven.

Which do we prefer?

And I'm all for cultural relevance but not while sacrificing truth on its alter. I really believe a simple Christ-centered, gospel saturated message would go much further at engaging people than sports pop religious psychology. The world around us is screaming out that their best effort is not good enough and they know it. They know something is broken & just doing better next time won't fix it.

What this world needs is Jesus & his gospel. And if our churches aren't giving him & it to them, then who is?

God forgive your church for preaching a false gospel & for teaching man's effort to get to God. Forgive us where we focus on our effort to get to you rather than on what Jesus has done. Forgives us & help us to share the real Jesus of the Bible & the real gospel he shared. Amen.