Counterfeit Gods By Jefferson Bethke

Spoken word artist Jefferson Bethke is at it again. After going viral with vidoe on religion verses the gospel, he has released this offerering, Counterfeit God's. Watch it, and think about what he's saying. The lyrics are below.

 

 

You might say, I don’t believe in God, but the bible says not possible,

Everyone has saGod, whether or not it’s the God of the gospel.

You might not believe in God, but everyone has that one thing that’s king,

Even the dictionary defines God as what “whatever we make supreme”

It’s a theme, a thread, it’s inside of all human beings,

The fact we all worship, and no it’s not just about singing.

I know some of you already like “Jeff I don’t worship, I put that on the shelf,”

But I say technically we all do, we just worship ourselves.

We all worship something, and to an object we’re all liable,

Ladies, to some your boyfriend is your God, and Cosmo is your bible.

 

Yet, we mock and we laugh at the Israelites Golden Calf,

But we do the same right back; it just looks different than that.

So question, what’s on your throne?

What do you chase so you don’t feel alone?

So what defines you, what do you give ultimate worth?

And what if taken from you would bring ultimate hurt?

 

Now see, that is your God

 

And all of us, we’ve sacrifice deep joy for shallow happiness, and honestly we look like fools,

We’re like full grown adults in the kiddie pool, going “oh man, this is so cool”

We are slaves to our possessions, we are always craving something new,

Reality check, if you can’t give it up, you don’t own it, it owns you.

That’s the bible, it says we’re all spiritual prostitutes, actually we’re worse.

Because at least prostitutes get paid for their works,

When all we get paid is a hearse

 

That’s why worship isn’t just behavior, it goes way into our core,

So ask yourself what is your God? What do you bow down before?

For example some of you in here don’t worship Jesus, you worship what He said,

Got theology in your head, but in your heart, poor, pitiful, naked, and dead.

Some worship in stadiums, some worship in bars.

We worship our posessions, we worship our cars,

We worship science, or we worship the arts,

But see it don’t matter what clothes your idol’s wearing, the disease is our hearts

 

Or guys, how come you always say, “ya I’m a man, because I’m in control!”

Yet why cant you stop having sex with your hand, while staring at your macbook pro

Then there’s those guys who trade their wives for their job at work

Where they give more time to their boss then their wive’s needs or hurts

And you ladies, no guy can love you more than jesus already has,

So stop getting your worth from Magic Mike, Jesus is so much better than that

I know you’re thinking,  “so jeff, are you saying we should hate money, hate drinking, and never have sex.”

No, I’m not saying that. The bible says enjoy it all, in its proper context.

 

But now I want to transition, and make a spiritual incision,

Can you really tell me these things are the ultimate purpose of living?

Instead of worshiping the Creator of you and I,

We say screw you God I’ll take your stuff, but you can die.

But that trade is terrible, trading God for man

Its like God offers us water, and we say “but God, this is such good sand!”

You say, “a God that requires me to give up something” I just can’t fathom,

Yet most are willing to give up everything for a quick orgasm?

You call me a wimp for running to God when times get hard,

Yet you do the same, you just run to the bar.

 

I mean am I the only one that’s felt that gnawing within?

Am I the only one that’s felt the weight of my own sin?

 

But here’s what’s unique, so go ahead and critique,

but if hear anything in this poem, hear this one thing I speak.

Where we exchanged ourselves for God, thinking we could be Him,

He exchanged himself for us, absorbing all our sin.

God put on flesh, and do you see how we treated him?

The ultimate war veteran, because he was killed for our freedom.

Nonetheless He was thinking of you and me, with every whip that beat em,

And to think he did that knowing full well we’d say nah, we don’t really need him.

But like a Father, he couldn’t bare his children to not be free

So he thought up that tree, paid our fee, for specs of dirt like you and me

So my plea is let Him restore His proper place,

I promise you He loves you right now. Just trust in His grace.

Because before I leave, I’ll leave you with this

What of those other things you worship took nails in their wrists?

Or how about when was the last time money or sex forgave you?

Whens the last time your boyfriend set you free from all you’re enslaved to?

What else is there that died so you could be made new?

Or when’s the last time the world promised satisfaction, and actually came through?

 

Intentional Disciple Making

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Fall is here, and with it, the launch of a new ministry year at First Baptist Church. I am excited about this ministry year. We will be completing a three year long journey through the book of Mark and holding a marriage class in January and February. There will be small group Bible studies for both men and women on Wednesday nights, starting on the 19^th of September. The women will study the Gospel of John, while the men will be looking at some of the names of God in the fall, and studying  the book of Ephesians in the spring. We hope to complete the By-law revision this year, as we look to make our leadership structure more streamline and in line with scripture. 

But what I am even more excited about is that this year we are going to be working to implement something that the deacons and I spent a fair amount of time thinking about. An intentional disciple making process. Everything we do at First Baptist should serve this process, moving people to deeper levels of discipleship by doing one of 5 things; connect  to the gospel (and the church). grow in the gospel, serve from the gospel, share the gospel, and be changed by the gospel, as we work to accomplish the mission of, faithfully proclaiming the gospel to Medfield and beyond as we seek to glorify God and build a great community through gospel proclamation, personal conversion, deep disciple making, and faithful service to one another and the world around us.

Why do this? Simple. Since I have arrived we have needed an intentional process to connect people to the church and grow them toward maturity as disciples of Christ. As people have begun to attend, they have not had a clear answer as to what the next step is. By making the expectation clear, we hope to move each and every person to deeper levels of discipleship, rather than expecting them to just drift along and figure out what’s next on their own. We want them to know our hope. They will connect to the gospel; become a Christian and part of the community of Christ followers. It’s not enough to attend. We want those who begin to attend, to meet Christ (or, those that have drifted from Christ to reconnect with Christ). Then, we want each person to grow, to begin to mature in their faith in Christ. That’s the Bible studies, its conferences (One that I will be attending, and I hope you do too, is the Gospel Coalitions Boston Conference on October 19-20), it’s reading,  listening to the sermons, studying God’s word on your own, and committing yourself to really live as a disciple of Christ. Then, as a person grows and matures into a deepening disciple, we hope to move them to service. Serving the community, the church, and each other, all out of the gospel foundation that shapes our lives. This serving leads to opportunities to share the gospel, and to build gospel centered relationships, all of which leads to change in our lives, and in the lives of those who we are walking alongside and sharing the gospel with, and it leads to deeper connection with Christ and the church. Connect, grow, serve, share, change; all centered around and flowing from the gospel.

Everything we do should relate to this in some way. So for example, for a long time, we have had fellowship dinners. Great fun. Great fellowship with the family of Christ. But we would like to turn them into something more; a chance to connect with other believers and a chance to connect non-Christians friends with the church. So we are going to make them dinner with a movie, or a band, or make it a progressive supper, and encourage you to invite your friends and seek to build bridges connecting them to the church, and eventually, the gospel.

Or take the yard sale -we want to completely repurpose it. Lets make it what we are will call a “Freesale”, and serve the community by gifting the items to those that need them or could use them.

Here’s another one. Over the summer, allot of work was done overhauling the library. Putting great books in there for you to use to seek to grow spiritually, and to think more critically and biblically. Books to help you study God’s word. Why? Because we want you to grow, and be equipped as you seek to serve and share and be changed by the gospel.

Also, Medfield Day and Rally Day are two days with great opportunities to connect people to First Baptist, and, we pray, into the process of knowing Christ. Medfield Day is the 15^th of September. We will be giving out bags with the churches name on it, lemonade and limeade, and hopefully, we will beginning many great reationships that lead to people connecting to the Gospel. Rally Day is the 16^th. Worship moves back to 10:30. Sunday school launches, and we will have entertainment and lunch after the service. It’s a great day to invite friends to join you in worship, and to seek to move them into the process of connecting to the church, and we pray, to the gospel. 

I believe that God has great things in store for us, that this will be an important year, as the work of God at First Baptist Church continues, and as we seek to be far more intentional in moving people into the life of the church, and more importantly, into deeper and deeper levels of discipleship as followers of Christ. 

As we come to this ministry year, I have two requests. First, pray for the church. Pray that God will use it to connect people to the gospel, to grow in the gospel, to serve from the gospel, to share the gospel, and to be changed by the gospel; leading to a deeper and deeper connection to the gospel. Second, invite friends to different connection points, i.e. to events like Rally Day, or a dinner and a movie, and then as we build relationships and connect to God through the gospel, be prepared to help them grow, and to grow yourself.

Note: This post previously appeared in the Messenger, the newsletter of the church I pastor, First Baptist Church of Medfield.

Gospel Coaltion New England Conference

I am unbelievably excited about The Gospel Coalition-New England Conference that is coming up in October 19-20. The day I found out about it, it got nicknamed the kid in the candy store conference, because I was so excited by the lineup of speakers. I would love to see a ton of our congregation at First Baptist Church in attendance. I’m sure that I will talk more about it in the weeks to come.

Today, I just want to point you to a few reasons to attend, and to the promotional video for the conference. 

Drainage nightmare and the reminder of our powerlessness

This morning, vacation ended. Sunday, V and I retuned from a week at the Cape, an end of the summer vacation that was desperately needed. It’s been a long summer with our little bundle of joy. Lots of sleeplessness and the like, and some huge projects around the church, some of which haven’t went well. When I walked in, the thing that greeted me was a failing drainage system. This drainage system has been a disaster from start to finish. First, the subcontractors showed up a week early and started digging, and that created allot of chaos and miscommunication with the other main users of the building, Medfield Children's Center (who were rightfully frustrated that we couldn’t give them a clear timeline on things, and that now the thing isn’t working right).

Then, it took all two weeks of the school vacation for them to finish the job after showing up a week early. But finally, when it was done and the concrete was poured, it looked good. Perfect, sharp…except that the walk was lowered by at least four inches, which meant that the wood sidewalls were now as high as 9 inches, which is a problem with kids running around on the play-yard... I talked to the contractor, and I left for vacation thinking that would be fixed while I was away- it wasn’t. Then, to top it all off, I walk in today, and find that our ten thousand dollar drain isn’t draining on the walkway. I seriously wanted to turn around, go home, hide, and try again tomorrow. I came in with energy and focus, and felt like someone had taken a pin, and popped me like a balloon.

But, its funny how God begins to show you stuff when your low. As I’ve thought about this mess, I realize once more that I am completely powerless to accomplish anything. Everything that I accomplish is by the power of God at work. Everything that the church accomplishes is done by the power of God. I cant even get a drainage system done. Despite countless discussions, and hard work on the part of the leaders of the church, and the main contractor, a faithful man who has busted his butt on the project, what we have still had is chaos- and things not working right. And I feel like this project has almost become a parable for me, and for the church, reminding us that we are truly powerless to accomplish anything on our own.

We may plan, and careful figure out all the details on a project, and know just how everything should be done, but then we dive into a project, and watch everything fall apart. And what this shows us, so clearly, is that in all things, big and little, we need God’s hand. If we can’t even get a building project like this done on our own with chaos breaking out, how can we expect to do the truly important work of leading the lost to Christ, and helping new believers grow in the grace of God? Apart from God's power at work, we can do nothing. NOTHING.  We end up underwater...

The drainage nightmare has been frustrating, but, it’s been a reminder of our absolute dependence on God in all things.

The Lord is Good

The last month has been filled with joy! It has been lacking sleep, but filled with joy. On June 16, Amélie Maryse Chechile was born, all 6 pounds, 15 ounces, 20.5 inches of her. She is adorable. 

What is even more amazing is the way that I can look at her birth, and know that God was sovereignty caring for my family. 

On the night before Amélie was born, Veronique started labor, and things seemed to be going well. But a little before midnight, she had a contraction that lasted almost 12 minutes. Looking back, she is sure she felt a pop during that contraction. From then on, her labor was intensely painful. She was often on all fours, trying to get relief, and she had me applying pressure, trying to get the pain to subside. Eventually, after laboring all night, her water broke. Nancy and I had to put her in the car, as she was unable to will herself to move.  When we got to the hospital, the midwife took one look at her and concluded something was wrong. In what seemed like an eternity for Veronique, but was actually less than a half hour, they decided that Veronique needed to have a C-section, and were prepping her and taking her to the operating room. It turns out V had a rupture on the scar from the previous C-section. A good size one, 3-4 centimeters.

Thankfully, the midwife determined that something was wrong, and in the providence of God, both Veronique and Amélie are both fine. Also, in a huge praise, as some of you remember, there was a down’s syndrome marker on one of Amélie’s tests, and while it wasn’t a huge chance, it was a real possibility. Furthermore, there is not a hint of down’s syndrome. All I can say is THE LORD IS GOOD! He is sovereign, and good, and his love endures forever.