Wednesday we discussed the second half of our Fad Jesus mini-series. As of now I am still seeking the Lord's direction as far as where we will be on Wednesday. My initial idea is that on February 7th we will do something different (not Hosea) and then on February 14th you will hear the story of how Nikki and I came to be. Then on February 21st I plan on picking back up in our series on Hosea.

It has been my hope that Fad Jesus has been exposed and the biblical Jesus has been beautifully shown to you. On Wednesday we looked at Homeboy Jesus and South Park Jesus. We came to see that the problem with Homeboy Jesus is that it takes our friendship with Jesus too far into the realm of irreverence. We must understand that God did indeed become one of us-but He also still remained to be God. We noted that this probably comes from a misunderstanding of what Jesus means by saying we are His friends. Instead of understanding Jesus to mean that He is bridging the gap between sinful humanity and a holy God so that now we have become “friends”: whereas the enmity has now been removed. However, please do not misunderstand: Jesus really is our friend, He really is like a brother to us. But let us not forget that He is not our homeboy, you do not worship your homeboys.

Hopefully you are as repulsed by South Park Jesus (Simpsons, Family Guy Jesus) as I am. He is most disgusting as it depicts Jesus as weak, incompetent, and easily getting His feelings hurt. We compared the South Park Jesus to the biblical Jesus. We noted that the biblical Jesus has power to save. We looked at such precious verses as John 6:37, "“All that the Father gives me will come to me”. We noted that if you have been given to the Father then you WILL come to Jesus. (Now that is power) Jesus did not come to the earth to make people "savable", He came to the earth to effectually save people! Furthermore, John 6:39 states, “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day”. Jesus is not only powerful to SAVE YOU, He is also powerful to keep you.

What a sad excuse for Jesus is Homeboy and South Park Jesus! The biblical Jesus is mighty and powerful to save. We must remember that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is indeed Lord. Someday each of us will bow before the real King Jesus, not Homeboy Jesus and certainly not South Park Jesus!

I now close with a quote from a man named Herman Bavinck. In considering the doctrine of God's omnipresence (the fact that He is everywhere) Bavinck said this:

"When you wish to do something evil, you retire from the public into your house where no enemy may see you; from those places of your house which are open and visible to the eyes of men you remove yourself into your room; even in your room you fear some witness from another quarter; you retire into you heart, there you meditate: he is more inward than your heart. Wherever, therefore, you shall have fled, there he is. From yourself, whither will you flee? Will you not follow yourself wherever you shall flee? But since there is One who is more inward even than yourself, there is no place where you may flee from God angry but to God reconciled. There is no place at all whither you may flee. Will you flee from him? Flee unto him." (Grudem, 81)

When we are confronted with such an awesome and mighty God, let us not run from Him but let us run instead to Him! For He is good, and He is mighty to save! The entire Fad Jesus#2 sermon can be found at http://uncutsermons.blogspot.com/2007/02/fad-jesus-2-uncut-sermon-text.html