Give me Jesus – The church is getting really good at marketing. I am amazed at some of the advertising and promotion pushes that I have seen for a Sunday sermon. The colors are always pulled from the Starbucks pallet and there is usually a cool picture of the trendy pastor who will be giving the culturally hip talked. The church itself will probably have a coffee bar outside the auditorium with some very nice comfortable chairs. The auditorium will be very modern in architecture and theme. The stage will most likely have tapestries for the musicians to stand on. Those playing the songs from the stage will be a mix between an Eddie Bauer and a Old Navy ad, depending on their age. At some point during the message there will be a culturally current clip of a movie, TV show or commercial that will lead into the point of the message. The sermon will be about how to live a better life. Several points will be made and then their will be some scripture verses printed on a very impressive bulletin to go look up later. After the service is over the social time begins, people that don’t really know each other will swap stories from the week and some conversations will get beneath the surface of the façade and to the heart. Then everyone will come back next week and do it all over again. For the couple of months my girlfriend and I have been church hopping trying to find a place to belong to and call our home church in Dallas. We were spoiled to an extreme level by two spiritual leaders and mentors we had in college. We have been going from church to church trying to find someone who brings the Word of God every Sunday and leaves the application and bullet points of the message to come from the text and from the Holy Spirit inside. So many of the sermons that we have heard have started with a developed outline and then had scripture tossed on top to back up the point. I don’t want a trendy message, I want truth. “For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joint and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) The Word of God is never outdated or in need of a make over. It is as current today as it ever has been or ever will be. Speak the Word. The Word of God is His timeless communication to the inhabitants of earth, the people that He created. When I think of His word and its timelessness, I do not see a book in need of a new cover, a product that needs a new package, or a recipe that needs some new and modern popular spices. The Word of God is as true today as it is when my grandparents were in their twenties. The preservation of the Scriptures over the thousands of years that it has been since their writing is un matched in literature. No set of manuscripts is a current and relevant today as the Bible. It is the bold unapologetic truth of God. It doesn’t need a PR director to edit it for political correctness, it is going to offend people, the Truth always does. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever and so are His words. So don’t give me trendy, give me true. Not radical and modern but real and meaningful. Give me the message not the marketing strategy. I don’t want it to be cultured, I want it to be Christ. When all is said and done, give me Jesus.