Only the Gospel has the power of God unto the salvation of man. Not a lesson on faux faith illustrated by how you need to be Abram and step out of your comfort zone (country). Thirdly, in order to fit these verse fragments into the overall pastor's design, they are usually ripped horribly out of the intended context. By doing so, you are once again replacing what God intended to say with what sayeth the pastor. The obvious example that comes to mind is that purpose driven pastors love preaching about blessings. Everything is sunshine and puppies if you just come to church regularly and give. To support this they comb the Bible to find any indication of promised blessing and they inevitably and frequently come to Jeremiah 29:11, which says that God has promised a hope and a future for you for He knows the plans He has. This also fortifies the "purpose driven" portion of their message. See they exclaim! God has a plan for your life! He has a purpose! And it one filled with hope! And rainbows and pancakes! And don't forget the unicorns that deliver that rainbows and pancakes! Look! Jeremiah says so right?
Wrong. Jeremiah 29:11 was not written to us as Christian believers. What preacher? Are you saying this verse does not apply to us? Yes that is exactly what I am saying. We do not interpret the Bible in a vacuum. Now, does the rest of the Bible support the notion that God has a plan for our lives? Sure, especially in the sense that He sees all time so He knows how your life will unfold. Sometimes however that plan might seem pretty banal or even boring. Sometimes it is to be a good mother and raise your kids in the teaching of the Gospel. Sometimes it is to be a good intercessor or someone who exhibits the gift of hospitality. Sometimes it is to simply represent Christ in your secular job. Other times the plan can be darker. Perhaps you will be crucified upside down as Peter was. Or beheaded like so many of our forgotten brothers and sisters in the Middle East are to this very day. Maybe your Jeremiah 29:11 purpose is to live in the Chinese Christian underground or live in the areas of abject poverty in this world. Our hope and future are in heaven beloved. Preach that and you are closer to what God intended in Jeremiah 29:11. Preach that it reveals that even in your moments of utter despair and captivity that God has not forgotten you. But do not turn it into a carnal lottery ticket because God never said that.
Lastly, when we use the purpose driven-Bible strip mine model we simply have left His plan. We are no longer hearing about the story of Jesus Christ. We are now hearing human wisdom and eloquent speechcraft. It might tickle the ears. It might soothe the soul. It cannot however save anyone. It cannot convey any spiritual power whatsoever. The proper handling of the Word of God is known as exegesis. This is the proper interpretation and handling of Scripture. Exegesis allows God to speak through His Word -- what a novel concept! Then you hear the entire counsel of the Lord. Sometimes the message will be all about His love and other times it will be all about the need to repent and His wrath. When proper exegesis is implemented then we hear the Bible for what it was designed to be -- a story about Jesus Christ. When we start changing the story to use it for our lives and interjecting ourselves into the text we are engaging in what is known as "narcigesis"; which is reading oneself into the Biblical text. I received an email recently from purpose driven preacher Louis Giglio. Sometimes mistaken as being legit, Giglio is full blown purpose driven. He has a new book apparently he is trying to sell and this advertisement he sent to me brilliantly displays narcigesis for us:
"We all have giants in our lives that creep in and take over. Giants like rejection, anxiety, fear, anger, and addiction. These adversaries establish a foothold, and before we know it we are tolerating something that is diminishing the glory of God in our lives and holding us back from the freedom that Jesus intends for us. So how do we break out of these patterns once and for all?
Put aside what you may think about the classic David vs. Goliath story. In Goliath Must Fall, Pastor Louie Giglio shows us how to dwell on the size of our God, not the height of our giants. Once we understand the source of our giants, we can ensure that whatever our affliction is, it can, will, and must fall down with the power of Jesus. You can preorder Goliath Must Fall today and you will get a sneak peek with a download of the first chapter!" -- Louis Giglio
Now many of you may be wondering what is wrong with this and I understand. You go to a church every week where the pastor tells you that you are David slaying Goliath or Moses parting the Red Sea. Maybe you are marching around the walls of Jericho you have built in your life and now need to shout them down. Perhaps you have been told you are Joseph and you too can go from the prison to the palace in just one day! Except none of it is true beloved. None of it. It is just the vain imaginations of your pastor who has turned a story about the redemptive plan of God through His Son Jesus Christ into a Tony Robbins conference. This is the definition of narcissistic exegesis, or narcigesis. Goliath was an actual giant. He was not representative of our anxiety, fear, anger, rejection or addition. Not only does that trivialize our problems but it trivializes Jesus. Well what's the big deal preacher? The biggest deal is we miss the point then. In the mind of Louis Giglio who is David in this analogy? You are! There you are standing in the Valley of Elah armed only with your slingshot and your faith. Except you are not David. Do you know who David is in this story? Jesus! David was not much to look upon. Passed over for all of his brothers before Samuel anointed him. His appearance was such that Goliath mocked that he would dare approach him for combat. What was David's occupation? He was a shepherd. David had slain a lion and bear and delivered a lamb from their mouths, as Christ delivers us lambs from the jowls of sin. At the time he comes to the valley in this story the people of God are cowering in fear. If we are anyone in this story we are the cowering Israelites! David comes however to deliver them in their time of great need. The same as Moses was a type of Christ delivering Israel from Egypt. Remember beloved, the entire Bible is a story about Jesus. The Old Testament merely foretells the New Testament. David was rejected by his own brethren in the valley that day as sure as the people of Israel would one day reject their own Messiah as well.
Now, can we learn from David in this story? Of course we can. Just like we learn from the life of Christ! We should teach that David's faith and assurance was in God and God alone. We can learn principles like God using what we might view as lesser to accomplish great things. When David refers to Goliath as an "uncircumcised Philistine" we can teach about the dire importance of being in covenant with God. There are teachable moments in every Bible story but you can teach them without usurping who is God. What Giglio and most purpose driven pastors do is they transfer the role of Christ or God onto us. It undermines the plan God has for His Word. First of all, it ignores the real story here and that is Jesus. It ignores the core of the Gospel. That Christ comes to deliver us. It takes what is eternal and reduces it down to temporal problems. I am not suggesting that in the temporal, things like anxiety and rejection are not important and often painful. I am just saying they pale in comparison to the unsaved soul. The purpose driven models teach pastors to apply temporal Band-Aids when eternal tourniquets are needed. Rick Warren once advised pastors to not preach the Gospel on Easter in order to give the visitors a "reason to come back." He marginalized salvation by admitting their biggest need was Jesus but saying it was more important to "church" them first by addressing their carnal needs and problems. That summarizes the purpose driven strategy in a nutshell. Pretend it is all for Jesus but shelve the Gospel until after they take your membership class.
That is not the plan of God beloved. His plan was to have preachers preach the Gospel because it is the only thing that has the power of God unto the salvation of man. That means when you preach from the Valley of Elah you start with and end with Jesus Christ. The typology of David as Christ is so rich and thick in this story and you want to preach about how someone can feel better about being rejected? God slayed Goliath. He defeated Satan. He defeats sin in our life beloved. That is the Good News. Not some silliness about using the example of David to feel less angry. If you want to preach lessons from this story that is secondary and only proper exegesis if you keep the characters who they are and who God intended them to be. We are not Gideon conquering the Midianites, David facing our Ziklag moment, or one of the three Hebrew boys facing a fiery trial seven times hotter than we expected. That is not why God orchestrated those events nor why He made sure to include them in the Bible. He did so because His plan is to constantly point to His Son since His Son is the only way to Him. Narcigesis flips the Word and thus God's plan on its head. Sure maybe you will learn to deal with rejection better. Perhaps you will feel less fear and anxiety. Maybe you will overcome an addiction. But you will not meet Jesus. You will not see Him where he belongs, in every story in the Bible. Instead you will see yourself bravely marching out in the Valley of Elah armed with your metaphorical slingshot to slay your metaphorical giants.
God help you however, if when you stand before Christ you discover you placed your faith in a metaphorical Christ and only possess a metaphorical salvation.
