You Need to Understand….
We DON’T Serve a “Burger King” God!
I don’t know if you are old enough to remember when BURGER KING implemented their most memorable jingle. It was written to combat McDonald’s famous 1974 jingle,
“Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame-seed bun.”
Folks were singing the McDonald’s jingle all over the country, and maybe all over the world! So, in the late ‘70s, BURGER KING came up with a little ditty of their own:
“Hold the Pickles, Hold the Lettuce, Special Orders, Don’t Upset Us!”
It is very catchy, and I still find myself singing it to this very day!
The concept being reflected here is that at BURGER KING “you can have it your way!” Now, that was a novel concept in the fast-food industry. And, remarkably, BURGER KING made good on their promise. When it comes to fast-food that is a good idea, but when it comes to our relationship with God … not so much!
The problem is, we live in a society where “me” is the predominant figure in our lives and, as a result, we expect to have everything our way … and if it isn’t we have two choices: Avoid it, or change it so does. That is where we are at today … society, and, unfortunately, many churches, are trying to change God so they can have Him “their way!”
This is not a “brand new” phenomenon. Back in the 1970s Billy Graham appeared on THE PHIL DONAHUE SHOW. While there, Phil commented that it troubled him that we have to think that a little baby has a sinful nature. In response to this, Mr. Graham identifies the very concept that we are discussing here … that man has a propensity to want to make God in his image, rather than accepting Him for who He is … The Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent Great I AM!
This concept of wanting to make God in the image of man is described by the term “manification,” a word coined by my good friend Mark McCuen. The way this is being accomplished today was predicted/prophesized in II Timothy 4: 1-4: I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; 2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Dr. Michael Youssef has written a book and is doing a series of sermons titled Saving Christianity?. His contention is that many people feel they need to make the BIBLE and Christianity relevant for the 21st Century in order to “Save Christianity.” Another way of saying “Making Relevant” is saying, “Have it your way!”
But, as the title indicates, We DON’T Serve a “Burger King” God. We serve the God who says that the only way to the Father is through the Son (John 14:6); We serve the God who says that the wages of sin is death (Rmns. 6:23) and that goes on to explain what that death is going to be like: And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. (Luke 16:23-24); We serve the God who says “For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God” (Rmns. 3:23).
Yes, We DON’T Serve a “Burger King” God. The GOOD NEWS is that the God we do serve is able to meet all our needs to lead us to a sublime eternity, as the songstress Julia Johnston shares in the chorus of her song, GRACE GREATER THAN OUR SIN:
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin!
But wait, there’s more! The God that we do serve finds us to be so valuable that, well, I’ll let John 3:16 tell you: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
No, We DON’T Serve a “Burger King” God, but the one we do serve is even better, for He always provides us with what we need, and not what we think we want!