We have to confront our own idolatry? If we don't, we have a declining, unhealthy church. Calvin said—this is a paraphrase—The human heart is an idol-making factory, making the good things of God into the ultimate, defining things that we worship. I knew that message had to go forth. We could not be for our city what we needed to be if we did not first grasp the gospel deep in our own bones.
How do we do that? You can't get it down deep into your bones if you're not in a local church with a pastor who gets that. He's got to get that. There's a lot of moralistic, do-more, try-harder preaching in churches today. The preaching of the gospel is not, "You must do." The preaching of the gospel is, "Jesus has already done." There's a big difference between them....