What Is Distracting You From Jesus?
What if the greatest threat to your faith isn’t outright evil, but the good things quietly pulling your attention away from Jesus? This blog presses into spiritual distraction, the power of the gospel, and why only Christ can truly transform a heart.
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The Light of the Gospel
4 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God,[a] we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice[b] cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants[c] for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Seeing the Glory of Christ Without Distraction
Before I dive into this message, let me share something convicting that came to mind as I was preparing. I kept thinking about Moses and the Israelites, particularly two moments when they needed water in the wilderness.
The first time, God told Moses to strike the rock with his staff, and water flowed (Exodus 17). Later, when they returned to Meribah and the people grumbled again for water, God told Moses to speak to the rock. But instead of speaking, Moses struck it twice (Numbers 20).
Water still came. The people’s thirst was quenched. But listen to what God said to Moses and Aaron: “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them” (Numbers 20:12).
That seems like a harsh consequence for what appears to be a small thing. The people got their water, right? Why was this such a big deal that Moses could not lead the people into the Promised Land?
God’s answer is clear: When we listen to the Word of God and put our faith in God, our role as His people is to uphold God before the people. That is what is of greatest and highest importance. It was important to meet their physical needs with water, but the most important thing was to hold up God.
The Danger of Religion Without Relationship
There is a real danger for us as Christians to get caught in religious traditions. I imagine in Moses’ mind, what he was thinking was: “I struck the water once, I struck the water twice. I remember you struck the rock to get water, right? You strike it with your staff.”
That is religion. It is doing the same things, expecting results. But religion does not produce life. Religion does not produce living water. It is God Himself. When we listen to His voice and obey His voice and lift Him up and exalt Him before all people, that is where change and transformation come from.
This is convicting to me as the missions pastor for this church. We do a lot of really good, great things to help people and meet their needs. This church, for years, has done great things. We started SOS to help people repair their houses, to meet a physical need. We work at Cornerstone Elementary to provide education. Arise2Read teaches kids how to read, meeting people’s needs. The Binghampton Development Corporation helps unemployed people find employment.
All of these are great ministries that meet people’s needs. But if in each and every one of them, if we are not exalting Christ as King, as Lord, then all the work we are doing is not going to lead people into the Promised Land. It may meet an immediate need, but it will not bring transformation and change to their hearts, because there is only one thing that can do that: Jesus Christ.
The Ministry of Moses vs. The Ministry of Christ
The ministry of Moses was good. It is a ministry of the law, of teaching the law, of preaching the law, of proclaiming what is right and what is wrong. But the purpose of the law is that it exposes the sin in our hearts. It does not change our hearts. It just shows us, demonstrates that we have a problem we cannot solve on our own.
The more glorious ministry is the ministry of Jesus Christ. It is the ministry of the gospel, where Jesus came and died in our place. He took our sin, punishment, and shame upon Himself, and He gave us His righteousness. Now, because we have the righteousness of Christ, we can be holy. We can change, learn, be educated, and work hard. We can do all of these things because Christ is the one who comes, takes our hearts of stone, gives us hearts of flesh, pours God’s Spirit upon us, and helps us live a godly, holy life. Not only in this life, but in the life to come.
Jesus is our only way of salvation, and He must be lifted up and exalted so that we might see His beauty, His majesty, glory, and holiness.
“Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:1-2
What the Apostle Paul was saying here, he said many times: the Corinthian church and the culture in Corinth honored and revered great speakers, orators, rhetoricians, and people who could speak and persuade. However, what Paul was saying was, “Guys, it’s not about me. I’m not trying to gain a following for myself. I am a servant of the gospel.” Repeatedly, Paul focused on the simple gospel message, and that is what can bring change and transformation into people’s lives.
The Power of the Simple Gospel
I attended a mission trip to Southeast Asia in Fall 2025. Before going on that trip, we were trained in how to tell the story of the gospel from creation to Christ. The whole story of the Bible in about five minutes, while really focusing on the gospel, on the change and transformation that can come from simply sharing the gospel with someone.
Each of us was assigned to groups of three: an American, one of the indigenous pastors we were working with, and a translator. The three of us would go into homes and speak with groups of three to 15 people in a room. We would simply share our testimony, share the gospel of Jesus Christ, and call people to repentance and to faith in Christ.
These are some of the things I saw in just doing that. Not flowery speech. In fact, all of us were trained to share the exact same message, the simple gospel. Out of about 500 people we shared with, 450 people came to Christ that week. People who had never heard of Christ before.
The power of the gospel to transform lives.
One of the women we shared with on the first day put her faith in Christ, and immediately that night she went home and shared the gospel with her husband.
As we were teaching in another house, a woman brought her daughter into the house, and she was possessed by a demon. The pastor I was with prayed over her, proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ, and cast out the demon. I know that is not something we see very often. It is not something I have seen a lot, but it was very real. That woman was set free by the gospel of Jesus Christ because Jesus was lifted high. Jesus is the one who delivers. He is the one who sets us free.
We Are All Called to Share the Gospel
God has entrusted us as the priesthood of all believers to share that good news with others. It is not just for us to have a preacher come and share the message, and for the audience to come and bring their friends. No, God is preparing and equipping us as a church, as a congregation (not just this congregation, but every congregation) to be a priesthood of all believers, to take the good news, the news that transforms people’s lives, and to share it with our friends and our neighbors and our children and our coworkers and strangers we meet on the street.
It is what brings change and transformation into our lives.
“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:3-4
Not everyone who hears the good news of the gospel believes, because Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers. I want to talk about a couple of different ways that Satan does that.
How Satan Blinds Us
1) He Lies
Jesus said that Satan is a liar. In fact, he is the father of lies (John 8:44). Satan likes to plant falsehoods in our minds. Things like:
God is not good
Sin is not serious
Obedience is unnecessary
Judgment is not real
Christ is not enough
When we begin to believe these lies, our minds become distorted, and we are unable to see the beauty of Christ.
I’ve had several friends who are ministers who believed in the gospel, but, by one degree or another, began with the idea that there is no judgment because God is a God of love; therefore, everyone is going to be saved regardless of who you are. It begins to take one step, and then another, and then another away from the truth of Scripture. They are no longer following Christ. It breaks our hearts. They are close friends who were laboring in the gospel. But Satan lied to them, and they began to believe lies instead of believing the truth of Scripture.
2) He Makes Rival Glories More Compelling
Satan blinds us by making rival glories feel more compelling:
Approval of others
Success in business
Comfort
Sex
Money
Power
Politics
Status
He blinds us by making Jesus seem dull and the world seem alive and vivid.
3) He Uses Distractions
He blinds us through distractions:
Through our phones.
Through staying on social media.
Through constantly checking the news.
Distracted by our own anxiety.
Distracted by our own ambition.
Distracting us with our children, and all of their sports and other activities.
Let’s be clear, these aren’t bad things. They are good things. But that is what Satan does repeatedly; He uses good things, even the very best of things, Scripture itself. He quotes Scripture but twists and turns it to distract us, to lie to us, to get us to slowly begin to turn our attention to the world instead of focusing on Christ.
He blinds our minds. He is after us. There really is someone out to get us. Satan does not want us to focus our attention on Christ. He is trying to hold on to this kingdom he has claimed for himself, and he does not want to let go. He is fighting. When we pay more attention to the things of the world than to Christ, by one degree at a time, we slowly get off track.
How We See the Glory of God
What Paul says we are to do is see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We need to take time to meditate on Jesus.
Our heart is changed by the things we pay attention to. If we pay more attention to even the good things in this world, more than the things of God, of the gospel, of the things that bring real change and transformation in the world, our hearts are going to be affected by that.
It takes time for the heart to change. Coming to a sermon once a Sunday is not enough. Reading your Bible for five minutes in the morning may not be enough. Saying a simple prayer around the dinner table may not be enough. Think about how much time Satan is using to distract you with all of these other things, these things of the world.
It takes two hours to watch a movie and be entertained. It may take that long in prayer and reading Scripture for your heart to come alive with the gospel, to shake off the things of this world.
Are we willing to give our time to it? Do we really believe that Jesus has the power to transform people’s lives? In fact, He is the only one in this world with the power to change people’s lives. Do we believe that? It is what Scripture tells us. Jesus is the one who can change our world. Jesus is the one who can end war.
When we see crime in our city, do we think we need to share Jesus? Or do we say we need more police officers on our streets? Because that is turning to the ministry of Moses. That is turning to the law. That is saying that the law can protect us. No, the law is not going to change anybody’s heart on the streets of Memphis; Only Jesus is.
Where Did Jesus Go?
When we read the Gospels, where did Jesus go? He went into the world with the light. He went into places of spiritual darkness with the light of the gospel. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). When He talked to His disciples in Matthew 5, He said:
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.” Matthew 5:14-15
This is Jesus’ plan: for us to be light in places of darkness, for us to take the gospel into the places that are hard and difficult, where people are suffering, where we may be afraid to go.
Think of this: If people who believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation, if God’s light that He put here on earth won’t go into places of spiritual darkness, Satan’s won. Nothing will ever change.
God wants us to be courageous, to take the good news He has deposited in us and to share it with others.
The Comfort Problem
Recently, my wife and I spent time with a married couple (who will remain unnamed for security reasons) who are our friends. For many years, the wife was a nurse practitioner at a local Christian healthcare provider. The husband worked with a local ministry that helped to disciple young men in a difficult neighborhood. For the last 20 years or so, they have been serving as missionaries in Ethiopia, working among Somalis and Ethiopian people, sharing the gospel, and planting churches.
While we were talking, the wife shared this with me: in her missions organization and other missions organizations throughout America, we are sending fewer and fewer missionaries. I asked her, “Why do you think that is?” She said, “Because we as Americans don’t want to give up our comforts.”
We do not understand a theology of suffering. We do not know what it means to be a disciple. We do not know how to take up our cross and follow Christ. We have given ourselves over to our prosperity gospel, whether we preach it from the pulpit or not, believing that God is here simply to save ourselves and to enrich us in this world so that we might one day have a place to live with Him in heaven. But our lives are completely cut off from the world and its problems.
We are moving into gated communities. We are isolating ourselves from the world’s problems. We want politics and governments to bring change. We have ceded our responsibility as Christians over to systems of the world to bring change and transformation.
We have gotten comfortable, and we are not spending enough time looking at Jesus. We are not spending enough time worshiping Him.
How to Look Upon the Face of Jesus
When we look at the beauty of Christ, when we behold His glory, when we look upon Him, He will change our hearts. How do we do that? How do we look upon the face of Jesus? The primary way is reading Scripture, reading the Gospels.
“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:5-6
The Apostle Paul said that Jesus reveals God’s character and glory. If we want to know who God is, God has given us Jesus, the incarnation of Himself on earth, and we can look in the Scriptures, and we can see who God is. As we read about Him, we can begin to commune with Him and have fellowship with Him, now that we understand Him. He begins to speak not only about who He is, but how He changes our hearts.
We need to make a subtle shift when we come together in Sunday school or in church, or even when reading our own Bibles. We need to shift from just reading about God to seeking places of obedience, change, and transformation.
Here is what it might look like: We are reading the story of Jesus and His crucifixion. On the cross, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). We can read that, and we can enter into that passage with Jesus, and we can say: “God, I too feel forsaken. My mom hurt me badly when I was a kid, and I’ve been carrying resentment towards her ever since. I’m hurting. Can you meet me in my pain?”
Jesus, on the same cross, also said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). “Jesus, can you help me to have that kind of forgiveness in my heart towards my mom who hurt me so bad? Jesus, if you are able to forgive those who crucified you, who killed you, can you help me to forgive someone who said something mean to me?”
As we enter the story and commune with Christ, our hearts begin to change. It begins to be transformed. That is what God uses. He uses a transformed heart and multiplies it in the world.
When we take our transformed heart and go to someone else who is experiencing grief, problems, or pain, God uses the redemption in our lives, through our testimony, to help other people see Jesus. We are the first picture of Jesus that many people will see. We are not perfect. We are not asking people to look at how holy we are. Look: Jesus changed my heart, and He can change yours.
Our Commission
God wants us to move out into places of spiritual darkness with the good news of Jesus Christ. He wants us to engage our world so that others might be redeemed and come into the family of God to worship Him. God wants to adopt people into His family, but we come only one way: through faith in Jesus.
There is no other way to be reconciled. There is no other way for us to receive the deep healing we need. There is no other way for us to experience eternal joy and peace.
Some of you may be thinking, “Nathan, I come to church most Sundays, and I’m not experiencing the things you’re experiencing.” I am saying: hold on, persevere, push in, press in, pray, read the Scriptures, ask Jesus to open your eyes, ask Jesus to open your hearts.
If what I am saying is not true, then the Bible is not true, because Paul is saying that it is God who illuminates the human heart with the picture of Jesus. That is all we have got. If what I am saying is not true, this religion is dead and useless.
But I believe it is true. I believe that this book, this Word, this promise in Jesus Christ is what brings change and transformation into our city, which is so desperate for it.
But we cannot sit on the sidelines and expect others to do it. He is moving us. To do that, we have to look at the beauty of Christ, behold His beauty, elevate Him in our lives, in our families, so that others can experience the transformation that God desires.
Worthy Is the Lamb
The Moravians were a group of people who had an amazing missionary movement, sending hundreds of people to the nations. They engaged in 100 years of 24-hour prayer, of beholding the glory of God, their hearts being penetrated and released, and sending out.
This is the passage of Scripture that held everything together, informed how they ran their businesses and gave money to support missionaries, governed their children’s education, and governed their religious community. Everything hinged on this verse:
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” Revelation 5:12
Everything that we have, everything that we are, everything that we do as followers of Jesus belongs to Him. We are to cast not only all of our worries, but all of our accolades upon Jesus. Look into His glorious face, see the face of God, and experience the transformation He has for you.
TL;DR
Real transformation comes only through the gospel of Jesus Christ, not through religious activity or good works alone.
Spiritual blindness keeps people from seeing the beauty and glory of Christ, often through lies, distractions, and misplaced priorities.
Even good things can slowly pull our attention away from Jesus if they begin to shape our hearts more than Scripture does.
As believers behold the glory of Christ through Scripture, prayer, and obedience, their hearts are changed, and they become light in places of spiritual darkness.
