ARTIST: Create Culture

God is both Creator and Beautifully Creative

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…”

Merism – above & below

“created” – artists, tradesmen,

God made us to create culture

Beauty – overlooked attribute of God

Beauty reflects God like a painting reflects the painter, or music reflects the musician

-Sunsets in Arizona?

-Mountains & Lakes

-Fishing/Hunting

-Trees? Filtration systems

Genesis 1:26–28 God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image…male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion…”

-Cultural Mandate =God made a garden, commanded us to do the same to the earth

-Gods a father we are his sons so we carry forth some of his attributes

-If you are man you have a sphere of dominion, given by God, with family, business, work. You as head of that dominion have a responsibility to create a culture for life and flourishing, beauty and Glory for God and others

Have kids, expand, exercise dominion over all plant earth and subdue it

-Our Job as Men: Use your God given authority, strength, ingenuity, intellect, capacity to take the materials that God has provided and to utilize them to create culture and to make beauty so that there are environments for human life to flourish

-Men like to: Build, create, fix, innovate

-Cultural Mandate: Enjoy the garden, see what a finished product looks like now go harness every opportunity

-Explore the planet

Use the resources to build cities, civilizations, schools, churches, governments, families, ministries

CULTURE!!!

Culture doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it is created by men.

Lesslie Newbigin “by the word culture we have to understand the sum total ways of living developed by a group of human beings and handed on from generation to generation. Central to culture is language. The language of a people provides the means by which they express their way of perceiving things and of coping with them. Around that center one would have to group their visual and musical arts, their technologies, their law, and their social and political organization. And one must also include in culture, and as fundamental to any culture, a set of beliefs, experiences, and practices that seek to grasp and express the ultimate nature of things, that which gives shape and meaning to life, that which claims final loyalty. I am speaking, obviously, about religion. Religion–including the Christian religion–is thus part of culture.”

= culture is the total environment (mental, physical, spiritual, emotional) we live in (water/fish)

-If water is dirty?

-Culture we are living in? Not great!!!

-I can’t decide what happens at the White house, but I can decide what happens at my house

-The last thing men should do is allow those under your dominion to choose culture. How do we do that? Hand your children a screen

-Husband and Wife? What is the culture we are allowing and creating?

life-giving? encouraging? hopeful? joyful? fruits of the spirit?

Change?

Information is not good? that technology is not an asset! those entertainment forms are no longer acceptable

Those people that want to come into our environment need to honor our culture or than cannot be in our environment

2 Ways to View Culture (political vs Biblical)

Traditional vs Progressive

Traditional - Lets get back to the good ole days

Progressive - Evolutionary thinking, new is improved and the future will be better

The Bible discourages both

Ecclesiastes 7:10 (NLT) Don’t long for “the good old days.” This is not wise.

Romans 12:2 (NLT) Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think…learn to know God’s will for your life

-All of culture is affected and infected by sin

-A new way to look at culture (Biblical)

Kingdom Down vs Hell Up

Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Colossians 3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

James 3:15,17 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic…the wisdom from above is first pure…

-If you are a Christian you are not going to hell but you can pull hell up into your life

Marriages?

Children?

Business?

-Culture is what you teach AND what you tolerate

Teaching is easier

Tolerating is harder (Family)

protect the environment (culture) given dominion to you by God

Everything that is cultural is spiritual

Culture is Created Upstream, and Consumed Downstream

James Davison Hunter (Jewish & Gay communities small #’s, transgender huge impact )

Education

Platforms

Entertainment

Politics

=CULTURAL CAPITAL (vs $ capital)

Tok Sok Ri example - downstream effects are influenced by a small amount of people

4 Culture Observations

All culture is marred by human sin

Youth culture is the worst culture Isaiah 3:12(NIV) Youths oppress my people, women rule over them. My people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path.

Culture-making is dominated by the left (started w/Existentialism in France)

A). Traditional Theory – Build Culture      

VS      

B). Critical Theory – Break Culture

Government

Marriage

Wealth

Gender

Family

Legacy

Recent experiment

Traditional - Build law and order

Critical - Defund the police

Bezalel is A Prototypical Masculine Spirit-Filled Creative (Exodus 31-40)

Exodus 31:1-11 The Lord said to Moses,“See, I have called by name Bezalel…and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft…I have appointed with him Oholiab…I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you:the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent,the table and its utensils, and the pure lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin and its stand, and the finely worked garments, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests, and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the Holy Place. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do.”

Master craftsman/artist worked under Moses

1st named “Spirit-filled”

Oversee building tabernacle (God not worshipped outdoors like pagan Gods)

Pointing to Christ

Met w/God 2. Cleanse 3. Sacrifice 4. Lampst 5. Table for bread 6. Veil 7. 10 Comm 8. Manna

= Heterosexual men create culture and art (cars, motorcycles, homes, woodworking, ironworking, music, architecture, design, literature etc.)

What are good examples of men who have been creative?

Chunnel, ISS, Great Wall, Hoover Dam, Burj Khalifa, Panama Canal, Hadron Collider, Interstate Hwy system

WE HAVE A DECISION

BUILD OR BREAK