To thy own self be true

Intro: It is all too easy to allow our cultural context to blind us to the magnificent—if sometimes hard-to-swallow—truths of Scripture.

A. This five-week series delves into some popular misunderstandings about the Bible has to say and what Christianity is all about.

· For example: Cleanliness is next to godliness

· It all started in the old testament talking about being unclean.

· In our culture the we grabbed a hold of the word cleanliness

· We made it into a scripture like saying because of what the word “unclean” meant in our culture. The same word in Greek is defiled. Like in / the high priest would not go into Pilots house because that would make them defiled or unclean.

· We know in the bible people were ritually unclean all the time and it didn’t have to do with sin

· So, this fed into the idea that we need to dress up for church. To be cleaner. Where does it stop.

B. Cultural Context

· It is easy for us to let our culture influence what the word of God says.

· Culture also like to make up scripturesk Tweetable sound bites.

· We let things that seem right logically, feel right emotionally and sound right personally influence what we believe we can get into trouble.

C. We are going to learn to be true to the scripture

· Even when our culture and personal desire turn away from it.

· Next week I am going to show you how to read scripture in context so that we are sure not to bend it into what we want to hear.

>>> Today though we are going to talk about something that seems right, feels right and sounds right but is completely opposite of Christianity.

I. “Be true to yourself.”

A. Shakespeare might have said it more eloquently, “To thine own self be true.” Polonius in Hamlet. but the same sentiment has seeped inside the cultural oxygen of our age:

· The Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor has described our age as the “Age of Authenticity”

· The idea of “authenticity” is that each person has their own unique way of being themselves. Being authentic means that you give expression to whatever is inside of you.

B. “In many ways [the age of authenticity] is good; it asserts that our concrete and lived experience is important, even central”

· We call our life that we try to live the “Christian life” and we believe it is vital to our development.

· But the problems that arise from this way of living come into sharp contrast with the Bible.

· With the age of authenticity, the only standard by which someone can be judged is internal to themselves.

· “No one should tell anyone else how they should live.”

· Now we have major problems on the level of morality. How can we call clearly evil things (like the Holocaust), evil?

ILLUS: Weren’t Hitler and the Nazis just being true to themselves? The holocaust is just the result of them being their authentic selves. This is extreme. You want to say well I am not hurting anybody and that’s fine…

C. Who is the moral authority?

· Is there a right and wrong anymore? Is their evil?

· Is morality based just on what I feel is right for me, of course with the caveat, as long as I’m not hurting anyone.

· Let me give you some advice. Morality is a hot topic. Everyone wants to put a label on you. So when someone says do your think gay people go to hell. Do people who have never heard the gospel go to hell. Is sex before marriage a sin. Or a question that is set up to label you. Ask this question first. Do you believe that the bible is completely true a free of errors in the original manuscripts. And do you believe that Jesus came died and rose again for the wins of the world and do you confess him as your lord and savior? If the answer is no. The morality of the bible is none of His business. Its like arguing about whether santa clause comes in through the window or the chimney. It is about the Gospel for them and when they believe it becomes clear.

>>> There are actually bigger problems than just personal morality.

II. It is impossible not to be defined by the outside world

A. What’s more, being true only to yourself and not letting others define you is actually impossible.

· We all have a lot of strong, inward desires, but we don’t let all of them define us.

· What we actually do is look at the world around us and allow it to dictate which of our inward desires are appropriate.

ILLUS: Tim Keller illustration of this: “Let’s conduct a thought experiment. … Imagine an Anglo-Saxon warrior in Britain in AD 800. He looks into his heart and sees two strong inner impulses and feelings. One is aggression. When people show him any disrespect, his natural response is to respond violently. … Living in a shame-and-honor culture with a warrior ethic he will identify with this feeling. … He will say, ‘That’s me!’ … But let’s say that the other impulse he sees in his heart is same-sex attraction. He wishes that it was not there. He will look at that feeling and say, ‘That’s not me.’ Now come forward to today. Imagine a young man walking around Manhattan. He has the same two inward impulses. … What will he say to himself? He will look at the aggression and say, ‘This is not who I am’ … He will look at his sexual desire, however, and conclude, ‘That is who I am” (Tim Keller, Making Sense of God)

· Bold statement / this is what I think / when I was a young man many men had some same sex attraction felt it was inappropriate for the world they lived in. Pursued a straight relationship met a girl and never thought about it again.

· Now you can call the way we were a travesty or a victory. It doesn’t matter if this trips your social justice meter or not. I said this so you can see our culture has a tremendous influence and pressure on what’s going to be true for you. Are we tracking?

B. Other pressure from the culture around us

· Another problem with the idea of being true to yourself is that it is a very heavy burden to carry.

· If you aren’t successful, then the only person you have to blame is yourself—and our culture despises losers.

· Being true to yourself means you have to earn your identity.

· How many times have we changed the term house wife? Stay at home mom…

· It is worse for guys because you are what you do in this culture. Many men can’t get over that. Those who do are usually well off. They pump your septic… Or they pump dead bodies with formaldehyde…

C. The biggest problem with being true to ourselves.

· With all the pressure of our culture around us when end up taking on the identity that is easiest for us and one that our culture will accept.

· Who YOU are is picked from a list of socially acceptable identities.

· Think about history. In the colonies they hated Irish and Scotts, Jews, Asians, Italians they treated them like they were less than human. What are they now? White guys… Even Asians are just another white guy…

>>>I say all that to say this. Are you being true to yourself, choosing your own identity or are you being what society allows you to be? The gospel posits a different sort of identity altogether. A given identity. It’s an identity that is not bestowed on you because of anything you’ve done, but because of what Jesus has done for you. We are going to get deeper into that in a minute but we first have to hear the Christianese version of to thy own self be true…

III. The Christianese version. “ Be the man or woman God created you to be.”

A. We say this all the time around here.

· If you take it out of context it is exactly the same as “be true to yourself”.

· The difference is you don’t get choose who God created you to be.

· Even in our church culture we have list of identities that are appropriate.

· We helped a church feed the homeless a while ago and one of the ladies was a Prophetis. We don’t have that in our church culture but from theirs it was appropriate.

B. Who has God created me to be.

· We all are different. We have been given different gifts to serve the church with.

· We all have different personalities

· We all have different love languages

· There is one thing that we all have in common and it is not to be true to ourselves.

· Who has God created me to be? Him…

· Now you all know I like to bury you in scripture but today I need you to focus on just a few…

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

· Paul gives a much different view of the Christian’s conception of identity.

· It is not about being true to who you already are on the inside, but rather about being “conformed into the image” of Jesus.

· We are sin sick and it influences everything we do. Everything we think. We can’t trust our hearts. We have to trust Jesus.

· We become who we were truly meant to be, called to be, predestined to be, not by becoming more like who we are in our own sinful hearts, but by becoming more like Jesus.

C. Becoming like Jesus, How

Romans12:1-2 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 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. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

· Here is how Paul teaches us to advance in sanctification. To become more like Jesus.

1. Give your bodies to God

· Let God decide what you should be and not be.

· Even back then everything was about self-gratification.

· Let your body be a holy sacrifice. It is sacrificial living when you choose to live the morality laid out in scripture.

· Every time you say I want to do this, think this, practice this but God say no so I will not. It is Worship. We are showing that He is worth giving up our desires for Him.

2. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world

· Don’t fall into the trap of accepting an identity that is appropriate for our culture.

· Don’t pick from a list. Strive to be more like him

3. Let God transform you into a new person

· He transforms you by changing the way you think.

· Instead of what is best for me, what is God’s best for me.

· Your culture wants to change the way you think. Your friends do. Your schools does. Your government does. Let it be God through His word.

Summary: To thy own self be true… It seems right, it feels right and it sounds right. It is not right. Be the man or the woman young man or young woman God created you to be. I know what that person is like. He or she is like Jesus. Application Point: Rather than trying to earn our identity and be accepted by the world around us (which is a crushing burden), we should receive the identity that has been given to us in and through the gospel: we are called sons and daughters of God.