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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.
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