Don't just survive, but thrive in today's culture

Good morning everyone, it is so good to be here this morning…I have said it before, and Ill say it again, seeing everyone here on Sunday mornings is one of the highlights of my week honestly. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate seeing everyone and getting to worship together. If you would have asked my 5 years ago if I would enjoy living in rural Illinois, I would have said not a chance…But God is good and thankfully he knew better than I did and he brought us here to Leaf River Baptist Church.

Good morning to those of you that are joining us online. I am grateful that you are sticking it out with us as we continue to figure out how to make the online experience a better experience for you. However, if you are in the area, we would love to have you join us here every Sunday morning at 9:30 am. We have worship, thought provoking Bible studies and the best coffee around on a Sunday morning and the best part is that it’s all free…:)

So last week I spoke about the culture that we are living in and how this culture is growing further and further from the Gospel, and how the modern culture is not just growing away from the Gospel, but it is actually attacking us as we attempt to live in this culture. The problem is that many times when we live and invest so deeply in the culture around us we will begin to reflect the culture around us.

Here, let me give you an example from my own life. As many of you know, I grew up in church. My dad was a pastor or a Sunday School teacher, teaching a large class in a mega church for much of my life that I can remember. That means that I knew much of the Bible and what Jesus taught, and I actually even believed what Scriptures said with my whole life. As I said I grew up in church and I went to a Christian school and I really didn’t interact with culture every much. Well, when I began to learn about culture outside of the church, I began to look at that culture more and more. I began to listen to music that was not Christian. I began to have conversations with people that were not Christians. Over the coarse of a few years I paid more and more attention to the culture around me than I did to the church.

I still believed everything that the Scriptures taught about God and the Gospel, I didn’t however necessarily believe that it all applied to me. I would fight and argue the legitimacy of Scriptures and the importance of Scriptures, but I began to become aware of other things in life besides just Scripture. Eventually I began to have some thoughts that were simply not Gospel oriented. I was so focused on the culture around me that I can remember a little conversation I had with myself. Maybe you have had conversations with yourself, or maybe that just shows my little bit of insanity, I don’t know. But, I had this conversation with myself as I was walking home from the bus stop one day. I was probably around 14 years old at this time. Anyway, I was walking and I was thinking and talking to myself. I said, “I know the relationship I have with the Lord, he and I are good…I don’t need to go to church to have a relationship with the Lord, becuase we have an understanding.” Now, keep in mind, this is an actual conversation that I am having with myself, not just some random thoughts. I actually can remember this conversation as if it were yesterday.

The conversation continued as I realized that God actually created me to dip. That is to use Copenhagen. At that time I had never touched tobacco except for picking up cigarette butts to put into the trash as I cleaned my dad’s church, and one time as a prop for a play I was in. But, I knew at that moment that is why God created me. I said, “Some people are created to do amazing things like run for president, or become an evangelist, but me…God created me for Copenhagen.”

Now, how does a young man that has grown up in church and knows the truth of the Gospel come to a point in his life where he truly believes that God created him to use smokeless tobacco? I’ll tell you how…the culture around me. You see, I was listening to music that was ungodly, I was watching movies that were ungodly. I was getting a taste of this whole world that was not revolving around church and I was attracted to this new world that I had been introduced to. I came to a point in my life where I was soaking up the culture around me, instead of the Gospel in front of me. My family, was a very strong family, but I was kind of flying under the radar in alot of ways as the youngest. So, I watched movies and I listened to music and I paid more attention to that as real than I did to the Scripture. Even though I knew the truth…I did not truly believe the truth, and in alot of ways I was unprepared to face this culture. My Biblical perspective only went as far as the church building. Because I had not been discipled in order to process this culture, I allowed the culture to shift my entire worldview. Parents, this is why I speak to you so often, it is your job to train your children in how to process the culture around you. If it were not for my parents, I do not believe that I would have come back around to the Gospel. You know, as a youth pastor I had many parents speak to me about why I was not training the kids better. In children’s ministry Beth has had the expectations that all of the child’s discipleship happens at church in Kids church. Parents, the church is coming along side of you, but it is your job to teach and train your children. The school takes on the role of teaching academics, but it is your job to make sure they understand those academics and understand how to process what they are learning through a Biblical perspective instead of a cultural perspective...

Ok, so you get the idea here, and you see that I am passionate about this topic of discipleship and learning to live within the culture around us. However, I actually think its not enough to just survive, I believe we actually can thrive within this culture that we are living in. I know it is not a culture that is focused on the Lord and is not a culture that is in any way pleasing to the Lord, but the culture does not have to define you. So, today, I want to give you some tools to actually thrive in the culture around you. Join me briefly in a little history lesson about a man named Daniel.

Daniel was a man in Isreal around 605 BC. Daniel was chosen, along with several other people to learn the Babylonian culture. You see, whenever the Babylonians would come in and invade a new culture, they would bring in several people in order to teach the Babylonian culture, so that these men and women could go out and bridge the cultural divide. They would also teach the Babylonians about their culture. You see, even the ancient Babylonians knew that in order to actually make a permanent impact, they had to influence the culture. So, that is what Daniel and his friends, as well as others were chosen to do.

However, if you remember anything about Daniel, he was not one to allow the negative culture to influence him, instead he chose to influence the culture around him. Sure, when there were things that would not impact his faith and worship of God he would learn and he would follow the rules. However, when there came a time for him to do something that would be in violation with his belief and worship of God, he would take a stand. This morning I want to remind you of just one of those times when he took a stand against something he was asked to do.

You see, Daniel made a stand here because this is something that when against his commitment to God. The meat that Daniel was being asked to eat from the king would have likely been meat that had been sacrificed to idols, therefore by participating in this diet, Daniel would have been involved in idol worship. If the meat was not meat that had been sacrificed, it would have likely been unclean according to Jewish ceremonial laws, such as pork or horse, or some other meat that was deemed as unclean. Daniel was not necessarily a vegetarian as some would claim based on this passage. Daniel is not attempting to implement some new diet plan that we can write books about thousands of years later… No, what Daniel is doing is living out his convictions as an Israelite, and he is doing so in a humble manner by asking if there can be an alternative for him and his friends to eat. I love what theologian Stephen Miller says here,

Here obedience to Scripture’s divine commands may be observed. This is one reason God blessed Daniel with such great insight. He acted upon the spiritual light he had, and God honored his faithfulness by imparting more. — Stephen Miller

Daniel was focused on interacting with the culture around him through the Scriptural lens. In other words, the Scriptures came first, and where the culture interacted with the Scripture, then the culture would need to fit into the Scripture instead of the Scripture into the culture.

Did you catch that…The culture fits into Scripture, not Scripture into culture…You see this is pretty much the most important concept to remember when interacting with the culture around you. When you allow the Scripture to fit into the culture, then you allow things like saying that monogamous homosexuality is not sinful. When you allow Scripture to fit into the culture you are willing to bend the direct truths of Scripture like saying that a sinful divorce and remarriage is ok. When you allow the Scripture to fit into the culture you have things like abortion on demand becuase the Bible does not actually use the word abortion. You see, every single aspect of our lives are impacted by Scripture, and when we allow the culture to dictate which parts of Scripture we are allowed to follow, then we find ourselves living in a culture that is driven by sin and not by the Gospel.

However, as beleivers, the opposite should be true for us. We should not be forcing the Scripture into our culture, but we should be forcing the culture to fit into Scripture. If we were to live in a culture that was driven by Scripture image what would happen. We would see poverty severely helped becuase Scripture clearly tells us to help those that cannot help themselves in James 2. We would see people listening humbly and speaking truthfully as we see in Ephesians 4, instead of starting conflicts everywhere we go. If we allowed the Scripture to come first in our lives we would see that much of the conflict that we have with others is actually a symptom of our own idolatrous focus as we read about in James 4. The teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) would guide us instead of the teachings of the Hollywood celebrities on Instagram and Facebook.

We see through the story of Daniel that Daniel didn’t just survive his time in exile outside of Jerusalem, outside of his culture. Look at

Do you see that…Daniel didn’t just make it through and live another day. No, Daniel was used in a big way in this new culture…he truly thrived in this foreign culture. So, how do we do this? How do we not just survive in this culture that we are currently living in, but how to we thrive in this culture? That is what I want to briefly put before you this morning. last week I left you with some thought provoking questions, this week I want to provide you with some tools to be able to thrive in a culture that is attempting to chip away at the Gospel inside of you. I want to provide you with the tools you need so that you don’t wake up one day saying that you have decided that certain are really ok, becuase they are for the greater good of humanity, instead of acknowledging that the Gospel is the only hope for humanity.

So this morning we are going to look at at

3 “I will’s” in order to thrive in a foreign culture.

First,

I will recognize God

What does it mean to recognize God? What does it mean to see God in your life and in your situations? I mean, are you actually seeing God move around and guide you into your next situation? Are you physically seeing his hand protect you or hearing an audible voice telling you what to do, or do you more often feel God working around you…Well this is the first step to thriving in our current culture is to recognize that God is in fact at work around you. When you acknowledge this reality it becomes easier for you to recognize his work. For instance, you get a new job and now you realize that everything you have been learning at your old job is what is needed for this new job.

You see, some things are easy to recognize God. For instance, there was a time in my childhood when we did not really have much food as a family. As a result a few families from church gathered up together and secretly dropped off boxes of food on our front porch. I say secretly, becuase they tried to not get caught, but I caught them. That is a God situation pretty clearly. However, some situations you have to be ready to admit that God is working in that situation. For instance think about the relationship with your coworkers. Yo usee,

But also,

Romans 11:36 ESV

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Everything is from God…Our success, and our humbling come from God.

Everything is from God, the first step to thrive in this culture is to recognize that fact.

The second “I will” is.

I will praise God

OK, so this should be pretty easy, right? If we can truthfully recognize God at work in our life, both in the good and the bad, then we will have an easier time exalting, or lifting up the name of the Lord. However, if I am unable to recognize that God gave me the wisdom, strength, patience, whatever it is....then I will not thrive in this culture. You see, if we are not acknowledging God and his power in our situation, then we are acknowledging ourselves, or some other created thing instead of the creator.

NebuchadnezzarLook with me at

Psalm 145:1 ESV

I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.

This says forever and ever…that means I will exalt, or worship God every single day! The thing is this is not just Sundays! This is in my whole life. Not only in my private life – also in my open life. You see, the world does a lot of praising of their stars when they go to sport games and concerts, or even online. But when we exalt our God, they call us fanatics! When we acknowledge God is bigger than Covid, we are crazy. When we claim that God is in control we are thought insane. Everyone expects us to celebrate and get excited about celebrities accomplishments who do not know us, but with a God who knows up personally, we should keep quiet. The culture around us needs the Gospel, more than you and I need comfort. In order to thrive in an ungodly culture, we must praise our God.

The third, “I will” that I would like to point you to this morning is

I will humble myself

You see, actually this particular “I will” has been weaved throughout both of the other two. When we are so confident in ourselves, then God will allow us to fall. Look no further than King Nebuchadnezzar

Daniel 4:30–32 ESV

and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.”

You see, pride is the most dangerous sin as it is the sin that places you above God. So if pride is so dangerous then I must be on guard against pride and the best way to do that is to remain humble in every aspect of life. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but it is thinking of yourself less. James, Jesus brother tells us about humility in

James 4:10 ESV

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

When we humble ourselves, then the Lord will lift us up. Does that mean we will be rich and famous and have the best job, etc....no. It means that the Lord will allow us to not only survive, but thrive in a culture that is chipping away at the Gospel in many peoples lives. The Lord will allow you to thrive in a culture that was at one time actively chipping away at the Gospel…in your own life.

This morning as we close together in worship, let me encourage you to set behind you what has happened before, and look ahead and commit to the Lord so that you will be able to not only survive this culture we live in…but thrive!

—prayer—