I want to
start off by telling a story. A year or
two ago we took the Youth Group backpacking.
On that trip Abby and I had the great idea of bringing our two dogs. It was good at first, they behaved, really
enjoyed the exercise, they had a great time.
The problem came when we were done with the hiking and took the students
to the lake near the trails, so go swimming.
There were lots of people around and lots of other dogs. Now what you have to understand is our dogs
are very large and very playful. So when
they see another dog they want to go and play, the problem is the other dogs
just see these two gigantic beast coming at them. So needless to say I had to play a lot of
let's go this way, no let's turn back around and go that way, to avoid causing
a scene.
At one point in the day we were near
the lake at a spot that was kind of hidden so it was working out. Until, that is, one of my dogs slipped out of
her collar. I started to panic, I had no
idea what she was going to do, or go.
There were some people picnincing near by and she hustled over to them
to charm her way to some food. So there
I am trying to keep a hold of one dog while chasing the other one down. The thing I remember most is, I was totally
alone. There were lots of people there
watching me, but no one go up to lend a hand.
Not one single person! In fact it
seemed the more she was around them, the more they avoided her and me trying to
rescue her.
Thinking back on that story, I am
still shocked at the scene but, you know, that is the way our culture is these
days. Everyone seems to have the
attitude of "Look out for #1," and "that is none of my
business,".
Now if you are not a follower of
Jesus you get to pick and choose what you want to do with this here but, if you
are a follower of Jesus, the bible says that we are to be counter
cultural. We are not to fit into the
square peg that is the norm, we are to stand out and be different form the
people of this world. God says in
Colossians 3, that as followers of Jesus, we are to focus on things above not
on earthly things. It goes like this,
"since you have been raised with
Christ," meaning if you are a follower of Jesus, we are talking to
Christians/church goers here. "Set,"
meaning you stand something in a specific position, in this case we are talking
about you, yourself. "Set your
hearts on things above," this is talking about what you seek after, needs
to be heavenly things, "where Christ is seated at the right hand of the
Father". We as followers of Jesus
are to specifically position ourselves to seek after heavenly things because
that is where Jesus is and we should be seeking after Him.
Then it goes on, "set your
minds," again, specifically position your thoughts, intellect, the way you
process information and reason, "on things above, not earthly
things,". Let's think about it this
way. We are to have our hearts and minds,
what we seek after and our reasoning skills, positioned on following Jesus, so
much so that it is like we are with Him in the heavenly places, looking down on
earthly things. This is not a pride, we
are better than you kind of thing, this is a we have found something so
wonderful, so much greater than what the culture and world has to offer, we are
way up here looking down on earthly stuff and saying, that is not worth
it. In Jesus we have found the greatest
of the great and we are not giving it up for any of that stuff.
Friends, that is what it means to be
counter cultural. Sadly though, there
are a few things in our culture that have crept their way into the lives of
Jesus followers. There are two areas
that I want to cover, culture practices and culture thinking and I want to
mention a few specific things with those two categories because I have noticed
that Christians in general and even people in my own church, whether out of
rebellion or ignorance, believe in these things and involve them in their
lives.
The first thing under culture
practices is the belief in Ghosts and house hauntings. There is absolutely no biblical support for
disembodied spirit of a human wandering the earth. The bible says in Hebrews 9:27,"just as
it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgement." What that means is, we are a physical being
and a spiritual being, once this physical body stops working our spirit
transcend into eternity to either spend it with God or apart from God. Our spirit does not pass go, does not collect
$200. Once we die here on earth, we
transcend into eternity, our spirits do not stay here on earth. There are spiritual beings that can transcend
the physical world and spiritual world, they are called Angels which are sealed
by God to do his will and Demons who are fallen angels who joined Satan in the
rebellion. The bible gives plenty of
support for them.
So let's think about this logically
shall we, if when we die and go into eternity with no possibility of staying
here on earth but there are beings that can travel between the physical and
spiritual world and on group only does what points out God and gives Him glory,
what can we logically deduce from this?
The phenomena we chalk up to ghosts are nothing more than the enemy
trying to turn our focus away from God and the truth. Satan and his demons will use whatever means
necessary to turn you away, make you believe lies and pull you away from the
truth of God's word.
I am not saying this to scare any of
you, I am saying this to expose you to the truth that there is no such things
as ghosts, no matter what kind of eerie feelings or weird things you
experience, it is nothing more than the enemy trying to make you believe a
lie.
But the bible says that greater is
He who lives in us than he who is in the world.
So the next time you may experience strange things don't jump to the
conclusion that it must be paranormal, set your heart on Jesus and pray in his
name that whatever it is will go away.
Isaiah chapter 8 says should we not
seek God instead of ghosts and things, should we inquire of the dead on behalf
of the living. Absolutely not!! Don't seek after the belief in ghosts, seek
after Jesus.
Another big one is Zodiac
signs. By definition the Zodiac is an
ancient system of divination based on belief that the stars can influence the
fate or behavior of men and the general course of human events. The bible is clear that we are to stay away
from things like witchcraft and divination and we should no look to anything to
influence our behavior or the purpose of our lives. We are to look to God for those things.
Genesis 1:14 says, the stars and
constellations were created by God to tell seasons and keep the yearly
calendar. Why would we look to anything
in creation is influence us when we can go right to the Creator himself for
influence on our behavior and purpose.
Deuteronomy says that when we look to creation not the Creator for
anything that is idolatry, plain and simple.
Friends, checking your Horoscope or
being in the know with regards to your Zodiac sign is having an idol,
period. You might says, well how come
the description of me from the Horoscope is so accurate? Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps you
are that way because of the season or time of the year you were born and not
because of the set of stars that happen to be in the sky at that particular
time? Since you were born in such and
such a month you learn to adapt and adjust to the weather climates and patterns
and that is what makes you stubborn or easy going. Or could it be that that is the way God
created you?
John 14 says that the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send, is the one who will influence you, teach you all
things, not the stars. To look to the
stars for anything in your life other than the time of year it is, is idolatry
and we can't have anything in the place of God or before God.
These are only two specific areas
but the list could go on and on. But now
I want to shift gears and look at the way our culture thinks and how that
differs from how we are to set our minds on things above.
All throughout the Old Testament God
places huge emphasis on the value of Human Life. The scriptures are peppered with phrases like
protect the innocent, give a voice to those who don't have it, seek justice,
look out for orphans and widows, defend the fatherless, I mean it's all over
the place. Human life is a big deal to
God and in today's society we just don't get how precious life really is.
This
subject covers a whole host of issues.
When we think about the value of human life and what a big deal it
really is, we get into entertainment issues, political arenas, sporting events
and literary fiction the list goes on and on.
Psalm
8 says, "when I look at your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon
and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of
him, and the son of man that you care for him?
You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned
him with glory and honor." God created
human life and He holds it in the highest of value, all human life. There is not a person on this earth that he
did not put here for the purpose of loving and having a relationship with
them. In the whole creation account,
mankind is the only creation that God did personally, with his hands. Everything in creation God spoke into being,
but with man and woman God formed them from the ground.
In our
thinking, in every area of life, as followers of Jesus we need to place an
extremely high value on human life. In
our culture today life is not valued. We
see this in entertainment; sports and movies that are coming out. Abortion is such a hot button issue that
boils down to whether you value human life or not. Every year billions of dollars pour into pornography,
an industry that completely dehumanizes women and sexual relationships and now
even erotic literature has become a norm.
Even something as simple as fashion of our culture undermines the value
of life by exposing more and more, it is completely turning humans into nothing
more than animals. All of these issues
are so destructive because they seek to destroy the value of life, which should
be held in the highest regard.
Friends
we need to view our culture through the filter of our faith not the other way
around. When we view issues in the bible
or in the world through the culture we live in we completely miss out on the
things above that we should be focusing on.
When we focus on earthly things we miss out on the greatness that Jesus
has in store for us as his followers. God places a huge, huge, huge value on
human life.
I want to
close with a little observation. In our
church this will be the third message preached from Colossians chapter 3 in a
matter of a few weeks...I think God is trying to tell us something. I think God is telling us as individuals and
a church body that it is time to really set our hearts and minds on things
above. It's really time to get serious
about viewing earthly things in their proper place. It's time to see the greatness that Jesus has
in store for us and say to our friends, neighbors and the community around us,
look at the awesome things that we have found in Jesus, this will completely
outweigh anything this culture has to offer you. Jesus is so much greater than anything this
world will give you when you focus on this culture, when you focus on earthly
things you miss out of the greatness Jesus has waiting for us.
May our LORD be with you
Josh
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