Transformative Faith: Engaging Culture and Confronting Idols
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When God touches you, you feel inwardly renewed, but when you look out there now you see 80 people, 60 people who were invisible now are visible. You see, in the former approach, the difference between a person who's been touched by God and a person who is not touched by God is not just inner energy; it's a matter of worldview. [00:03:40]
Christianity does not just inwardly change you, but it transforms not just inside but it transforms the way in which you relate to every part of the world. Now, to understand that is important for everybody here. If you're a Christian, you say, "Yeah, I've heard you say that. What is that? How do I do that?" [00:04:57]
Paul goes there with his faith. Paul goes there. Now, this doesn't make sense to modern people because our idea is religion is something your faith is something for your private world. It's something that keeps you happy and gives you inward peace, but you do not bring it to the marketplace. [00:10:27]
He neither avoids his culture nor capitulates to his culture. He neither runs away from his culture nor does he privatize his faith away from his culture. You know what he says? Now, this is something that I think both believers and non-believers are shocked at when they hear. [00:15:43]
Paul was filled with holy loving jealousy, and we're not. We're either too afraid to open our mouths, we're too cowardly, or else when we do, we're obnoxious. We're filled with either indignation or compassion. You say, "Well, how in the world do we overcome that?" [00:26:36]
Paul saw that underneath all the art, underneath all the business, underneath all the government, underneath all the philosophy were idols. The real problem with the world is not the bad things but the good things that have become the best things. [00:33:32]
Everybody is worshiping something. You don't use the word worship, but you're living for something. Let me put it to you this way: everybody has something that if they lose it means they won't even want to live life anymore, and whatever that is is the thing you're worshiping. [00:37:08]
Paul was willing to get into the marketplace with that. He was willing to come up and do apologetics, they're called. That's the old term. He's willing to come out and say Christianity isn't true because it's relevant; it's relevant because it's true. [00:42:59]
Christianity is not just an abstract truth or just a mystical experience; it's an experience of truth because the truth became a person, and now relationship is the way in which the truth comes in, and my whole life has changed, and everything else has changed. [00:43:37]
If you're here and you're not sure if you're a Christian, you say, "I'm kind of neutral. You Christians have faith. I wish I had that kind of faith." My dear friends, you have already got incredible faith. You couldn't be living without putting your faith in something. [00:44:20]
Those gods, if you fail them, will never forgive you, and if you get them, they will never satisfy you. This is the only God who will: Jesus and the resurrection. [00:44:47]
We ask that you'd help us take these very, very difficult, these very, very—well, I shouldn't say difficult—these wonderful principles and help us to work them out in our lives, work them out in the marketplace, work them out in the areas that right now we very often find it difficult to know how to express our Christian faith. [00:45:01]
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Christianity does not just inwardly change you, but it transforms not just inside but it transforms the way in which you relate to every part of the world. Now, to understand that is important for everybody here. If you're a Christian, you say, "Yeah, I've heard you say that. What is that? How do I do that?" [00:04:57]
Paul goes there with his faith. Paul goes there. Now, this doesn't make sense to modern people because our idea is religion is something your faith is something for your private world. It's something that keeps you happy and gives you inward peace, but you do not bring it to the marketplace. [00:10:27]
He neither avoids his culture nor capitulates to his culture. He neither runs away from his culture nor does he privatize his faith away from his culture. You know what he says? Now, this is something that I think both believers and non-believers are shocked at when they hear. [00:15:43]
Paul was filled with holy loving jealousy, and we're not. We're either too afraid to open our mouths, we're too cowardly, or else when we do, we're obnoxious. We're filled with either indignation or compassion. You say, "Well, how in the world do we overcome that?" [00:26:36]
Paul saw that underneath all the art, underneath all the business, underneath all the government, underneath all the philosophy were idols. The real problem with the world is not the bad things but the good things that have become the best things. [00:33:32]
Everybody is worshiping something. You don't use the word worship, but you're living for something. Let me put it to you this way: everybody has something that if they lose it means they won't even want to live life anymore, and whatever that is is the thing you're worshiping. [00:37:08]
Paul was willing to get into the marketplace with that. He was willing to come up and do apologetics, they're called. That's the old term. He's willing to come out and say Christianity isn't true because it's relevant; it's relevant because it's true. [00:42:59]
Christianity is not just an abstract truth or just a mystical experience; it's an experience of truth because the truth became a person, and now relationship is the way in which the truth comes in, and my whole life has changed, and everything else has changed. [00:43:37]
If you're here and you're not sure if you're a Christian, you say, "I'm kind of neutral. You Christians have faith. I wish I had that kind of faith." My dear friends, you have already got incredible faith. You couldn't be living without putting your faith in something. [00:44:20]
Those gods, if you fail them, will never forgive you, and if you get them, they will never satisfy you. This is the only God who will: Jesus and the resurrection. [00:44:47]
We ask that you'd help us take these very, very difficult, these very, very—well, I shouldn't say difficult—these wonderful principles and help us to work them out in our lives, work them out in the marketplace, work them out in the areas that right now we very often find it difficult to know how to express our Christian faith. [00:45:01]
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