Elephant in the Room — The Lies in Our Culture - Friday
Today’s Verse
Psalm 1:1-2
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. (ESV)
In an age of social media, streaming services, direct messaging, and all kinds of technologies that connect us to others, sometimes I wonder just how many words we consume on an average day. And while I haven’t done the research to find out, I do know it ought to be a pretty big number. In my email inbox alone, I received 7,400 words today, and that’s not counting the emails I sent, text messages, documents I worked on, websites I read, advertisements/commercials, road signs, or any other form of written communication. Who knows what the number might be if you added in verbal communication, too?
We are overwhelmed with messages on a daily basis.
Messages that may hurt or heal, belittle or encourage, confuse or clarify. Messages filled with truth or the opposite of it. On Sunday, Scott shared a list of a handful of cultural myths we wander into, some of which we hear on a pretty regular basis:
Live your truth
Follow your heart
Being true to yourself is what’s most important
All religions are different expressions of the same thing
My body belongs to me
What’s yours is mine
Preborn babies don’t have personhood
My feelings determine my reality and yours
People can do anything they set their mind to
Some of these are outright confusing. If my feelings determine my reality and yours, and your feelings determine your reality and mine… and we have opposite feelings, who is right? What if my heart says the opposite of your heart? Where culture’s messages are murky at best, Scripture is clear and to the point:
Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” (John 14:6)
The Bible says, “You are not your own, you were bought with a price so honor God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
Jesus teaches us to say, “what’s mine is yours” not what’s yours is mine. (John 17:10)
The Psalmist declared the beautiful reality that God knit you together in your mother’s womb. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are not an accident. You are not disposable. (Psalm 139)
Your heart is desperately sick and beyond cure… by all means, don’t follow your heart. You need a new heart, and Jesus can give you one. Then follow Jesus with your whole, new heart! (Jeremiah 17:9, 2 Corinthians 5:17)
We have to fix our eyes on Jesus to stay rooted in the Truth and to be able to look up and out, beyond ourselves. God will use your life, if you let Him. I loved how Scott ended his sermon on Sunday, “Don’t you want to live for something bigger than yourself? I do. Living to magnify Jesus and joining Him on His mission to see one more lost and broken person be brought from death to life. It doesn’t get any bigger or better than that!”
APPLICATION
On Sunday, Scott talked about a couple of physical reminders he puts in front of himself to live anchored in God’s Grace and Truth. Pick one place this week where you can put a physical reminder to stop trying to operate on our own power and start anchoring our lives to God’s Grace and Truth.
PRAYER
Lord, fix my eyes on You that I might learn to offer my life to magnify You. Show me the ways I get caught seeking roads that lead to death, and bring me back into Your light.
