Real Life Community Church Richmond, KY
Real Life Community Church, is a church located in Richmond, Kentucky. Our fellowship is comprised of authentic followers of Jesus Christ who aim to glorify God in all that we do. We have a desire to reach our community, meeting both the physical and spiritual needs of those who are hurting.What to Expect in a Service Our Sunday Morning services include a time of dynamic, blended worship. We have a full praise band, consisting of real Christ-followers who are committed to worshiping God, not just through song, but in every area of their lives. Each service will include a relevant, Bible-based message, that will inspire and challenge those who hear it. Come casually or formally dressed… however you are most comfortable. We hope to see you soon!
Real Life Community Church Richmond, KY
Acts | Part 32 | Engaging a Post-Christian Culture
In Athens, Paul saw a city full of idols and was deeply moved—both angered and broken—for the lost around him. Rather than retreat or assimilate, he went to the heart of the culture, the marketplace, to engage people where they lived, listened to their beliefs, and shared the hope of Jesus.
Today, we live in a rapidly changing, post-Christian culture. Like Paul, we are called to care about the world around us, understand the cultural narratives people trust, and bring the Gospel to a restless, idol-filled society. True cultural change doesn’t come through politics, philosophy, or self-improvement—it comes through the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.
If you have your Bible, go with me to the book of Acts, chapter 17. I'm going to begin to look at today, verses 17 through 21. Acts, chapter 17, verses 17 through 21. While you're turning there, I just want to give a shout out to our youth pastor, jerry and all his great leaders. They had a lock-in on Friday night. God help them. And how many did you have? Twenty-seven, twenty-seven, isn't that great? So two weeks ago I preached on praising God in the midnight hour and Mike came to me and said Chris man, I had to apply that sermon on Friday night. All right. Acts, chapter 17, verses 17 through 21.
Speaker 1:Well, many of you grew up during a time when our nation's laws and education and culture was largely shaped by Christian principles. We call that Christendom principles. We call that Christendom. But beginning about the late 1960s, this began to slowly decline and continue to decline. And now, isn't this crazy? Here we are, even in the Bible Belt, and we find ourselves in an astonishingly post-Christian, or, more accurately, post-christendom culture. I mean, are you shocked when you look at the culture today? Do you ever wonder how in the world did we get here? And you know, when we look out at secular culture in our nation. If you're like me, you want to change the culture. You want the culture to change, but it's so far gone, it's so godless, so pagan, so secularized that we often think, you know, it's impossible. Or we wonder if it is possible, where do we even start to begin changing this culture? Well, you know, I want to encourage you today through the Word, that it is possible for believers who are full of the Spirit of God to change the culture.
Speaker 1:We've been looking the last several weeks at the Apostle Paul and his missionary team as they have traveled on his second missionary journey throughout the ancient world, particularly in this area called Macedonia, which is modern-day northern Turkey. And this is what's amazing Against all odds, this team of four Paul, silas, timothy and Luke go in for the first time as Christians into Europe, into Macedonia, and they actually, by the Holy Spirit, they begin changing the culture from city to city to city for ordinary men full of God's Spirit. As a matter of fact, last week we saw that the authorities in this town called Thessalonica, they charged Paul and his team with quote turning the world upside down. Oh, that, it would be said of us that we're turning the world upside down or, better yet turning the world right side up. Amen. The text today tells us that Paul arrives by himself, he leaves Timothy and he leaves Silas behind in Berea and he goes into this new, familiar city called Athens, a pagan and godless city, and here again he takes the gospel to a people far from God, and this culture will slowly but surely change and it will spread throughout the Roman or Greco-Roman world. It's a beautiful thing, and I would just submit to you today if Paul can do it, you can do it, because it wasn't Paul, it was God. Through Paul, see, we aren't building the kingdom, we're working for the kingdom. It's Christ who builds his church. He's just looking for vessels who will say here I am, lord, send me. We can change the culture as the Lord works through us, amen. So we're going to look at this text today and we're going to learn how we in fact can change the culture. And the first thing that I see here is that to change the culture, we must care about the culture. To change the culture, we must care about the culture. Verse 16,.
Speaker 1:Now, while Paul was standing for them, this would be waiting for this would be Silas and Timothy at Athens. His spirit was provoked in him and he saw that the city was full of idols. So imagine this Paul arrives in this new city, he looks out upon this very influential city, this cultural Mecca called Athens, and he is very perceptive and he sees this is a spiritual place, but it's a very wicked place. It's not spiritual in the sense of godly, it's spiritual in the sense of you know, kind of it's very pagan, let's say they worship pagan gods. Do you know that Athens at this time hosted at least five prominent temples? There were three temples dedicated to Athena, the patron god of Athens. There was a temple dedicated to Hephaestus, the god of fire in craftsmanship, and there was a temple dedicated to Zeus. In addition to those major temples, there were more minor temples. In addition to that, there were hundreds of altars and sanctuaries and shrines and cult statues to which people would bow. And this is what Paul sees when he arrives into Athens. He looks out and says this is a godless place. These people are worshiping idols. And how does he respond?
Speaker 1:It's interesting here. This is not Paul's hometown, he's new to the city and yet Paul is not indifferent for the adultery and the paganism and the secular culture there in Athens. He doesn't have this attitude of live and let live. Oh, let's just let them do their thing, and I'm going to do mine. He doesn't do that. The scripture says that he was provoked in his heart.
Speaker 1:Now I think there's two things going on here. Number one I believe Paul has this sense of righteous indignation. You know why? Because Paul is jealous for the glory of God. Paul hates to see what is owed to God, given to idols, given to anything else but him, and, oh, beloved. We ought to be jealous for God's glory when we see a culture that is bowing down to everything but God. You know, we sang this song. You alone are worthy of my praise. I will give you all my worship. That's what we're made to do is worship God. So Paul is jealous for God's glory and it provokes him.
Speaker 1:But I think there's something else going on here. I think Paul is brokenhearted as he looks upon the city of Athens, because you have all these quote unquote. You know religious or spiritual people, but they're so lost. They're so lost and I would just ask you today how do you look at our culture? What feelings are evoked? You remember when Jesus? You know during his earthly ministry, remember his own people. You know during his earthly ministry. Remember his own people. Jerusalem rejected him, didn't believe in him, denied him as the Messiah, and they were, as he said, like sheep without a shepherd. And what did Jesus do towards the end, when he rode out over Jerusalem? Here's what he said Luke 19, 41. This is what Luke tells us. And when Jesus drew near and saw the city, anybody know what he did? He wept over it.
Speaker 1:I just wonder how many of you weep over our culture? Do you just shake your fist and say, oh, how dare you bring this garbage into our country? Or do you look at the brokenness, the confusion and the lostness of a generation and allow your heart to be broken? Beloved, we need our hearts broken for our culture. You have to remember that while you were yet a sinner, christ died for you and while they're yet living and wallowing in sin, we ought to weep for them and we ought to minister to them. If we do not care about the people of our culture, we will not make any difference in the culture. Once we care about them, we break for them.
Speaker 1:Here's the second requirement to change the culture. Changing the culture requires engaging the culture. Tim Keller by the way, you're going to hear me quote Tim Keller 500 times, probably this week and next week, because everything I've learned almost solely post-Christian culture, like Tim Keller, and he's a very prolific writer, he's written a lot about this and he's preached a lot about it, so I'm just going to give this as a blanket statement. But he points out two common mistakes that Christians make regarding interaction with our culture. Number one is called separatism, meaning that Christians tend to retreat into a subculture, and I think there's many of you who probably do this. In other words, you look at the culture and you say, man, that's not what I want to be, that's not what I'm about, so I'm just going to become a spiritual hermit, hang out with my nice little Christian friends, keep to myself at work at the supermarket, and you just create this kind of Christian subculture.
Speaker 1:As a matter of fact, ron and I were just talking about we've got this alpha class coming up geared to help new you know, unbelievers find the Lord, jesus Christ, and we've got these little invite cards and we were talking about most Christians. Most of you haven't given them out, and the reason is not that you're not willing, it's that you don't rub shoulders with enough non-Christians If you're going to reach the culture you can't separate. So that's one mistake is separating from the culture. But the other is this, and this is a major mistake, it's what we call assimilation, meaning this that you don't separate from the culture, but you blend into the culture in a way in which you lose your distinctiveness. See, we're supposed to be in the world, but not of the world. As a matter of fact, one of the problems that many unbelievers have with Christianity is this that they'll say listen, I have friends who claim to be Christians and they say they believe differently to me, but they act, they behave, they think no differently than me. They call them hypocrites. They think no differently than me. They call them hypocrites. So you get what I'm saying here.
Speaker 1:Paul doesn't separate from the culture in Athens, but he also doesn't assimilate. He remains distinct from the culture. And look what he does. This is amazing, verse 17. So Paul reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who happen to be there Every day.
Speaker 1:While Paul continued to live a distinctly Christian life, he went to the marketplace. Now, when you hear marketplace, you probably think of Richmond Center right Now. When you hear marketplace. You probably think of Richmond Center, right? So you think, all right, paul went to TJ Maxx, paul went to Buffalo Wild Wings, you know what I mean. Paul went to the movie theater. On and on and on. Well, that doesn't get to the heart of what the marketplace was in Athens.
Speaker 1:The marketplace in Athens is the Agora. The Agora and in Athens, see, it was a very influential city. Again, it was a cultural mecca. Whatever happened in the Agora in Athens, whatever ideas were propagated there and accepted there Athens, whatever ideas were propagated there and accepted there, it would make its way from Athens to the greater Greek world. It was very influential. It's like New York City, that's what it was. But in the Agora it was. I mean, everything was there. It was the heart of the city. So it was the city center for commerce. This is where business deals happen and people would buy and sell and trade. The Agora was a political and judicial hub. The main people's court in Athens was located in the southwest part of the Agora. It also served as an intellectual hub for the Greco-Roman world.
Speaker 1:The ancient Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato were both born in Athens. And do you know that Aristotle? He wasn't born there, but he spent most of his life there in Athens, and the Agora was the center of all philosophy and ideals and intellectualism. It was the center of religious life. There was an altar right in the center of the Agora, called the Altar of the Twelve Gods, and essentially you could go there and pray to any of the plethora of gods that you wanted to worship. And then, finally, it was the media center. There were no newspapers, no social media. How would you hear the news? You would go to the Agora where the news was heralded, announced. Do you get the picture here? This is the cultural center of the Greco-Roman world, here and then in Rome.
Speaker 1:And what does Paul do? The heart of pagan religion, the part of pagan philosophy, non-christian worldviews. And where does Paul go? Right to the heart of the city, to the agora. And how often does he do it? Every single day.
Speaker 1:And I would just suggest to you if we are going to change the culture, we can't just sit in our little four-walled church and in our small groups and fail to engage the culture Beloved. We've got to go to the marketplace every day. Well, you say, well, we don't have an Agora here. Okay, fair enough. Well, what's this mean for us. It means that you don't keep to yourself at the job but you engage with non-believers. It means that you don't stay to yourself even at Walmart Come on somebody, but you engage with the people of Walmart. Come on, you can do it when you're full of the Holy Spirit, all right. Everywhere you go, you engage the culture, otherwise you will not change the culture.
Speaker 1:Listen, many Christians look at faith in America because we're so hyper, uber, individualistic. Here's what we do we think of faith as being privatized. Well, this is just about me and God and, to be sure, faith is extremely personal and intimate. But faith is not supposed to stay that way. It is supposed to infect every part of the world that you touch. So for you to change the culture, to be any part in cultural change, you and I, we must engage the culture while remaining distinct from it. If you're listening, say amen, amen.
Speaker 1:Number three to change the culture, we must take time to understand the culture. This is really important. Look at verse 18. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers conversed with him. Paul Luke mentions two camps of philosophers here in the marketplace. You have the Epicureans and you have the Stoics. And what does Paul do when he comes up on these philosophers.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you what he doesn't do. He doesn't get on a soapbox, he doesn't get on a bench and just start preaching and condemning. What's the text say? He does? He converses, he dialogues with them, which involves not just speaking but listening. And, oh church, if we're going to reach a culture, we've got to take time to listen to the culture. But what do we do? We want people to listen to us without taking the time to listen to them. We just want to write them off their ideas as if they don't matter. But I want to tell you, if we're going to change the culture, we've got to understand the beliefs that drive a culture and the cultural narratives that we're up against. That drive a culture and the cultural narratives that we're up against. Otherwise, we can't counteract those narratives with the gospel.
Speaker 1:Now I want to nerd out for a minute. Is anybody else beside me like to study philosophy a little bit? Anybody, okay. Any philosophy majors in here? All right, your degrees mean something, then, okay. So I want to talk about, just very briefly, the Epicureans and the Stoics and the reason I want to do this. You think, well, what's this matter? I'll tell you why it matters Because these two philosophies, they're labeled differently, but it's secular, they represent the secular culture today. They mirror or mimic the secular culture of today.
Speaker 1:So the Epicureans? The Epicureans believed that traditional Greek gods existed, but that they were very far off from the earth and unconcerned with human affairs. So they don't really care how you live, right, the gods are out there somewhere living their own lives and we're living ours. They also did not believe in an afterlife. When you die, you're annihilated, you cease to exist. These beliefs about indifferent gods led them to a cultural narrative where they searched for meaning and ultimate satisfaction in the pleasures of this life. Because if this life is all there is, here was the cultural narrative To be happy, you've got to maximize pleasure. Do what makes you happy Does that sound familiar In this life? And try to minimize pain. Maximize pleasure, minimize pain. So the idol that the Epicureans worship was the idol of pleasure, whatever that is, sex, money, whatever it might be.
Speaker 1:On the other hand, you had the Stoics and, by the way, the Epicureans did not have any moral absolutes. Right and wrong is what you think is right or wrong. Whatever makes you happy is right, whatever doesn't, it's wrong. It's called relativism today. Are you with me? Really important? Then you have the Stoics.
Speaker 1:The Stoics believed in what we might call the divine, but not in the traditional Greek gods. They believed in what we call the Greek word would be the logos, or divine reason. So, unlike the Epicureans, they did not see the divine as distant, but they thought the divine was very close in everything, very pantheistic. So if you don't know what that is, let me illustrate it like this Star Wars, all right, you're tracking with me now. You're like pantheism. Don't know Star Wars, I'm with you, all right. So you know how like the force is in everything, and you have to. You know your job.
Speaker 1:The aim in life is to is to really what? What would you say, hunter? Know the force, you know, discover the force. That's what the Stoics were, this divine knowledge. They believed in moral absolutes. But what you had to do? How did you find what was truly right and truly wrong? Well, you had to really think and contemplate life and look to nature and find the divine, and that was the aim of life. So their idols, it was not self-pleasure, it was self-discipline and what you might call moralism. The way that they would find happiness was by being a really good and disciplined person. So that's strikingly similar to two of the cultural narratives today, and I'm going to overgeneralize this, but it's worth mentioning.
Speaker 1:Epicureanism to me sounds a lot like liberalism. What's the narrative? There are no moral absolutes. Traditional values don't matter. You follow your heart and do whatever makes you happy. Is that not the liberal secular narrative? Stoicism sounds like secular, conservative narratives or moralism. There are moral absolutes. Right and meaning is found in being a good person and living in a way that aligns with traditional values and, by the way, neither of these are Christian worldviews. Let me just ask you have you taken the time to truly understand our cultural narratives? If you don't, if you don't, you will not make a difference in the culture. Think about how can we reach a secular culture when we don't even know the beliefs that drive them? How can you reach a Mormon when you don't know what the Mormons really believe, or a Muslim when you know nothing about the Muslim faith?
Speaker 1:In 1989, keller planted a church he was pastoring in Virginia and he felt the Lord leading him to plant a church in downtown Manhattan, the heart of New York. Now, if God called me to that, I mean I would gasp. That's a challenge Richmond, kentucky, is difficult enough. But this is what he did and against all odds. Against all odds, his church grew very rapidly and very steadily. Then, very steadily over time, over decades, he grew to a church of somewhere between 6,000. Over time, over decades, he grew to a church of somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 people. He didn't have a mega church. He wanted to pastor the people, so they planted churches, other satellite campuses with their own pastors, all around New York City. How in the world did he do that in New York? Because who was being saved? These were, by and large, young professionals and artists and skeptics, people who would have never dreamed they would come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and would never dream that they would ever step foot in a church building. How did it happen? It happened.
Speaker 1:We know from many witnesses that one of the major reasons this happened is because Tim Keller took time to listen to the culture and engage the culture of New York City. He didn't just stand on the street and preach and hand out tracts. No, what did he do? He had coffee with individuals. Tell me your story with individuals. Tell me your story. He studied and researched atheist authors who wrote about cultural narratives because he wanted to learn. He wanted to learn what other people thought.
Speaker 1:It was often said and I think quite accurately, that Tim Keller could describe most people's worldviews better than they could themselves. He could articulate it better than them. That's how much he cared about what they believed. As a matter of fact, colin Hanson I highly recommend his biography on Tim Keller but he wrote this. He said Tim realized he needed to listen and learn before he spoke so that he could persuade. Listen and learn before he spoke so that he could persuade. Could it be that the reason that we are not persuading is because we're not listening? Listen to me. You know why people are posting 500 pictures a day on social media Because they want to be heard, they want to be valued, they want to be listened to and we need to learn the culture and only then can we give the culture what it really needs to change, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Culture is broken we talked last week because man is broken and the only hope is the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Can I get a witness? And the only hope is the shed blood of Jesus Christ? Can I get a witness? It is only the gospel that will change a culture. So look at verse 18.
Speaker 1:Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him and some said what does this babbler wish to say? But others said he seems to be a preacher of foreign gods because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. He wasn't preaching politics, he wasn't giving a therapy lesson. He was preaching Christ and Him crucified and risen from the dead. Paul did not go into this political hub and start arguing politics. Can I just step on some toes this morning and say that maybe our culture would change more rapidly if we stopped trying to get the secular world to become part of a particular political party and start getting them to convert to Christ. Did you hear me? Maybe we should make? Stop trying to make the culture more Republican and make their more Christ loving Amen. Because, as we talked last week, politics aren't going to change the culture. Oh, I'm all for biblical principles directing our laws. It's not going to change a culture. Only the shed blood of Jesus Christ, only the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to save and to change a culture and a world.
Speaker 1:You know I hear a lot of well-meaning Christians who say things like this. You know, I really want to reach people at work and I'm trying. I don't really say anything about my faith because I know people don't like that, but I'm just trying to really live out the Christian life. I'm trying to be really nice, a really good employee. I don't gossip, I work really hard, I encourage people and that is great. God bless you. But it's not enough. There's a saying that, yeah, goes all over me and it goes like this Share the gospel and, when necessary, use words.
Speaker 1:Have you heard that Stupid Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Yes, share the gospel in the way that you live, but it always requires words. Paul said preach the gospel to Timothy. Preach the word. Yes, live the word. He talks a lot about that, but preach the word. But here's the thing the majority of American Christians are not doing that. And the number one reason why. There's two reasons. I'll talk about God willing, the second one next week. The first reason and the main reason is this they're scared to death. Because we hate rejection, don't we? Because it is. Let's just be honest, it is difficult. I don't want this to sound easy. It is not easy, but, guys, this is nothing new. It's never been easy to share the gospel in secular culture. Never Did you see what they call Paul in the text.
Speaker 1:They call him a babbler. Some of the people who's this babbler? They're mocking him. And this is a good day for Paul. I mean, this is a good day, isn't it? The one who's stoned and beaten and imprisoned and snake bitten and shipwrecked on and on and on Enemies, everywhere he goes, and ultimately he dies for his faith. He becomes a martyr, but yet Paul keeps on preaching. Why? Why would he do it? Why would he do it? Look at verse 19. And when they took him and brought him to the Areocobus, saying may we know what this new teaching is that you're presenting, for you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know, therefore, what these things mean. Here's the thing Some mock Paul, some calling him babbler, some want his life, but others want to hear what he has to say, and it's worth it. This is exactly what will happen when we share the good news. Some will tune us out, some will mock us, some will hate us, but some will listen and the gospel will change their lives.
Speaker 1:There's a recent study done by Lifeway Research. This will shock you. It says that get this. Only 26% of unbelievers said that they would not be open, that they would not be open to listening to someone, a Christian friend, share about their faith. We think nobody wants to listen. Only 26% of unbelievers surveyed said, oh, I don't want to hear it. And yet 60% of the people that said, oh, I'd like to hear, I'd like to hear, I'd be open to having a conversation. 60% of those men and women who are unbelievers said this my Christian friends rarely, if ever, talk about their faith at all. And here they are open to it. They never bring it up. That's what they say.
Speaker 1:When you start sharing the gospel consistently, here's what I think. I think you'll be shocked at how many people want to listen. And here's why. Here's why people, I would argue people want to hear the gospel. Even when they don't want to know they hear the gospel. And here's why.
Speaker 1:Here's why, to quote Keller again, because idols over-promise and under-deliver. The idols of our culture that we look to for satisfaction, the things that we make ultimate. They can never satisfy your heart. Let me show you where that's at in the text, verse 21. Now all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. Verse is very telling. I didn't see it at first, but the Athenians this reminded me as I really considered this, meditated on it. This is our culture. They're always looking for the newest idea, the newest thing.
Speaker 1:We call it a progressive culture. Why? Because what they have, what they're holding on to, what they're worshiping, is not satisfying their hearts. They're miserable as people have moved further and further away from Christianity or godliness and they've become more free, quote unquote. They've chased autonomy more and more and they're getting to live out their own desires more and more. Let me ask you is it making them happy? Are people generally happy today in the world? They're angry, they're hateful, they're spiteful. Why? Because their hearts are not at rest, because their gods, the gods of this world no-transcript under deliver, because they can't deliver on what they promise, because only God can satisfy our hearts. Let me just show you how these cultural narratives are so fragile. You know you take the liberal narrative that idolizes autonomy and pleasure. Here's the narrative.
Speaker 1:True meeting and freedom can only be found when you're true to yourself. Don't you hear this all the time? When you pursue what makes you happy here's the problem with that. Your identity then becomes built around your own heart and emotions, and that's unstable. Listen, my mother just last week gave me a bin that was in her basement full of old pictures from childhood, all the way through my teenage years and early adult years, and I came upon these pictures. Oh, my goodness, I don't even want to admit this, but I came upon on some pictures when I was in my late teens and early twenties and let me just say I wanted to be a rock and roll star. Okay, there it is, and I had was going to bring me fulfillment. It didn't. I didn't make it, by the way, shock, but it couldn't satisfy my heart. And I just think but it couldn't satisfy my heart and I just think.
Speaker 1:You look back at those pictures and you go what was I thinking how many of you, I mean, 10 years ago? You look back at pictures and go what was I thinking? You look at how you dressed, what you were pursuing. Here's the thing Feelings and who we think we are. It's always changing, it's very fluid, and so you never get a sense of stability and security. Isn't that wild?
Speaker 1:And here's the other thing, this cultural idea of being true to yourself. It isolates people. You know why? Because it often clashes with social norms, friends, family and tradition. That means that when other people don't affirm you, you're undone. You're undone Like there was a man.
Speaker 1:We went to a pumpkin patch yesterday. There was a grown man with a beer belly, dressed as a woman. I don't know what to do with that. I'm not trying to be I mean, really like I want to relate to him. Well, not really, but no, I want to be. No, seriously like I would love to hear his story. I want this guy to find Jesus, but he's dressed in a woman's blouse big beer belly hanging out, long hair tied back, short shorts on.
Speaker 1:When you are living, you're searching within and just living by every whim that you have. It will isolate you. It's very fragile, see. This is why the people who in the progressive world, who are living in all kinds of crazy ways that just blow my mind, it's not enough for them for us just to leave them alone. What do they want? They want us to affirm them because that identity is so fragile and they're not satisfied.
Speaker 1:What about the conservative narrative stoicism? Conservative narrative stoicism that worships morality and inner strength? What's going to bring me true happiness is when I'm a really good person and I'm very disciplined and self-controlled very fragile identity as well. Because, number one, it produces pride. When you think you're really good, here's what happens you become self-righteous and you begin to look down on everybody else and you say, well, you don't know what they've been through. Well, I went through a lot and I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and that isolates you Very fragile. On the other hand, when you don't meet this ideal, when you fall short ideal, when you fall short, you will be undone with shame and guilt. And finally, if you derive your ultimate meaning from being a good person, if you're honest with yourself, deep down, every human being knows I'm not really a good person.
Speaker 1:Jordan Peterson often talks about searching the heart to see how malevolent you could really be. If you don't know the malevolence that you're capable of, you're in la-la land. If you think, apart from Christ, that you're a good person, I hate when I hear people say I'm a good person. Well, in Christ, you're made good and the Holy Spirit changes you. But apart from Christ, I mean, it's like what's the standard of goodness? Compared to Hitler, you're good. Okay, fair enough, I hope so at least. But compared to Jesus, how you doing? See, these narratives don't work, which means this is great news for the Christian, because what it means is that the people who are living by and proclaiming these narratives, they are not satisfied. They're looking for something else, and that's something we know as the gospel.
Speaker 1:Cs Lewis, the Oxford professor, author of the best-selling book, you know, chronicles of Narnia, right? You know CS Lewis, do you know, before coming to Christ, he was an avowed atheist and he was already very successful in the what did you say? The academic, intellectual world, had a lot of friends, surrounded by very influential friends, by the way. But Lewis, looking back, describes himself at that time as living listen to this in darkness and haunted by a deep sense of longing he could never satisfy. Now, who would have ever said that about Lewis in those days? Probably not many people. But deep down, lewis was empty.
Speaker 1:But then something changed. Jr Tolkien you know that name was a friend of Lewis's and he engaged the culture. He went to the marketplace with his faith and he began to have gospel conversations with Lewis. And over time Lewis became more receptive to the gospel, until one night, finally, he received the Lord, jesus Christ, and by Lewis's own words he says that almost in a moment when he was saved. He said he took hold of what he calls unimaginable joy, a joy that he never found in any other endeavor. Christ gave him what the idols of intellect and status and friendship never could Never could. He'd later go on to write a book called Surprised by Joy, where he would chronicle that whole experience.
Speaker 1:But listen to this. Here's what I found in closing. People want Jesus, they just don't know it. People want Jesus, they just don't know it. How do we change the culture? We've got to care about the culture Instead of getting angry, instead of laughing at it. We've got to care about the broken and the confused and the godless. We've got to understand their narratives, their beliefs and beloved. We've got to take our faith to the marketplace, to our work. Students, to your campus. Take your faith to the campus, because you got some what? 14, 15,000 students at EKU that will be there this week who want Jesus. They just don't know it. Now, finally, let me say this If you're here today, maybe even if you would call yourself a Christian maybe you have been looking to somewhere else, something else, some pleasure to satisfy your heart, and maybe you're here today because you're empty.
Speaker 1:You know it's not working. Maybe it's the God of morality, where you're just trying to be a really good person apart from Christ. Maybe it's sex or money, or whatever it might be. Maybe it's sex or money, or whatever it might be. What would you say? Education, intellect, success at work. Maybe that's where you're deriving, trying to derive, ultimate meaning, and it's not working. It can't because idols always over-promise and under-deliver. I want to call you today. It's only when you treasure Jesus Christ above all things, when you make Him the ultimate thing in your life, that your heart can rest. Who was Augustine? Who said our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee? And that is so true. We have a very, very post-Christian culture and they're waiting for someone to tell them how they can finally have a heart that is at rest. May we engage the culture this week.