Pottery_makingMatthew 13:31   

He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” 33 He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.

Last week we looked at the idea that the church as functioning and operating today has become obsolete. I also told you that I would show you some reasons why I believe it has become obsolete.

When we look at the primary function of the church we must understand that it is the vehicle Jesus picked to spread the gospel and change the world. In essence the church should be in the business of spreading the Kingdom and changing the culture, in other words we should be Culture Makers.

Using the past election as one of the signs or signals of the shifting of our culture, I want to talk about a few things that show us that the church at large is obsolete. How many Christians voted for Barack Obama despite the fact that he supported Partial Birth Abortion? How many Christians voted for Barack Obama even though he said we are not a Christian nation and that Islam actually had a great bit to do with the founding of our country? How can this be? Simply put, somewhere between the church and the people the power of the gospel isn’t being conveyed and transforming the people.

Let’s back track for a minute and look at another sign. Imagine your parents or grandparents sitting around watching TV. Do you think that any of the prime time TV shows would be acceptable? Whether they were Christian or not they would have been mortified at the sensuality of even the cartoons on TV today and it would not have been acceptable; but today many Christian parents don’t even have a second thought about what they or their children watch.

Think about politics in your parents and grandparents day. Regardless of Christian or not, would it have been even possible for someone as liberal as Barack Obama to have been considered, let alone elected as President? I think not. How is it possible that we have slid so far away?

Easy. There has been a progressive, but pronounced, slide away from our Biblical standards. The old adage of the frog in hot water comes to mind. Over the years the slow and steady pecking away at Biblical Standards has borne fruit and now, instead of being the vehicle that Jesus made to change the culture of the world and turn people towards Him, we have become followers of the system of the world.

Some of you might be shocked, but how else do we explain churches across the country accepting Gay Marriage as Biblical? How do we explain Christians voting for people who not only believe in atrocities such as Partial Birth Abortion but vote in support of them? How else do we explain that Christians have no difference in their divorce rates than those in the world?

Quite simply it is because we have ceased from being culture makers and have become followers of the culture. Instead of being the mustard seeds and leaven that influence the entire world, we have let the world’s standards shape us.

Peter tells us that judgment starts first in the House of God. So judge yourself, your family, and then your church and see if you are a culture maker or a follower of culture. If you see in yourself, your family, or your church that they are spending more time following then leading, it is time for change and that change starts with you.

Draw the line and lead. Tell everyone around you here and no further. Instead of fleeing conflict, engage in conflict. Stand up for righteousness and be a person of faith and courage.

Image: Courtesy of Raja1111; Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license