Right now we look around the cultural reality we live in today and find no shortage of issues. A nation arguing over basic biology, all while screaming trust the science, arguing over weather the concepts of the mind trumps truth and reality, arguing over weather or not its right or wrong to kill babies in the name of women's rights, and the list can go on and on and on. We stand back and wonder how all this can be and join in the fight trying to over come these problems. However, this is like focusing on focusing on the pain in our back, and ignoring the cancer inside. All of these things are just symptoms of the true problem. We as a people have lost our compass. We have forgotten our directions and are largely as Christ put it, the blind leading the blind and all headed for the ditch. I would like to over the next few weeks look at some of these things. Consider what God would have us to do, and what we must do if we want this to change.
Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. This is largely how we live these days. We act as if authority exist but it is all according to me, myself, and I. There has got to be a standard! And, that standard can not be us. Standards do not change. Truth is truth and it does not change. Truth is not relative. Truth does not care about feelings, care, concerns, or yes buts. We all want a government, protection, and guidance, but when it doesn't agree with us we riot, protest, fight, and scream. Current circumstances change and everything we thought yesterday is out the window. We are all fickle and change our minds. This is why we can not be our own standards. We need something bigger than us. A compass only works because North never moves. How would we get around or find our way if the compass decided one day West is North? We all trust and follow google, and apple maps blindly because they are based on a standard. How effective would they be if every time we thought something was a different direction and it moved according to our thoughts? When you go to fill up your vehicle how would you like it if the station's owner decided for themselves how much fuel was in a gallon? Station X sold a gallon for 3.50 but you only got a cup and he called it a gallon. Would that work? Everything in our lives needs a standard. Funny how we don't get upset or argue against these little standards. We honor them and are glad they are here. However, the big ones we get angry over and want them to change all the time. Whether we like it or not life requires a standard! Let me tell you what is not our standard. I've already told you that you are not the standard. There are good people and good intended people in this world. They may be good role models, but not standards. I hope as a father, husband, and pastor that I am a good role model to others. However, I am not your standard. Public opinion is not the standard. Many want to turn to the majority as the standard. We used this excuse often as kids. "Everyone else is doing it", we would shout as if that excused our actions. The problem with public opinion is it made up of groups of us, and we are not the standard. Five years ago things that are accepted today by public opinion would have been mocked and shunned by the same public opinion. There is not a single person in government, on either side of the aisle, that has not spoken out of both sides of their mouth on something. Those that have spoken out against free border policy, same sex marriage, and abortion, now speak out against those that oppose the same things. Those that used to be for these things, now oppose the same. Those that last week couldn't tell us what a woman was, now scream about women's rights. Public opinion is tossed about to and fro with every change of the cultural wind. We are called on to not be this way. Ephesians 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. The argument over sex, gender, and the such has found its strength in our willingness to have no standard. Right now it is popular to be a part of these things and that is why we are finding more and more of it daily. Public opinion is being influenced. We need a standard. Government is not the standard. It is chosen and put in power based on the wind of culture and is far too influenced by power hungry people. It changes all the time. We need a standard! We have been reminded as of late that Science and education are not the standard. Basic biology that has been accepted as truth for generations is now mocked and ridiculed. The basis of the founding of this country is under attack and is being changed as we speak. These thing sadly are affected by cultural winds as well, but they should not. That is not to say all of these things are negative and completely bad. God set up government and gave us the ability to communicate one with another so that we could influence and work with each other. However, they are not the standard. We have a standard. We have an unchanging, unyielding, unmovable standard. His name is God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has given us His word, and we are to honor it. God's rules and judgements have not changed from the beginning. He does not care and will not change according to your feelings about it. Jesus told us He is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. There is not multiple choice on these things. Everything in our life is to move and yield according to Him and will not work the other way around. We don't like that because it means we have to listen and change. His truths are truth and will not change. It is this standard that I am going to use as we look at these things. We need to calibrate our cultural, religious, and personal compasses to this true North. The world has lost its direction and it is our fault because we have not taught this. We have forgotten to teach our children that you must yield to the standard. There is no compromise with God. We must teach our children this truth. We must as our proof text says, "set our affections". We have allowed ourselves and exampled to our children, and they are learning it, that money, fame, fun, prestige, toys, and self worth are the goal. We have followed these things away from His word. We have followed these things away from His church. We have followed these things away from Him. We have foolishly done this and we have taken our children with us. We can do better. We must yield to Him ourselves. We must do so in All things. We must teach our children to do so as well. They may stray and wonder from time to time, but if we teach them and show them. They will not depart them. Ever noticed as you get older how much like your parents you tend to be. We aren't carbon copies, but we find pieces of them in us all the time. That because we were trained up in them and we can't depart them. God help us to do better. God help me to do better. God bless you all as we study the standards that God has given us.
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10/19/2022 07:00:34 am
Box name body front. Early program event at Republican political.
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