Can I enjoy movies and culture and still be a Christian? (Noble)

At the local Mall, Perry Noble opens his message talking about how he went to a clothing store and the salesman there was obsessed with showing him items that Perry had no interest at all in purchasing. "That is probably also true about the church." Continuing his "You Asked for It" series at http://www.newspring.cc/series/you-asked-for-it-week-5, Perry addresses the tough issue of being in the world, but not a part of it. We are way too obsessed, as a church, with giving people what we think they need rather than finding out where people are and then starting there to bring them to the church. According to Acts 17, we have 3 choices: 1) We can ignore it. In Acts, Paul goes to Thessalonica and runs into some trouble while he is preaching the gospel. After being run out of town, Paul goes to Berea. But while he is in Berea, some of the people from Thessalonica chase after him and drive him out of Berea! So Paul goes to nearby Athens, which is very surprising because of the culture there. **It's important to note that Jewish leaders did not go to this city that was named after the Greek goddess of sexual immorality; Athena. But Paul went there and "he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols". We have idols today, not as obvious as statues, but these are things that people value more than their relationship with Jesus. But we can't ignore our cultue. Perry plays a couple of songs that are highly offensive even in the culture, let alone the church. One is a song about wanting to "make love in the club" and another is a song about a girl who kisseds another girl and likes it. The reason the second song offended Perry so much is because he kept singing it at home (he liked the song), but the content was wrong! We can't pretend that our children don't know about culture or the heavy influence of sex in the culture. One day as a kid, Perry got in a fight with "Meatball", who accused him of being a virgin. That's how he learned about the subject of sex. God didn't ignore culture, so we can't ignore it. 2) We can fight culture. In Acts 17:17, Paul went to the synagogue as well as the market place to talk about Jesus. He wasn't picketing and protesting or condemning the people. He engaged them and talked to them about life. Perry talks about how some of his friends have a ministry of passing out Bibles at porn conventions. The cover of the book says "God loves porn stars". Many people ask Newspring to boycott and Perry says they will boycott, as a church, "when Hell freezes over". 3) We can study culture. This is what Paul did in Acts 17:22. He talks to the citizens of Athens saying that he basically has observed that they are a spiritual people. He didn't shove scripture down there throats although he had memorized the Old Testament. In fact, look at Acts 17:28. Paul, in this verse, actually quotes Epiminides, a famous poet of his day. This was like us quoting a secular band to reach the people. Paul studied the culture and used the culture to reach the culture! Perry listens to Eminem, Guns n Roses, Nickelback and Poison to work out. He argues that there are songs on there that all cry out for a Savior. These are some very good points, Perry. If read read further, in the SAME verse 17:28, Paul quotes another poet, this time Cleonethes, who is writing poetry to Zeus!! We can study culture to reach the world. Some time ago, Perry went on vacation in the Caribbean islands. While there, he decided that he wanted to swim with dolphins. But before he could swim with them, he had to put on a very uncomfortable wetsuit. "Not only could I swim with the dolphins when he zipped that suit up, but I could communicate with them as well." His point in saying this is that, as a church, we are going to have to be willing to get into uncomfortable situations to reach the world. Later in Acts 17, we see that, because of Paul's willingness to get in the world, several people began to follow Paul including a man named Dionysius. This man's name meant "of wine and drink". The irony of this is that there is documentation that this man actually became the bishop of Athens!! In Luke 15, it's the only time in scripture when Jesus tells 3 parables about the same subject. The 3 parables are the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin and the parable of the lost son. Each time, something is lost, then found and then there's a party. In order to find what's lost, our greatest commands are to love Jesus and to love the people.

Created almost 4 years ago