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TranscriptIntroduction
I’m your host AMBrewster, and I welcome you back to Truth.Love.Parent. TLP is a podcast of Truth.Love.Family., and we’re a non-profit seeking to equip families to glorify God by applying His Word to their lives.
We have a book called Quit: How to Stop Family Strife for Good, we counsel families in person and virtually, and we do conferences and workshops all with the goal of glorify God by teaching families how to worship Him better. Of course, this podcast is nearing it’s 10th anniversary . . . which is very exciting. And though this episode will likely only be about 20 minutes long, you’ll find free episode notes, a transcript, and links to related resources in the description of this episode. If you follow those links, you’ll be guided through a curated study of the topics we discuss today. And all of it is free to you because we love you and your family and want to see you all glorifying God. Topic
The title for today’s episode is “The Only Way to Fight the World’s Culture in Your Home,” and—let’s be painfully honest—that’s a huge topic to cram into 20 minutes. But, never fear, the points we’ll discuss today are foundational, and the extra content in the description will take you much further as you learn to fight the influences of Satan, the World, and the Flesh in your home.
Before we continue, though, it’s important to identify what we mean by “the World’s culture.” In the Scriptures, the World (a word I like to capitalize when I’m not talking about the globe on which we live) is a system of beliefs and the people who follow them. Being worldly is living by that sinful worldview. Satan is the one influencing the unregenerate World to believe wrong things about God, His Word, and themselves. Because of this, they have desires that run contrary to the Lord’s will, and therefore their words, actions, and feelings don’t please the Lord either. If you would like to know more about how our beliefs are the bedrock of our desires, emotions, actions, and words, then listen to The Merest Christianity Series. Either way, the World’s culture is all the traditions and behaviors and fads and styles and ideas that grow from their godless worldview. And we Christians can’t help but be confronted by the World’s culture. Even though we are not to be of the World, we do live in the world. In fact, in I Corinthians 5:9-10 Paul makes the very pointed observation when he wrote “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people; 10 I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the greedy and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.” He then clarifies that the Lord doesn’t want us associating with the professing Christians with sinful lifestyles. The point is, Paul beautifully makes the observation that it’s impossible to stop associating with sinners. And Jesus illustrates that since He came to seek and save the lost, He needed to spend time with the publicans and sinners in order to share the gospel with them. So, your family is absolutely going to see the World, hear their beliefs, and potentially be tempted to believe the same things. Therefore, we must be diligent to prepare ourselves and our kids to reject the lies of the World and embrace God’s truth. But before we go any further today, I want to remind you of what I said earlier. Truth.Love.Family. is a non-profit ministry dedicated to equipping families to glorify God. This is such a necessary ministry in this day and age, but the World’s culture hates organizations like ours, and so much of the culture has permeated the church that even professing Christians are less and less interested in hearing truth. For this reason, we find ourselves in severe need of donations if we’re going to be able to continue ministering to families all over the globe like we have for nearly 10 years. If you would like to help us, please go to TruthLoveParent.com/donate to become a monthly donor. All of your giving is tax-deductible, and it will allow this ministry to continue spreading the Gospel. It doesn’t matter how much you can give every month, all that matters is that you are giving. So check out TruthLoveParent.com/donate to become a monthly supporter of a ministry doing its best to strengthen your family. Alright, in order to fight the World’s culture in your home, you must first . . . 1. Identify the lies. In order to build out our two points for today, we’re going to spend our time in II Timothy 4:3-5. Verses 3 and 4 read, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” I talked about influence earlier. Influence is something that comes up often on this podcast because God has expectations for how we’re to be influencing our kids and how they’re to be influencing others. He also talks a lot about influence, how we’re affected by it, and how important it is when it’s good. The two verses we just read identify influencers and the people who want to be influenced by them. These influencers reject sound doctrine. They want to say things that people will like to hear. They want to create an echo chamber of selfish thinking. They reject truth and instead to to myths . . . lies. The most important step we need to take is to help our kids identify the lies. If you pulled a scene from a movie or a line from a song or a page from a book, would your kids be able to identify the lies? I’m not talking about the flagrant ones that atheists spew. I’m talking about the subtle ones, the ones that look like truth, but whose foundation is falsehood. The unfortunate reality is that our kids are absolutely not equipped to identify those lies, and the reason for this is that we parents can’t spot them either. I’m sure that everyone listening would definitely point out lies to their children if they saw someone leading them astray. But if we’re just as deceived as our kids, we’ll both be led astray. So, again, we don’t have time to identify the most prevalent lies in our culture, but we can pull some indicators out of these verses. The World’s lies are . . . A. Undoctrinal A doctrine is a teaching of Scripture. That’s all it is. When God’s reveals Himself, that’s part of Theology, the doctrine of God. When God talks about disobedience, that’s what we call Hamartiology, the doctrine of sin. Everything in the Bible is doctrinal. People who say, “We don’t talk about doctrine” can only be telling the truth if they don’t talk about the Bible. Talking to the young pastor, Timothy, in I Timothy 4:6, Paul writes, “In pointing out these things to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.” The World’s lies can be identified by the fact that the don’t agree with the Scriptures. Paul says these lies turn from the truth and chase after myths. But that’s not the only way to identify the culture’s lies. B. Comfortable I thought a good long time about what one word would best sum up this point. Paul describes the World’s lies as being something that tickles our ears and stokes our desires. And, you know what, that feels good. The echo chamber of self-affirmation is the most comfortable place to be. We love being told we’re right and awesome and perfect and enough. But the truth is so often uncomfortable. Proverbs 27:6 compares biblical reproof to wounds. Psalm 141:5 reads, “Let the righteous smite me in lovingkindness and reprove me.” In Matthew 5, Jesus compares spiritual maturity to amputation when He tells us to cut off the sin in our lives. In Romans 8:13 we read, “for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the practices of the body, you will live.” This is uncomfortable. Our prideful hearts don’t want to be told we’re wrong. We don’t want to do hard things. We don’t want to walk difficult paths. In John Bunyan’s Christian classic, Pilgrim’s Progress, he shows Christian getting tired of walking the hard path and choosing instead to walk the fields of ease. And the consequences that awaited him there were dire. My point is this, if what the World is teaching strokes our egos, encourages our selfish desires, and seeks only to make us happy, then it’s a lie. Now, this is not to say that nothing in the Bible is glorious and wonderful and uplifting and encouraging. That’s not true at all. But the Bible’s comfortable encouragement always includes two things. First, it’s completely consumed with God. It’s deliberately and unashamedly centered on the glory of God. And this first reality is what causes the second, it really doesn’t have that much to do with us. Yes, believers will one day walk the streets of gold, but that’s not really that big of a deal compared to spending all that time with our Savior. And if it hadn’t been for my rebellion and inability in the first place, Jesus wouldn’t have had to die to cleanse my sins. You see, if I make the streets of gold all about me, it’s misses the point of heaven and the realities of my sin. Now, again, I’m not suggesting that Christians will never be comfortable, and life is never fun or enjoyable, I’m not saying that we should only ever be dour and angsty all the time. What I’m saying is that God’s truth has weight. Yes, Jesus’ burden is light, but not because it has no weight. It’s light because the Holy Spirit empowers us to carry it. The World looks at the burden of God’s truth and throw up their hands. “It’s too much,” they say. But we Christians can mount up on wings as eagles in the most difficult of circumstance. We can—and must—have peace and joy even when the world is dark around us. Christians should be the most content and thankful people on the planet because we reject the lies of self-soothing, and when we humble ourselves and turn our selfish eyes onto Christ through the power of the Spirit, then these truths that are very uncomfortable to our sinful flesh are a joy to our redeemed spirits. So, teach your kids to identify the lies of the World by recognizing if it disagrees with God and agrees with our own sinful desires. But, as we all know, you will never learn to spot counterfeits by staring only at counterfeits. That’s why Paul included the next verse. 2. Pursue the truth. II Timothy 4:5 commands, “But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” How can we know if what’s being said is true or not? It must be . . . A. Biblical Though II Timothy 4:5 doesn’t specifically mention it, time in the Bible is absolutely necessary for us, our kids, and our families. If we back up just two verses from where we started, we’ll read this: “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and teaching.” If we back up to the end of the previous chapter, we read, “continue in the things you learned and became convinced of, knowing from whom you learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” Paul didn’t just assume we’d be reading the Bible, he—under the inspiration of God Himself—commands it. And it’s only as we’re reading and studying and meditating and memorizing and applying the Scriptures to our lives that we’ll be able to do what we were commanded in verse 5: “But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” We could turn to so many more passages to unpack the importance of saturating ourselves with God’s Word and submitting to it. That’s what this entire ministry is about. We have an abundance of episodes where we talk about the importance of the Scriptures in our lives, where we seek to compel us all to care about the Bible more, where we work to convince us to dive into the beautiful depths of the Word of God. And yet, if you’re anything like I am, it’s so easy to neglect His Word. I just returned from vacation, and I am ashamed to say that I spent very little time reading the Scriptures. And I didn’t do it on purpose. There were simply other things to be done that distracted me. Let’s just all agree right now that none of us pursue the truth as we should. An hour at church once a week isn’t good enough. Even if your church still meets on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening, that’s not enough. The sheer multitude of Worldly thinking that’s being jackhammered into our eyes and ears all day long easily distracts us from the 5 minutes of Bible reading we had that morning. Now, it does’t have to be that way, but in order to make our time in the Word really count, we can’t just be reading it. We need to be studying it, meditating on it, and memorizing it. We need to be intentionally applying it to our lives and seeking to live in submission to it. If we turn our brains off, it’ll be lost in the avalanche of Worldly thinking. Are you and your kids doing that? Well, if you want to successfully fight off the World’s culture invading your home . . . you need to. But we also need to be aware that just because someone talks about God or quotes a verse, that doesn’t mean that what they’re saying is true. The “He gets us” campaign during the the Super Bowl a few years ago suggested a number of things about Jesus that don’t conform to the Bible. A homosexual woman masquerading as a pastor tried to convince her people that Psalm 121:8 which reads, “The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in From now until forever” meant that God would protect her as she “came out” as being gay. This is why knowing the whole of Scripture and studying it and understanding how Scripture interprets Scriptures is so necessary. One of Satan’s greatest tools is convincing believers to accept watered down, inaccurate, and patently false conclusions that look and sound biblical. So, we can easily identify truth when we see that it doesn’t just come from the Bible, but is consistent and honest with the totality of God’s revealed will in His Word. But truth is also . . . B. Self-Controlled The Greek word “sober” isn’t talking about not being drunk. It’s describing someone who is self-controlled and uses self-restraint. I Thessalonians 5:8 reads, “But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.” It takes self-control to have faith, be loving, and live righteously. I Peter 1:13-16 says, “Therefore, having girded your minds for action, being sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, not being conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct; 16 because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” We cannot be holy as God is holy without self-control. We need to gird our minds for action, anchor our hope, be obedient, reject the former worldly lusts, and pursue Christlikeness. The World’s culture doesn’t encourage self-control, and when it does, it only does so in a self-centered way. We feel better about ourselves when we’re self-controlled. We’ll save ourselves from disaster when we exercise self-restraint. But the Bible’s discussion about sobriety deals with a fixation on Christ and a rejection of my personal desires. But the truth of God is not just biblical and self-controlled. It’s . . . C. Empowering Understanding what Timothy had to endure, but also understanding the supernatural tools at his disposal, Paul tells Timothy to endure hardship. How could he do that? Was he to pick himself up, dust himself off, and trudge on? No! This too is tied to the truth of God. As we already discussed, it’s the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word that causes us to mount up on wings as eagles as we pursue God’s glory. As we say no to the flesh and yes to God, we can only do so in His strength. If the World is pointing you and your family to self-sufficiency, it’s lying to you. If it wants you to believe that you’re enough or perfect the way you are or all you need . . . you’ve found a lie. Our greatest empowerment doesn’t come through empty self-actualizing mantras, it comes through the truth of God. Only as we know and humbly submit to His Word will we have the power to carry on even when life gets hard. This is why Jesus could say, "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” He knew that we could only accomplish this in His power for His glory. So, truth is biblical, sober, empowering through Christ, and . . . D. Gospel Paul told Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist.” The Greek word translated evangelist refers to a proclaimer of good news. Most of you already know that the word “Gospel” means good news. But the Gospel isn’t just about the past one time act of justification whereby we’re saved into Christ. It also refers to the progressive sanctification by which we’re transformed into the image of Christ and the future hope of glorification when we’re stripped of our selfish, sinful lusts. The Gospel isn’t just about bringing people to Christ, it’s about us persevering in Christ. The work of an evangelist isn’t just for pastors. In Matthew 5, Jesus teaches that we’re all to be light on hills and salty salt. We’re all to live in such a way that people see our good works and glorify our Father Who’s in heaven. We absolutely need to be sharing the Gospel and discipling people in Christ. That’s the Great Commission at the end of Matthew. The World rejects the Gospel. They create their own gospels. They want to replace the saving and sanctifying work of Christ. We know that the influence of the culture around us is a lie when it says and does anything that contradicts the Christ-centered Gospel of the Bible. But we need be discerning. Gospel-contradicting lies can be as simple as anything that promotes self-sufficiency, a rejection of authority, or the subtle dismissal of God by never speaking of Him. I did an episode called “The Most Destructive Thing about Your Entertainment is Not What You’d Think.” You’ll find it and a bunch of other resources linked in the description. In that episode I show how something as simple and seemingly innocuous as My Little Pony convinces our kids of a horrendous falsehood—not by inserting a lie, but by omitting the truth. And finally, God’s truth will always agree with the totality of Scripture, be self-restrained, gives us the strength we need to do the hard things, be gospel-centered, and have another important focus . . . E. Ministry This Greek word speaks of service. One of my favorite uses of this word in Scripture is II Corinthians 5:18-19, “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their transgressions against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” Ephesians 4:11-12 teaches us that God gave us great gifts (pastors and evangelists for example) “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” That “work of service” is later described as the discipleship in which the Lord would have us all participate. We need to be speaking truth in love and building each other up into Christ. We were not saved for comfort and recreation. We were saved for work and service. We’re to be active in this world with the Gospel, doing the work of an evangelist. The World is always lying to us, we need to counter that with the loving truth of the Bible. Conclusion
Listen, my friends, we know that the World’s culture is undoctrinal and feeds to our most base, selfish desires. They’re lies that must be rejected in their most abhorrent and subtle forms.
The only way we can fight that in our homes is by teaching our kids to read, study, meditate on, memorize, and apply God’s Word. We also need to be self-controlled, denying our flesh, taking up our crosses, and following Christ. We need to do all of this and more in the power of the Holy Spirit that comes through submission to the Scriptures. We need to be Gospel minded. We need to know the beautiful truths of salvation that it influence everything we do and say. And all of that put together is going to look like biblical ministry—serving each other in discipleship and truth. That, my friends, is the only way you’ll be able to fight the World’s culture in your home. As always, please share this episode so that other families can be equipped to fight the lies of the world, and check out the description of this episode to continue and deepen your study. And if you need personalized biblical counsel to navigate this season of life, please email us at [email protected] or leave a voicemail at (828) 423-0894. And then join us next week as we get a sneak peek into the topics for Season 36! I’ll see you then.
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