First Christian Church of Huber Heights
"Authority: Who Determines Right and Wrong?"
Sunday morning worship message.
Locations & Times
6114 Fishburg Rd, Dayton, OH 45424, USA
Sunday 10:00 AM
Sunday 11:30 AM
It's Human to wrestle with the great questions of life.
It separates us from the animals. It's not just for philosophers. What we believe gives meaning and purpose to our lives. Ideas have consequences. The bigger the ideas, the bigger the consequences.
Our beliefs impact our culture. Like beach balls in a pool they pop up during crisis and stress. The 70s Brit-pop band, the Sex Pistols, sang, “If there is no future, there is no sin.” The impact of this kind of thinking showed up April 10, 1999 in Columbine, Colorado. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were deeply into nihilistic philosophy which says life is meaningless and all we can do is impose our will on it.
The Bible claims moral authority.
It separates us from the animals. It's not just for philosophers. What we believe gives meaning and purpose to our lives. Ideas have consequences. The bigger the ideas, the bigger the consequences.
Our beliefs impact our culture. Like beach balls in a pool they pop up during crisis and stress. The 70s Brit-pop band, the Sex Pistols, sang, “If there is no future, there is no sin.” The impact of this kind of thinking showed up April 10, 1999 in Columbine, Colorado. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were deeply into nihilistic philosophy which says life is meaningless and all we can do is impose our will on it.
The Bible claims moral authority.
The Big-Picture Meta-Narrative of the Bible is: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration.
CREATION: The World Belongs to God
CREATION: The World Belongs to God
God doesn't live in your world. You live in His. He is Sovereign.
The materialist, naturalist, humanist decides for self what is right and wrong.
“Humans should not look beyond themselves for salvation. What humanism teaches is that we must muster our own courage and compassion to realize our highest aspirations.” (Paul Kurtz, The Humanist Manifesto, 2000)
The problem with moral authority seated in the individual is that there is no outside point of reference which only leaves the individual lost in himself. Clashing individual authorities conclude in the law of the jungle--might makes right.
The Moral Argument of Apologetics points to the very existence of God as the only basis for belief in right and wrong.
The 2nd part of the Biblical Story is the Fall.
The materialist, naturalist, humanist decides for self what is right and wrong.
“Humans should not look beyond themselves for salvation. What humanism teaches is that we must muster our own courage and compassion to realize our highest aspirations.” (Paul Kurtz, The Humanist Manifesto, 2000)
The problem with moral authority seated in the individual is that there is no outside point of reference which only leaves the individual lost in himself. Clashing individual authorities conclude in the law of the jungle--might makes right.
The Moral Argument of Apologetics points to the very existence of God as the only basis for belief in right and wrong.
The 2nd part of the Biblical Story is the Fall.
Culture Has Rejected the Idea of Sin, But We Need It.
“Sin is a necessary piece of our mental furniture because it reminds us that life is a moral affair. No matter how hard we try to reduce everything to deterministic brain chemistry, no matter how hard we try to reduce behavior to herd instinct that we can capture in big data, no matter how hard we strive to replace sin with non moral words like mistake or error or weakness, the most essential parts of life are matters of individual responsibility and moral choice. Like whether to be brave or cowardly, honest or deceitful, compassionate or callous. Whether to be faithful or to be disloyal. When modern culture tries to replace sin with ideas like error or insensitivity or they try to banish words like virtue, character, evil and vice, that doesn’t make life any less moral. It just means we have obscured the inescapable moral core of life with shallow language. It just means we think and talk about these choices less clearly and thus become increasingly blind to the moral stakes of everyday life.” (David Brooks, The Road to Character)
In the 20th century Moral Evolution brought us Communist Russia and the abortion mills of Planned Parenthood with commerce in aborted baby parts.
Ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims.
Part 3 of God's Story: Redemption
“Sin is a necessary piece of our mental furniture because it reminds us that life is a moral affair. No matter how hard we try to reduce everything to deterministic brain chemistry, no matter how hard we try to reduce behavior to herd instinct that we can capture in big data, no matter how hard we strive to replace sin with non moral words like mistake or error or weakness, the most essential parts of life are matters of individual responsibility and moral choice. Like whether to be brave or cowardly, honest or deceitful, compassionate or callous. Whether to be faithful or to be disloyal. When modern culture tries to replace sin with ideas like error or insensitivity or they try to banish words like virtue, character, evil and vice, that doesn’t make life any less moral. It just means we have obscured the inescapable moral core of life with shallow language. It just means we think and talk about these choices less clearly and thus become increasingly blind to the moral stakes of everyday life.” (David Brooks, The Road to Character)
In the 20th century Moral Evolution brought us Communist Russia and the abortion mills of Planned Parenthood with commerce in aborted baby parts.
Ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims.
Part 3 of God's Story: Redemption
When we deny our moral obligation and refuse God's offer of righteousness, there is another exchange that does take place.
Our culture has abandoned truth and exchanged it with tolerance.
It's a good word but badly defined. Tolerance correctly understood means respect for every person as created by God. All have this inherent worth even if we disagree. Even if we are from different ages, races, genders, nationalities, whatever. Even if believe different things, we need to be tolerant of the individual.
Our culture believes there are no moral obligations so all ideas are considered equally valid. Cultural tolerance embraces any idea another has as if no idea is any better than another. Really? Isn’t the idea of kindness toward a person better than the idea of hatred toward a person?
Our culture replaces freedom with autonomy.
"The greatest enemy of freedom is freedom." (Os Guiness, A Free People's Suicide)
When we live free of virtue, freedom turns into license that enslaves. Americans are more addicted today than at any time in the past. An addict is a slave. Freedom to do anything has turned us into slaves to everything. The truth is that one is most free when living exactly as we have been created to live.
The Last Chapter in God's Story: Restoration
It's a good word but badly defined. Tolerance correctly understood means respect for every person as created by God. All have this inherent worth even if we disagree. Even if we are from different ages, races, genders, nationalities, whatever. Even if believe different things, we need to be tolerant of the individual.
Our culture believes there are no moral obligations so all ideas are considered equally valid. Cultural tolerance embraces any idea another has as if no idea is any better than another. Really? Isn’t the idea of kindness toward a person better than the idea of hatred toward a person?
Our culture replaces freedom with autonomy.
"The greatest enemy of freedom is freedom." (Os Guiness, A Free People's Suicide)
When we live free of virtue, freedom turns into license that enslaves. Americans are more addicted today than at any time in the past. An addict is a slave. Freedom to do anything has turned us into slaves to everything. The truth is that one is most free when living exactly as we have been created to live.
The Last Chapter in God's Story: Restoration
All Brokenness will be restored.
All lies will be exposed. All wrong will be made right. Jesus will fulfill His prayer, "Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done one earth as it is in heaven."
How do we live now between Redemption and Restoration?
1. Use the Gift of Repentance.
"God's kindness leads you toward repentance." Romans 2:4, NIV
2, Reserve Your Heart for God
All lies will be exposed. All wrong will be made right. Jesus will fulfill His prayer, "Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done one earth as it is in heaven."
How do we live now between Redemption and Restoration?
1. Use the Gift of Repentance.
"God's kindness leads you toward repentance." Romans 2:4, NIV
2, Reserve Your Heart for God
3. Immerse yourself in Scripture
Prayer Request
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