Series: Culture of the Kingdom
Today’s Topic: Introduction
Scripture: Colossians 1:12,13; Ephesians 2:6,7
Greetings Kingdom Citizens
When we look at the word culture we see it defined as a state or form of civilization. The culture of a civilization is the identity of that civilization. If this is the case then if we look at the church, the sons of God or the body of believers, then we can conclusively say we have an identity problem. What is the culture of the Kingdom of God all about? What is our very identity? The church has lost its identity and since it has lost its identity, it has lost its function in the earth. Well what has happened and what is the reason for this? When you do not know who you are and the way you are to conduct yourself then you adopt other cultures that are around that influence you. Now when you do that you lose relevance to your true identity and the culture you should be maintain. So when we look at the state of the church we see that the various cultures of societies have infiltrated the church and because we lack identity we tend to conform to those ideals of those cultures and try to make them relevant to the church. We now contribute to a problem that we are to actually have a solution to. For example:
Catholic Church was faced with having to deal with priests abusing children in a society that sees this perverse condition on the rise. Instead of dealing with the problem immediately as God would deal with it, they tried to hide it by shuffling priests from parish to parish and even on some levels pay people off for their silence to save face. So instead of protecting children and this is what God would do, the abuse was allowed to continue until the Pope had to make a humble and embarrassing apology in the United States to the members of the Catholic church and to the rest of the nation.
The Anglican Church of England (Episcopalian Church in America) has started ordaining homosexual bishops. Now it is evident that the spirit of homosexuality is a growing situation and instead of standing on the Word of God they folded to the culture around them to make them “think” they are relevant.
Evangelicals in America have a history of supporting the Republican party. They have become so desperate that they would stand behind and put their vote on a Mormon or even someone who does not profess to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why would they do that? It is because they derive their power from their connection to the political parties. In turn, we vote for someone either for history’s sake and what I mean, just to put someone in office to say we made history regardless if they support homosexuality and abortion? So forget about allowing the Holy Spirit to put His representative in a place of leadership to bring the Kingdom influence to the nation, we want to congregate and put our vote on who we perceive has the power. Or we congregate to the person who we want in office to see what we believe come to fruition even if it goes against the laws of the Almighty God. But who better to congregate with than Jesus? Now I am neither Republican nor Democrat but what I am saying is the church, because it lacks identity and understanding the Kingdom culture, it takes on the cultures surrounding it, regardless of the problems and conflicts it has with the Word of God and the Kingdom. Instead of being the change God calls it to be, holy and set-apart, it contributes to the problems and finds it hard to offer any solutions.
What makes this situation even worse is this generation of youth is seeing the hypocrisy and are turning away from the church because it sees it as not being relevant but just like society. In the next message we will look at the current situation and relationship between the youth and the churches.
At the Father’s Service,
Elder Calvin Calhoun Jr.
