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Hard Conversations on How to Resist Culture | Orpheus Heyward · Real Life Theology Podcast

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  Welcome back to the Real Life Theology Podcast. This episode features Orpheus
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  Hayward talking about hard conversations on how to resist culture. Here is the
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  episode. I am absolutely grateful and thankful to God for this incredible
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  opportunity to share with you in this magnanimous a moment and I'm grateful to
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  my good friend Bobby for the invitation to be part of the Renew organization and
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  just looking forward to a moment we can share in God's holy and divine Word. I'm
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  absolutely grateful because anytime we can give God a moment of worship that's
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  an exciting time. John 4 says God is spirit and they that worship him must
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  worship in spirit and truth and each time we get to have an intimate moment
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  with the Lord it's a moment when we ought to be excited to give him all the
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  praise and all of the honor. I remind people all the time that God does not
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  need your worship he will be God whether you worship or not but the
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  reality is that worship is our privilege and we ought to give God all of the
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  praise because in him we live move and have our very being. I'm grateful because
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  the subject matter to which I want to address is hard conversations regarding
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  culture and I really want to treat that in a very specific way and I'm gonna
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  read a text to you and as I read this text I'm excited to treat this subject
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  matter because I think it is most important as we begin to consider being
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  children of God that exist on these mundane shores. Romans chapter 12 I'm
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  going to read verse 1 and 2 I'm sure you're familiar with these passages I'll
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  walk through this text and prayerfully it is going to be a blessing to your
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  life. Therefore I urge you brothers by the mercies of God to present your
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  bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your spiritual
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  service of worship and do not be conformed to this world but be
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  transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of
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  God is that which is good and acceptable and perfect. I want to suggest to you
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  that as children of God we exist within the context of culture. Culture is not
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  inherently a bad word the word culture can suggest simply norms or describe the
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  behaviors of a particular group of people an ethnic group of people a
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  religious group of people perhaps a country or a community and so when we
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  use the word culture the word culture is not inherently negative however when we
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  think of culture from the perspective of the ways of the world then we have to
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  begin to ascertain as we live within world there becomes time there come
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  times when you and I must be anti-cultural. The reason we have to be
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  anti-cultural is because we are kingdom culture in culture and everything that's
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  within culture does not mesh with kingdom culture and we have to make a
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  decision whether or not we will have a divorce from the ways of the world. That
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  becomes difficult because all of us grow up within the culture within the world
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  within the norms of society and if you would tell the truth there have been
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  aspects of your life that you have sometimes embraced as being norm that
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  was antithetical to God and the truth is even when I got converted there were
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  moments when I still struggled with the aspects of the world to which I was once
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  engaged. That is when you go down in the water and you come up out of the water
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  of baptism I would venture to say many of us didn't go cold turkey but you had
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  moments and you have proclivities that you developed that were difficult for
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  you to divorce from. In other words it is important for children of God to be
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  honest. Honest enough to say that I thank God for his grace that changed me in
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  process that I can say thank you God for having patience with me and it's very
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  easy to come to church and come into a worship context and pretend as if we've
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  always been like we are right now. Sometimes that makes it difficult for
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  you and I to relate to people who are still in the world. We ought not be
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  self-righteous but be honest enough to say that we have a work of grace that
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  we've learned over time to disconnect from culture. So I want you
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  definitionally to be clear about where I am. I'm talking about culture in the
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  sense of world behaviors that are antithetical to God. That's what I mean
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  by culture. There is a normal sense of the word culture and then there is that
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  aspect of culture to which every child of God has to find himself in opposition.
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  Romans chapter 12 is one of the great texts that I think most of us are very
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  familiar with it with the book of Romans. It is one of the great didactic
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  epistles of the New Testament by which the Apostle Paul writes about what he
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  calls the righteousness of God. His thematic emphasis is in Romans chapter
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  1 beginning in verse 14 where he says I am a debtor to the Greek and to
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  the barbarian to the wise and to the unwise so as much as in me is I'm now
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  ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also I am not ashamed of the
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  gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes
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  to the Jew first and also to the Greek and here's his theme for therein is the
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  righteousness of God revealed. When he's speaking about the righteousness of God
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  he's speaking about how one enters into right standing with God to which the
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  Jews were in fact ignorant. Romans chapter 10 says my heart's desire and
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  prayer for Israel is that they might be saved. They have a zeal of God but not
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  according to knowledge for they've gone about to set up their own righteousness
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  having not submitted to the righteousness of God. So as I'm reading
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  through the book of Romans I'm reading about how God places man in right
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  standing with himself. To that end when I'm reading through Romans I am impacted
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  by the idea that it is through the sacrificial death of Jesus that God
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  places righteousness on my account and treats me as if I never sinned. The
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  beauty of the gospel is the theology of as if I made that up. The theology of as
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  if is that God treats Jesus as if he sinned so he can treat me as if I didn't.
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  The beauty of the gospel is that I am living because Christ took my place was
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  my substitutionary sacrifice and now I am in fact the righteousness of God. The
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  transition in Romans is right in chapter 12 where he goes from explaining the
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  righteousness of God to now living out the righteousness of God and in verse 1
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  he says I beseech you by the mercies of God that you would present your body a
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  living sacrifice. Do you notice in the text he says I'm begging you by mercies?
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  He's not begging by law. He's not begging by thou shalt and thou shalt not. He says
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  if you understand what Jesus did for you and if you're clear that he's your
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  substitutionary sacrifice and if you understand he's your propitiation and if
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  you're clear in your mind that we are justified by faith and not by works. If
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  you are clear in your mind that Christ is the one who has secured your
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  salvation I'm begging you based on those mercies that you present your body
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  a living sacrifice. What better motivation to change than mercy? That I
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  don't need you to give me a list of thou's and thou shalt not although there
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  are things and ethical principles in Scripture that invites us there but what
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  should make you want to practice an ethical lifestyle is the better I'm
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  acquainted with mercy. You want the greatest motivation to look to live
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  right? I dare you to look at the cross for there I see the mercies of God and
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  to that end I am motivated to present my body a living sacrifice. I call this
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  verse the New Testament sacrificial system. The New Testament sacrificial
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  system is not about bringing an animal to God. It's not about bringing your
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  offering is about you being the offering. It's not about the idea of what
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  I bring to God as a contribution is the fact that I am the contribution. Now the
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  reality comes in where when we start talking about being a sacrifice God is
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  not talking about anything partial but the giving of one whole self. Present
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  your body. Body is being used here as the whole self. Present your body a living
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  sacrifice. There was a chicken and a pig that went by a grocery store and as they
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  were passing by they saw a sign that said eggs and bacon needed and the
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  chicken said well it looks like we can both help with this. The pig said that's
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  easy for you to say you got to make a contribution I got to make a sacrifice.
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  He would have to give his life in order for there to be bacon. The chicken could
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  give just an egg and a contribution. We have a lot of Christians that just want
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  to bring an egg but don't want to be the sacrifice. So I want you to consider a
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  couple of things when it comes to our text. I beg you by mercies to present
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  your body a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your
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  reasonable service. Which brings me to the main passage to which I want to
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  treat. He says be not conformed. Skidmatizo is this Greek term. Be not conformed to this
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  age. I know some translations say world. This time period. Be not conformed or do
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  not take on the patterns and shapes of this time frame. Now he's writing to a
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  church to the church at Rome. It is highly saturated in Paul's day with
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  immorality and it's highly saturated with paganism and it's highly saturated
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  with an imperialistic government and you are finding that Rome would have been
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  one of the hardest places to be a holy child of God in the midst of all of the
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  paganism and in the midst of all of the immorality. He is now telling the church
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  in that world I want you to present your body a living sacrifice. Well what does
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  that look like Paul? It looks like be not conformed. It looks like make a decision
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  that I will not look like the environment that I'm in. That I am in
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  Rome but I am not of Rome. That when I walk around in the context of this world
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  there needs to be a visible difference in my behavior. That I am not afraid to
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  be unashamedly a Christian that is a transformed non-conformist. So I am not
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  conformed but I am transformed. Now be not conformed but be transformed. Do not
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  take on the patterns and ways of this age but be transformed metamorphic.
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  That's a word that means to change from the inside out. It's not just talking
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  about change in external behavior but a change that resides from within so that
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  when I make the change it stems from the character of Christ that now resides
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  inside of me. The Christian must live consistently with what's on the inside.
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  I have been transformed. Be not conformed but be transformed. He's talking to
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  Christians which means as the Fallen Condition focus of this text it's
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  possible to be a Christian that conforms. Saved but you look like your
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  environment. Saved but can't nobody tell the difference between you and the
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  people around you. Saved but I talk like everybody else. Saved and I accept what
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  you accept. Saved because I am willing to take on a pattern that is not in
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  harmony what God put on the inside. And so I have to be careful as a Christian
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  that I learn the art and the science and really in this text the imperative
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  command to make up in my mind to be different. I teach at Greater Atlanta
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  Christian School and I have some interesting students. There is nothing
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  like teaching juniors in high school biblical studies. It is the most riveting
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  thing because they question everything. You do not have a captured audience when
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  you're speaking to young people and so they question everything that you say.
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  One of the things that we teach at Greater Atlanta and within the fabric of
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  biblical studies we end up getting into the space where we talk about sexual
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  purity. And one of the things that they mentioned they said well Dr. Hayward
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  since we can be very open with you, you are one of the coolest teachers here.
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  That's true I am. That's accurate. Hey Matt what's up bro I was looking for you.
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  Great job earlier man. I was powerful. You did it just like I would have did it. It
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  was good. It was good. I asked the young lady, the young lady asked me
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  she said Dr. Hayward explain to me why premarital sex is wrong. She said give me
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  your best answer. I said well without getting shrouded in all of academia
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  because God said so. She said that answer is so lame. She said can you give me a
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  better answer and I said well I don't understand why I have to give a better
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  answer than that. She says I don't agree with this notion that premarital sex is
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  wrong. I said why don't you agree with it. She says well I don't agree because
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  that's not what I feel. I said so the issue here is whether your feelings are
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  authority or God. So I said I am suggesting there are times when you have
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  to suspend what you feel and bend your will to the one who made you. And she
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  said well that sounds good too. She says so tell me one more time what's
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  premarital sex. I said well it's sex before you're married. She said okay. I
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  said wait a minute you said okay kind of like what did that mean okay like what
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  do you mean by that. She said okay I agree with you. She was like I was like
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  no. I said you agree that premarital sex is wrong. She was like well actually I
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  don't have premarital sex. I said what do you mean by that. She said well yes I do
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  engage in sexual activity and I have done that but it's not premarital sex. I
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  said that is premarital sex. She said no because I don't plan to get married. I
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  said oh that was real slick on your part. Let me change my verbiage. Sex outside of
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  marriage. I mean they look for the loophole right. So when you're speaking
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  to this culture it is interesting how they look for the way around the
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  authority of God. I am suggesting as children of God we need to make sure
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  that we're clear about where we stand when it comes to being transformed
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  non-conformist that don't attempt to fit the culture. Are y'all following that? So
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  as I close this for you I have a lot more to say. You know how African-American
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  preachers are. You know we preach a long time. You have to be mindful that as a
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  Christian and a child of God that one of the hardest things to admit to people
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  that are in the world is that I used to have the same struggles you have and if
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  I be honest sometimes I have the same struggles now. But the battle is whether
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  or not you can have a Garden of Gethsemane moment and do what Jesus did
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  and said not my will but thine will be done. I'll leave you with this. One time I
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  was at a business meeting in a hotel and as I was in the business meeting in a
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  hotel we were all dressed in business suits and as we were just in business
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  suits this person came out of the elevator with a bathing suit literally a
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  bathing suit and a towel around his neck but there was no pool as far as we could
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  see. Nowhere in sight. We like this hotel doesn't even have a pool outside. Like
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  what are you doing? And we're all dressed up. This person is just walking. Went to
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  the front desk. Asked some questions. Went back to the elevator. Stood at the
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  elevator and finally somebody tapped on us and said hey why would you have a
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  bathing suit in this hotel? And this is a business-oriented hotel. It doesn't even
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  have a pool. He said oh first of all you're mistaken. The pool is on the roof
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  and I'm on my way up and I'm getting ready to go swimming and I'm dressed for
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  where I'm headed. Every child of God needs to be mindful that allow other
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  people to think you're strange and weird as long as you know you're dressed for
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  where you're headed. And if I'm headed to heaven then I've got to be different
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  from the environment that I am in. And so my question to you is are you ready to
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  be different? And if you're ready to be different tonight I'm grateful that the
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  Lord has called us to be light in dark places. That I'm to shine and do you not
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  know when people been in a cave a long time light hurts. If you had darkness for
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  a long time light can hurt your eyes. But may we be the people of God that are
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  different. That people can visibly look at us and say they are different. Lead
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  people to God in such a way where it's not people meeting you when they meet
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  you but when they meet you they ought to meet the Jesus in you. So it's not really
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  about your identity it's about his and God will be pleased. May God bless you as
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  I pray for you at this time. Father God in heaven we thank you and we love you.
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  You are a tremendous tremendous God and we are honored that you would even save
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  us by your matchless grace. God we ask you at this time to come into this place
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  and give us the spirit the disposition the strength and the courage to be
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  different. To be different God so that we shine as lights in a dark place so
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  that when folks see us they don't see where we are but they see where we're
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  headed. That we can be those people that say we're on our way to the roof. We're
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  on our way up top and we will not conform to the culture God. We promise
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  to be transformed non-conformist. These and every blessing we ask in the name of Jesus, amen.
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  Thank you for tuning into this episode on The Real Life Theology Podcast. Stay
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  tuned with Renew.org network for more great content on theology and disciple
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  making down the road.