Let Jesus Construct Your Reality

Theme: Living by faith

Pillar: Discipleship

Grant S. Sisson, MSCP, CI

Preached @ Countryside Christian Church 3/08/2009

A few weeks ago I brought to your attention the six pillars of church health: 1) worship, 2) evangelism, 3) ministry, 4) fellowship, 5) prayer, and 6) discipleship, as discussed in Acts 2. I hope you have been listening to each sermon since looking for which pillar I am directing your attention to, for it is upon these “pillars” Countryside will continue to grow. She is strong now, but God has in mind for us much greater things than even what we have seen so far. And when I say “growth,” I mean growth in the Holy Spirit as individuals and as a church family. It would not mean anything at all if we grew to a thousand based upon something other than Jesus; but based upon the teachings of Jesus we will grow to a thousand and beyond, because God will bless His people, and His Word will not come back to Him void.

So each Sunday we work on building Countryside up by strengthening our work within one of these pillars. Look in Gal 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Remember John 11, “Those who believe on [the Son of Man] even though they die, they shall live, and everyone who lives and believes in him shall never die”? Perhaps the Apostle Paul was thinking of those very words as he penned his letter to the Galatians. Christianity’s view of human life is distinctly different – in fact, unintelligible by any other philosophy. Our life is to live in Christ, to be his disciples, to behave only as he would have us to, and to love others as Christ has loved us.

World’s view of the good life

Nothing “bad” ever happens – all is fun and good times, success in everything I set my hands to do.

Everything goes my way – I “grab for the gusto” and get it in everything.

But the more I grab the gusto, the more I intrude into and interfere with others who are also grabbing the gusto, and the less time I have to supply my partner’s needs and the needs of my family. When my value is “Grabbing gusto” my own wants became paramount, and this interferes with my own ability to live life. I trip over my own feet.

This philosophy leads to, and has no answers for, life’s down times, and thus leads to despair. It leads us to a place it can’t lead us through.

But you know what? We humans have created that philosophy (with a little help from the Father of Lies himself.) We live in a world of our own making.

We humans do “create our own realities”

That is the fundamental tenet of Moral Relativism – the scourge of our times. Well, preacher, are you agreeing with it or disagreeing?

Most of the world’s philosophies are based upon some truth, some correct idea that within its context is right. If not, no one would believe them.

For instance – people get together in cultural groups and determine what their world is going to be like; that is, we “construct our own realities.” In one context, this is true. We as a nation have gotten together and decided that we will drive on the right side of the road. Woah be to the errant soul who violates our reality – we look at him and say, “You must be crazy! Are you nuts??”! So it has become a socially constructed reality that one must drive on the right side of the road, and he that violates this “truth” is going either to jail or to a hospital.

But it is unwise to insist that our “reality” is the only one, because if an American goes to England and lives according to American “reality” by driving on the right side of the road, he will wind up either in jail or in the hospital, and all the Brits would look at him and say, “Are you crazy?” Well, who’s crazy here? The Brits or the Americans? Neither, it just means that the two cultures have come up with a different answer to the same problem – that of getting to work in some kind of orderly fashion. So to insist that our way is “right” and theirs is “wrong” is absurd. It is not a matter of values; it is a matter of expedient behavior.

But moral relativism takes this idea out of context and says that values are the same way. The idea is that each culture can decide what it wants to morally as well; that values can be chosen, and can be whatever that society chooses. Let me explain.