So, You got your value system on EBay.
"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life... they are foundational words, words to build a life on" (Matthew 7:24 MSG)
A sermon by Kenneth Wright - Sunday, November 05, 2006
Introduction
On Tuesday, October 3, 1999 practically everyone in America stopped what they were doing and gathered around a television or radio. It was the day one of the most shocking episodes in modern history would come to a conclusion. O.J. Simpson would stand before a Judge in California and the verdict would be read in the most infamous Murder trials in history.
Between 1:00 and 1:10 PM when the verdict was announced, everything came to a stop.
People didn’t work –they didn’t go to class – they didn’t make phone calls – they listened to the verdict.
Airplanes had to wait because passengers wouldn’t board before they heard. News conferences were postponed.
The President of the United States left the Oval office to here the reading of the verdict.
the new York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade slowed to a halt.
Electrical companies reported a ninety-three million watt increase as people turned on something, somewhere to catch the news.
Even the air-craft carrier Independence – sailing through the Persian Gulf contacted the Navy Public Affairs Office in Washington DC and piped the verdict through the Carriers sound system.
All this was done to find out the decision of twelve jurors on the fate of one man.
Trials are interesting things.
Evidence is put forth – arguments are considered – testimony is heard.
Then – a decision –based on certain understandings of what is right or wrong – true or false – admissible or inadmissible – must be made.
And make no mistake about the value-based nature of the decision.
Think about the Simpson verdict: People all across American we divided on whether or not O’J. was guilty.
They heard the same evidence and listened to the same testimony – but they came to very different conclusions.
Even a second trial for civil injuries found him guilty.
I mentioned all this to prove a point have you ever wondered ---
The Listener’s Question
Why do people differ over what is right and wrong?
There are probably several reasons and we’re going to look at a few this morning- because it has to do with the system of values you live your life by.
Some people think that
1. Every one has the right to determine what is right or wrong for themselves.
So, it’s your belief that we have certain rights that other people cannot infringe upon.
One of those rights is the freedom to interpret our personal responses to life’s situations for ourselves.
In other words, "What’s right for me may not be right for you."
Okay, Let’s follow that logic.
Would you agree that there are things in our society that certain people will do – and see nothing wrong with doing it?
What about the pedophile?
You know that person that sees nothing wrong with engaging in sexual physical activities with children.
What about the man who has sexual activity with a two years old girl?
He sees nothing wrong with the act even though the rest of our society has a tremendous problem with what he does.
Doesn’t he have the right to determine what is right for himself?
What about Adolph Hitler.
He saw nothing wrong with the final solution of the Jews.
Those beliefs lead to the gas chambers and ovens at Auswhich.
By holding a philosophy that any person can determine his own value system - we open up a world of perversions for our children and grandchildren that will eventually destroy mankind.
Judges 17:6 (Read and expound)
2. There is no such things as an absolute value system in our society
So you’re saying that when it comes to a value system that everyone should adhere to, there’s a problem with grey areas.
Black and white overlap and things become fuzzy in the middle.
We see these today in several areas of our society.
There are those who see nothing wrong with marijuana, use of opium, crack cocaine, designer drugs, etc.
Just because those people are in the grey area of social belief system - does their behavior negate the established laws of our society? Of course not!
Our social laws are absolute and they establish what our society deem either right or wrong.
If we can have an absolute system for society - it stands to reason that individuals can live by an absolute system as well.
John 17:17 (Read and Expound)
3. Times change and so do the values of a society
Technology has carried us from horseback to the moon and beyond over the last century.
We can now instantly talk to people on the other side of the world on our cell phones if we choose.
The little brown shack out behind the barn and given way to indoor plumbing, letters have given way to email, Microwave ovens have replaced the campfire.
Lives have been made easier by our advanced technology.
But what about the moral fabric of our society?
Has it gotten better or worse over the last century?
Have the murder rates gone up or down?
Have cases of unwed mothers gone up or down?
Are children safer in our school today than they were 50 years ago.
I’ll agree that the values of our society have changed - but would you say that the are better or worse today.
Hebrew 13:8 (Read and Expound)
4. Values are flexible and change with circumstances
This idea claims that morality is on a sliding scale.
It infers that you can do certain things in one environment but you can’t do the same thing in another.
For example, It’s okay to cheat the government on your taxes, but it’s wrong for your child to copy the answers for someone else’s paper on a math test in school.
It okay for you to have a extra marital affair, but your 16 year old daughter shouldn’t follow in your foot-steps.
Galatians 5:19-21 (Read and Expound)
Answer to the Listener’s Question
1 Corinthians 1:20
Romans 12:1-2
Application of Insights Gained
1. Worldly value systems lead to chaos and destruction
2. You can live by a set of absolute values
3. If your life is worse off today than it was several years ago - your value system is flawed
4.You cannot waffle back and forth on your core value systems and expect life to go smoothly
Conclusion
Values are those things that make up – for you – What is right and what is wrong --- what matters and what doesn’t matter.
Everybody has values --- the problem is that not everybody agrees on what those values should be --- much less where they should come from.
Illustration:
Apanel convened to find out what the simple value of integrity was about.
The philosopher- “What is integrity?”
“Integrity is what you’re like when nobody is around.”
A Business man – “What is integrity?”
“Integrity means a person is as good as his word.”
An Attorney – “What is integrity?”
“What do you want it to mean?”
Folks – real value is not made upon the spot
Authentic – true vale is something that is beyond us.
It depends on a truth and a reality bigger than we are.
That’s why there has been so much talk in the beginning of the 21st century about RETURNING to values that exist independently of what an individual may or may not embrace.
Shootings at schools – racially motivated killings – sexual assaults - --- we intuitively sense that only in authentic – lasting core values is there hope.
That’s why Jesus spent so much time spelling out God’s core values for individual life application –
Matthew 7:24 – “The words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life --- they are foundational words, words to build a life on.”
