Transforming the Culture from the Inside-Out

• Series: God of gods
• by: Adam Sheffield 10/22/08

If you go to The Journey’s website or read over any literature we hand out, you’ll usually see that we carry out our vision and mission by living out three different legs: loving the Gospel, transforming the culture, and engaging the church. Over the next few months as we travel through the book of Daniel verse by verse, we’re focusing on transforming the culture as we see Daniel and the other captives from Jerusalem play important roles in transforming the culture they are taken into as opposed to allowing themselves to be swallowed up by the culture surrounding them.

The Journey defines “Transforming the Culture” as actively taking the Gospel into our community and seeing lives change by the overflow of the Gospel in our lives. We long to reach the lost, love our community, see our church grow and then multiply.

Daniel and his friends did exactly that. They had resolved in their hearts to keep themselves set apart for God’s purposes and to honor God in everything they did from the food they ate to the clothes they wore. It didn’t matter what the cultural influences were or what society said was acceptable. It didn’t even matter when they had to choose to either honor God and die or deny God and live. They kept pursuing a life that pleased God, and He was faithful to protect them as they faced persecution. God’s presence and power was abundant in their lives, and their faith guided their actions and words as they interacted with those that were lost.

It’s easy for us to nod our heads in silent agreement that “Yes, we should be doing that,” or to think “That would definitely make the world a better place.” However, sometimes it ends right there with our thoughts, which is bad, obviously. Other times we take it to the streets—which is good—but we sometimes focus on the taking of the Gospel into the community part and forget about the overflowing of the Gospel in our lives part which must happen first.  

This is not to say that missions are overrated or unnecessary at all because that just is not true (see the article in this issue of The Vibe on the Halloween outreach), but that’s another article in another issue of The Vibe. This article is about realizing that in order to transform the culture we must first be transformed by God, and then act on that realization by making a conscious effort to make choices that honor God in everything we do from the food we eat to the clothes we wear.

Paul recognized that it was ridiculous for us to expect to have any effect on the culture around us if we, as Christians, live our lives just the same as those who are not Christians? Therefore, he strongly appealed to us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices that would be pleasing and honorable to God, in Romans chapter 12:1-2, so that we would “not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of [our] mind[s].” Otherwise it would be like trying to flavor a glass of tap water with…well with more tap water.    

Change will come about by bringing something new into the world, not by adding more of the same. Jesus said that He would give us life to the fullest amount in John 10, but He did not say He would make the life we had before we knew Him become abundant all of a sudden. We must take the life He gives us, the one He transforms our old life into if we truly want to make a difference in this world.

This is why the first step to transforming the culture must be allowing God to transform us. If we want to make a difference, we must be different. Different from the comfortable lives we’ve allowed ourselves to be lulled into for the past however many years. Different from the roles we are used to playing. Different from the stereotypes society casts on us as Christians. And different from the world itself.    

It is necessary for the transformation of the culture we are in to come about as a result of the overflow of the Gospel in our lives because there is nothing else in this world with the power to change the world in this way. We certainly cannot do it on our own. I don’t have that power and I’m going to assume that you, like former Mariner Richie Sexson, also lack any kind of monstrous power. If we were responsible for transforming the culture based on our morals and goodness, or our reasoning and wisdom, or our mercy and love, then this world would look much worse than it already does, it would basically get dumber, and we would quickly find ourselves emptied of love and out of reasons to go on trying to change anything.

Another reason we must be transformed by the Gospel and allow it to overflow from us is because we are naturally quite selfish and lack the desire it would take to pursue the transformation of our culture. This transformation of our culture must start from within us individually a result of a change of heart brought about by God. Changing our outward actions won’t change the heart, but the heart will change the outward actions. Although a desire to serve others should naturally come about as a result of a heart that is following God, just serving others won’t bring the desired change in this world we should be seeking as Christians. We would not normally have the desire to reach and love the lost or to sacrifice our time and effort for our community or for our church. These desires come about as we grow closer in our relationship to God and his desires become our desires. This transformation is rooted in God’s glorious love, and these desires can only come once we are transformed from the inside-out by God’s love.  

A fourth reason we should look to the Gospel if we desire transformation in our culture is because Jesus perfectly models how to go about it in the Bible. As exhibited through the life of Jesus Christ while here on earth, God desires to not only reach out to the lost but to see real change come about in their lives. Just like in John 8 where Jesus tells the woman caught in adultery to “go now, and leave your life of sin.” Jesus wasn’t concerned with changing her actions, but knew that a personal encounter with God’s mercies and forgiveness would change her heart, which would result in a change in actions. Jesus also showed that social justice can exist in this broken world and that we as believers should not stand for society feigning ignorance towards those in need as was the case in Matthew 20 where Jesus stopped to heal two blind men when the rest of the crowd was telling them to be silent and stop crying for help. And obviously Jesus wants the church to grow and to multiply as evidenced by the Great Commission He gave us in Matthew 28.

God can change this world we are in because He is not of this world. He created this world but is completely other and entirely holy. We are in a broken world, but not a world that is broken over its sin. God is the only one who can change the state of this world and the heart of man. If this culture we are in is to be transformed it must start with us Christians being broken over our sin, diving in to God’s Word, and allowing it to transform us. We can’t just acknowledge that God could use us. We need to step up and tell God that we want Him to use us as Isaiah did in Isaiah Chapter 6 when Isaiah saw God being glorified and exalted. He could not help but to cry out for God to send him to carry God’s message because God had transformed him from the inside out!

We can’t just keep waiting for our brother or sister to do something to transform the culture. We must take the initiative and show some moxie. We cannot wait for trail blazers to go before us, we must allow God to lead us where He wills regardless of who goes before us, who walks alongside us, or who follows us. Listen for God’s call on your life and obey it! Be transformed!