Avoiding Culture's Flytraps - Relativism

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome to God’s living room,

When I was in like the fourth or fifth grade one of my favorite science projects was when we studied the Venus Flytrap plant. I thought it was so cool had the prey would land in or crawl in and then the plant would close in around it. It was pretty cool. (I remember some putting their pencil inside the plant so that we could watch the plant close up.) Today we are beginning a new series entitled, Avoiding Culture’s Flytraps. Every culture has common held assumptions that are incorrect. They are lies but they become the accepted way of life. They are lies that entrap us.

There is a moral decline in business, education, entertainment, politics and even religion. Today in the Western World with the abundance of information and rhetoric we find ourselves in a setting of truth decay. Sixty years ago when your grandparents were your age almost everyone agreed on what was right and what was wrong. Now, not everyone did what was right but they knew what was right. Forty years ago people were willing to tell parent’s of a child’s misbehavior. And parents were willing to make the wrong right. It’s not like that today, is it.

One cause is individualism. Individualism says, “I live for myself. I can judge what is right and wrong.” This is not new to the early 21^st century. About 3,000 years ago back in the Old Testament we learn (Judges 21:25

But I can bring it a little closer to home. Because what is Culture’s Flytrap - Relativism. Relativism says, “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.” Let me set this up for you with a true story. A woman a couple of years was entering Hwy 41 in De Pere. She wanted to go south toward Milwaukee. She was sincere about that. But she turned down an off ramp instead of an on ramp. So she was going to go south while the traffic would be traveling north. Now relativism would say that if someone rolled down their window and told her she was going the wrong way, “who are you to tell me that I am doing wrong. You are so judgmental and narrow minded.” Right? To finish the story, she sincerely thought she was going the right way but she was not. The result was a fatal head on crash. People who tell the truth are not judging they are loving. People in the flytrap of relativism say, “there are no absolutes.” I usually respond with, “Are you absolutely sure.”

The highest value in America today is tolerance not truth. The worst sin in our society is intolerance. Tolerance used to mean, “I respect you and treat you with dignity but I disagree with you. “ Pastors used to say, “Love the sinner hate the sin.” Embrace all people but not all beliefs. Jesus accepted people without accepting their lifestyle. Remember the women caught in adultery. He said to her, “neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” He didn’t say to her, “neither do I condemn you. Go and do whatever you want.” But tolerance today means that everything is equally true and equally right. All choices must be praised or we are bigots. Truth is a matter of taste and preference. Whatever you want is ok. Proverbs 14:12 says, “

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. A second cause is secularism. Secularism says, “God is not necessary.” Secularism believes in God but doesn’t need him. And so God is taken out of schools, government, media. In Secularism God is regulated to Sunday morning. And in our society the majority doesn’t even go to worship. So where do people get their morals and their standards, if it is not God and not parents? The media. Romans 1:25 explains it this way, They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. So people today worship created things, like homes, careers, recreation. God is not necessary so I live for myself. Sound familiar? There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
Isaiah 5:20 says, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.

So how do we change culture? Or how do we have a life of value in a world that can decide what is right or wrong?

Let’s take a step back just for a moment and ask: What makes something wrong? Something is not wrong, like relativism because I say it is wrong. Something is wrong because it is anti-God, anti-God’s character. God is honest there if we are dishonest we are wrong. God is faithful therefore if we are unfaithful we are wrong. God is love therefore if we are unloving we are wrong. God is just therefore if we are unjust we are wrong. Anything that is different from the creator who made us is wrong. Anything that is like the Creator who made us is right. God is the one who shows us what is right and wrong. Consider these proof passages. 2 Timothy 3:16

Ever since Satan lied and told Adam and Eve they could be like God knowing good and evil people have been trying to look inside for the truth. The Bible tells us what is inside is selfishness. Jeremiah says our heart is deceitful and beyond cure. We need to drop the wisdom of self and the wisdom of the world and get back to God. He is the source of all truth. And I am here today to tell you that believing the truth will cost you but not believing the truth will be even more costly. Rachel Scott one of the teenagers killed at Columbine for confessing that she was a Christian to the gun men or shall I say gun boys, wrote in her diary about a year before that day, “I’m not going to apologize for speaking the name of Jesus. I’m not going to hide the light God has put in me. If I have to sacrifice everything I will. It can be costly.

Whose values are you going to live by? The internal source - truth is in me. I decide what is right. The external source - truth comes from our society. Or the eternal source truth comes from God. What will your standard be? Me, the world or God.

There are three realities you can count on. 1. There is a God. 2. Neither you nor I am not it. Those are absolute. The third is this: No matter what you have done, what you have become, what you have believed, what you have practiced. Because of God honesty, faithfulness, love and justness through Jesus God loves you enough to die for you to make you one with him. That is absolutely an absolute