Sermon Tone Analysis

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Series: The Real Thing

Title: The Bible-Belt Cultural Christian

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In the movie Facing the Giants, the coach of the high school football team knows that his team is filled with doubt and not really committed to each other.

So he shows them an example of what can happen when they really get committed—when they go “all in.”

Video - Facing the Giants

Show the clip from Facing the Giants.

You see, the coach knows that Brock can lead this team if he really believes in what they can achieve.

If you remember the movie they win the state title trusting in God and being totally committed to one another.

They prove this statement to be true: YOU’VE GOT TO BE ALL IN BEFORE YOU CAN GO ALL OUT.

You’ve got to be all in before you can go all out.

You’ve got to be fully committed to the cause if you are really going to be successful in life.

That truth can also apply to Christianity.

We’ve been in this series called The Real Thing.

We’ve been talking about how so much of the church, especially in America, has settled for a half-hearted version of Christian commitment that we have called Cultural Christianity.

In fact, Al Mohler, the president of Southern Seminary calls the American version of cultural Christianity the “new American religion” that is committed to five basic Tenets:

· “A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.”

· “God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.”

· “The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.”

· “God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.”

· “Good people go to heaven when they die.”

We also said that this “cultural Christianity” has at least three different expressions in our culture.

Last week we considered the liberal Christian showing how they reject important doctrines, compromise biblical morality, and pursue relativism because they fail to understand the supernatural nature of this book.

Frankly, most of you do not struggle with that one, although I think it’s pretty safe to say that you know someone who does.

BACKGROUND

Today, however, I want to turn your attention to another expression of cultural Christianity that will hit a lot closer to home.

I call it the Bible Belt Christian.

Bible Belt Christians are known for their CONSUMERISM.

They have been catered to by their local church for so long that they have come to expect it.

They think that the church exists primarily to meet their needs.

As a result, their COMMITMENT TO ANY PARTICULAR CHURCH IS WEAK OR NON-EXISTENT.

As long as the church operates as they think it should—especially when it comes to the things that make them comfortable—they will stay.

If it begins to make them too uncomfortable, they’ll find another church which will do a better job of catering to their whims.

Part of their desire for comfort centers around their DESIRE FOR EXCELLENCE IN PROGRAMMING.

They hire pastors whom they expect to produce great music, excellent entertainment at holidays, and well-communicated sermons.

Many Bible-belt cultural Christians LACK A CERTAIN SELF AWARENESS.

They view themselves as a mature Christian, but they are not growing nor becoming more like Jesus.

They are immature when it comes to walking with God, but they are often veteran church members.

When you boil it all down, you have one primary spiritual characteristic: They have great ACCCESS to the gospel, but they have little true UNDERSTANDING of the gospel.

They identify with Christianity as a way of life, but they do not believe and follow the gospel in such a way that it truly changes what they do every day.

As the novelist Flannery O’Connery says, while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.

There is a lingering influence of Christ in the culture: infants are baptized, funerals are Christian, weddings must happen at church, and Grandpa leads the family in prayer at Thanksgiving dinner.

As Dean Inserra says,

The name of Christ lingers, appearing from time to time at family functions, milestones, and traditions.

The cohabitating engaged couple with no church affiliation asks a pastor to perform their ceremony, rather than a notary, and they have an uncle do a Bible reading during the wedding.

There is some unrelenting, nagging pull that can’t seem to leave them—the existence of God and that it means something for their lives.

Perhaps there is an awareness of the need for redemption and even a longing deep down for repentance.

Billy Graham is revered, apologies are made to the pastor when you cuss in front of him, and there are certain people you feel guilty drinking beer in front of when they see you at a restaurant.

Image matters here.

Being seen as a Christian can be more important than actually being a Christian.

When I think of the Christ-haunted South in today’s Bible Belt, I see all around me an awareness of God that brings with it an internal guilt you just can’t shake or run away from.

God can’t be ignored, and Southerners know it.

But the idea of God interfering with their lives, and things changing if they follow Jesus, is too much to handle, so the haunting remains.

Slide- Pic Young woman singing

Take Amanda, for instance.

She sang at church while she was in High School.

She believes in Jesus and intended on saving sex for marriage.

But then she went to college and quickly learned that such a lifestyle was not “realistic.”

Everyone drinks and hooks up.

Now she didn’t become an atheist, she just counted the cost and realized that following Jesus just didn’t line up with the “real world.”

Amanda’s boyfriend, Dave, knows that his drinking would have to be curtailed if he were to be more serious about his faith.

He knows he’d have to explain to the guys why he probably shouldn’t be going to their favorite clubs anymore and he’d have to explain to Amanda that he loves her, but unless they get married, they shouldn’t be living together.

He knows the social implications of a radical lifestyle change.

And it’s a change he does not want to make.

He likes his life, his friends, his comfort, and can’t understand why a loving God would really want him to give it all up.

That’s the Bible-Belt Cultural Christian dilemma: I believe in Jesus, but truly surrendering to Him would interfere with my life.

NEED

Does that sound familiar?

I think it’s possible that this description fits some of us in this room.

I would not for one moment think that I know who is genuine and who is not.

That’s way above my pay grade, but I do believe that there are some Bible-belt cultural Christians and, please remember what we said: Cultural Christians are not really disciples of Jesus at all.

That’s why I want you to listen: I have a burden for you if this is your description.

I want you to know what it means to make an all in commitment to Jesus Christ.

But, I am also aware that there are many of you here today who are genuine believers.

Well, if that’s you, don’t tune me out because, in this city, there is plenty of “Jesus-haunted” people who have never come to fully know Him.

They may talk a good game, but they are lost.

TRANS

If that is the case, I really want to connect you with a passage of Scripture that addresses the Bible-Belt cultural Christian head on.

You find it in .

Read it with me:

25 Now great multitudes went with Him.

And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.

33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

34 “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?

35 It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”