Hey, let me ask you a few questions. What if the confusion so many people feel about Christianity today isn't because truth disappeared, but because Christ is no longer clearly at the center? What if culture didn't become louder on its own, we just stopped anchoring ourselves to what is true? And what if the tension you feel navigating today's world is really a question of clarity, not conviction? Today in the Biblical Film Room, we're asking, what happens when culture gets louder than Christ? Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Biblical Film Room. My name is Michael Jerome, your host. It is the last day of March, March 31st. Can you believe it? So I want to begin this episode by explaining a little bit about the concept of the Biblical Film Room, because some people hear the Biblical Film Room and think you have to love sports to get it. but you really don't. At its core, a film room is just a place of honest review. Athletes watch game footage to see what worked, what didn't, and how to grow. And that's exactly what we're doing here. But with our lives and with scripture, the Bible becomes our film. It reveals truth, corrects our blind spots, and shows us a better way to live. So whether you've ever watch sports or not, this is simply a space where we slow down, reflect, and let God shape how we think, live, and grow. So I hope that makes sense. So we've been examining Christianity today in the 21st century and looking at how do we get Christ back to the center of faith. And we've talked about restoring Christ to the church, to our communities, and to our everyday work. But now we come to one of the biggest tensions. What happens when culture gets louder than Christ? So today we're slowing the tape down and asking, what does it look like to live with clarity, conviction, and compassion in a world full of competing voices? Let's roll the tape. And so the title of this episode, if you're looking for a title, is Christ Above Culture, Not Missing From It. And that's the thing. We've got to put Christ above culture and not missing from the culture. Because when Christ leaves the center, as we've said, people leave the room. I believe truly that people are confused about Christianity today. What does the church even stand for today? Is it political? Is it cultural? Is it spiritual? And that's why we see indifference and disconnection, and in some cases, contempt. Because when Christ is unclear, everything else becomes loud. Have you noticed the noise In several areas over the last few years? I'm sure you have And when that noise comes When you hear the noise, the loudness Things can get kind of fuzzy You can even get off center as a believer, I've had moments where I got it wrong. And had to come back to the simplicity of Jesus. And I've got it wrong in many areas, in my dating choices, where and how I spend my time, where and how I've spent my money, and even beliefs about God and the church. And so getting back to Christ has been and always will be the solution when the film on faith gets distorted. it. And it happens when our lives are kind of out of whack. But what does it mean to get back to Jesus? I think simply opening up the book of life, the word of truth, the Bible, getting back to Jesus is simply opening up God's word and reviewing it, reviewing the tape, checking out the film. So let's rewind the tape and watch a segment of how the early church engaged culture. And we're going to look at an example from the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul. So we're going to look at a story in Acts 17, and I'm basically going to summarize the story, okay? And I want to encourage you to go back and read Acts 17, verse 16 through 31. So basically a summary of what's happening. He's in a city called Athens. He's in Athens, Greece. He's greatly distressed by all the idols that he sees in the city. The city is full of idols. There's people debating, there's these smart, educated guys that are in the city. It says that he sees that they were very religious. He walks around and looks at some of their objects of worship. He sees an inscription to an unknown God. He tells them about this God who made the world and everything in it, and that this God created all people so that they might seek him. He says that we need to not think that God is formed by human hands But this God actually has given testimony about himself By raising Jesus Christ from the dead Okay So basically Paul goes in And this is how he engages the culture First of all he observes the culture He observes the culture As we talked about He's making observations. He demonstrates an understanding of people you know he sees that they're educated they're obviously worship an altar to an unknown God he even quotes two prominent Greek poets in demonstrating an understanding of people and then he points to Christ he teaches them about Christ in verse 24 addresses their ignorance without shaming them and he talks about the time that God appointed for people to seek him, and he concludes by talking about the resurrection of Jesus. It is a great passage of scripture in how Paul engages this pagan culture that's mixed with religion. And our culture is. Very much like that today. Very paganist, but mixed with all kinds of spiritual religious views. And so, Paul, he didn't attack culture, but he did redirect it, okay? And so, that's the thing that I see in Paul and how he engaged the culture. And so, as I look at the culture today, if I were to sit back and zoom out a little bit what I see is Christianity misunderstood, church identity blurred and culture shaping belief more than Christ what do you see as you zoom out do you see something different or does it align with what I've said. And then there's the unchurched response to this. And it's a lack of clarity and lack of trust. And so the culture doesn't have clarity in terms of what Christianity is. And so there's a lack of trust. And you have that in just real life. If there's not a lack of clarity about what a product is, then people aren't going to trust the product enough to buy it. And that's why a lot of people aren't buying Christianity today. Because they're not clear about what it is that they're getting So they don't trust it So the question is How do we restore Christ in the culture? Not necessarily Christianity, but Christ How do we restore Christ in culture? Okay? And three ways I would propose That we restore Christ to culture and one is we practice clarity that reasons with people, reasons with people, because Christ and his word defines truth. People need a reason to believe. First Peter chapter 3 15 gives us a great example of how we can share that with people. It says, but in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect. You see the clarity that reasons with people? It says we should be able to reason with people. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone, anyone who asks you, why do you believe in Christ? Why do you have hope in the resurrection? Why do you give your entire self to this following? He says, but do this with gentleness and respect. And I think that's important, that we come across in a way that is gentle, respectful. And you see that in the Apostle Paul when he engaged the Athenians. The second way to restore Christ to culture is showing compassion that stays the course with people. People matter more than arguments, right? Showing compassion that stays the course with people. Man, I'm glad that the guy that reached out to me stayed the course with me. And then moments in my life when I was really struggling with faith, there's people in my life that stayed the course with me. And so, yeah, people matter more than arguments. We shouldn't really get into a lot of these arguments and debates with the people in today's culture. 2 Timothy 2.23 says, don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments because you know they produce quarrels. Yeah. Hey, we all have differences. That's what makes the culture really beautiful because there's so many differences. But do you stay curious about people's differences or do you allow them to create walls between you? And that's a pretty tricky one Because there's so many things that we can differ with people around and about. And sometimes, rather than staying curious about how a person landed with a certain belief or lifestyle, how they land there, we allow those things to create walls. I've allowed those things to create walls. Create a wall between me and that person or those individuals and now I have no testimony. My testimony is flat and that's when I believe that's when foolish and stupid arguments tend to happen. Because we don't stay connected, curious, relatable to people who are different than we are. Does that make sense to you guys? Again, we're talking about restoring Christ to culture. You see that Jesus was that way. He was in the world, not of the world, but he was in the world, and his disciples were in the world. And a third way we can restore Christ to culture is showing conviction that's gentle and direct with people. Standing firm without hostility. You can stand firm without hostility. You can have a belief and a take and a say and a stance on something that's contrary to culture without hostility. 2 Timothy 2.24 And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone and able to teach, not resentful. That's a really great passage. a conviction that's gentle and direct with people, we can stand firm without hostility he says that God's servant must not be quarrelsome, you know some believers they tend to be quarrelsome, with others I kind of struggle with these big platforms where you get in these debates in public with people who don't see it the way you do I don't know, how much kindness can come out of that it says you must be kind to everyone, able to teach. And that spirit of teaching is like a teacher coming along and just showing you something. Because then you have this posture. Have this open posture, okay? This humble open posture, and then people are able to listen to you. But if we are quarrelsome, and we have hostility towards individuals who are different, because the culture, a lot of times people in the culture are different. And it could be a challenge to hear and endure some of the things you hear and see in culture, you can become resentful. And I know I've struggled with being resentful towards the culture and towards people in the culture and that's something that excuse me that I want to continue to grow in having conviction that's gentle and direct with people because you can be gentle I mean you can be direct still do it with gentleness and respect so again we need to practice clarity that reason with people compassion that stays the course with people and conviction that's gentle and direct with people so the goal here isn't to win over culture it's to represent Christ within it so it's not about winning culture necessarily we are primarily trying to impact people hurting people broken people lost people confused people deceived people all people who live in a culture that's loud and noisy. I hope this stuff makes sense to you here as we bring everything together. When Christ, I believe when Christ is truly restored to the center of churches, communities, workplace, and even culture, something magical begins to happen. Indifference turns into curiosity. Disconnection becomes belonging Because people in culture are seeking to belong That's why the noise has got their attention anyway Confusion gives way to clarity. Distrust grows into trust So as we step out of the biblical film room One final time in this series, I want you to take a step back And look at the full picture We're going to take a step back All of us hopefully look at the full picture, We've slowed the tape down And looked at four spaces And if you haven't heard the other three podcasts Please go back and listen to those If you're a new subscriber Hey, please go back and check out the other episodes on this On Restoring Christ to Christianity, I think it would be really helpful for this last one to make sense. So we've slowed the tape down, looked at four spaces, churches, communities, our workplace, and culture. And in each one, we've seen the same pattern. When Christ drifts from the center, people leave the room and something else takes his place. Something else takes center stage. In churches, it becomes performance. Performance and communities. Becomes disconnection. In our work, it becomes confusion about purpose. And in culture, it becomes noise without clarity. But here's the hope. Here's the hope. And this is what I want you to carry with you. Christ has never lost his place. We've just at times lost our focus. I've at times lost my focus. Man, I tell you, this podcast actually helps me refocus. So I'm like, man, if I'm going to be talking about these things, I need to make sure I'm living it out. I mean, that's what it does. It pushes you, challenges you to live out what you're talking about. And, you know, even now, I'm not living out all these things perfectly. But I've got this renewed mindset. And the invitation here that I'm offering is not to rebuild everything from scratch. Okay? It's to return. To return. To bring Christ back to the center of how we gather and how we see people and how we live and work and how we engage the world around us. So before we close this series, here's what I want you, or here's what I want to leave with you. I want to leave you with this. Not just a thought, but a decision. where is Christ drifted from the center in your life. He drifted from the center? Not in theory, but in reality. You think about that. And what would it actually look like, not just to believe in him, or to put your trust in him, but to place him back at the center of everything? Because when Christ is at the center, something begins to change. And as we've already mentioned, indifference turns into hunger, disconnection turns into belonging, confusion gives way to clarity, and distrust begins to heal. Not overnight, not perfectly, but truly, truly. Because the old saying, well, not old saying, but the biblical saying, when the Son sets you free, you're free indeed. So maybe the goal isn't to fix Christianity. Maybe it's simpler than that. Maybe it's to return to Christ again and again. Like, coming back, keep coming back until everything else finds its place around him. Because in the end, Christianity was never meant to be built around systems, personalities, or culture. Yep. It was always meant to be built around a person. His name is Jesus. So I want to close with my signature saying during this episode. Christianity works best when Christ is closest. So thank you for stepping into the biblical film room today, and wherever you go from here, keep them at the center. I really enjoyed this episode, this entire series. Hope to see you next time. Godspeed.
