How to Engage Culture and Swim Against It

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2015

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As you swim in the culture, be a dolphin that cuts through the currents, not a jellyfish that goes with the flow.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We close out the week on the Ask Pastor John podcast with a question from a female listener
0:09.1	who writes in and asks this, good morning Pastor John, I'm reading your powerful book,
0:14.4	Don't Waste Your Life. In Chapter 7, living to prove he is more precious than life,
0:20.9	under the section titled, consumed with clothes, you write this, quote,
0:25.3	my plea is that you be more like a dolphin and less like a jellyfish in the sea of fashion
0:31.7	and of contra fashion, which is just as tyrannizing, end quote. Could you explain more of what you
0:38.7	are saying in this sentence? Thank you Pastor John. Well, let's do it in two parts. The dolphin part
0:46.3	and the fashion contra fashion part. First, I love the dolphin jellyfish analogy. The assumption
0:56.8	is that oceans of culture have very powerful tides and these cultural tides almost always pull us
1:08.3	away from deep allegiance to Jesus. So if you're going to swim in the cultural oceans and be a
1:17.9	Christian, you better be a dolphin, not a jellyfish because a jellyfish goes with the flow and dolphins
1:24.6	can cut through the tidal currents and swim toward the truth and swim toward holiness and toward
1:32.0	heaven in spite of cultural tides. And of course, there's no if about it. Like if we're going to
1:37.6	live in these cultural tides, no, there's no if about it. We don't have any choice. We do swim
1:44.5	in the cultural oceans of this planet to be alive is to be in a culture shaped by the world.
1:54.8	So Jesus prayed in John 17, 15, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you
2:00.7	keep them from the evil ones. So he was very aware. My disciples are stuck there and they need
2:07.5	help. They need protection. They need to be able to swim like like a dolphin. The New Testament calls
2:14.8	us to dolphin like counter cultural efforts over and over again. Here are a few examples. Romans 12
2:22.0	too. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Ephesians 4
2:27.3	17, you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. James 4 4,
2:34.8	do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be
	...

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