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Speaker: Jerry Cisar
This week the Supreme Court of the United States made a historic decision making gay marriage legal in all 50 states, changing a definition that has previously withstood the entirety of human history. No doubt that only further excited the folks gathered for the gay-pride festival here in St. Petersburg today. How are we to respond to these kinds of events?
Based on what many Christians post on social media, most of us are not consistently living according to the wisdom of the cross. Rather we embrace the wisdom of this age as it suits us to engage the battle. I am not going to talk about what is wrong with that decision the Supreme Court made this week, though I probably will in our fall series on building a biblical worldview from the book of Genesis. There is a place for that discussion. But this Sunday’s message, The Cross as a Pattern for Wisdom, is a perfect opportunity to speak about how not to respond and how to respond to what is going on culturally and to any other skirmish that may come our way.
As we culturally engage the world around us, we must not forget that being right (knowledge) is not the only goal. Walking in the wisdom of the cross is always a major goal. The former (being right) puffs up if it is not grounded in the latter (the wisdom of the cross); the latter builds up. The former tries to win a debate, the latter attempts to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. The former often fails to achieve God’s purposes, while the latter always achieves them.