Redeemed Culture
June 25, 2023 • Ps Matt Carpenter • 1 Peter 2:9, Hosea
In this powerful sermon, Pastor Matt Carpenter emphasizes the importance of building strong families and redeeming culture. He highlights the importance of something worth pursuing beyond the confines of our homes. As believers, the ultimate goal is to witness a transformation in the world and the redemption culture. A redemption that can only be done by God. The emphasis is on God's plan to redeem world culture and establish a Kingdom culture where every culture, regardless of its origin or background, can be redeemed.
As Christians, we are not meant to be escapist but rather to work towards bringing heaven to Earth, bringing God’s kingdom and culture to Earth. We see this in the Lord's Prayer as it serves as a reminder that God's will should be done on Earth as it is in heaven.
We learn that within 1 Peter 2, there is a recipe for cultural change. Peter shows us that in Jesus we have what we are looking for in order to change. In Jesus we have a living hope. Do you have a hope that is alive for your culture, family and community?
We should not lose our hope and faith, regardless of the culture and worldview we are living in. It's sad because when we stray from God, it always produces destruction. We see this in the book of Hosea, which is relevant because the book of Peter is based on the foundation in Hosea. In Hosea marrying a prostitute, God was showing Israel how their unfaithfulness leads to destruction. Which is true even today. We see this illustration of destruction in Hosea’s 3 children of unfaithfulness:
Jezreel: Meaning scattered, spread out.
Where God was saying if you are unfaithful to me then you will be scattered, isolated and alone. Which can be seen in today's generation with a generation that has no true connection.
Lo-ruhamah: Meaning no mercy, no forgiveness.
The product of unfaithfulness is a culture that has no mercy and unforgiveness - a culture that looks to be offended and offensive. This is prevalent in today’s culture on social media where people are always cutting each other down.
Lo-ammi: Meaning not my people.
The greatest gift God ever gave people was His presence. God chose Israel because He is a great God, not because Israel was great. However, nowadays we are losing the identity of being chosen and turning into a consumerist people where it's all about us and our choices.
We have a consumerist culture of people just' trying Jesus out' which is not redeeming but is rather destructive, however, Peter says we have a living hope. All the things that God declared in Hosea, He wants to redeem us from and this redemption starts in the family.
Family and community are important and building into the Kingdom culture, both biologically and spiritually, leads to growth and maturity in both. By investing in culture the right way, we can have an impact on generations to come, transforming scatteredness into a purposeful scattering of seeds meant for planting and sowing.
We must remember that we are chosen by God and 1 Peter 2:9, shows that God has graciously included us in His family and culture, affirming that we belong to Him, we have identity in Him.
So, we have to stop chasing after culture and its things and start realizing that kingdom culture is ours because we belong to God - who knows us and what's best for us.
He has called us to redeem culture, beginning with our families, biologically and spiritually and the only way we can do this is to maintain hope in Jesus, the living hope and the chief cornerstone upon which everything is built.
