Called To Be Different
Jeff Ecklund
Psalm 119:19
This message is about challenging believers that they are created unique, to not conform to culture, but to transform culture. Culture exerts a tremendous pressure to "fit in" and gives encouragement to "dare to be different".
Have you ever struggled to fit in? Especially as a kid growing up?
I did…I remember when seafarers were big and I didn't have a pair…Practically begged my mom to buy me a pair…(and now they are back in style!).
Mom used to be my barber as well….only cut she knew was a buzz cut…which was totally out of style…long hair was coming in. I remember she tried…got about half way and just buzzed it again. Never had my mom cut my hair again…did chores, paid for my own haircuts…Wanted to fit in.
Young people cave in to peer pressure to fit in, to be accepted and it leaves scars and drags people down pathways designed to destroy them.
Yet the bible calls us strangers…have you ever been to another country where you stand out? (In the Philippines Robie was a tall blonde)
Psalm 119:19 (NKJV)
19I am a stranger in the earth; Do not hide Your commandments from me.
Hebrews 11:13 (ESV)
13These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
1 Peter 1:17 (NASB95)
17If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;
Peter also writes that "you are a chosen people…who have been called out of darkness into the light"…
If we are followers of Christ, we are strangers…Not "strange"…you don't have to wear your hair weird, not any makeup or some outward appearance that announces to the world you are different…Because the difference is inside.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
2 ...
Jeff Ecklund
Psalm 119:19
This message is about challenging believers that they are created unique, to not conform to culture, but to transform culture. Culture exerts a tremendous pressure to "fit in" and gives encouragement to "dare to be different".
Have you ever struggled to fit in? Especially as a kid growing up?
I did…I remember when seafarers were big and I didn't have a pair…Practically begged my mom to buy me a pair…(and now they are back in style!).
Mom used to be my barber as well….only cut she knew was a buzz cut…which was totally out of style…long hair was coming in. I remember she tried…got about half way and just buzzed it again. Never had my mom cut my hair again…did chores, paid for my own haircuts…Wanted to fit in.
Young people cave in to peer pressure to fit in, to be accepted and it leaves scars and drags people down pathways designed to destroy them.
Yet the bible calls us strangers…have you ever been to another country where you stand out? (In the Philippines Robie was a tall blonde)
Psalm 119:19 (NKJV)
19I am a stranger in the earth; Do not hide Your commandments from me.
Hebrews 11:13 (ESV)
13These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
1 Peter 1:17 (NASB95)
17If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;
Peter also writes that "you are a chosen people…who have been called out of darkness into the light"…
If we are followers of Christ, we are strangers…Not "strange"…you don't have to wear your hair weird, not any makeup or some outward appearance that announces to the world you are different…Because the difference is inside.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
2 ...
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