How Cultural Narratives Affect Our Gospel Presentation

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Michael Keller: It has been discussed today, Europe is in a post secular age. And America is secularizing. Both in spaces that are not in a world where there are numerous militant atheistic hostile people to religion.

There was a AP poll, which is an American poll that came out this week that polled 1000 people. And they found that 43% of 18 to 29 year olds associate themselves as individuals that take on no religion. And I heard case earlier today say that for the Dutch, it’s about 60 to 70%. If you go to Japan, it’s 70%. If you go to Italy, actually 80% of Italians say they’re Catholic, but only 20%. Go to church regularly, so you can kind of read it in there as well. But what we’re finding is over and over again, most people are not hostile necessarily, to religion. Instead, as Terry Eagleton, the British literary theorists, says, he says societies become secular, not when they dispense with religion altogether. But when they are no longer especially agitated by it. So in other words, it’s less, you’re wrong and more. So what why should I care? This indifference is birthed from not seeing any religious solution to their problems. God is not relevant to for meaning or for purpose, or to live a full and happy life. And this is actually relatively new. In America, you used to be able to walk a non Christian through something called the four spiritual laws where God was over here, and you’re over here, and the chasm is sin, and you need the cross to bridge the divide. Now, if you try to do that, in America, I’m sure here in the Netherlands, people will say, who’s to say I’m destined for God, from God, who’s to say that I’m sinful, who’s to say, there even is a God and that I’m failing in any kind of particular way. Notice, this is important. This is not somebody failing to understand the Christian message. This is somebody who’s failing to understand the it’s the inability to even understand why they need it in the first place. And so what I want to talk about in this lecture is what’s the way forward, we’ve been talking about the past, we’ve been talking about the present, but what is going to be needed in the future. And so I want to focus on cultural narrative fluency. Again, James, earlier mentioned baseline cultural narratives. And what I’d like to talk about is cultural narrative fluency. If I can get this to work. There we go. The reason Christianity is no longer relevant to large groups of people. And the reason why people are indifferent is because they’re getting their stories. They’re getting their imaginations moved, they’re getting their narratives, from other places in culture. And so before we can even almost present the Christian faith, we’re going to need to address the cultural narratives first. And these narratives are not a coherent story that every single person has. It’s instead a set of non provable assumptions and beliefs about the nature of reality that flows in every culture that’s answering the big questions of life. Everybody has to answer what do I do about death? Everybody has to answer what’s the purpose and meaning of reality, and cultural narratives rise to the level to kind of generally give you those answers. And so we need to have what I want to call cultural narrative fluency. Fake again, if I can get this to work. It’s not working. Maybe it’ll go. Every cultural narrative seek to answer these questions. But outside of the Gospel, the only way that these questions will be answered, is by lifting up and making ultimate something in creation that inevitably will become an idol. Inevitably, we will have to demonize someone or something. And we’ll have to ultimate someone or something in culture to answer those questions. And so our task today is to retell the stories better than than those who believe them and show that they cannot do and fulfill our needs. needs, but ultimately, these narratives can be completed in Christ. And we can only therefore if we’re going to put the gospel into our culture for the next generation, we have to become fluent in cultural narratives around us. So the what’s the problem? The problem is these cultural narratives, I think Tim Keller has not published, to my knowledge, these narratives. But he distilled many of these with the help of Charles Taylor, Robert Bellah. And other various cultural critics. It was Taylor, who noted that the problem is not secular people having the absence of Christian traits, but instead the presence of alternative assumptions. I think this is also a problem for us sitting in this room, because many Christians don’t realize that when they’re presenting Christianity, to an unbeliever, they’re presenting to somebody who’s not a blank slate, but rather somebody who’s deeply holding beliefs and assumptions that they don’t even know they hold, and they need to be inoculated against them are also not going to hear the gospel. At the same time. Christians don’t realize that they themselves have absorbed these cultural narratives alongside their Christian faith, and they’ve intermingled these beliefs all together. If we can go, there we go. The next slide, there we go, thank you. They’ve intermingled these beliefs with their, their Christian belief as well. And so unless we inoculate ourselves and others from these narratives, we will never be able to show the beauties. And the answer that is found in the Gospel. As we organize our lives and our actions around these incomplete, contradictory and hidden stories. Back in 2017, Tim Keller started to catalog these. And I’ve seen them distilled in various lists, and I’ve seen him talk about them, but I don’t think they’ve been published. And so what I want to do is I want to walk through the four most prominent narratives in secular culture, that I think, is not just in America, but also in the Netherlands, we’re going to look at identity, freedom, happiness, and power, identity, freedom, happiness, and power. So first, identity, this story goes like this a long time ago. And back when the world was without civilization, people were free, but civilization brought control. And now that there’s control, you can actually express your inner desires. And so we need to go back to a time when people were noble and authentic, and undepressed. And the way to do that is for you to be able to look inside, to see who you are, get in touch with that, and then express it out to other people. If we just look inside and find our own truth, then we can live authentically. The phrase in America often is something like, you know, you do you I don’t know if that phrase is over here. It’s a Be true to yourself. It’s, you know, you need to find who you really are, and be that this essentially elevates, and makes an idol out of the individual by saying that you must discover and then define, and then express your truest self, regardless of what anyone else might say to you. Every other culture ever, anywhere has always said that inside of you is opinion, inside of you is the passions. Right? This is Aristotle, this is Confucius, this is Buddha, this is Plato, all civilizations have said the passions are internal. And so you shouldn’t look in there. Instead, you should go on the outside to find reality. Find what people expect about you, and get yourself in line with those expectations. And if you do that, then you’ll live a good life. What modern culture has done is they flip that now. And now outside is opinion, that’s everybody else’s opinion.

But on the inside is truth. In fact, you say okay, where do you find that? Well, it’s everywhere. In the straight to DVD classic Cinderella to dreams come true. There is a song titled follow your heart. The first and it says this, who’s to say the rules must stay the same forevermore. Whoever made them had to change the rules that came before it. So make your own way. Show the beauty within. When you follow your heart. There’s no hearts you can’t win. Some of you will say, Mike that straight to DVD, nobody lists even do even do DVDs anymore. Well, fine. How about this Disney movie Mallanna lawanna, major Disney movie, first song. In that song it says, Remember, you may hear a voice inside. And if that voice starts to whisper, to follow the farthest star, marijuana, that voice inside is who you are. Same thing, Mark Lilla, in his book The Once and Future liberal, points out that today identity is about three things look inside, declare what you find in their good, and then get everyone else outside in society to agree with you. Ironically, modern culture thought that if we did this, it would solve problems. To summarize, Montaigne, who famous humanists, French philosopher, he looked around in the 1500s, and saw his country torn apart by Catholic and Protestant religious wars. And he thought, if we just had eminent contentment on the inside, then everybody would not fight with each other. And this has led now to this hundreds of years later, this identity creation by looking on the inside, and yet the problem is, we still fight with each other, because we still need people from the outside to affirm who I am. We need people from the outside to say, This is who you are, we need that recognition and that valid validation of our identities. And so we’re actually not any better off when it comes to the fighting, and it’s increasing, not decreasing. Now, we’re actually more fragile than before, because now if you don’t achieve your identity, you’re at fault, because it was your job to look inside. And to get other people to agree with you. It’s your fault for not following your heart and, and discovering and defending your identity. And so what before we move on, I want to ask you all, where might you be trying to get your identity, either through traditional culture, because you’re trying to live in line with somebody else’s expectations, or the modern cultural way, which is looking on on the inside? There are many problems with this identity creation module, this narrative or storyline, let me try to go through a couple. First problem is it’s deeply incoherent, it’s deeply incoherent. Because if your identity is discovered on the inside, which version of you is the real you on the inside? I was flipping through TV a couple years ago. And there was a 13 year old boy who wanted to have a sex change on a program with with his mother. And everybody was for this except the mother, who was saying, wait a second, is this, what he really wants? And the boy and all the people were saying? Of course it is. And yet she was saying, Yes, he might want it now. But is this what he’s going to really want? Later? Right now, at the moment, our culture believes that in regards to your own self conception, that’s going to be static, that you’re not going to change. And yet there’s lots of stories of people who do change their mind. Later on. Culture assumes that we won’t though. But we have to ask where are our real feelings? To be more trite, right now? I like peanut butter brownies. You guys have you have brownies? And okay, good. I love peanut butter brownies. I also want to have low cholesterol and be healthy. Which version of me is the real me? Usually late at night? It’s the brownies. And in the morning? It’s the healthy me but who’s me? They’re both me. Well, which one gets to win? Well, there’s yes, they’re both there. And even though there’s contradictory feelings are there. Which one is the truest me is the one that feels the most at any given time? That doesn’t seem necessarily the best way to answer the question, because that’s going to change too. What evidence do we have, that your feelings at the deepest level are any less contradictory than the ones that I just listed on the surface? It can’t be the strongest ones, because our hearts are inconsistent, and they’re unstable. And there’s multiple versions of them. And so the first problem with this is that it’s inconsistent and incoherent. Secondly, modern day and these are two morally shallow. In America, there is a big summer blockbuster Barbie, which is about a Mattel doll that comes to life. And the first 13 minutes of this movie is basically Barbie and Barbie land, having a great time. And she’s dressing the way she wants, and she’s looking the way that she wants. And everybody is having a good time. And they 13 minutes in, they’re having the scene where there is a party, and everybody’s saying, you look great, we feel great. This is wonderful, the music’s going, and then the camera focuses on Barbie’s face. And she says, Does anybody here think about death? And all of a sudden the music goes and stops in everybody’s face. And there’s just silence, which I love that scene because that’s exactly what goes on in modern culture. Nobody has the answer to that question. Nobody wants to talk about that question. Nobody’s wants to even ask it. You can’t ask it at a party. When everything’s going great. Does anybody think about death? Silence? That shows me, I think hopefully, it shows you that reality breaks in to all this identity creation and entertainment and fun. Because nobody has an answer for death, it always stops the music. Our culture does not more morally prepare people to handle the big questions in life anymore. It’s too morally shallow. It tries to ignore those questions. And it leads to actually more suffering by individuals. Thirdly, modern identity is dishonest about how we create it. culture says just simply look on the inside, and that’s who you are. Juana says that’s who you are. But that’s dishonest. Tim Keller explained this a couple years ago, with his great illustration. He said this. He said, Imagine 1000 years ago, there’s a Viking warrior. And he has these feelings inside of him to pillage and plunder other towns. And he has this feeling and Viking culture says to him, that’s exactly who you are. That’s your identity. That’s what it means to be Viking. And yet inside of him at the same time, is a feeling for Hans and not Olga. He likes his another man, not the woman that he’s Botros to Viking culture 1000 years ago, I would say, That’s not who you are. Fast forward to today, same exact feelings. If somebody has a feeling to pillage and plunder another town, you’re going to be told to go to anger management, that’s not who you are, that’s not okay to have that feeling. And yet, if you have feelings for somebody of the same sex, that’s okay, that’s who you are. And so what’s happening is the exact same feelings, but the moral grid has changed. And that’s why I think it’s dishonest. Because you’re reading your feelings through a particular fallen social and historical grid. And we’re not being honest, the fact that in 100 years, that grid is going to change. In 100 years, we will have a different set of expectations, and moralities, to read our feelings through. So it’s dishonest to say just look on the inside because you have the same feelings, and yet what’s validated and what’s invalidated by culture is different. So if you’re a Christian, you need this ask yourself, am I going to read my identity? Through what culture today says is okay? But tomorrow won’t? Or will I put myself under the authority of the Eternal Word of God? will I will I actually say I know Christ is crucified for me. And I’m gonna live it or do I say that on the surface in my head, but I don’t with my heart because I’m really secretly inside this cultural narrative.

The Christian identity is not I feel better, to and to feel better, I’m going to get a boost by thinking about God and loving God. know if God has something to just add to your life, it doesn’t work. That won’t change your life. Because the gospel narrative, if assume works, there we go. Too far. As put my hand over here, it works. Maybe going back there we go. Real Christian identity is that is this. God loves me because he loves me because he loves me. And because God loves me through what Jesus did as he died for me. I can be a son and daughter of the Most High God. Where might we be frustrated today, or hurt or upset because unknowingly we’ve bought into our culture’s view of identity. And we’re not actually living out our real identity. See, this doesn’t just apply out there applies in here with within ourselves as well. All right, if we come over here it works. Second, cultural narrative, freedom. The second Western cultural narrative, and these are huge ideas, is the narrative of freedom. The key idea of this theme is this. To be free means to have the right to live as I want. As long as I don’t harm anybody else, that nobody else has the right to tell me who I am. Nobody else has the right to tell you what’s right and wrong for you only you have that right. In this view, freedom in the western view is just the absence of restrictions. It’s just the absence of restrictions. It’s the absence of restrictions on our options, and on our choices. The narrative has a number of problems, I’ll go through some of them. First, if the definition of freedom is the absence of restrictions, well, nobody gets to tell you what to do with your life, then you ultimately can’t have love and commitment in your life. Because love and commitment, the fundamental tenant of love and commitment is binding yourself to someone else, that you love somebody by doing this, I’m not going to stay with you. Just because of what you do. For me, that’s, that’s a consumer relationship. Real love and commitment is I’m going to stay with you because I love you, because I’m committed to you. Literally, it’s giving up your freedom in the service of someone else. And all love is like this paternal love, maternal love, romantic love. All Love binds myself to another beyond the consumer value of that relationship. And by definition definition, only works by giving up our independence. So to have real true freedom, ultimate freedom, that means you can’t actually have love because love means serving someone else. Many jilted lovers will speak about this tension, they’ll say, I love you. But I don’t want to be bound to you. And since I don’t want to be bound to you, I made me I guess, I guess, I don’t really fully love you. There are many reasons for the rise of loneliness in America in Europe. One of the reasons though, is I think it’s this tension with freedom. Because we don’t want any commitments. These phones are lovely devices, to be in touch with each other. They’re also great devices, to cut off relationship with each other, because I just don’t have to respond. Or I can block or I can notify, we’ve made our technology we’ve made ourselves be able to easily get in relationships that are thin, but also get out of relationships as quickly as possible. Because we want freedom. And so this definition undermines relationships, commitments, loves, and ultimately therefore community. And therefore, the modern definition of freedom has to truncated to allow for love. John Stott once said this, he said, True freedom is to be loving, and love is self giving. In order to then to be free, I have to actually give up my freedom for love. Number two, the second problem with this narrative is in this ethic, it has this idea that you can only be free if you do no harm. The problem with that ethic, as simple as it is, is it does it’s too simple. It doesn’t work whose definition of of harm, says it sounds great on the surface. But then the minute that you come up with a problem, there’s gonna be disagreement, you actually end up smuggling in somebody else’s morals and values to get your answer. So France France instance, for example. Some in society say that if we tax more people will have more freedom for other people, if we tax more people, other people say no, no, if we if we decrease taxes, people can have more money, then they can have more freedom, because they have more of their money. Literally, this is a debate that goes on all the time. In fact, almost every policy in government right now tends to say center on what’s going to bring the most amount of freedom and the least amount of harm. And the reason why we’re even have the debates is because people disagree on what those things will be. And so it doesn’t actually work, do no harm as a principle sounds good. But the minute you push on the principle it pops. Because it, it’s too simple that there isn’t, there’s nothing underneath of it. We must therefore inoculate ourselves, to show others that real freedom is not the absence of restrictions. It’s the presence of the right boundaries. And everybody knows this. We’re been listening to great music, hear this during this conference, to be able to become good enough at the piano or any musical device, what do you have to do, you have to give up some of your freedoms, freedom to do whatever you want to bind yourself to practice, which is hard. But if you do that enough, you should get a new freedom, which is the ability to play music. Therefore, real freedom is not the absence of all restrictions. Real freedom is binding yourself to the right set of restrictions. And that gives you that freedom. In other words, to practice or to eat, right, or to have any kind of discipline, you have to give up your freedom of time to get better freedoms. In the same way, this is a fish. Another analogy of this, a fish is only really free. If it stays inside a fishbowl inside it’s right restrictions. If a fish says one day, I’m out of here and just jumps out of the fishbowl you can insert saying like Braveheart freedom, that fish isn’t gonna be very free for very long because it’s outside of it proper bounds of how it was created. So what is that? At the end the day that I believe that means? If there’s no God, and life is really chaos, then you’re right, actually, you should just choose your own adventure and freedom is do whatever you want. But if we are made by God, and God is a triune, God and therefore, inherently, at the center of God is relationship then we are made for relationships. And if we’re ready for relationships, there’s a proper way to actually formed those relationships, in love, in commitment in community. theologically, the core of Christianity is a man who gives up his freedom, to love and make a commitment to us. And therefore when we put ourselves in his love, we make commitments not just to him but to other people. Sometimes at my church, I tell people, I say the core of Christianity is a man who dies for his enemies. Which means if you really put him at the core of who you are, you will die for your enemies, too, you will bind yourself to them, you will lose your freedom, but it will bring a greater freedom.

All right, third, over here. Nope, over there. Over here, there we go. Third, cultural narrative, happiness. The third major second narrative out there is happiness. Secular Society says this, in the end, you have to just do what feels right. You have to do what makes you happy. Right, the purpose and meaning of the world is to be happy. And since the main human life is only lived in this physical reality, therefore happiness can only be gotten through the material and physical world. And so the highest good, the highest comfort is in prosperity in the good life has to be found in the physical, the material, and therefore the consumer mindset. Our sexual revolution that’s happened in the past couple of decades, and the explosive growth of consumer capitalism is fueled by this view. He say, how did we get here? Well, when this world is only material, and nothing else exists after life, this is all there is. This is therefore the meaning the highest goal is individual material happiness. people define this differently. Colin was telling me about his Uber driver to find it through sexual relationships. There are a lot of Americans, it’s whose it’s the house is bigger than the other person’s house, is leads to more happiness there are, I’m sure there’s a Dutch version of what material physical happiness looks like. And the goal was to live that out. What’s wrong with this narrative? Well, first and ironically, if happiness is physical and material, it is I think it’s interesting that the only way you you can find contentment is in something That is physical material, but that means it can be taken away. Jonathan Hite in his book, The Happiness hypothesis says this, he says all material things will either fail you, which some products are designed to fail you. So you have to buy another one or one day you will fail it, you will no longer be there anymore for that product, which means that life will be lived trying to achieve that material view of happiness and either a we will fail to achieve it be we will achieve it. But over time it will be taken away from us, or C, you will get it. But once you get it, it won’t be enough. It doesn’t give the satisfaction that you want. This is actually one of my favorite things to do is to read biographies of very famous people. And they’re always they more or less say the same thing. I finished a couple years ago a biography by Brad Pitt. And he was saying I was struggling, I was trying to make it. I made it. I got to the top and there’s nothing there. And they generally say the same thing. Michael Jordan was like I became the most accomplished basketball player. And when asked the question, you’ve you’ve done everything in life, what else would you want to do, and he said, I wish I was a little bit better. Like it’s not enough, there’s always more needed, most of us will never achieve the goals that we think we need for happiness. But if you do, just give it some time, and suffering will take it away. Just give it some time. And either you will leave it or it will leave you if it’s in someone, either they will die, or you will die. It’s gonna happen, you will leave or they will leave you. And so this narrative has this major problem, which is the material doesn’t last. Secondly, the narrative, I think makes the world a worse place. Because think about it, if everybody lived this way. Imagine if billions of people are living for their individual happiness, that’s going to make a pretty terrible place to live. Because everybody is trying to ultimately make themselves happy. And when your happiness is more important than anybody else’s happiness, what do you think happens? Well, what happens when my happiness means by definition, you don’t get happiness, I have to take for myself. And by doing so you lose out. It’s a doggy dog world, in a fully physical and only material world. So what do we do? If I can get this to change? Yeah, push it hard. All right. What happens when my life choices to make me happy, actually make my life worse. What happens when my whole life, purpose and meaning is to get happiness, and yet I lose that happiness? I think it creates, I think it creates people who are leaving this world and yet are making the world a worse place. And they’re feeling worse about it. Christianity is very different. It says happiness can’t be something created. It has to be a contentment and joy that is given. I think I’ve heard it said it’s not something you achieve. It has to be something that’s received. Happiness has to be the byproduct of joy and joy has to be contentment and contentment has to be rest and rest has to be brought into your life by sitting inside the identity of knowing what’s been done for you. In the person of Jesus. All right, last cultural narrative. It is. See, this is this is trying to help me on my happiness. Technical difficulties. Yeah, see, I’m not trying to get my identity through my clicker ability. Last, cultural narrative power, the cultural narrative of power. This is might be one of the newer ones that is becoming prevalent, but it actually is one of the older ones. From a philosophical point of view. The idea is that all of life, all of culture, politics, religion, law, education, it’s really about who wields power. Nietzsche, in his book, The world of power says, the world itself is the will to power and nothing else, and you yourself are the will to power and nothing else. This belief sees all moral claims all religious claims, all truth claims at the bottom. It’s really just people trying to exercise power over other people. When people are trying to control other people, that’s what it’s only about. And the only way forward then is the unmask these power plays, to take power away from the brokers of power, and give it to people who previously did not have power. And again, this is an idea. But this is also a narrative. This is a story. This is in our books and culture. This is something that moves people and their imaginations and say, Oh, yes, this is it. And in this particular view, the problem is that people with power are keeping it from the people without power, and we need to disempower the powerful, and give it to the non powerful, so they can become powerful. There was a lot of problems with this one as well. I was trying to name a few. The first one, I think the most obvious one is this, it’s if everything reduces the power, then even that statement, that everything is about power is really about power to and we shouldn’t believe it. The people who say that statement, everything’s about power within that’s just them trying to push their power on you. Why should I? Why should we believe that one? Also, if if somebody has enough power, to disempower the powerful? Well, that means they’re actually the powerful ones, which means they should be disempowered. The minute you get it, you should give it up. And in other words, it’s contradictory at its essence, if the core of life is that truth is relative, then the say that phrase means I don’t have to listen to it. Because that means that’s relative to

the, this is in lots This isn’t. I have so many examples, but we’re running out of time. I’ll give you so that’s the main problem. It’s it’s incoherent and self contradictory. Number two, if everything is about power, then there’s no way forward. In regards to different views of people. You can’t actually live ironically, in a secular culture that has different groups of people. Because there, there’s no way to do arguments, there’s no way to mitigate difference. There’s no way to say let’s come to an agreement here because everything is just about the other person pushing their power. So basically nullifies the ability to have forgiveness or peace, because everything’s a power play. Justice then is actually performative. It’s just, it’s something we do to look good. But really, it’s about power. And the future then is about fighting. Thirdly, it dominates this view dominates, because there’s no need to discuss. In fact, this is why you just get shouting matches where how can I just yell it down the other person, because there’s no point in having a conversation with you. If it’s just my view versus your view, Christianity, the core of Christianity is opposite. It doesn’t ignore power. By the way, Christianity doesn’t say there, there is no power. Instead, it says that the core of life is God who has all the power. And the way he wields that power as he gives up his power, he dies on the cross. And so he wields the power in a very particular way that serves others in a way that actually changes them, and moves them as he gives up power and serves them. When we put ourselves inside of him, we will do the same. And if we do that, that changes the world, it doesn’t ignore power. It doesn’t. It doesn’t abuse it, it uses it in its proper place. So last slide. So want to do this anymore. If I can do the recap. Where did we go? We talked about four main secular assumptions about reality, there’s more, but we only looked at four in regards to individual identity, freedom from happiness to and power over. And these are everywhere. They’re in our, our Disney movies, they’re in Netflix, they’re in our books, they’re, they’re on all of our branding. I think Sprite, it was, you know, just do I mean, it’s, there’s such simple phrases that we say, oh, yeah, of course. And they’re all around us. And they, they lead people to say, Christianity, well, there’s no need to be hostile to Christianity. What’s the point of Christianity? Why, let me show you how these four themes can interrelate like this, because we know our purpose in life is to be happy. By choosing our own identities by looking within by being free to make our own choices. As long as they don’t harm any other people. I’m going to use my power in a way that makes me free. Those all interrelate. That’s just I just came up with that up here. But there’s a lot of different ways those things can mitigate and move into each other. There’s a lot out there They’re like a web. They’re not a single nobody has a singular line that they fully base their life on to. But there’s a web of these narratives that move our imaginations that lead our individuals to not even see the need for for Christianity. So what do we do? Let me give you a couple starter applications. Number one, we need to inoculate ourselves, we need to first start with ourselves and say where have we actually unknowingly absorbed these narratives, wherever we made them idols in our lives, where we elevated them and made them too important to us. And we think that we will only be fulfilled if we’re happy that we think that if only we do what’s right, and don’t don’t harm other people, instead of basing our life on the moral grid of, of the Bible, versus the moral grid that we’ve absorbed in our culture. So number one, is we need to inoculate ourselves. Number two, we need to help other people to inoculate themselves from the stories and the and the problems with the stories because they’re too shallow. They’re too contradictory. They’re unable to deliver what we need to be fulfilled as humans. Thirdly, we need to come up with counter narratives. It’s not good enough just to say no, no, no, because we’re not offering a counter narrative. I have a 12 and 10 year old. And so sometimes when we’re watching cartoons, they’ll inevitably the cartoon will say, we’ll just look inside and follow your heart. And I’ll say, girls, and they roll their eyes and they go, don’t follow your heart, because sometimes your heart leads you to do bad things. And I said, Yes. And they roll their eyes, they’re not happy. But I’m like, I know, they’ve been inoculated against that idea. And then I say, yes. But the counter narrative is, despite our flawed hearts, you’re still loved. Mommy and Daddy still love you. And the Lord of all creation loves you anyway, as a counter narrative, because it ends up saying that you can, you’re gonna be able to get your happiness, you’re gonna get your identity, you’re gonna get your freedom, you’re gonna get your power in him. And we need to tell them in beautiful ways, we need to tell them these these things in ways that they say, Oh, that completes my life and my story better than these other narratives. For instance, if we want an identity, that’s good, we need to see that there’s nothing more good than to be a son or daughter of the Most High God. If we want just power systems, we need to see the only way that can happen is Jesus losing his power to empower us? If we want freedom from oppression, and evil and violence, so many people, there’s such a cultural desire for that. And Christians need to say, no, not bad, bad, bad, but rather, that’s right, we want that too. And we have a we have a narrative and story that completes it and brings it out the most in Jesus, you can only have that, because of what he did. You can only have a system of reconciliation, who gave his because he gave his power away. And I think that will truly bring us together. Each theme can be redirected to the gospel, and needs to be because the gospel is delight, you can delight in Him because He first delighted in you, obtaining your salvation for his for his own joy. If we’re able to do this, if we can live out this joy, I think this narrative becomes a transformative narrative for other individuals. If you see the God of the universe, and the person of Jesus, making you His joy, his joy in you, and making you the ultimate beauty of his life, you’ll be able to put your joy into him and you’ll be able to be a joy for other people out in the world. And our imaginations will be moved more by this narrative than by the other narratives out there. Only does Christianity and the person of Jesus complete the secular themes, and gives us what everyone is truly looking for. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for just the ability to look at our culture and all these desires. And stories that are actually partial truths. There’s real desires for love and acceptance, and identity and freedom and power. And these are real and we don’t notify them. We see how only in you are these stories completed help us to a knock inoculate ourselves to create protections against the partial stories that are incomplete and leading to frustration and brokenness and heartache. But help us to see the completeness in you and help us to retell the stories better for the world. Replace things in your name. Amen