Kevin loo - The Culture Conversation - II

ROMANS 12:1-2 (MSG)

One of the fundamental things I shared with all of us last week was this:

CULTURE

Practiced collectively

HABITS

Determine​Carried out consistently​Displays

BEHAVIORS

Put into action practically

VALUES

What we repeatedly do is called habits. But what a group of people repeated do is called culture.

Whether we like it or not, culture exists. And we are surrounded by various cultures all the time.

WHAT is culture?

It is the self-sustaining pattern of behavior that determines how things are done.

It is the collective and consistent behavior of a community.

Let’s look at some of the negative cultures in our society today.

i) The culture of materialism

ii) The cult of individualism

iii) The urge of instant gratification and escapism

As you can see, having a culture is not optional. Being intentional about creating it, is. And sometimes it is not just what we create but also what we tolerate.

WHY IS THIS CULTURE CONVERSATION SO IMPPORTANT?

i. Because there are cultures we want to eliminate…

Fear is one of them. And we want to eliminate fear; fear of trying, fear of speaking up, fear of failure or fear of authority.

The abuse of honor.

ii. Because there are cultures we want to maintain…

Some of the very positive culture that we want to maintain is our sense of creativity and excellence.

iii. Because there are cultures we want to cultivate…

Some good cultures that we never had and we would love to cultivate… like sustainability both in our health and our work.

WHY IS CULTURE IMPORTANT?

It is quite simply because we have a goal in mind.

V2

The end game for all of us as believers is the development of a well-formed maturity in us.

In the Amplified Bible it says “be transformed and progressively changed by the renewing of your mind… to completion and perfection!”

Matthew 22:37

Jesus sums that goal with these two commandments. As a church, we expressed it in:

LOVE GOD, THINK OTHERS

You don’t fail because you have a goal. You fail because all you have is a goal.

We are putting so much effort in creating the culture we want because we know culture is influential, it is the “HOW” and it transcends generation.

Culture is the self-sustaining pattern of behavior that determines how we do things.

WE SHAPE CULTURE AND CULTURE SHAPES US

HOW DO WE CULTIVATE A CULTURE?

Today, let me introduce to you our first value:

God-centeredness
CHRIST AT THE CORE
GO TO THE BIG GUY

This is the foundation of our lives. Everything that we aspire to do in life springs forth from Christ at the core of our being.

An idol is someone I need to seek its permission first
before saying yes to God.

All of us know this very well. But the question is never how well you know isn’t it?

It is how well we have been practicing it in our lives.

The value may not be something new. But that is not the point. The point is, how effective have we been?