WEIRD: Because Normal isn’t working
Romans 12:2 “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Matthew 7:13-14. ““Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
If you want what normal people have, do what normal people do. But if you want what few people have, do what few people do.
Normal (Oxford): conforming to a standard; usual, typical, expected
What is normal? (What most people do)
Divorce rate
Average marriage
Debt
Check to Check
$1,000 emergency
Depression/Anxiety
Lack of Margin in all things
Addictions
Alcohol
Pornography
Forms of entertainment
Gambling
Rushed
Overwhelmed
Relational Tension
Living without direction
Don’t THINK like normal people THINK.
Romans 12:2 NLT “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Romans 12:2 MSG. “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Don’t LIVE like normal people LIVE.
1 Peter 2:11-12. “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.”
Stop following culture
Culture’s way isn’t working…
Find and live God’s way - Kingdom citizens
If you want what normal people have, do what normal people do. But if you want what few people have, do what few people do.
John 14:6 “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”