Evangelist Billy Graham was on the cutting edge of our culture for more than half a century. Thousands of people, including my own mother, came to faith in Christ after attending one of his conferences, reading one of his books, or watching him on television. He served as spiritual adviser to presidents and prime ministers, and without ever wavering—but always with wisdom and grace—addressed the social and moral issues of his day.
As far back as 1965, Graham hit upon a persistent problem confronting our culture. In World Aflame, he wrote:
In a declining culture, one of its characteristics is that ordinary people are unaware of what is happening. . . . Modern man has become a spectator of world events, observing on his television screen without becoming involved. He watches the ominous events while he sips his beer in a comfortable chair. He does not understand that his world is on fire and that he is about to be burned with it.1
That was me in the early part of my ministry. Although I was not sipping beer, I came home every day, sat in my comfortable chair, watched the news, and thought about how tragic the world was becoming. I reasoned that as long as I faithfully preached God’s Word every Sunday, the fire that was consuming the world would not consume me or the congregation I served.
I soon found out how foolish I was.
In 1998, a member of my church who worked for our local public library brought two books to my attention—books promoting the homosexual lifestyle to children. Told from a child’s point of view, Daddy’s Roommate and Heather Has Two Mommies extolled the virtues of homosexuality and a family structure radically different than the one created by God and celebrated by the general culture. Daddy’s Roommate had an illustration of a little boy’s father in bed with another man as the boy explains that his father and his father’s new roommate enjoyed “sleeping together.”
“Pastor, what are you going to do about this?” my church member asked me.
Coincidentally, the sermon I was preparing for the next Sunday was on God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. On Thursday afternoon, I had already written my message and was going to press this point to the congregation: “We cannot afford to condone what God has condemned.” Then it hit me—almost with as much force as the fire and brimstone that had rained down on those two wicked cities: Robert, are you condoning what God has condemned by your reluctance to speak out?
I initially determined not to make too big a stink about the books. I simply called the head librarian on my way home that Thursday afternoon and asked her to remove the books. I politely explained to her that the behavior promoted in these books (sodomy) was illegal in our state (though that has since changed), that the three major world religions all condemned such behavior, and that homosexual acts were largely responsible for the epidemic of the deadly disease AIDS. She listened quietly and then let me know in no uncertain terms that she would not be removing the books. The following Sunday I held up the books in the pulpit, explained my objection to them, and informed my congregation and television audience that I was not going to return the books to the library.
Thus began a two-year-long controversy that involved the local newspaper calling for my arrest and incarceration and a federal lawsuit against our city. Letters to the editor in our local newspaper were filled with denunciation. PBS even filmed a documentary on the dispute called The Fundamental Fight.
I am aware of Paul’s admonition in Romans 12:18: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” But that experience in 1998 was my awakening to the fact that it is impossible to be at peace with a culture that is at odds with God. Those men and women who want to experience a truly significant life must be willing to confront their culture with God’s truth.
Caring for Our Culture
We cannot afford to be unaware and uncaring about what is happening in our culture. From the beginning, God commanded Adam to cultivate and care for the world in which God had placed him. Genesis 2:15 tells us, “The LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.”
This is a basic principle that many Christians have forgotten: God cares about what happens in His world. God’s interests are not confined to the church but extend throughout all His creation.
Simply put, “culture is what human beings make of the world.”2 And in many ways, we have made the world a better place—certainly in transportation, communication, and medicine. Walking is good, but not if you have to get across town to buy groceries. Driving a car is better for that. Writing letters is good. But if you need a quick answer to help solve a business problem, then an email or phone call is preferable. And who would trade laser surgery for a sharp knife (and no anesthesia) from one hundred years ago?
Yet all our advances in technology have not stemmed the moral unraveling of our culture. On this front, we have made a mess of the world. No one can deny that our culture has deteriorated rapidly in the last one hundred years—especially in our own country.
While America was once a nation living under the Judeo-Christian ethic, we are now a nation living under the secular ideology of postmodernism and relativism. And we see the end results of these ideologies splashed on the front pages of our newspapers, in the lead stories of our television news, and in the headlines of our social media.
And like Elijah, whom God raised up in Israel’s decaying culture, so God has placed us in our decaying culture to cultivate moral and spiritual goodness. As Paul reminded the Ephesian believers, “We are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). The word translated “workmanship” in this verse is poieme, from which we get our word “poem.” At the moment of salvation, God creates a new work in us and we become God’s masterpiece.
God does not write His poem in our lives for us to simply sit on a shelf. Rather, He composes our lives so that others might read His poem when they come into contact with us. The operative word is contact. If we are going to cultivate our culture with goodness, then we must penetrate our culture—as Elijah did—rather than isolate ourselves from it. (More about that later.) But first, we need to expand our understanding of the word culture.
Cultivating Our Culture
When people hear about the culture, they usually think about the national culture created in Hollywood, New York, or Washington, DC, and they become discouraged because there is little they can do to change it. But culture is not just national in scope; it is also local, made up of small communities and local activities. God is not expecting you to change Washington, DC, or Hollywood, except perhaps by voting with a ballot or your pocketbook. However, God is calling you to work for change in the areas in which you do have influence.
For example, if you are a stay-at-home mother with young children, you have a wonderful opportunity (and responsibility) to shape the culture of your home. In the Old Testament, Hannah prayed for years to have a son, promising God that she would dedicate him to the Lord’s service if He granted her petition. After she gave birth to Samuel, she raised her boy to know the Lord. When she turned Samuel over to the care of Eli, God’s priest, the Lord blessed Samuel and made him a great prophet and judge in Israel.
If you are a student, you have an opportunity to change the culture of your school—or at least your corner of it. When I was in junior high, a Christian teacher asked me to meet with her after school one day. She said, “Robert, have you ever thought that God has placed you here in this school for one reason—to be a witness for Christ to your other classmates?” Honestly, the thought had never crossed my mind! She continued, “I challenge you to make a list of five of your classmates who aren’t Christians, begin to pray daily for their salvation, and sometime during the year share the gospel with them.” For some reason, I decided to accept her challenge.
The first guy on my list was a boy named Nick. He was what we used to call a “hood.” Nick looked and talked like someone from the cast of West Side Story. He was a tough guy whom most students were afraid of. But one day, I worked up the courage to ask Nick if I could talk with him after school. For whatever reason, he agreed.
We met in an empty classroom, and I shared with him the fact that God loved him and wanted to have a relationship with him. I explained who Jesus was and the forgiveness of sins He offered. Finally, I closed by saying, “Nick, is there any reason you wouldn’t like to trust in Christ right now?” “No, there really isn’t. I’d like to do that,” he said. And so, that fall afternoon, Nick became a Christian and the first person I ever led to Christ. Neither he nor I had any idea that Nick had a brain tumor that would take his life within nine months. That year I saw all five of my classmates on my list become Christians—including one girl who later became my wife!
I will be the first to admit that the five people I led to Christ did not compare to the hundreds of thousands of people Billy Graham has led to Christ. My influence did not extend to crowded football stadiums, world leaders, or Hollywood luminaries. Instead, my sphere of influence was confined at that time to a junior high school in Richardson, Texas.
The same is true for you. You may hold little sway over the larger culture of the United States, but you can impact your neighborhood, school, office, church, and home. And who knows, God may choose to expand the scope of your influence.
How Not to Influence Your Culture
On the whole, Christians are ineffective at dealing with culture. Most believers do not respond appropriately when it comes to changes in culture—especially when those changes are contrary to God’s Word. When confronted with an anti-Christian environment, most Christians tend to fall into one of two categories: silo saints or spiritual sellouts. Elijah-like men and women avoid the trap of either one, because neither create the kind of change God desires in His world.
Some Christians respond to an ungodly culture by retreating into their silos—primarily their homes and churches—hoping to shelter themselves and their families from spiritual pollution. Christians who choose to live only in their holy huddles are basically saying, “We are going to heaven; the world can go to hell.” These silo saints might pop their heads up long enough to talk to non-Christians about salvation, but they do not want to impose their Christian values on the culture—so they tend to remain underground, isolated from their world.
Just this week I participated in a panel discussion at a seminary. One of the students asked me, “Dr. Jeffress, why do you feel that conservative Christians have the right to impose their views on a pluralistic society?” I reminded the student that someone’s values will always be imposed on society; the only question is whose values would prevail. For example, until June 2015, the Supreme Court followed the Judeo-Christian principle that marriage was a sacred union between one man and one woman (Murphy v. Ramsey, 1885). But after the June 2015 ruling of Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court abandoned that principle for a new principle—a principle the Court is now imposing on the culture. Those who refuse to submit to this new definition of marriage are being labeled “bigots” and in some cases face government fines and bankruptcy.
Unfortunately, this student subscribed to the belief that anyone should be free to impose his or her values on culture—anyone, that is, except a Christian. Such silo spirituality quickly leads to compartmentalized Christianity—a false dichotomy between the sacred and the secular. For example, some people believe that the church is sacred but government is secular. They fear if these two forces come in contact with one another, then the results will be explosive. For some, this “fear” is nothing but a smokescreen for imposing a secular agenda on the nation without any opposition from Christians. If secularists cannot destroy Christianity, then their next best option is to contain it within the four walls of the church.
But God sees no divide between the sacred and the secular. God’s sovereignty is not limited to religious people and religious institutions. God’s sovereignty certainly wasn’t limited at the time of Elijah. Drought came upon the land of Israel because the head of the civil institution (King Ahab) had established a foreign god (Baal) at the head of Israel’s religious institution.
God is interested in all people and all institutions. The psalmist declared, “The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all” (Ps. 103:19). While it is evident that not everyone acknowledges God’s authority, God still desires that every person and every institution submit to His will. If you have difficulty believing that, then consider how Jesus instructed His followers to pray:
Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven. (Matt. 6:9–10)
When we pray for God’s will to be done on earth, we are not just referring to some future time in history when Christ is literally reigning over this earth. This is also a here-and-now request. “Right now, God, we want Your will to be done in our world, our nation, our homes, and our individual lives.”
Does God’s will on earth include the murder of millions of unborn children through abortion, the persecution and marginalization of Christians around the world and in our own nation, the redefinition of marriage, or the oppression of the poor? Of course not! Yet this is what is happening on earth every day because God’s people have bought into the myth of silo spirituality. They have formulated a theology that allows them to compartmentalize their faith instead of integrating it with the rest of their lives. The result is a culture increasingly untouched by God’s righteous standards.
Spiritual Sellouts
Today we are witnessing a strange synthesis of the religious right and the secular left when it comes to the question of culture. Both agree that God does not care about culture. The secularists come to this conclusion because they do not believe in God, while Christians arrive at this conclusion because they believe God is above such concerns—that He is merely interested in the salvation of souls and the finer points of theological doctrine.
Beyond that, many Christians have also come to believe—as secularists believe—that sin is not really a big deal. In fact, the word sin is never used in our national discourse to describe behaviors that are outside of God’s standards. And the avoidance of the word in our churches leads many Christians to conclude that sin is merely a human flaw, easily overlooked. One Christian philosopher described the process of how sin becomes acceptable like this:
As any sin passes through its stages from temptation to toleration, to approval, its name is first euphemized, then avoided, then forgotten. A colleague tells me that some of his fellow scholars call child molestation “intergenerational intimacy”: that’s euphemism. A good-hearted editor tried to talk me out of using the term “sodomy”: that’s avoidance. My students don’t know the world “fornication” at all: that’s forgetfulness.3
If we cannot call things what they truly are—molestation, sodomy, or fornication, for example—then we will forget that they are truly sinful. And if we no longer believe they are truly sinful, then we are only a small step away from fully accepting and approving sin.
If we are not careful, we can become swallowed up in the quicksand of our corrupt society, making it nearly impossible to tell Christianity apart from the larger culture. In the words of a friend, “The sins of the culture will become the sins of the Christian, and the sins of the Christian will become the sins of the church.” Some Christians sell out spiritually by surrendering to the moral temptations of our culture. Other Christians sell out their faith to political correctness. Unlike Elijah, they remain silent instead of proclaiming God’s truth about hot-button issues, fearful of being labeled a “religious fanatic” or losing a promotion at work or popularity in their school. And if they have a friend who is willing to stand up for truth, then they distance themselves from that person, not wanting to experience any of the negative fallout their friend experiences.
I had the honor and privilege of delivering a sermon in a private service with president-elect Donald Trump and vice president-elect Mike Pence on the day of their inaugurations. It was a day I will never forget. But the evening before was almost as memorable. That night, I walked into the Fox studios in Washington, DC, for an interview regarding the presidential service. My cell phone rang, and the caller informed me that CNN, NBC, and other outlets were breaking the news that president-elect Trump had selected an “inflammatory pastor,” noted for his “anti-gay, anti-Muslim rhetoric,” to deliver the sermon the next morning. I was sure that president-elect Trump’s team would call me, encouraging me to decline the invitation. And I wouldn’t have blamed them. They didn’t need the negative publicity on such an important day. But Mr. Trump and his team didn’t blink. Though they may not have agreed with all of my beliefs, they understood I represented the beliefs of millions of Christians in the United States.
Ironically, through the years, members and leaders have exited our church because they did not want to be associated with a pastor or a church that takes unpopular, biblical stands. This has deeply disappointed me, because in many ways these individuals were sold out more to the culture than to Christ.
The apostle Paul was deeply wounded by such “spiritual sellout.” When he was sitting in a dungeon in Rome, he lamented about a close associate who had left him. He wrote, “Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica” (2 Tim. 4:10). It is likely Demas feared that his association with a condemned man like Paul might implicate him in the eyes of the Roman authorities. Demas was not about to risk his reputation and freedom for Paul—or the gospel.
Sadly, Demas loved freedom more than the faith. Or, as is increasingly seen on college campuses—where free speech and the free exchange of ideas are supposed to be valued—Christians would rather remain mute than risk backlash from their peers and professors for speaking out for Christ.
Isolation vs. Influence
Identifying with the culture poses a clear and present danger for Christians. However, I am convinced that an even greater threat to influencing our culture is isolating ourselves from it. Even though many Christians have been sucked into the culture’s value system, they know they are acting in a way contrary to the teaching of Scripture. No Christian I know will cite verses from the Bible to justify his or her immorality, greed, or bitterness.
Yet many Christians today actually pride themselves for isolating themselves from unbelievers or for refusing to lift a finger to effect any change in the world in which they live. For example, I am amazed by the number of Christians who have openly condemned me for my friendship with people they consider to be unbelievers. They say, “How could you allow yourself to be seen with someone who is so immoral? Don’t you know that the Bible says we are to be holy?”
Interestingly, the Corinthians (some of the most corrupt believers of the first century) made a similar misapplication of Scripture that the apostle Paul had to correct:
I wrote you in my [earlier] letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler. (1 Cor. 5:9–11)
If you are going to isolate yourself from ungodly people, stay away from ungodly Christians—not ungodly non-Christians. It is not only impossible to separate yourself from unbelievers (unless you want to reside on Mars) but it is also illogical to do so. Just imagine a doctor who said, “I can’t stand being around sick people with all of their germs! I’m going to only treat people who are well.” That doctor would not be in business very long. As Jesus pointed out, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those are sick” (Luke 5:31).
Jesus has left us as His representatives in the world not only to bring healing to spiritually sick people but also to influence a spiritually sick culture. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He prayed for both His current and future followers (including you and me) in this way:
Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. . . . And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. (John 17:11, 14–17 NLT)
Notice that Jesus asked God to keep us from isolation (“I’m not asking you to take them out of the world”) and from identification with the world (“make them holy”) so that we might influence the world. Admittedly, it can be quite a challenge to pull off the in-the-culture-but-not-of-the-culture philosophy. But Jesus demonstrated how to do it, as did Elijah.
Three Convictions That Will Transform Your Life
My mentor, the late Howard Hendricks, observed that when Elijah arrived on the scene in Israel, “the nation was on the skids.”
There was a mania of mediocrity. Seven thousand believers were huddled in a cave in silent protest: “We don’t want to get involved.” This man, Elijah, stands out like a spiritual colossus in the midst of a generation of perverts and spiritual pygmies.4
Our own generation could be described as perverted and populated by “spiritual pygmies.” Yet the convictions that made Elijah a “spiritual colossus” in his generation can make us giants in our generation as well. Elijah embraced three convictions that can transform us into spiritual giants who can transform our world.
Conviction #1: God Is Alive and Active in the Culture
I pointed this out earlier, but it is worth highlighting again: Elijah claimed that he served the living Lord. Before pronouncing judgment on Israel, Elijah made sure Ahab understood whom he was dealing with: “As the LORD, the God of Israel lives” (1 Kings 17:1).
We live in a world filled with people—even Christians—who do not understand who God is. Recently, I was at a prayer gathering where the chaplain of a Christian hospital prompted everyone to bow their heads in “worship to the god of their own understanding.” I was stunned. How could this man represent the Christian faith and open the possibility that there are many gods or many equally valid understandings of God? There is only one true God, and He has revealed Himself through His written Word and through the living Word—Jesus Christ. The apostle John made this clear in the first chapter of his Gospel.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. . . . And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1–2, 14)
I am so convinced of the truth of Jesus’s claim, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6), that I wrote a book on the subject. In Not All Roads Lead to Heaven, I state, “What you believe about the exclusivity of the gospel of Christ determines whether you will spend eternity in heaven or hell.”5
Worshiping the god of your own understanding is the surest way to end up in hell. Elijah knew that. The nation of Israel had been on a long course of worshiping the gods of their own understanding. What we celebrate as “pluralism” and “inclusivism” in today’s culture, God called “idolatry”—and He’d had enough of it! So He dispatched Elijah to Ahab to remind the king—and the people—that the living God was about to judge the nation.
We did not make the rules; God did (and He gave those guidelines for our benefit, not our detriment). Our assignment, like Elijah’s, is to uphold the standards of the one true God regardless of the consequences. We do so believing that God is alive and active in the affairs of men and women, and He will hold our culture accountable if we retreat from the truth.
Conviction #2: You Are God’s Ambassador to the Culture
You and I are God’s representatives in the world. Paul said, “We are ambassadors for Christ” (2 Cor. 5:20). To be effective ambassadors for Jesus, we must first bring our opinions about the validity of other religions, same-sex relationships, abortion, capital punishment, or any other controversial subject under the authority of God’s Word. Then, we are to articulate and represent God’s views to those within God’s kingdom and those living outside of it.
Elijah understood that he was the ambassador of the living Lord and that he received his marching orders from God alone. Whether Elijah was ordered to pronounce judgment, to retreat into the wilderness, to challenge the prophets of Baal, to confront a sinful king, or to call fire from heaven, he was a man who did God’s bidding without compromise.
For that time and place in Israel’s history, Elijah answered God’s call to be His ambassador—and he made a significant impact on his culture. God is still looking for ambassadors who will make a difference in our time and place. As 2 Chronicles 16:9 reminds us, “The eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”
Ambassadors do not speak on their own initiative or represent their own interests. Rather, they speak on behalf of and represent the rulers who commissioned them. Their loyalty resides completely with the ruler they serve, and in turn the ruler pledges his or her support and protection to these ambassadors. If we faithfully represent God’s message to those inside and outside His kingdom, then we can be assured of His divine enablement and providential care.
This does not mean our assignment will be an easy one. In fact, most ambassadorships are not to the French Riviera, where you can sun yourself on the shores of the Mediterranean. Most ambassadors are sent to run-of-the-mill places, and a few to dangerous locations. But no matter where the Lord has placed you—in whatever sphere of influence—being an ambassador for Christ requires courage, especially if you are going to confront a culture that is growing increasingly hostile to God’s message.
A few years ago, I received an invitation to fly to Hollywood and appear on Real Time with Bill Maher. I had seen Maher in a few interviews and knew of his hostility to Christian viewpoints, but I had never watched his program. I accepted the invitation and told a few of my friends, prayer partners, and deacons about my decision. “Are you out of your mind?” they asked. “Bill Maher will eat you alive!” I thought that was a little hyperbolic, until I watched a few episodes.
As I prayed about whether to cancel my appearance, I thought of the potential I had to speak God’s truth to millions of people who might not ever enter a church. I finally concluded if the apostle Paul could go to Mars Hill to reason with the skeptics, then surely I could travel to Maher’s studio in Hollywood to speak to unbelievers!
On a Friday, my wife, daughter, and I flew to Hollywood. Although I have done thousands of radio and television interviews, I had never been as apprehensive about any of them as I was that day. Before the car picked us up at the hotel to travel to the studio, my wife, daughter, and I got into a circle and prayed that, whatever happened, God would be glorified. Hundreds of my prayer partners in Dallas were praying as well.
When the interview started, Bill poked some fun at me, and there were a few groans and boos from the audience. But as the interview progressed, I could feel God’s Spirit taking charge, giving me the opportunity to share the gospel message that Jesus Christ was the only way to salvation. By the end of the segment, the audience applauded. Staff members from the show later told me they had never seen Bill treat a Christian with so much respect.
After the show, Bill invited my family and me to the after-show party. We stood and talked for about a half an hour. At the end of our conversation, Bill said, “You know, Pastor, I don’t believe one thing you believe. But you are a great representative of your faith.” Years later, I still run into non-Christians who saw that broadcast and say it caused them to think differently about faith issues. Had I stayed in my cocoon in Dallas and not taken the risk of engaging the culture, I would have forfeited that opportunity to affect others in the culture.
Most people don’t face the quandary of whether or not to appear on a national television program. But all of us decide every day whether we are going to take a risk and speak God’s truth to our world—in a classroom, at work, in a conversation with a friend or family member. Those who choose an extraordinary life submit themselves to the King’s commands found in Matthew 5:
You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 5:13–16)
In Jesus’s day, salt served as a preservative for meat. Salt did not prevent decay but delayed it. Salt gave the meat a longer shelf life, but it eventually had to be thrown away. Jesus says that as His ambassadors we are like a preservative that delays the decay of our world. But salt cannot delay the decay of meat if it remains in the saltshaker. Only when the salt leaves the confines of the shaker and penetrates the meat can it preserve it.
No ambassador worth their salt remains in the security of their country’s embassy when they are in a foreign land. Sure, it is safer there. But for ambassadors to represent their leader’s policies to others, they have to come in contact with other people—including those who may disagree with or misunderstand the ruler he or she is representing.
Jesus also said we were the “light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). It is no accident Jesus also used that phrase to refer to Himself: “I am the Light of the world” (John 8:12). Now that Christ has ascended into heaven, we are to function as His light—illuminating the way to God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
But no light is useful if it remains hidden. Before light can dispel darkness, it has to come in contact with darkness. A few weeks ago, we lost power in our house. Fortunately, I had a flashlight in a kitchen drawer. But that flashlight was of no use to me as long as it remained in the drawer. It could not cut through the darkness until it confronted the darkness.
Elijah was salt and light to the nation of Israel, preserving and illuminating the truth of the living God when he confronted Ahab. Our calling and responsibility are the same. By our words and actions, ambassadors of Christ must preserve the truth, cause others to thirst for God, and illuminate the way to God through faith in Christ.
But if we are not careful, we can become discouraged in our duty as Christ’s ambassadors. Our decaying and darkening world may appear to be beyond hope, causing us to remain isolated in the shaker or keep our light hidden in the drawer. That is why we need to stand firmly on a third conviction.
Conviction #3: God Is Able to Change the Culture
While we are called to be faithful ambassadors of Christ to our generation, ultimately we are not the ones who influence culture—God is. God is the one who wills and works according to His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). And though He does not need us, God invites us to partner with Him in cultural change. Our responsibility is to make sure our salt remains salty and our light remains bright. How do we do that? We follow the same pattern laid down by Elijah.
First, trust in the power of God’s Word. Elijah knew and trusted in the Word of God. When he prayed that it would not rain, he prayed a promise that God had already spoken. In Deuteronomy 11 and 28, the Lord warned the nation of Israel that if they turned aside and worshiped other gods, then He would turn off the faucet of heaven. They refused to believe God when He uttered those words in Moses’s day, and they refused to believe Elijah when he repeated that pronouncement. But Elijah believed.
The same Word that Elijah knew and believed is still in effect today. Writing some eight hundred years after Elijah, the author of Hebrews declared, “The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
The Word of God is living and active because it is spoken by the living and creative Lord. God’s Word cuts with exact precision, separating natural (fleshly) attitudes and motives from supernatural (spiritual) attitudes and motives. God’s Word is sharper than any surgeon’s scalpel. It does spiritual surgery—something our culture is in dire need of today.
Think a moment about that surgeon’s scalpel. The surgeon uses it to cut into a person’s flesh. In the days before anesthesia, that was extremely painful! But the surgeon’s motive for inflicting temporary pain was to bring about permanent healing. In the same way, God’s Word is a knife that may hurt, but in the hands of the Great Physician it brings healing.
When you are simply sharing your opinions with other people, your power to change their attitudes and behavior is limited to your persuasive ability. But when you are proclaiming God’s message from His Word, you are wielding an incredibly powerful instrument that can bring healing to individual lives and to the world.
Second, practice the power of prayer. James 5:17 attributes the lack of rain in Israel for those three and a half years to Elijah’s prayer (1 Kings 17:1). This is why James could conclude, “the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (v. 16). Elijah’s righteousness was not self-righteousness. His righteousness was the result of knowing and obeying God’s Word and from his time spent in prayer. This was what made Elijah so influential in his culture.
Unbelievers in our world have seen plenty of fakes and phonies. What they have not seen nearly enough is authentic and winsome Christianity lived out with wisdom and grace. If we are to influence our culture, we must begin on our knees. Show me a believer who is effective in public, and I will show you a believer who is effective in private. Show me an individual communicating persuasively to this generation, and I will show you an individual communicating passionately with God.
Third, depend on the power of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not mentioned by name in the story of Elijah, but the Spirit’s fingerprints are all over the page. As we will see in later chapters, from the call for Elijah to retreat to the brook Cherith, to the raising of the widow’s dead son, to the victory on Mount Carmel, to the still small voice in the wilderness, and to the chariot of fire that took Elijah to heaven, the Spirit of God hovered over Elijah’s life.
Elijah’s empowerment by the Holy Spirit was instrumental to his extraordinary life. Yet you and I have something Elijah never possessed: the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In Old Testament times the Spirit came upon and enabled followers of God to accomplish a specific task, but the Spirit was always temporary, never perpetual in a person’s life. The Spirit came and went as God desired. This is why David, after his sin with Bathsheba, prayed, “Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 51:11).
But when Jesus came, He promised a change in the Holy Spirit’s ministry. Just before Jesus’s arrest, trials, and death, He assured His disciples:
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. (John 14:16–17)
The idea of abiding and indwelling is that the Spirit takes up permanent residence in the life of every believer. And what will He do after establishing His home? Jesus said the Spirit “will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). The Spirit’s job is to work through believers like you and me to convince others of their sin and their need for a Savior.
Don’t miss this: God’s Spirit performs His work not apart from Christians but through Christians. It is not that God needs us to accomplish His ultimate purpose in the world. He could have chosen any number of ways to communicate His message to a lost world (think skywriting or thunderous messages from heaven every day at noon). In fact, such direct communication from God to the entire world could have ensured that the message did not get muddled through fallible humans. But God chose to allow us to partner with Him in His effort to reconcile the world to Himself by pointing people to the Light of the World—Jesus Christ.
Additionally, the Holy Spirit is referred to as the One who restrains evil in the world (2 Thess. 2:6–7). The Holy Spirit is like the Hoover Dam, holding back a flood of chaos that will one day engulf the world. Again, the Holy Spirit does not perform that function apart from Christians but through Christians who are willing to stand up and push back against ungodliness in our world.
When you speak out at a school board meeting against a proposed immoral curriculum for students, when you oppose a proposal to legalize drug use in your state, when you vote against a candidate who supports late-term abortion, the Holy Spirit is working through you to restrain evil in the world.
You Never Know Whom You Are Influencing
Elijah’s efforts to influence his culture were neither convenient nor comfortable. They never are—not when you are trying to stand for God in a sinful and corrupt generation. But even if you have to stand alone, I urge you to stand without bending, because you do not know whom you are influencing.
John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, was one of the earliest and most vocal proponents of the abolition of slavery in the United States. After his presidency, Adams served in the House of Representatives, where he almost singlehandedly fought and won a nine-year battle against the House’s “gag rule” preventing congressmen from debating the slavery question. After his victory, Adams stunned the House—and the nation—by immediately demanding an extension of constitutional liberties to black Americans by abolishing slavery. The House voted him down. And regrettably, he would go to his grave without achieving the great goal of abolition.
However, while Adams made his impassioned but fruitless pleas for freedom, a relatively unknown congressman from Illinois was sitting at the back of the chamber, soaking in Adams’s words. His name was Abraham Lincoln. Moved and emboldened by Adams’s courage, Lincoln, in time, became the guiding hand behind the Emancipation Proclamation and the ultimate triumph of Adams’s hope, when the Thirteenth Amendment was passed and ratified.
Lincoln, and Adams before him, knew that significance is not found in selling out to or isolating yourself from the culture. Significance is found in engaging the culture. Those who want to experience an extraordinary life are those who are willing to compassionately but boldly confront an ungodly world and say, “Thus says the living Lord.”
John Adams reminds us that one person with courage is a majority.
Elijah reminds us that one believer empowered by the Word of God and the Spirit of God can truly change the world.