Beautiful Collision: 3 Tradition & Culture

Sermon by Youth Pastor Nathan Walter
Here is the Real Deal, I was delighted when I was chosen to preach our sermon this week on Tradition and Culture. If you doubt that God has collided with these two sides of the same coin, then you have not read the Gospels closely. It may be the only sermon all year where it is almost guaranteed that everyone will go home angry. I don't think culture and tradition are evil in and of themselves, just like money isn't evil by itself, but it is what people do with it, or because of it that can make these things contrary to the gospel message. Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus battled tradition. After He ascended, His disciples battled tradition and then culture when they spread their ministry to Rome. Make no mistake, all these men of God were stoned, crucified, and boiled in oil because the message they brought offended the old way of doing things and convicted the new way of doing things. And here we are, thousands of years later fighting that same battle. Or are we? Has it seeped so far in that we can hardly recognize it anymore? This week we will look at how tradition and culture have invaded the modern church, how they have pushed so many churches off the path of truth, and how we can get back on course.