Yeah, save some for tonight. Save a little bit for tonight. What's going on Liberty? How're y'all doing? Yeah, man! All right. Get it out your system, because I only got
about 30 minutes, so I can't be calming y'all down every 5 minutes. Get it out your system. What's going on? How're y'all doing? Y'all good? We got seniors in here, any seniors? All right! Seniors! Man, I'm praying for y'all because its hard
out there man. It is hard out there. I got a friend, my friend, you know graduated
from school. Did great in school; but got out and has not
been able to secure a job. So he's been hustling and struggling and he
came to me the other day and he was like, "Lecrae I found a gig and I think its going
to work out." I said, "Cool man. I'm excited for you. He's like well don't be excited just yet its
kinda weird, and I was like what do you mean its kinda weird and he's like well I'm working
at the zoo." And I was like you know times are hard it's
cool I get it, it's cool. You know you gotta do what you gotta do man,
you know. It's a stepping stone. You're on your way. You know what I'm saying to being an engineer. It's a trajectory. You got stepping stones. But he said, no, Lecrae, it's a little different
than what you understand see...let me break it down to you. I get to the zoo for this job and the manager
says listen bro' it's not quite what you think it is. Um what we need you to do, we need you to
actually put on an ape costume because our apes are sick and kinda get in there and dance
around for the kids. You're pretty far away they're not going to
be able to tell that you're not a real ape, but it's just kind of a makeshift thing right
now. So my guy was like look, man I'm broke I've
got these student loans. Shoutout to Fannie May. And I need a job. So he goes ahead and he says I'm doing it. So he's in it, he's putting on his ape costume. You know first couple days he's like you know
trying to get into it not really feeling it but after a while he starts really getting
into it. He's feeling it. He's like you know I'm pretty good at being
an ape, man. This is not bad. He's doing tricks, he's swinging from stuff
and the kids are clapping, they're loving what he's doing. But then he gets a little too into it and
he swung himself into the lion's den. It's crazy. So he swings himself into the lion's den and
he realizes what he's doing. He's in the lion's den and he starts screaming
HELP! HELP ME! In full ape garb. So...that was weird. And, um...then he really freaked out cuz the
lion started running toward him and he's screaming louder PLEASE, PLEASE HELP ME! And the lion said, man, if you don't shut
up, we both going to lose our jobs, man. It's real, it's hard out there. It's hard out there, seniors. It is a tough world. So you know, I'm praying for y'all. I don't want to see y'all at the zoo. Um. No, anyway, uh. That's really not a true story, I'm sorry. I had to, but um listen, I'm encouraged to
be here because you know y'all are students and you are going to engage the real world,
and hopefully you won't have a job such as that but you will have a job where you will
have to engage people, and from my understanding there's a lot of people here who are not necessarily
going into the pastorate or going to be full time missionaries or so on and so forth. You guys are entering, um different fields
- business world, the legal world, the medical world - and that's an amazing thing. What we tend to see happen is that you get
into the real world and there's no campus Bible studies, there's no outreaches, there's
no, everybody having prayer at midnight and getting together. It's real out there, and so what tends to
happen with Christians; they say, man, I have this split life. I go to church on Sunday and I am involved
in my little community group but then during the week for 8 hours a day I'm working and
I just feel like, "Lord, am I doing something wrong? Am I selling out? Maybe I should quit my job and move to a foreign
country to be a missionary." And they wrestle with this sense of guilt,
this sense of struggle. And they're trying to recapture their college
days. Well in college, man, you know you got all
the time in the world! So you can do things and engage and be around
stuff and go to a million Bible studies and do all this type of stuff all the time, whereas
when you enter the workforce it's a little bit different. And so people wrestle with this split. It's: I've got two different lives and I'm
going in two different directions. And this split is not a new thing, right? What people call it is a sacred/secular divide. They say, well, I have my secular life, then
I have my sacred life, right? Well did you go to school all this time and
study for these tests and pass these classes just so you could get a good job? Just so you can pay tithes and offerings and
just so you can give money to different ministries? Is that the only point of your work? And that's what a lot of Christians feel. Like, man, I'm working, but you know, hopefully,
I'll get some time and do some church stuff, some God stuff. And I want to talk about breaking that split. I want to talk about breaking that secular/sacred
divide and there's three things that I think are beneficial for anybody. And one of those things is engaging the city
and the people. Right? Engage, all right? Wherever you work, engage. Right? Engaging the city, the culture, the people. Engage the culture. Another thing is love. Love the people, love the city, love the culture. Engage and love. And the last thing is rehabilitate, right? Rehabilitate the culture, the city, the workplace. So engage, love, and rehabilitate. Those are three things that I think are crucial
to break this sacred/secular divide that happens in a lot of our lives. There's a young guy. You know I tell this story often and he went
to...grew up, got saved in his school ministry, like high school ministry or what not. Became a Christian, became a solid leader,
went to college, much like you all...was involved in the Bible studies doing all these things
and was this campus leader and you know, and it was a great thing. Now he wanted to go into full time ministry. And his advisors, when he was in high school,
said, man, your aptitude is off the charts! You should be a lawyer. And so he's feeling a little depressed, he's
like, man, a lawyer? But I want to serve God! But, you know, he realized he just wasn't
cut out for the foreign mission field and he really didn't want to be a pastor necessarily. So he was kind of like, man! So he pursues law, he goes to college, pursues
law but he's fine for a little while. But then after a while he starts getting to
his serious classes in law school all of his time is dedicated to studying law. And he feels like he's selling out because
he's not as involved in the ministry things that he was involved in before. And he found himself feeling stressed out
and like a sell-out. Then he became a lawyer. And he was really depressed then because he
was like, man, I barely have any time to do anything except go to church on Sunday. I feel like my whole life is law. God, I'm depressed. I feel like I've let you down. I feel like my life isn't counting for anything. And that was his real struggle. And what he had was that sacred/secular divide. He thought his work was secular, and his church
was sacred. But let me tell you a story about a guy in
the Bible. His name is Daniel. I like Daniel. Daniel's my dawg. It's cool, he's my dawg. When I see him in heaven I'll be like Daniel! My dawg. What? Its real. Anyway, so I like Daniel. All right, let me tell you little bit about
what happened with Daniel. So in Daniel Chapter 2, there's a king: King
Nebuchadnezzar. Right. King Neb had these dreams. Crazy dreams, right? Like skinny cows and fat cows. It's crazy, like wild dream. Freaks him out! Dream freaks him out, because back then, you
know, dreams are very important. He's freaking out! He's like, what do these dreams mean? He says, listen, I want you to round up all
the wisest dudes and all my magicians and sorcerers, and I need them to tell me what
my dream means. He says, "Come in here; tell me my dream." Nobody can tell him his dream. He says, basically, off with all your heads. Now, he can do that, he's a king. Daniel was one of his advisors and in this
time period interpreting a dream would be seen as a pagan practice, an evil thing right? But Daniel says well the earth is the Lord's
and everything thereof, so let me go to God because God can interpret anything. Right? So Daniel goes to God, God gives him a revelation
on what this dream is. Daniel goes to the king, he interprets the
dream, the king is like unbelievable! This is amazing! I would like to make you my chief advisor. Now Daniel didn't say, "Whoah whoah whoah! You're an evil king, evil empire, that's a
secular job, being your advisor. I think I want to go into the ministry and
just advise the priests in Israel." He didn't say that. Daniel took the job. The reason why he took the job is because
he saw it as a beneficial role. He was now able to advise the king with Godly
wisdom, from God's perspective. Daniel didn't say, ah I gotta take this secular
job. Daniel said there's no division between sacred
and secular. This job is my ministry. This is where I am serving God. Right? As I advise the king, I'm advising him from
God's perspective. And so the job, in and of itself, was Daniel's
ministry. He broke the secular/sacred divide. He didn't have this mentality that said you
know, there's a duality between secular work and sacred work. He saw all work is sacred. You know why? Because he had what we would call a "biblical
worldview." Say that with me: biblical worldview. All right, that means you see the world through
the lenses of the scriptures. That's what a biblical worldview is. Let me tell you a little something about a
biblical worldview, ok. There's been a study. Y'all laughing? Something funny? I got something in my nose? Are we cool? Ok, just checking. Um let me tell you something about a biblical
worldview all right. Here's some statistics. Funny. Four percent of all Americans have a biblical
worldview. Four percent! Four percent of Americans see life through
the lens of scripture. Four percent! Now I know what you're thinking. You go to this Christian school, so clearly
you see things from the biblical perspective. Well let me give you another statistic. Ten percent of all Christians see life through
a biblical lens. It's real, rap. Thirty-eight percent of American adults believe
the Bible, including the Old Testament, was written decades after Jesus died. Thirty-three percent did not know Isaiah was
in the Old Testament. Forty-nine percent believe the Bible teaches
that money is the root of all evil. Some of you are like, it is right? That's what it says....No, it says "the love
of money." Just read it. Twelve percent. This is my favorite, my favorite statistic. Twelve percent believe that Joan of arc was
Noah's wife. We got to do better Christians! We got to do better. Now most of us tend to have bifocals. We tend to see the world with a split. There's sacred and there's secular, right? That's how we see the world. We have this split as we look at the world. But how did this happen, this great divide
right? Like we all do it. We all see it. I grew up, the way I grew up, I didn't necessarily
grow up in church, but the times when we would go we would ride to church, and on the way
to church we would listen to the Christian music. But as soon as church was over, we could listen
to whatever we wanted to. And it was kind of like, how come we can do
that? My mom was like, because church is over. It's back to this life. Funniest thing is my homeboy, Chris. Me and Chris, we would ride around doing all
kinds of stupid stuff, stuff we didn't have any business doing. As we were riding around being two young,
dumb teenagers, every time we would pass a church Chris would turn down the radio which
was cussing out everybody and their momma and talking about all kind of misogyny and
drugs. And then when we passed the church he would
turn it back up. And I'd be like, what? What are you doing man? He's like man we gotta respect the Lord, man! So apparently God only cares about this part
of his world. He doesn't care about any other parts of the
street, just the part of the street where the church is at. But that's this divide that we had. I remember being in church with guys and something
would slip out of their mouth, a cuss word or something and I'd be like man, c'mon man,
we in church, man. Don't say that. And this mentality has run rampant with us...that
there's a place for that and there's a place for this. Non-believers picked it up from us. Respect the house of the Lord. Well, the earth is the Lord's and everything
thereof. Respect the earth of the Lord, right? That's how Daniel saw the world. So what we don't understand is that we live
fragmented lives. All right? Church and family, rarely speak to our work
and our public life. I'll be one way here and another way there. We're just doing religious things and that's
what the world is doing as well, they're following our pattern of religion. They want to clean themselves up because they
think that will get them to God, instead of understanding everything belongs to God. It's not about, "Don't do this here and don't
do that there." And so what a lot of us fail to realize is
that Christianity is total truth. It's not just religious truth. Most Christians think Christianity is the
truth about salvation or sanctification. We don't realize Christianity is the truth
about everything! It's the truth about politics. It's the truth about marriage. It's the truth about economics. It's the truth about television. It's the truth about media. Christianity is the truth about everything. And so we've limited things to certain categories. We say, oh! this is this, and this is that. This is secular! This is sacred! Instead of saying, wait a minute, God, doesn't
everything belong to you? And aren't we here as a product of redemption
to go out and redeem culture and redeem things? Not saying we're going to make this world
a utopian place, but I am saying we're here to demonstrate the power of Jesus in our lives
in the culture. And so what I want to talk about is a couple
things real quick. There's the good, there's the bad, and there's
the redeemable. All right, let's talk about the good. What is good? All right. This whole great divide, it came about when
the Greeks thought that matter, stuff like this microphone, was evil, because it preexisted
God. And instead of understanding that God is the
creator, like I said in Psalm 24, the earth is the Lord's and everything it contains. So nothing is inherently evil. Right? Humanity is evil. We're the ones that mess up stuff. And so Genesis 1 repeats over and over again...God
made it and it is good. God made it and it is good. God made it and it is good. So things are good. Paul, in 1 Timothy 4:4: everything created
by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if received with thanksgiving. It is good. Dancing is good. Movies are good. That's right. And any married people in here know...sex
is good. Right? Things are good, but we demonize them in culture. We say, oh ,no, no, no those are bad. Those are bad things. All right. We've even gone on so far to say secular is
bad. Secular is just the absence of an overt religious
thing. Right, like an insurance jingle is secular,
but that doesn't mean its bad. And we've said that things that are spiritual
or religious are good. Well, that's not always the case. There are some people that worship cows; it
doesn't mean it's good. If your religion is to worship cows...it's
not good. So right, these things are good. And that's what Daniel was saying. He was saying you know what, dreams are good. Dream interpretation is good; it's been used
for evil practices, but it belongs to God and so we're going to take it back. And God, let's interpret dreams for your glory,
instead of doing it for the glory of man. So when you get a job you say Lord, let me
do this for your glory. This job is good. All right? This very same lawyer that I was talking about
earlier began to understand: wait a minute, law is good and all this time I'm spending
in law I can really begin to change the face of what law looks like. I can be a lawyer that tells the truth. When people want to get divorced, I can step
in the gap and try to help them understand that they've made a covenant before God. Right? Like I can use this as my ministry in so many
ways. I don't have to have this split and say well
this is my secular job, but here's my ministry job. I can see everything that I'm doing as honorable
to the Lord and good. Well what's bad then, Lecrae? Some stuff has gotta be bad. Well, let me explain. When creation fell it's because humanity fell. It's not like the earth lied. It wasn't like the trees ate the fruit and
was like ahh sorry Adam, we messed it up for you bro'. Adam did it. Humanity fell. So we're bad. It's called the consequence of authority. If I don't clean my house, and I don't brush
my teeth, and I don't wear deodorant it's nobody's fault but mine. All right? I messed up. So when you look at my house and you're like
that's haunted. No its not. It's just I haven't touched it in 6 years. The house isn't bad. It's the consequence of authority. I was in charge and I jacked it up. Humanity is bad. Humanity's hearts are fallen. It's not the music that's the problem; it's
the heart of the person that is creating the music. So let's not demonize the music in and of
itself. Let's not demonize movies in and of themselves. It all goes back to the heart of man. That's what's bad. Right, well what we like to do is we like
to demonize things. I was wearing a skull on my shirt one day
and this kid was like Lecrae you're in the Illuminati! I knew it. I knew it. They got you. And I was like why do you say that? He said you're wearing a skull on your shirt. That's evil. I was like, it is? 'Cause I got a skull in my head; I hope that
one's not evil. Right? We've taken things, and we've deemed them
as evil when it's really just the hearts of men that have made these things seem like
they're evil. It's what you call structure and direction. God structures something, humanity directs
it in a completely different way. If I had a butcher knife just like this you'd
be like, "horror movie! Psycho! He's a killer! Run!" But God made the metal and the ore for us
to make these knives and all I have to do is take this knife and use it to carve a turkey
and feed the homeless. Right. It's not evil. It's the heart of man that decides to use
it for evil purposes. It's not bad. Your job in the real world does not necessarily
have to be bad. How are you going to have a redeemed heart
and enter into that field and redeem and rehabilitate the culture around you? That's the challenge! That's the struggle! So again like I said, it's the consequence
of authority. Well what's redeemable right? Obviously some stuff we have to reject. Like you don't just say, oh, you can redeem
anything, if that's the case right. No, obviously there's some things we have
to reject. Right? Prostitution. Prostitution isn't something we redeem, but
what we have seen is a sinful heart has directed a gift of love and physical intimacy and use
it for an evil purpose. And so the redeemed picture of what's happening
there is a marriage where two people have intimacy. So we don't go out and say man we're going
to be prostitutes for Jesus. No. That's not what I'm saying. There's some stuff you reject, but you have
to ultimately look at what did God create and how is this being directed by the hearts
of humanity in a way that's evil? Right. God made, gave us the intellect and the mindset
to do all these things: to make movies, to be doctors. But we use them in ways that either don't
glorify him or do glorify him. And my challenge to you is that you would
use your vocations to glorify God. And so how does it look? Well this is what Genesis tells you...it says
be fruitful and mulitply. What does it mean to be fruitful and multiply? That means just have a bunch of kids. I got three, but it's cool. Be fruitful. Have families. Build churches. Build schools. Build cities. Start governments. That's what being fruitful means. And subdue the earth. What does it mean to subdue the earth? That means harness the natural world, take
control of the resources that are right in front of you, right? It's planting crops, it's buiding things,
it's designing computers, it's composing music, and it's doing it in such a way that it honors
God. It glorifies God. Doesn't mean that you put a cross on your
computer software so people will know you love Jesus. It means you just do a great job at it so
it can serve people and that glorifies God. It doesn't mean that every song you write
is going to have the gospel spelled out, it just means that you're going to operate from
a Christian perspective and paint a picture that honors God. You're going to tell the truth about it. Right? So redeem things, again, I'm just going to
go back to what I said initially. If you want to really practice this you have
to engage people, engage culture. You have to love people, love culture. And you have to rehabilitate. You got to see yourself as a rehabilitator. In terms of engaging...this is loving the
people around you, loving the language and understanding it. I grew up loving hip hop and you know when
I became a Christian I didn't know any "christianese." Lady asked me...are you saved? I was like what the heck are you talking about? Saved? What does this mean, saved? I save the game on the videogame. I don't know what you're talking about. And I didn't understand and so I became a
Christian and here I am with my tattoos and my earrings and my love for hip hop, but I
love Jesus now. It wasn't that some guy who was just like
me, "Yo yo yo! It's about Jesus, son." That's not what happened. It was, it was a blonde haired, blue eyed
guy from Kentucky who said, "I don't know anything about you but I know Jesus, and I
want to learn 'you' and understand where you're coming from." This brother sat and watched "Boyz in the
Hood" and "Menace II Society" with me one day just to understand what in the world was
going on with me. That's engaging! He was engaging me. He was understanding where I came from. He wasn't just saying, "That's ... oh, I can't
do it!" Right? He didn't have to do that. Loving, loving the people around you right. This is not being disgusted with your city
or the stuff you see and saying ahh! It's saying, "Man! I love these people and I want to reach them! I love these people at my job and I want to
help." When Paul walked in the book of Acts, when
he walked in the city he said his spirit was provoked by the sin and he was moved to do
something about it. And that's what I would hope you would do. As you enter the workforce your spirit may
be provoked, but you're moved to do something about it. It doesn't mean come into your office putting
a bible on the table and wearing a t-shirt that says ask me about Jesus every day. I'm not saying that's wrong. I'm just saying like that's the extent of
what we think "engaging" looks like. I'm talking about being helpful, I'm talking
about doing your job well. I'm talking about loving people. I'm talking about engaging them, asking them
questions, getting to know where they're from. Getting to know what they love. Enjoying stuff that they enjoy. Reading the books that they read even if you're
like .... "Ahhh, I don't like this book." But understanding why. At least read the book review. I never read "50 Shades of Grey." I read the review. I know enough to know y'all shouldn't be reading
that book. I don't think it's good. It's my opinion. It's my opinion. So, I got the mic, you don't. I can say what I want to say. Just saying. And then "rehabilitating." God gives us this cultural mandate to subdue
the earth. We're called to build this alternative city. What does it look like when we have healthy
families, when we have biblical views on business and economics and law and politics? We've redeemed them instead of letting Satan,
the prince of power just drain the life out of them. These things belong to God. Economics belongs to God. Politics belong to God. Family belongs to God. Medical science belongs to God. God created science. So we go into culture and say this is not
yours, Satan. This is not your, world, flesh. This belongs to God, and I'm a representative
of this kingdom. Here to demonstrate what it looks like when
a redeemed person enters the workplace and says this belongs to my God. That's what I want from you all. That's what I want to see you do...is to engage. Christians, we're so scared of culture. Christians remind me sometimes. We remind, we're like kids who don't know
how to fight. You ever see a kid who doesn't know how to
fight and he has to fight one day? You either run like eheah or you just say
hmmm. We don't know how to fight. Right, but the kids who know how to fight
are like what you got man, put em up, put em up, c'mon what you got? And I want that to be us as Christians who
know how to engage culture, who are not afraid. We tend to say oh it's bad in the city let's
move to the suburbs, start a suburban church and have a suburban group and help each other
out and say it's really bad over there and they're on their way up there so maybe we
have to move further out. I live in Atlanta where there's all kinds
of crazy stuff going on. All right I'm going to shut y'all up. Look, I ain't got but 4 minutes left. Y'all gotta be quiet. But I live in this city right where there's
all kinds of crazy stuff and I'm not running from it. People are like, "Lecrae what're you doing
hanging out with these rappers man?" Engaging them! Meeting them where they are, loving them and
trying to see Jesus rehabilitate them. And that's what your role and your responsibility
is in culture. Don't run from it, all right? Look at Daniel. Daniel put himself on the line. He went and interpreted these dreams by the
power of God. God did it. He not only saves himself, he saves all these
pagan magicians and sorcerers and he becomes an advisor to the king. I didn't have any example of what it looked
like when Jesus gets a hold of somebody from the urban culture. I had me. I was the best piece of evidence I knew that
Jesus could change anybody. He changed me. Jesus Christ's blood was spilled for the redemption
of humanity. The Bible says you are his workmanship created
for the things that he has pre-planned, the good works he's pre-planned. You are his workmanship. The Greek word there is poiema. You are his poiema. That means his poem. A poem articulates the heart, the mind, and
the character of the writer. You are a representation of God's heart, mind,
and character in this world. You are his workmanship. His blood was spilled out for your redemption
and you are a picture of that redemption in this culture. So wherever you are, you demonstrate what
redemption looks like. You take law, you take politics, you take
science, you take medicine, and you redeem them for the glory of God. You use them for his glorious honor. That's what you're here for. His blood purchased this world, and it belongs
to him. If there are not Christians involved in every
aspect of this culture, in this society, there's no representation of God there. There's no visibility that God owns this. Satan does not own this world. It belongs to God. He has used you as his ambassadors to make
known his kingdom come, his will be done. God bless y'all.
