YOUnited States of America

Welcome to CROLCC, we are so glad you are here worshiping with us. Happy July 4th everyone! There is a lot to like being in the United States of America. I know a lot of us were not born here, but we love to live here, some of us have even become citizens of this country. Yet like Pastor Tong Liu said lots of time, we don’t treat this as our country and we still only pay attention to the political and cultural landscape of the country in which we were from. He also said, but God placed you here for a purpose, so please pay attention and start caring about the United States of America.

So today and for the next several weeks I would like to use this opportunity to talk about our roles as Christians living in this country. For some of you it might even sound like a history class. But I think it’s critical how we as Christians respond to the culture surrounding us. We are given lots of freedom to choose what to do, yet that freedom must couple with a sense of responsibility. And that sense of responsibility will only come when we choose to look up to our Heavenly Father instead of looking around at what other people do.

Moving Forward

Individual rights assume individual responsibility. Christians are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to do unto others as God, through Christ, has done unto us. Leveraging our individual rights for the benefit of others is our Christian responsibility.

Changing Your Mind

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5:13–14

Discussion Questions

1. What are some examples in our culture of how individual rights are no longer anchored to personal responsibility?

2. In what areas are you tempted to exert your individual rights without regard for the personal responsibility that goes along with those rights?

3. Read Galatians 5:13–14. Talk about some specific examples of what it looks like to “love your neighbor as yourself” in our current political landscape. In light of those examples, does this command seem practical . . . or even possible? Why or why not?

4. This week, as you interact with those who are different from you, what is one way you can honor God by doing what is responsible instead of what is permissible? What can this group do to support you?