Sermon Tone Analysis

This morning I want to begin a 4-Sermon series on developing a Biblical Worldview.

I’ve entitled the series Worlds In Collision.

A Christian-worldview will always be on a collision course with any other worldview.

It’s appropriate that we begin this series when we do.

Tradition holds that the Apostle Paul was beheaded on June 29, AD 67.

Paul was executed primarily because his worldview of “Christ-is-Lord” came crashing headlong into Rome’s worldview of “Ceasar-is-Lord.”

Everyone has a worldview.

Whether or not we realize it, we all have certain presuppositions and biases that affect the way we view all of life and reality.

A worldview is like a set of lenses which taint our vision or alter the way we perceive the world around us.

Our worldview is formed by our education, our upbringing, the culture we live in, the books we read, the media and movies we absorb, etc.

For many people their worldview is simply something they have absorbed by osmosis from their surrounding cultural influences.

They have never thought strategically about what they believe and wouldn’t be able to give a rational defense of their beliefs to others.

Christians, however, are commanded to be able to give a well-reasoned explanation for the hope we have in Christ.

Why does your worldview matter?

Because your worldview is the foundation of your values and your values are the foundation of your actions.

Any worldview—and there are many—needs to answer three significant questions:

1) Where did we come from?

2) How did we get to where we are, i.e.

What has gone wrong?

and

3) What is the answer to what has gone wrong?

!

I. INTELLECTUAL SLOTH IS DESTROYING AMERICA’S CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION

#. one of my greatest concerns for our culture in general and the church in particular is that we have become a nation of intellectual sluggards

#. too many Americans do not want to learn, or study, or engage their minds

#. if someone cannot distill their thoughts into a 30-second sound-bit, we don’t want to pay attention to it

#.

students want to be spoon-fed answers

#. teachers are so busy trying to teach test-taking that they no longer have time to teach critical thinking

#. because we have become a nation of intellectual sluggards we are wasting our minds

* ILLUS.

Michael Gorman, a British-born librarian, and the former president of the American Library Association, writes: “There is a present danger that we are “educating” a generation of intellectual sluggards incapable of moving beyond the Internet and of interacting with, and learning from, the myriad of texts created by human minds over the millennia and perhaps found only in those distant archives and dusty file cabinets full of treasures unknown.

What a dreary, flat, uninteresting world we will create if we succumb to that danger!”

* ILLUS.

Did you know that in 1959 the vocabulary of an average 9th grader was 25,000 words.

In 1999 the vocabulary of average 9th grader is only 10,000 words.

#. in the Book of Proverbs, King Solomon paints a picture of wisdom going through the streets like a messenger who nobody will listen to

* Proverbs 1:20-22 /“Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; 21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: 22 “How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?

How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?”/

NIV

#. the most damning consequence of America’s flirtation with intellectual sloth is the rank biblical illiteracy, not only among the lost, but among the saved

#. the result is that very few Americans any long have a Biblical worldview

!! A. TOO MANY CHRISTIANS SIMPLY DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS IN THE BIBLE

* Mark 12:24 /"And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?"/ KJV

#. folks, let me be blunt

#. a lot of Christians make horrible decisions—not because they deliberately set out to sin—but because they do not know what God says in His Word about a particular topic

#.

God has an opinion on every single sphere of human culture and society

#.

God has an opinion about government and the politicians who run governments

#.

God has an opinion about economics and trade

#.

God has an opinion about justice – both social and criminal

#.

God has an opinion about education

#.

God has an opinion about raising children

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God has an opinion about caring for senior citizens

#.

God has an opinion about money and investments

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God has an opinion about sex

#.

God has an opinion about entertainment

#.

God even has an opinion about how to eat, and how to drink, and how to dress

#. sadly, the vast majority of believers have no idea what God has to say about these things because they are biblically illiterate

* ILLUS.

In 2002, ABC News conducted a poll focusing on the faith of American citizens.

It was the proverbial ‘good-news-bad-news’ scenario.

92% of Americans say they believe in God.

83% consider themselves “Christian.”

But when they were given a test, asking about their core beliefs that affect their daily life and decision-making, only four percent could be said to have a Biblical Worldview.

A decade ago at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY., the dean of the School of Theology asked incoming students to list the Ten Commandments.

Only one out of 50 were able to list all ten.

The seminary now requires all incoming students to take a course called Introduction to the Bible.

#. the bible tells us that we are to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our strength, and all of our mind

#. the Christian faith was never meant to be a faith devoid of thought or intellect

* Proverbs 9:10-11 /“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

11 For through me your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.”/

NIV

* ILLUS.

The late John R. Stott, one of the great preachers and scholars of our day, wrote: /“By our anti-intellectualism, in which we either refuse or cannot be bothered to listen to God's Word, we may be storing up for ourselves the judgment of Almighty God . . .

God has constituted us thinking beings; he has treated us as such by communicating with us in words; he has renewed us in Christ and given us the mind of Christ; and he will hold us responsible for the knowledge we have.”/

#. just as physical sloth can kill the body, so intellectual sloth can kill the mind

#. the Christian who has not cultivated his mind by cultivating the mind of Christ, is a Christian who is useless for Kingdom Work

#. knowledge of what God thinks about things is indispensable to Christian life and service

#. if we do not use the mind that God has given us, we condemn ourselves to spiritual superficiality and cut ourselves off from many of the riches of God's grace

#. knowledge is given us to be used, to lead us to higher worship, greater faith, deeper holiness, better service

#.

Intellectual Sloth Is Destroying America’s Christian Foundation

!

II.

CHRISTIANS ARE ENGAGED IN A BATTLE FOR THE MIND

* Colossians 2:8 /"See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ."/

#.

Paul warns the Colossians to look out and to beware of those who would try to hijack their faith

#. the Apostle does not want these believers to be robbed of truth and the blessings of their salvation

#. he writes that they watch out for the /"philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men"/

#.

Paul is reminding his listeners that there are many competing worldviews in their culture

#. in the Apostle Paul’s era, the two great opposing worldviews were polytheism and theism

#. polytheism is the belief in many gods

#. theism is the belief in one supreme and sovereign God

#.

Christians today are faced with a menagerie of worldviews, all of them claiming to represent reality

#. they compete for the loyalty of our mind and soul

#.

Socialism is a worldview

#.

Islam is a worldview

#.

Humanism is a worldview

#.

Multiculturalism is a worldview

#.

Christianity is a worldview

#. and they all compete for your consideration and loyalty

#. why do we need to talk about this?

!! A. WORLDVIEWS SHAPE OUR MIND AND GUIDE OUR ACTIONS

#. once you adopt a worldview—or even synthesize several worldviews into your belief system—it will determine how you make decisions and how you act