What Is a Worldview? (part 2)
Notes
Transcript
THINK LIKE JESUS—Part 2 What Is a Worldview?
· One of my favorite stories in the Bible is told in the Old Testament book of Joshua 5…
o Read vs. 13-15
o There is no Republicans or Democrats
o There is no my side or your side
o There is only God’s side!
o This is why we must be in tune with God’s Word & His way of thinking
· Last week, we began a study of how to “Think Like Jesus” & the importance of the right worldview
o If we want to make a difference in the world we live in, we must think like Jesus
o After going through some of the statistics I shared with you last week, that is easier said than done
o It turns out that while we claim to be Christians, followers of Christ, most of us are not exactly sure what that means
o According to George Barna, the leading Christian researcher in the U.S., only 9% of born-again believers have a true Christian worldview
o Do you remember what we said a “worldview” is?
§ 3 Questions
· How did we get here?
· What happened?
· How do we fix it?
§ A Christian worldview answers those questions this way?
· Genesis 1:1—God created us and the entire universe
· Genesis 3—The Fall (and Romans 5:12)
· John 3:16
o How about other worldviews? How they would answer the same questions?
§ Jews
· Genesis 1:1
· Genesis 3
· By keeping the Law
§ Muslims
· Genesis 1:1
· Adam fell, not because man has a sinful nature, but because man is forgetful
o Man is good & pure
o Allah is unknowable & that has caused our separation from him
· Humans do sin, but they have to power to not do so
o Allah has given Quran & the Muslim traditions to be the very Law of God—follow those laws & you will earn your way into eternity
· BTW: Muslim’s Allah & our God are not the same!
§ Hindus
· Creation occurs & re-occurs forever; came from pre-existing materials
· Evil & sin are the gods’ problems because they were part of creation
· Karma & reincarnation; finally joining the impersonal deity, Brahman
§ Buddhists (an offshoot of Hinduism)
· There are no teachings on creation & no God—not important
· Suffering is the cause of all human problems
o Caused by ignorance & a wrongful desire of things
· Continual cycle of birth & rebirth—reincarnation
o Eventually you will reach nirvana & an end to personal suffering
§ Mormons
· God was a man like us—worked his way up to become a god & created his own universe
o Jesus is not god; Book of Mormon is actually as great or greater than the Bible
· Do not believe in original sin; Adam & Eve just made a choice, although not the best choice
· Jesus is not God, so his death meant nothing special
o Each of us can become a god by doing good works
o Christian view of salvation is foreign to them
o And you can even pray your dead family members into a higher level of heaven (there are 3 heavens)
o Even us non-Mormons go to heaven because there is no hell
· And again, Mormon god & our God are not the same
· These are the world’s main religions
o I hope you see their worldviews are not compatible with the Christian worldview
o All religions do not lead to the same place
o When you see a “Coexist” bumper sticker on someone’s car, you can rest assured they do not know what they are talking about
· But there are other worldviews
o Humanism, or secular humanism, is a worldview—let’s ask our 3 questions of it
§ Either the world been here forever, or it came together by chance before evolution took over
§ All thinking is relative—what is truth for you is not necessarily truth for me
· We can be ethical and moral on our own as we continue to evolve & become better—it’s just that many choose not to be good
§ We have all the ability we need to become a better person inside ourselves
· The gospel according to Oprah
o Another one: Environmentalism
§ Same beginnings as the humanist view
§ Man has destroyed Mother Earth
§ Absolute shutdown of all fossil fuels & anything they see as harmful
o One more: Socialism
§ Not important as long as it wasn’t credited to God
§ Rich people & corporations taking advantage of poor & working class
§ Government alone is set up to oversee wealth distribution
o All of these are religions—humanism, environmentalism, socialism
§ Both have something they worship—either themselves/man or the planet
§ Both have strict rules you must follow to be considered a follower
o Lots of religions with their own gods—sports, another person (no grandchildren!)
· I hope you see by now that what you believe is important
o It determines your outlook on life
o Do I have a hope?
o Is there life after this world?
· You cannot float through life not ever considering what you believe and what determines how you make decisions
o Your life depends on this—your eternity depends on this!
o Your family & friends depend on you telling them this, too
· We are in a spiritual battle
o Joshua 5—we must be on the Lord’s side
o We’ve got an important election coming up
§ I’m not going to tell you how to vote
§ You honor God’s name with your vote—we are to be involved w/ our government
o But there’s an even bigger battle going on—the battle for the souls of your kids & your grandkids
§ Satan & the world are coming after them
§ And they are eating our lunch
o Adrian Rogers said…
§ There are about 200M Christians (or who claim to be) in US
· Approximately 10M atheists/humanists/agnostics
§ But almost all public education is taught from a humanist perspective
§ Why? The minority has convinced our court system that our education system should be religion-neutral
· God is active in all our history, but we must teach it as if He doesn’t exist
§ This is one of those areas that should not be religion-neutral
· I’ll let my kids decide for themselves about God when they get older
· The same parents would not allow their children to decide about brushing their teeth until they got older
· How many kids would decide to go to school on their own?
· But we allow other people decide what’s best for our kids
· When it comes to faith & God, faith-neutral becomes anti-faith/anti-God
o Our worldview touches all parts of our lives
§ We cannot separate Sunday from Monday-Saturday
§ We cannot live & let live & wait for the Rapture
o What do we do?
§ We do our homework—what does God require of me as His follower
§ America is not going to be won by arguments—we’re not called upon to out-argue the devil—not by the ballot box, although we absolutely need to vote
§ It’s going to take a lifestyle of godly people who know the truth and walk humbly before their God
§ You know what the media & the world think about us
· They call us hate-mongers
· They call us narrow minded
· They call us bigoted
· They call us insensitive
· And the problem many times is that we react to that with angry rhetoric, and it escalates on both sides
§ James 1:19-20 says, “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry,” (and then, here’s the key) “for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life God desires.”
§ They may badmouth us, they will talk about us, they will criticize us, they will call us all kinds of names; but we’ve got to live out our faith in front of them
· We’ve got to out-love them
· We’ve got to out-pray them
· We’ve got to out-give them
· Why? Because of the faith & hope we have in Jesus Christ
· And some of them will look at us, and they will say, “They are different! Tell me about the hope that is in you.”
§ May I ask you a question? (Don’t answer it out loud) But has anybody ever asked you to explain your life?
· Has anybody ever come to you and said, “Hey! I don’t understand you. You are different. Would you tell me about it?”
· If we’re living under the lordship of Christ & if our worldview is solid, people will be watching us, and might even ask us for an explanation of our lifestyle, and we will be able to tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ
· Classic example of that: Acts 16
o Paul and Silas were in prison for preaching the Gospel
o They had been beaten
o They were put down in the bottom of that prison, with the sewage, the vermin, the rats, the roaches
o Their backs showed the signs of the beatings
o They are in chains
o It’s midnight, and the Bible says they’re praying and singing praises to God
o The jailer—he’d often heard cursing, but not praising; he’d often heard moaning, but not singing—he could not understand it
o He brought a light and came in after God sent an earthquake into that jail, and he asked this question of them: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
o Why? He saw a difference in Paul and Silas
o I hope that people can see a difference in my lifestyle, and yours
o I hope people that know you can say, “He has a hope! She has a hope! And I need that same hope!
o There must be something evident in our lives—love
§ If we’re against abortion—and we are—then we have to ask ourselves, “What are we doing to help? How are we helping young, pregnant women?”
§ We believe in the permanency of marriage—and we do—but what kind of a church are we to those who have experienced the trauma of divorce and broken homes—some by their own choosing and some not by their choosing
· If we don’t have a church with open arms to people who’ve had broken marriages, we are off track
· These people are hurting!
· They don’t need to be pushed further down
· They need to be loved
§ We ought to be opposed to the homosexual agenda and the homosexual lifestyle, but do we have open hearts and open arms to those of the homosexual community, that we might tell them about Jesus, and Jesus can radically, dramatically, eternally transform people?
§ We have to be very careful that we love hurting people, not drive them away
§ Hurt people hurt people—we need to understand that
§ They need the love of Jesus Christ, and people need to know about our church—not only what we’re against, but more importantly what we’re for
§ The world is looking for some answers
§ We need a Christian worldview that is backed up by a Christian lifestyle
o Dr. Bill Bennett, former Secretary of Education, has given some statistics:
§ In the last thirty years in America:
· Violent crime has increased 560 percent—I said, 560 percent
· Illegitimate births, 400 percent
· The divorce rate has quadrupled
· Children living in single parent homes has increased 300%
· Teen suicide has increased 200 percent
· At least 600k abortions every year (50/week here in Little Rock)
§ And people are wanting to know, “Is there an answer?”
· And I’m here to tell you this morning that there is an answer, and you and I have it—it’s Jesus Christ
o In the Cultural Revolution in China in the late 1940’s, the Communists took over
§ One of the first things they did in the Cultural Revolution was to close churches
§ Their buildings were turned into warehouses
§ Crosses that were found on Christian graves were chiseled off
§ Pastors were either killed or put in prison
§ Everyone was forced to pledge their allegiance to the dictator--those who wouldn’t, their legs were broken below the knees
§ This was to be a massive revolution, and the church was to be put out of business.
§ Everyone said, “The church in China will die”
§ During that period of time when the Cultural Revolution came to China, when it began, there were one half million Christians
§ Today, it is estimated that there are between fifty and one hundred million Christians in China
§ Why? Because those people who suffer for their faith know, without a doubt, what they believe & who they believe in and others see that difference, even in all the persecution
o What does their example tell us?
§ You are personal representatives of the Lord Jesus, and you/we need to live like it
§ We know who is in control—it’s not the Democrats or the Republicans
§ God Almighty, creator of the Universe, the creator of you and me is in control, no matter what the circumstances may show!
o So I’m calling you, Trinity Baptist Church, to a Christian worldview that’s backed up by a Christian lifestyle
§ Our job is not ultimately to save America
§ Our 1st responsibility is not to preserve our freedoms, as important as they are
§ Our prime responsibility is to stand up for Christ and witness to this world of His grace and His power, to say it and mean it: “Jesus is Lord!”
§ Our citizenship is in heaven, not here—we are just passing through here for a short time, on our way to something/somewhere much better (Phil. 3:20)
o Let’s pray: Father, thank You for Your Word. And, Lord God, I pray, as we study together a Christian worldview, that You’ll help us to be prepared to go from this place and stand up as soldiers of the cross. Amen!
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