Understanding and Living a Biblical Worldview | Transform Your Life with God’s Truth

[0:00] Right, tonight we're talking about the worldview, biblical worldview, and understanding and living it.! I'm going to go through some definitions and some concepts. There's not going to be a lot of scripture tonight, unfortunately, but it's more about just the concepts and a framework that is based on the scriptures.

[0:18] It's biblical, but it's not going to be a lot of biblical verses tonight. Just to open up things, everyone has a worldview. We've all got our own way of looking at the world, making sense of life, and what you believe governs your life.

[0:35] A biblical worldview is vital to discern reality, to shape values, set priorities, and make decisions that line up with God's truth.

[0:46] You see the concept there that we all look through a different lens, if you like, a different way of looking at things.

[0:57] And so worldview determines culture. So there's a quote here that's talking about how culture is not a reflection of our race, ethnicity, politics, language, heritage.

[1:09] It's an outworking of a person's creed. In other words, it's what we believe. What we believe, we live out. And it shows in culture. And if a culture begins to change, it's not because of fads, fashions, or the passing of time. It's because of a shift in the worldview. A change of faith, basically.

[1:33] And this pyramid puts it that at the base there you've got the worldview, what do I believe? Then what follows on, what goes next, is the values, what's important to me. And then at the top, behavior. What choices then do I make?

[1:53] So worldview, values, behavior. And then you could even put culture as well as the ultimate. That basically what we believe makes us have values. And then those values impact what behavior we have.

[2:09] And if there's enough of us, well that becomes a culture of the nation. A worldview. Now you could look at this glass and what would you think? Is that half empty or half full?

[2:21] Depends whether you're an optimist or a pessimist. So they both look at the same thing. It's like, you know, we're all looking at the same things, but we all have a different perspective, a different view.

[2:33] And so someone would look at that glass and say, well that's half empty. Some would say, well that's half full. It's still the same glass. It's about the perception that we have, isn't it? About identical things.

[2:46] So every person needs a focus for life. And without a set of reference points, it's impossible to make sense of life circumstances.

[2:57] So a worldview gives us that frame of reference. And we all operate from some kind of worldview. In other words, we've all got our own opinion about what life is and how we go about life. We've all got our perceptual filter. We're all filtering things. Like wearing different glasses, if you like.

[3:13] Different glasses. And we all look through those different glasses and it tints our vision. Or it's like a map that guides our path. And so for Christians, a biblical worldview is what we need.

[3:27] To answer life's fundamental questions. And without that, we haven't got the roadmap. A biblical worldview is based on the Word of God. God's revelation through Scripture.

[3:40] And it gives us that lens for navigating life's complexities. And life's fundamental questions such as we have here. Where did we come from? Why are we here? How should we live? What happens after death?

[3:58] Fundamental questions. And really, every worldview's got to grapple with those. What of our nation? What of the Western world of this time?

[4:11] The statistics are really bad about how we're drifting away from Bible truth. And there's a researcher called George Barner. And he's done some surveys.

[4:25] And these are figures that we could say it's probably much the same in Australia. These are American statistics. So, and they're alarming. There's a crisis.

[4:37] There's a drifting away from Bible truth, from a Bible worldview. And so, some 6 to 9% of born-again Christians have a biblical worldview.

[4:50] Fewer than 0.5% of young adults. So, really the younger generation has got hardly any kind of Bible worldview. Only 4% of American adults. And only 51% of American pastors.

[5:05] So, even pastors don't even have the biblical worldview. Of all people, surely they would have a biblical worldview. Like that their understanding and views and their mindset would be shaped by Scripture.

[5:19] But sadly, not. It's a real crisis. So, it's really bad. And the trend is actually getting worse. Here's what Barner put out as far as the decline in worldview.

[5:32] Biblical worldview in each generation. It's getting worse and worse. And so, this is quite alarming. This is what is going on. In other words, it's telling us that there's a whole lot of biblical illiteracy.

[5:45] People don't know what the Bible teaches. Or they don't care. Or they're just, you know, it's just not impacting how they live. And it's a dreadful statistic, really. It's a crisis.

[5:56] So, consider today, we want to look at this concept of what is a worldview. And what is particularly a biblical worldview. And how does that translate into how I live?

[6:10] And living, ideally, living intentionally to the glory of God. In a world that is pretty much going downhill. It's going far, far away from God.

[6:21] Far, far away from the Bible. It's deceived by the enemy. And so, we ought to be the radicals for Christ. But the world needs us who believe in the Bible to live it out and actually intentionally apply it.

[6:34] And one scripture definitely tonight is this one here. And Romans 12, 2 tells us, of course, in the context that we should be living sacrifices.

[6:45] And Paul says, Rather than conform to the world and its godless, far from God ways, we ought to be having our mind renewed by God.

[7:08] And wanting to know his will and live it out. The good, perfect, acceptable will of God. So, let's look at defining a worldview.

[7:19] So, it's point number one. A worldview. It's a framework of belief. It's a foundational set of beliefs that shape how we perceive and interact with life.

[7:33] It's a set of presuppositions or assumptions by which we make sense of life and the world. So, again, if you like, it's like putting on glasses.

[7:44] It's like a different set of lenses that we put on our eyes. And, for example, if you wear sunglasses, obviously it colours your vision. And we see things differently because of what we wear.

[7:58] And it's that mindset. As we look through the lenses, if you like, of scripture. So, actually look at life through God's point of view. From God's perspective. It's different from those who wear atheistic eyeglasses.

[8:12] It's also a map and a compass. So, we can go through life and have direction. We know what life means. We've got God's way.

[8:24] His leading. And you can also compare it to being like a puzzle. Like a picture puzzle. And it helps life's pieces fit together. Our experiences, ideas and decisions.

[8:37] It helps make sense of life. So, we have got a full picture. Worldview acts to explain reality.

[8:51] When we look at life and the world. We've got God's perspective. We've got something more than those without the Lord. We've got meaning there.

[9:03] To life. And it guides our actions too. There's a quote there. The way you view reality controls the way you live. So, when we actually know.

[9:14] Well, actually we've been created with a purpose. And with a design. And for the glory of God. It affects how we live. It follows on. So, we see that our beliefs affect our decisions.

[9:26] And our decisions affect our outcomes. How we live. Why do you believe what you believe? It's interesting that a person's worldview is generally formed by the age of 13.

[9:38] And of course we know as a 13 year old. How much do you know? Not a lot really in the scheme of life's learnings. But it goes to show that as a younger person.

[9:51] As someone 13. That they're very impressionable. And by the time they get to 13. They've pretty much made their mind up on a lot of things. And so they're learning from parents.

[10:03] From peers. From school. And the culture. There's constant barrage of culture, isn't it? Media. And you can see how vulnerable a young person can be.

[10:14] So, God help us reach the people that are younger. Because they do say that generally a person trusts Christ when they're in that age set. When they're in the younger years.

[10:26] It's harder when you get older to trust Christ. It seems less common for people to trust Christ the older they get. And you think about all the information that teenagers get now.

[10:38] From all kinds of media. From schools and culture. And so we can see how in the table there it talks about how we get to believe what we believe.

[10:50] There's all kinds of factors. Who we hang around with. Our parents. Our friends. Our culture. Psychological reasons. Like the choices we make in life.

[11:02] Whether we're impacted by religion. Or philosophy. Ideally we're impacted by Bible truth. That's ideally what we would hope. That's why we care about reaching young people in this church.

[11:14] We really count that as an important thing. That we should put energy into that. And invest in that. Our resources. As a church. Next one. This fellow George Barna.

[11:25] He's this researcher. He's quite a renowned researcher. And he makes the point that. Most people's world views are a collection of fragmented ideals mindlessly adopted from pop culture.

[11:37] Pop culture. So. Doesn't sound that hopeful does it. So in other words. All these impressions we get growing up. As an impressionable. 13 year old. Or.

[11:48] Either side of it. It's like the culture. Is impacting and making us think. You know. Obviously. If we start. Tuning into. An evolutionary school teacher.

[11:59] Okay. Well that's the truth. And that's how I'm going to set my path. They're mindlessly adopting. All kinds of ideas. And everyone makes up their own kind of.

[12:10] World view. But in contrast. Varna puts out the biblical world view. So this is what he would. Kind of. List as some of the main things about. What is a Bible.

[12:21] World view. That there are absolutes. And the Bible defines them. That Christ lived a sinless life. That God is the all powerful. All knowing creator.

[12:32] Of the universe. And he still rules today. And. Salvation. Is by grace. Not by works. And Satan. Is a real being. And Christians have a responsibility.

[12:43] To witness. The Bible is accurate. In all of its teachings. So that's a Bible. Kind of. Biblical world view there. Be good to kind of. Let that sit with you. And think.

[12:54] That's what I believe. That's. That's what sets my. Agenda for life. And. As far as world views go. There's basically two of them. There's the cultural. Secular world view.

[13:05] Shaped by society. Romans 8. 7 talks about. The carnal mind. Is an enmity with God. Really. It's. At the heart of it.

[13:16] The cultural world view. Is. Essentially. Without God. God doesn't feature. And then you've got. The biblical world view. It's by divine revelation. God exists.

[13:27] And he's revealed his character. And his will. In his word. So you could further. Look at it. For example. Looking more deeper. As the table shows there.

[13:38] Of the secular world view. It's atheistic. There's no God. Or God's just some impersonal. Force. Not a personal God. Life. It's just an accidental.

[13:50] Chemical interaction. We're just. Pretty much. Meaningless accidents. That have just happened. There's no purpose. To our existence. The earth. It's just been formed.

[14:01] Through random processes. It's just come about. Without any design. Or purpose to it. And humans are the highest. Evolved animals. You're just a higher form. Of an ant.

[14:12] You're just. That's as. As much value. As that you have. You've got no inherent. Purpose. And you're accountable. To no one. There's no God. To answer to. And really.

[14:23] There's really no hope. Beyond your present. Experience. Live it up. Drink it up. Um. Jazz it up. And. And die. And that's the end of it. That's.

[14:34] It's over. That's. That's the hope. That's the secular worldview. That's what. Most of humanity. Believes. But in contrast to that. You see the biblical worldview. God exists.

[14:45] And he's personal. And life originated with him. The earth was created. By God. As. Our home. Men and women.

[14:58] Are made in God's own image. For a divine purpose. And plan. And. We're accountable to God. We're answerable to him. And.

[15:09] As a wonderful eternal hope. He offers eternal life. For those who trust in him. You can see the contrast there. Of the. Basically meaningless.

[15:20] Secular worldview. And then. Purposeful. Biblical worldview. You could look more into. A worldview to say. Well. Basically it's built on two things.

[15:31] There's a narrative. Like a story. Like this core story. And then there's. Questions that flow out of that. So for example. The. Foundational narrative.

[15:42] Of. Genesis. We're created. For a reason. For a purpose. And the whole book. Right through. And the ultimate. Outcome. Of heaven.

[15:53] And. There's a reason to living. And. That's the narrative of the Bible. That core story. And. God's redemption plan. That's the narrative. And then flowing out of that.

[16:06] The answers to last questions. Actually. Fall out of that. So you see the story. Of the cosmos. In the Bible. We see the story of the cosmos. The universe.

[16:17] The world. The whole. Shebang. The whole universe. The story of the cosmos. And our place in it. So it answers the questions then. Where are we?

[16:28] We're part of this. Huge. Cosmic plan of God. And we're just a microscopic little piece of dust in it all. But. Yet we have a place in it. Isn't it? Who are we?

[16:39] We've got identity and purpose. But then we know. Actually. It's not as perfect as. We would like it to be. What's gone wrong? What's. What's the problem? And as we talked about last week.

[16:51] The problem of evil. The problem of sin. Isn't it? Of brokenness. Because of the fall of mankind. Then we see. What's the remedy? It's the cross. Isn't it? The redemption in Christ.

[17:02] The restoration. That we have. It all kind of. Hangs together. The story. Of God's creation. Our place in it. And all of these. Questions that we want answers to.

[17:15] Fall out of that. That's the biblical world view. All of those big questions. Are answered. Because of. The biblical world view. Could think. Further.

[17:26] As. Others have put these similar kind of questions. And. These are from different sources. So they. Put it differently. And they use some. Kind of. More technical words. Which.

[17:37] You could. Take note of. Or just ignore. But. If you look. More so. At the questions there. And. We're on the. On the part B. Big questions.

[17:48] World views address universal questions. Drawing from this narrative. This story. So. Theological. Who is God? And what is he like? Where do we get the answer for that? The Bible.

[17:59] What is real? What is truth? Why is something here? Why is there the universe? And then. Anthropological. Which means. Man.

[18:10] The study of man. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? The story of Adam. It's. It's the Bible. Isn't it? Tells us all of those things. And then. Ethical.

[18:21] Questions. Should I live? In the light of all that. What is beauty? What is virtue? What is actually a good thing? The Bible tells us what's good. And what's not so good.

[18:32] And. History. The whole purpose of history. It's. From Genesis 1 verse 1. Isn't it? History. It's all. Delivered to us in the book.

[18:44] The book of God. The Bible. And then. The question of. The question of. Soteriology. Which is. Essentially the doctrine of salvation. How can I be saved?

[18:55] That's all answered in this book. The Bible. It's. Biblical. World view. And. Another big question.

[19:06] Really. Is. Who is. Jesus. Jesus. So every world view. Has got to answer that. And grapple with that. Because. Really. He's the.

[19:17] The central figure. Of all of history. Isn't it? You know. People have put it. How. History. Is really. His. Story. It's.

[19:28] His. Story. History. It's Jesus. That's. That's. What it's all about. Isn't it? All things were made by. Jesus.

[19:39] By him. And. One day. He's coming. Our Lord is coming. Our Lord Jesus is coming. It wraps it all up. History is really Christ. And. Even.

[19:50] Non. Christian. Religions. Have got to. Really. They've got to confront. The historical figure. Of Christ. Who is Jesus? What did he claim? And.

[20:01] Are those claims true? Luke 9 20 says. But whom say ye. That I am. And. Peter answered. And saith unto him. The Christ.

[20:12] Of God. We've all got to grapple with the question. Who is Jesus? Because. Every major. World view. Has got to address this.

[20:23] Because of his global impact. Our calendar. It's his story. It's Jesus. Isn't it? B.C. A.D. It's Jesus in the middle.

[20:34] It's. Everything is Jesus really. Isn't it? And. We all have to ask these. Really big questions. If you like. You could boil it down to these.

[20:45] Five. But there's more. But you could think. Well. All of those. The answers for all of that. It's the Bible. It's the biblical narrative. It's.

[20:56] The biblical world view. That makes sense of all of that. And we all ask these big questions. What is the meaning of life? Why am I here? Where did I come from? Where am I going after this life?

[21:07] Is there absolute truth? Can we define our own truth? Who defines morality? Is it subjective? There's people out there that have different values. And some of those values are quite contrary to biblical values.

[21:22] They've got their morality. Just to use one example. Like they say that. You know. Driving a car is immoral. Because you're polluting.

[21:34] You're damaging the climate. Some countries are going to get warmer. And disappear into the ocean. Because you're driving a car. With. That's using petrol. Or diesel. So. That's.

[21:45] That's the greatest moral challenge. Of our day. Said one of our prime ministers. Is climate change. But who defines morality? It's not about any of that stuff. Whether that's even true or not.

[21:56] It's actually God defines morality. And. So all of these things. It all flows out. Ideally out of a. Biblical worldview. These are the big questions. We need answers to.

[22:07] And the Bible answers them. It gives us those clear authoritative answers that we need. All of those questions about. As we looked at. Their origin. Identity.

[22:18] Meaning. Purpose. Morality. Destiny. It's all answered. Life's biggest questions. The behavior. Isn't it? Is pretty abhorrent.

[22:29] Isn't it? Isn't it?

[22:43] The behaviour is pretty abhorrent, isn't it?

[22:56] The further people get away from God, the beliefs translate into values, what we count as important, what is valuable, ethics. And then the ethics, the values, translate into behaviour, what we do.

[23:10] At the heart of it, at the start of it, is the worldview, isn't it? It's the worldview. If that is right, then the beliefs will be right, the values will be right, the behaviour will be right.

[23:23] Hopefully you're getting that picture here. So again, as we could illustrate further, what is really real? God is the ultimate reality. What is good and right?

[23:34] God tells us that. Morality, it's not subjective, like what I think is moral or immoral is different from you. Well, actually, it's what the Bible says.

[23:45] That tells us what's moral and what's immoral. What's good and right is what the Bible says. It's not subjective, it's objective. And it's God's character. What can we know?

[23:56] That truth is knowable. That we can know the truth. You can know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And what does everything come from? The origins. Actually being created for a purpose.

[24:09] And all of creation, from John 1, verse 1, in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. All things were made by Him.

[24:19] Without Him was not anything made that was made. In Genesis 1, verse 1, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And we see origins. We're created.

[24:31] There's something fundamentally different about you and me. That we are made in God's image. And then what's wrong with the world? Fundamentally it's sin, isn't it? Is the main problem. Maybe there's other problems.

[24:43] Maybe the climate is a problem. Maybe it's not. Maybe this is a problem. This is not. But what is mostly, essentially wrong with the world, it's sin at the hearts of it. But that's what is the issue.

[24:55] And God gives us the answer. So these are life's biggest questions. What's the meaning of life? It's to know God. To love Him. To glorify God. That's the meaning of life. That's what we hear.

[25:06] Where is everything headed? The Bible talks about how the history is linear in the sense that it's got a start and it's got a purpose.

[25:17] There's something happening. There's something yet to come. It's progressive. It's not. In some religions it's kind of cyclical. We just get reincarnated.

[25:28] Just have another go at it. No. History is. We're headed to something. And there's the end times. Eschatology. Like Christ's return ultimately. And what does it mean to be human?

[25:39] That we're made in God's image. But yet we know there's a problem. We're fallen. What is the meaning of male and female? Wow. Wow. I mean.

[25:50] I just heard in the UK they've actually said that someone who's physically born a certain gender. Well that's their gender. Well duh. I mean. The Bible tells us that God made them male and female in the beginning.

[26:03] I mean. There's no. There's no in between or moving from one to the other or vice versa. We're designed as God's creation. We made as male and female.

[26:15] We purposefully made that way. So don't mess with God's design. You'll foul it up. That who is Christ? He's the creator. The king. The saviour.

[26:26] And what is the nature of the unseen realm? There's actually spiritual realities that are happening. There is something beyond what we can see. And the Bible shows us all of that.

[26:37] It unpacks all of that for us. Moving on to the next section. Number three. The biblical world view. It's a God-centered framework. That we've got a final authority.

[26:48] We've actually got an absolute authority. We've got a book that we can count on 100%. It's the word of God. It's God's authority. It's not culture or tradition or impressions or human reasonings or philosophies or the fickle ideas and fads and philosophies of men.

[27:06] But it's in an absolute objective book. The Bible. And a biblical world view is derived from the Bible. God's revelation in scripture.

[27:17] Creation. The law that's written on our heart. And this belief that we can know God. Personally know him. As sovereign Lord. As creator. We're made in his image but we've fallen.

[27:29] And there's objective truth on how we can interact with God and know God and know his saving and know our sin problem resolved in Christ.

[27:42] And so it's a God-centered framework for living, isn't it? There's fundamental assumptions that you could count from the biblical world view. You could put it down to a couple that really stand out.

[27:56] Jesus is king. He's got all authority. In heaven and earth. And someone has declared there's not one square inch that Jesus Christ does not cry out, this is mine.

[28:07] And he's got lordship and kingship. Of course for the moment there's some temporary assumed kingship and godship with a small g. The God of this world has got temporary rule of sorts.

[28:22] But it's all under God's ultimate hand. And then we see the second point that God's word is true. And that Christ is the way, the truth and the life. He's the exclusive way to God.

[28:32] And his word guides us for life. So these are foundational assumptions. A couple of critical things to think through. And then we think as a biblical world view. It's like you're looking at life with, as I keep mentioning, of these lenses on your eyes like the set of glasses.

[28:50] And the glasses, if you like, are God's word. So when we look at life, we look at life with that understanding, hey, God's word interprets that for me, what that means.

[29:01] We're looking through the eyes of Jesus as well, through his eyes of love and grace and kindness, that ideally Christ's nature would be evident through us.

[29:12] And how we interact with others, we'll actually be looking at others as living souls, as people for whom Christ died. And it might help us treat people differently. And we'll treat them with love, with grace and kindness, because we're looking at them through the eyes of Jesus.

[29:26] And we'll think about the perspective of the kingdom of God, of its culture, of its customs and laws. As much as we're living in Aussie culture and Aussie governance, ultimately we're under God's governance.

[29:40] And we're looking at things through the eyes of our Heavenly Father, eyes of righteousness and holiness and justice. So why is a biblical world view important? Why does it matter?

[29:51] It should be such that it shapes how we live, how we see truth and morality, behaviour, values, politics, purpose, perception.

[30:06] We see how we perceive God and humanity, reality and eternity, shapes our character, how we react to and interact with the world. We can think of the present time as we're about to go into an election.

[30:24] Okay? And you might have different views from me on this and that. And we all can see things differently as to what we might prioritise, who we would vote for. But I put to you, it'd be good to have that lens, that worldview.

[30:36] Actually, it'd be good for me to have someone who actually believes the same as I believe on fundamental things. on fundamental things. I'd like to see them represent me rather than someone who doesn't, who has a contrary view to me, who actually doesn't care about biblical values and biblical principles, biblical morality.

[31:00] I'd rather choose someone who's going to represent what I would want, if I was sat in that chair representing, that I would want that person to be in that chair.

[31:10] And that would dictate then, well, as much as I might always vote with a certain colour or a certain, how my family's always voted, well, actually, that doesn't matter. It matters what are they going to be saying and speaking for, what are they going to be legislating and making laws about.

[31:28] And I'd want that person to be the one that gets my vote. And so it impacts all of those kind of things, doesn't it? It's important. It's how we react to and interact with the world.

[31:39] And the creation, fall, redemption narrative, it makes sense of life. When you think about it, as we see listed here, we've got a personal God.

[31:51] He's eternal, omniscient, all-knowing, omnipotent, all-powerful. He's holy and He's loving. He's created everything. Ex nihilo, which means out of nothing, God created everything.

[32:04] And it reflects His glory. And then we see that we humans are made in His image. That's something really special. And we've given all of these characteristics of reason, of emotion, of creativity, of will, of conscience, and we're tasked with glorifying God.

[32:20] So all of these things, it falls out of that story, that account of creation, the creation account, that right view of theology of God, of the cosmos, of the world, of anthropos, of humankind.

[32:35] It actually all makes sense. It makes sense. It all fits together. We see also the story of creation, of Genesis. It tells us the sad reality that we're all subject to the outcome of the fall, the fall of mankind.

[32:51] Adam sinned. He took the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve's rebellion that caused such havoc and ruin and the plight that we're in now that all have sinned.

[33:02] And we see the misery of it. And even the ones in the Word of God that were used of God, King David, a man after God's own heart, we see he had to cry out, you know, restore unto me the joy of my salvation.

[33:16] And he confessed his sin in Psalm 51. And he was broken up because of his adultery and of his sin. Even the best of men and the greatest of men are still subject to sin.

[33:32] And then we see the problem of evil is just wider than that too. So the book of God, the Bible, makes sense of all of this. Others miss that. Other religions don't have this truth.

[33:44] Actually, that's the reason this stuff isn't how it ought to be. It's because of the fall. And then we see the redemption as well. Part of that narrative, that story, the account of salvation, Christ's death, burial, resurrection, the atonement provision, provision of redemption, provision of salvation by God's grace, his kindness, undeserved.

[34:06] And promise of a deliverer, the exclusive way to salvation. One way, one truth, one life, one way to the Father. And then that history is linear. Like it's moving from the account of creation right through to the ultimate conclusion.

[34:24] And we see it's all part of God's story, God's account. And Revelation 21, one day it's going to come when there'll be no more crying, there'll be no more tears, there'll be no more death, no more sorrow.

[34:38] And all things will be made new. And we'll see his face. And it'll all be understood. For the meantime, we see that we're still as aliens and strangers.

[34:55] We're strangers and pilgrims. And we're living on this earth as really we're just camping out. I know some of the men had to camp out. Look, really, this little place called earth is just, we're just camping out for a few days, because really our home's yet to come.

[35:16] And God will renew creation. He's going to make a new heaven and a new earth. Oh, this makes sense because there's a biblical worldview that actually I understand.

[35:28] Yeah, it's all part of the narrative, the story, the account of God's truth, of his word. And it really answers all the big questions of life, doesn't it? That life originated with God.

[35:40] We've got identity. Actually, one of the fundamental things for you as a believer is that your identity, you can say, I identify.

[35:51] Yeah, I identify as a Christian. All right. I identify as a son of God, as one made in the image of God. You can say that and believe that, that you're designed for fellowship with him.

[36:05] You've got identity. And it's an identity that's really, it's eternally meaningful, isn't it? That we could be called. As many as received him, to them, gave you the power to become the sons of God, the children of God, even to them that believe on his name.

[36:22] So you've got identity. You've got meaning and purpose to glorify God in the meantime and then ultimate glory in heaven. That morality is guided for you in his word.

[36:36] It's explained to you. You've got objective standards. God says, thou shalt not. And God says, thou shalt. And you know, there's morality there and we see there's destiny there.

[36:50] That hope, that promise, that assurance of eternal life. So the big questions are all answered for us. And the significance there of this world view is for the meantime, for the present, this world that we're living in is, you could call it a prison planet.

[37:09] It's in this undesirable state at the moment where Satan has turned everything upside down. All right? In Acts, it talks about when the Christians came to town, the ones who've turned everything upside down.

[37:21] The ones who've turned the world upside down have come to town because they could see the counter-cultural as Christians. It's topsy-turvy. It's a topsy-turvy world that we live.

[37:32] That where Satan calls that right that is wrong and that wrong that is right. He calls darkness light. He calls sweet bitter.

[37:44] It's Isaiah 5 verse 20. So he's saying that the world would say that black is white and white is black. That right is wrong and wrong is right.

[37:57] So when a Christian gets up, like in the UK, there's different stories, little snippets that I've seen where there might be an open-air preacher or someone protesting at an abortion clinic saying, hey, actually, that's, I'll just beseech you not to do that out of love and kindness, not in a cantankerous, argumentative, spiteful, hurtful way, but just simply declaring, urging people to come to Christ, urging people to write choices about certain things and the world would lock them up, shut them away, stop them, muzzle them, find them, imprison them because the world doesn't like the truth, it's against the truth and we're in a world where Satan's deception is so manifest and that's the kind of worldview, that we have a contrary worldview to the world.

[38:58] You could think of these questions when you think about your worldview, the Bible makes sense of all of that, all of those things but the world doesn't know the answers because it doesn't have the Bible worldview, it doesn't have the biblical worldview.

[39:15] So you can see on page 5 there there's a whole list of them, I'll just quickly touch through without maybe laboring it, but you see the naturalist worldview, the secular worldview, the universe started with a big bang, we've all evolved accidentally and life is about my rules and just this fleeting happiness, no accountability, there's no God to answer to they would think.

[39:43] Then you see the pantheistic new age kind of worldview that everything is God, the physical world is an illusion, there's no personal God, so they detach from reality, just go sit in a corner, they go om and sit at the feet of some guru or some nirvana kind of spaced out kind of view and basically there's no hope for them.

[40:10] Then you have the post-modern view, reality and truth are subjective, so just do whatever you want to do, if it feels good do it, that's the kind of idea of the world isn't it, morality is personal or cultural, just subjective, it's all relative, just do what you want, you've got your truth and I've got mine, let's just all just meander down into nothingness, confusion and despair, that's post-modernism, you know, Christian theism is the truth, it's the Bible truth, it's the biblical world view, God's created a good world, sin has caused brokenness, Christ offers redemption, history is moving towards renewal, God's going to sort it all out, the ultimate plan is in his hands and that you can have a God who's personal and you can know truth, that's objective, that's black and white and red, if you've got the words of Christ in red, it's black and white and red, the word of God and truth is objective, it's in his word and morality is grounded in

[41:14] God's character, you've got hope, purpose and accountability, you've got Christ's redemption, so that's the contrast, all those wishy-washy views of naturalism, humanism, evolution, pantheism, post-modernism, then you've got the biblical world view, it actually makes sense, it makes sense of everything, it makes it all clear, the cultural world view is shaped by society forces and it's just based on prioritising comfort, hey it's about who's got the most toys, if you die with the most toys you've been successful in life, you're still dead, you're still in the ground and if you don't know Christ you're in hell and so it's vain isn't it, the cultural world view, it misses the whole point that the self is not the arbiter of truth, it's not about you making your own mind about what's right and wrong, it's whether you know God, it's whether you know Christ, it's whether his word sets the truth for you, because that is the truth, it's not about the culture, and yet sadly the syncretism, which means they're kind of blending, so some people would say well

[42:25] I'll have a bit of the Bible and I'll have a bit of the worldly culture too, kind of mix it all together and just have a bit of a mishmash of I'll take a bit of the you-centred spirituality, you know you've got some churches where it's all about the you and your best life now, they would tell you, and it's like I'll have a bit of feel good, a bit of prosperity, a bit of you know Christians can pretty much do what they like and just tag a little bit of Christianity onto your sin and just go along with this consumer Christianity, where it's just trying to blend it all together, a feelings based faith, it's all sensuality, not much scripture to it, not much biblical truth to it, and it's kind of blending of self-help, when you see some of these churches they're almost like they're, you know, these self-help gurus, you know, it almost sounds like they're a coach, a life coach kind of guy, like a Tony Robbins, but they just put a few

[43:26] Christian words here and there, splash that around to make it sound Christian, when really it's very superficial, kind of a mishmash, it's very light on the scriptures, very light on spiritual truth, and it's all about positive thinking and psychology and positive talk, that kind of thing, so there's syncretism where there's this real light kind of consumer Christianity where they're kind of, they're demeaning the gospel, if the gospel's even there, and that's a big problem, and we know in the word of God it talks about the church at Laodicea, that they said, oh we're rich, we've got lots of goods, we've got, everything's going for us, we're a kind of, you know, far reaching kind of church, but the Lord is standing outside and knocking at the door, Christ is knocking at the door and he's saying, yeah, what's going on here, you're lukewarm, I'm going to spear you out of my mouth, so the syncretism, it kind of demeans the gospel, takes away from it, and here's another table, you can see in your notes, you can read a bit more clearly there, but again, all of those questions,

[44:33] I won't labour it because I think we've gone over all this, but again, it's contrasting different religions and different philosophies, how they answer those fundamental questions, where did I come from, what's wrong with the world, is there a solution, what is my purpose, and you can see through the notes there, and for those that are online we'll put all this up for you and also we'll give you the link to the notes as well, but you can see there, all of those other religions, they fall short, they don't have the answers, or it's a very superficial answer, whereas the Bible gives us the answer, it tells us where we came from, we're created in the image of God, what's wrong with the world, it's sin, we're responsible, we're accountable, is there a solution, it's Christ, his atonement, his saving work of the cross, and what's my purpose, to do God's will, to live for the glory of God, all the other philosophies, don't cut it, next section, is seven consequences, of denying

[45:43] Jesus as creator, when you look at the biblical worldview, it tells us clearly, all things were made by him, without him was not anything made that was made, talking of Christ, the word, and all the other religions, they miss that, they don't honour Christ as the creator, and to reject Christ as creator, leads to chaos, there's no truth and authority there, there's a lack of foundation, of rationality, there's a loss of human dignity and destiny, the Bible says you are made in the image of God, you're an image bearer of God, you're someone very, very loved by God, you're someone who very much cares about, are very important to him, whereas the world would say, as Richard Dawkins says, you're a clump of cells, that's it, just a random getting together of different cells, and it strips men of their purpose and value, and all of those other things too, talked about there, relativises morality, objectifies sexuality, rejects God's design, it eliminates evangelistic effectiveness, because without a creator, without a need for a saviour, then salvation, who cares?

[47:20] And it damages Christian worship too, if we don't honour Christ as creator, it diminishes our awe of him, we ought to be in awe of him, our creator God. And that next section there, number six, living a biblical worldview, there's a technical term there, it means before the face of God, in other words, we ought to live our life, that we are living our life conscious of being under God's watch, that we are under God's eyes, that God is watching over us, and so our every aspect of life ought to be lived with that sense that we ought to glorify God, that God is watching me, then I ought to live conscious of that, conscious of that, in pursuing holiness, in thinking Christianly, in having obedience to

[48:20] God's word, that actually my whole life, my whole living, private and public, should be lived out in that conscious mind, that I'm living before the face of God, he's watching over me, so in the private sense there, and the next slide, in the public sense too, that we're engaging with culture, we're ambassadors for Christ, we're speaking for Christ, when we speak, people are watching us, and you are representing Christ, when you speak, when you're evangelising, when you're sharing the gospel, you've got something that, you're an advocate, you're a messenger, you're a representative of Christ to others, you're in Christ's stead, in his stead, in his place, appealing on his part, there's an accountability, that you care about fellowship, that there's a vocation too, that even our work can be a worship, fellowship, and you know, even like,

[49:27] I know some of you are in caring kind of jobs, hey that's ministry isn't it, when you're caring for a person with all of their personal needs, that you're serving them as Christ would serve someone, as someone who would wash our feet, as someone who would take care of us, whatever our pursuit, whatever our calling, whatever our work, we can do it as unto the Lord, Colossians 3 23, that what you do, you do it as unto the Lord, that you, as a servant you're serving, so you've got that work ethic there, actually I'm going to serve my employer as if Christ was my employer, because he is, so we do things as unto him, under the face of God, under his watch, under his supervision, and then we see also there's different kind of key areas that we're living under the watch of God, under his care, under his watchfulness, that we'll renew our mind as a person, we'll make conscious individual effort to renew our mind, that God helping us in our family relationships, we'll honour the Lord, and obey the scriptures, and in the church context too, that we'll be conscious of living it out, of being the church that he wants us to be, and then in our interaction with the world too, that we'll be living under his watch, and wanting to please him, because he's watching us, we want him to be pleased with what we do, and then we see this truth of that not only do we have a biblical worldview ourselves, but hey, we want others to have that, so ideally through,

[51:16] I know we've got the youth group this week ahead, we've got the children's program on the Sunday, there's ways that you can impact the next generation, you can shape others, to have that biblical worldview, hey, and as parents, especially too, parents, grandparents, that there's a sense where it's incumbent on us, you know, think about the truth that, as we've said before, age 13, then pretty much they're set for life, you know, get them early, you know, reach your children for Christ, be God helping you to be that parent, that you can reach your children, that you can shape that biblical worldview in others, and we see through the early church, they continued in the fellowship, the scriptures, they engaged in prayer together, and there's ways we can foster that biblical worldview in practical ways, and also engaging in contemporary issues too, because when we get the narrative right, when we get the story right, the biblical account of creation, when we understand, yeah,

[52:18] Genesis is the foundation of living, and Genesis through Revelation, the whole book really, the creation fall, redemption paradigm, like the story of God's creation and of his redemption story, it makes sense of everything, so when we're faced with questions as we are of these times, where they wonder what's a male and what's a female, well, God's design tells us what that is, sin can distort it all it likes, but that's the truth of it, and you can't change that, in the beginning God made them male and female, and we can use technology for the glory of God, we can ideally advocate in government, in ways of governance of our country, but we can actually make an influence, and when you think about it, if we can adopt a Christian worldview, it touches every area of life, you can't see it from where you're seated there, but you can see,

[53:19] I'll try to make it bigger on the vision, on the slideshow, but it impacts just about everything, the Christian worldview, it's not just impacting you and your immediate context, your relationships, but the whole of community, of your nation, of the whole of society and culture, there's a whole ripple effect of your biblical worldview, it touches every area of your life, and one of the big problems we've got is the fact is that we're living in a culture, in a world that really doesn't care about a biblical worldview, like we talked about even in churches, there's Christians who don't have a biblical worldview, they might be saved but they're just totally ignorant or biblically illiterate, that they just, they seem to miss the point on some fundamentals, and you see that especially when I've heard the stories I've heard lately about, and look, I'm not saying you've got to vote the way that I vote, alright, but surely you'd have some consideration about, actually that candidate believes that abortion can happen, you know, right through until the very last stages of the pregnancy, why would I consider voting for that person or the party that they are part of, for example, but the biblical illiteracy is so endemic that people don't get it, actually, that should strike a chord with me, no, that doesn't gel with me, why would I support that person, that candidate, but because biblical illiteracy and this lack of a biblical worldview is so prominent, people don't get it, and there's this complacency, they just want to choose comfort over obedience, they don't care about the things that really ought to matter,

[55:22] I mean, look at the numbers here tonight, it's a fraction of the church, that people are complacent, and then there's the compartmentalisation of life, where some would say, well, and some would put it as like a house picture, well, Jesus can have all of my house, but not that room, we compartmentalise life, you know, Jesus is Lord of my life, my house, but no, that's my space, that's the me time, that's me, that's my space, but Jesus doesn't impact that part of my life, that compartment of my life, but he wants to be Lord of our life, a whole lot of it, all of our life, all of our every dimension, compartment of our life, but some would compartmentalise and say, no, Christ isn't Lord of that part of my life, and then we see the lack of persecution, the Bible says that those who are going to live godly in Christ Jesus, they shall suffer persecution, where's the persecution?

[56:23] In Australia, maybe it's because we don't have a biblical world view, we're not actually living godly in Christ Jesus, otherwise we'd have more persecution, and then we see the isolation, people avoiding church fellowship, so that stunts their growth and their accountability, it's because the biblical world view is not there like it should be, and hey, this isn't to condemn people, but it's the reality, it's the, and we all ought to consider these things, and as much as we can watch online, sure enough, there's something about getting together, it's special, it's important, but there's a non-biblical world view that actually things have gone pretty slack, and then think about it as we talked about earlier about shaping the next generation, think about it, the world view is like an operating system, it's like your computer, it's got an operating system, and that's formed by the age of 13, and they say there's some 14,000 hours of secular education and media, hey, our children are barraged, especially if they've got screens going on at home, or they're down with their mates, their peer group, at the secular school, they're bombarded with hours and hours, 14,000 hours of secular education and media, it's probably more now when you've got the media in your pocket, haven't you, you think of the operating system that's formed by age 13, the Bible tells us as parents, train up a child,

[57:54] Proverbs 22 verse 6, train up a child in the way that he should go, a biblical worldview, friends, we've got a calling here for the next generation, parents, mums and dads, teach your children diligently, we've got to counter that culture, that godless culture, that devilish culture, this carnal culture that cares nothing for the truth of God, and we have no thought of a biblical worldview, actually there is meaning to life, and Christ is it, and can we model consistency too, as parents, as believers, for younger ones watching us, to live out our faith, think of these practical things that we can do, and think about the gospel's power as well, the power of the gospel, the biblical worldview is so important that we confront and resist the devil's lies, and that

[58:54] Christ's lordship and God's truth is what matters, that shapes our philosophy, guides our decisions, our emotions, our actions, and it's rooted in this concept that Christ is Lord, he's creator, he's the one that I submit to, and when we make decisions we're going to think biblically about them, and there's a whole lot of different things I came across, this is someone's work here, but when I actually I've got to make a decision, I'm going to think biblically about, what I'm going to decide, and put biblical principles front and centre, biblical values as the kind of launching pad for my decisions that I make, and biblical considerations before I decide something that I'm going to think biblically, and you could really consider that as believers, a cautionary note here, that we ought to avoid practical atheism, so in others, yeah,

[59:56] I'm a believer, I believe in God, but I'm living as if he doesn't exist, now we can say, oh, I'm a Christian, blah, blah, blah, blah, I'm a Christian, but do we actually stop and pray and think about, oh, should I think before I say that word or act this way or that way, because we're a practical atheist, and we go about our day without really praying or thinking or what is the glory of God or what should I do for God today, but God kind of doesn't feature until maybe we might lay our head to rest or say grace or after our busy day, we might spare a thought for God, it can be a trap, can't it?

[60:36] I know it can happen to all of us that we're living like a practical atheist, we're living like he doesn't exist, we don't even talk to him or think about him, but then it'd be good to actually think, hey, maybe I need to think about that a bit more, actually just pause, think, what's God's way, what's God's will, what's God's word telling me, what's a good decision for me as a Christian to make or an action for me to take that a Christian ought to take or not to take that we actually think biblically, because there's God's way and then there's every other way and it's about choosing God's way, isn't it?

[61:16] So just as a call to action to wrap up, think about your worldview, study the word, don't syncretise, in other words, don't have a mishmash where you cut a foot here and a foot there, be all in for Christ, live for Christ, live in that sense of, what is it, Coram Deo, in the sense of that God is watching, we're under his face, we're under his gaze, we're under his watch, and so actually if God's watching me, that should make me think about what I do, that I say, oh, maybe that's something I ought to do, or ought not to do, because I'm living under his watch, and all my thoughts and actions are going to be for his will, for his glory, God helping me, or at least not contrary to, and then think about how can I disciple others, intentionally teach others, especially the younger age set, the under 13s, we might still have some hope for the over 13s, but God helping us, hey, I want to be an influence for them, I want to influence them with a biblical worldview, tell them something about

[62:16] Jesus, reach them while you can, and then share the gospel too, it's the worldview, it's an evangelistic tool, because it makes sense of everything, the world out there that doesn't have that creation narrative, and the redemption story, they're missing out on the whole purpose of life, the whole meaning of life, and so it's an evangelistic tool as well, and so the Lord says, thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, he doesn't exclude the mind, there's an intellectual sense here, there's a rational, God actually speaks to our mind, this makes sense, the worldview makes sense, makes sense of life, and decide daily, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back, let's pray, Lord we thank you that we can have a new way of looking at life of history, of our present time, of our origin, of our living, of our destiny, and we know,

[63:23] Lord it's really his story, your story, our life is in your hands and you've made us with a purpose and a plan and there's yet a future glory as we trust you as our saviour, Lord, help us to be mindful, to think biblically, to think christianly, as we make decisions of life, that we'll have that biblical worldview, and not be ashamed of you, Lord, to declare it and to live wisely under your gaze, Lord, to be conscious of what would please you, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.