Walk in Christ, Negative

Colossians - Part 14

Sermon Image
Preacher

Brady Owens

Date
Feb. 25, 2024
Series
Colossians

Transcription

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.

[0:00] Open your Bibles to Colossians chapter 2. Now, let's do a little catching us up to speed together here for just a moment.

[0:14] I think it's important for us to kind of get the big picture again of Colossians, because when we start looking at a single verse or two verses, you can kind of lose the big picture.

[0:24] And so you need to kind of keep the big picture in mind. And Paul's writing to the Colossians, and he's never met them. He's never seen them face to face. But their pastor has come to Paul and said, listen, we've got a problem.

[0:37] The people in Colossae are being troubled by false teachers that have come in. And they're false teachers of two different kinds.

[0:48] There were false teachers who were taking things that belonged to Judaism and bringing them in and kind of mixing them with some other thoughts and trying to teach these Colossians that Jesus was a great start.

[1:03] But if you really want a full relationship with God, you need to listen to us, because we know what you need to do. But there was another group who was impacted by this concept called Gnosticism, which was this idea that what's matter is evil, what's spirit is good, had lots of other things to it.

[1:26] But they also were coming in and saying, listen, Jesus was a great start, but we've found the secret to a really full life. So listen to us, pay us $19.95, and we'll be glad to share with you how you too can have a deeper walk with the Lord.

[1:43] So these false teaching groups were impacting the churches in this area, and Paul is writing to them, telling them, here's the truth. All wisdom and knowledge is found in Christ.

[1:57] You have all that you need in Christ. And you'll remember that when we got to chapter 2, verse 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, Paul was basically saying, listen, my aim in my teaching of you, my aim in my letter, my aim in all the ministry that I have, my aim in the struggle that I have to do ministry, is to see the church united in love and having knowledge in Christ.

[2:27] Therefore, verse 6 and 7 last week, walk in Christ. And he told them positively how to do that. He told them, listen, you've got to live the way you were saved.

[2:41] In other words, the same grace that saved you is the same grace that keeps you saved. The humility, faith, and repentance that started your Christian life is the same humility and faith and repentance that continues your Christian life.

[2:57] It's not as though the gospel is a gate, and then you leave the gospel behind and go to other stories. It's the gospel is good for the lost, and the gospel is necessary for the saved.

[3:09] And so you need to live in that, and you need to walk in maturity, growing up into Christ, and you need to do so with gratitude. Now that brings us to verse 8 today.

[3:21] And in verse 8, Paul's going to tell them how they need to walk in a negative way. I didn't change the slide, so if you're looking at the slide, oh, you fixed it, great, I appreciate that.

[3:35] So he's going to tell them negatively, here's what you need to get out of your life in order to live a proper Christian life. Now here's what I'm going to do.

[3:46] I'm going to read verse 8 through verse 23. And the reason I'm going to read all of those is because there's logic in Paul's thinking.

[3:59] And as we go, I'm going to stop, and I'm going to show you the logic of what he's thinking because I think it will help us to make sense of verse 8. Okay? So when we get to verse 8, and as I start to read it, you have to understand the first thing Paul's doing is that he's giving them a warning.

[4:19] And it's warning number one of three. He says this in verse 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.

[4:39] So you have to look at verse 8 like it's a summary, a kind of a summary statement of everything that's going to follow from verse 9 through verse 23. He says, listen, avoid these things, but go after this thing.

[4:55] And then when he gets to verse 9, he's going to tell you his first reason why. Okay? Look at verse 9. It says, For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.

[5:07] That's reason number one. Verse 10 is reason number two. And in him you have been made complete, and he is the head over all rule and authority.

[5:17] That's two reasons. Now, let's do this. Let's back it up. Look at verse 9 again, and you'll notice it says, For in him... Now look at verse 10.

[5:27] It says, And in him... Now look at verse 11. And in him... When you see something like that that's repeated, that seems to be parallel in Scripture, that should be your clue to go circle, circle, circle.

[5:45] That's three somethings. Whatever it is, it's three somethings because they're in parallel. Okay? So verse 9 is reason 1. Verse 10 is reason 2.

[5:55] Then verse 11 through 15 is reason 3. Now why does Paul give us so many verses for a third reason? Because it's under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

[6:06] That's all I know, right? Okay, so there we go. Let's read verse 11 and following. And in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.

[6:37] When you were dead in your transgressions and the earned circumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all of our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and he's taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.

[7:00] One of my favorite verses in all of Scripture there, verse 14. Then verse 15 is so glorious. He says, When he had disarmed the rulers and authorities and he made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him.

[7:17] Okay, that is just such glory. I cannot wait to preach that stuff right there. That's good. So verse 8 through here is warning number 1. Warning number 2 starts in verse 16.

[7:29] And what he does is he takes from verse 8, tradition of men. And in verse 16 and 17, he explains what he means by that. When he says, Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath days.

[7:53] Days, okay, the text should be days. It's plural, not singular. Verse 17, Things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

[8:07] Then in verse 18, he gives them the third warning. And it's like he's taking elementary principles from verse 8 and telling us specifically what he's talking about. In verse 18 and 19, he says, Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking a stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, that would be Christ, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.

[8:47] So you see what he's doing so far. He's got three warnings, a general warning, two specific warnings. He's got his reasons for the first warning.

[8:58] And then in these last four verses, it's like he's taking everything he's just said and kind of saying, So, here's my final admonition to you about this particular topic.

[9:09] Verse 20 through 23, reads this way, If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees such as, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, which all refer to things destined to perish with use, in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men.

[9:37] men. These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

[9:58] This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for how strong and powerful your word is. Sharper than any two-edged sword.

[10:10] Dividing asunder. Father, helping us see our thoughts and intentions. We pray now that you would expose our hearts by your word and by your grace and the grace of the gospel, forgive us and help us to be empowered to live the way you've called us to live in Christ's name.

[10:33] Amen. Now, I don't have a fun little story for you. We're just going to have to dive in because there's just a lot to cover. But I just, I do have to start by kind of assuming that you don't know something so I have to explain something because I don't know what you know.

[10:51] But you know, in verse 8 where Paul says the word philosophy, he's not using the word philosophy the way today we would think of the word philosophy.

[11:02] If you think of some, you know, philosophy today, you think of somebody who's gone to college and they're a philosophy major, which means they've taken logic they've taken rhetoric, they've taken all kinds of other coursework, they've read Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, they've talked about, you know, maybe Immanuel Kant and all these kinds of guys, sort of the history of Western thought.

[11:23] Well, that's not how Paul's using this word. Paul's not using that word to refer to all of that. Paul's using this word philosophy to basically refer to a concept that we know today as worldview.

[11:37] worldview. World view. Now, what is a worldview? Well, the best way I can tell you that a worldview is is a worldview is a little bit like a pair of glasses.

[11:49] These pair of glasses are formed and shaped by beliefs and values, ideas, concepts, and we all wear a pair of glasses and it's through these glasses, through these lenses that we see the world.

[12:03] world. And there are as many worldviews as there are people. However, there's also a lot of large groupings of worldviews that sort of come together.

[12:15] In other words, there is a Christian worldview, but there's also an atheistic worldview, and there's also a materialistic worldview, there's a hedonistic worldview, I could go on and on, that's, it's okay.

[12:28] But the point is, is that a worldview is the way I look at the world. It's why I do what I do. It's built upon what I know and understand. It answers questions like, where did we come from?

[12:41] Why are we here? How do we know what truth is? And where are we headed? And every worldview attempts to answer such questions. Let me give you two examples, just so you kind of get the feel of what I'm talking about here.

[12:57] There's a worldview that believes that there's nothing in existence except that which is matter. Right? Except that which is matter.

[13:09] In other words, you are a biological creature, you're made of matter, but there's not a spirit that lives on after you. Right? As they look at the world around them, everything that they can see with their eyes, this is what exists.

[13:23] If I can't see it with my eyes, it doesn't exist. Or if I can't test it somehow, if I can't touch it somehow, then it doesn't really exist. So they don't believe in the existence of God, they don't believe in the existence of angels or the supernatural or anything like that.

[13:37] This worldview says that the only thing that is in existence is that which is tangible, touchable, testable, measurable, observable in some form or fashion.

[13:50] And for these people, the way you come to know something is you touch it. Or you taste it. Or you test it. Or you experiment on it. It's where the idea of empiricism, right, the idea of scientific discovery, that is the highest good.

[14:07] So you can tell that if I were to have a discussion with somebody who has that worldview, and I say, God does exist and I can prove it, they're automatically thinking, well, where are the instruments?

[14:20] Like, I'm going to chop off a piece of tree, melt it down, look under the microscope, and see God. Because in their minds, evidence is always going to be materialistic. Right?

[14:31] So that's this materialistic worldview. And you can tell that sometimes people are somewhat infected with such a worldview when you hear statements like this, I'll believe it when I see it.

[14:48] That seeing is believing. That's a materialistic worldview. worldview. That's not a Christian worldview because the Christian worldview is I will believe it so that I can see it.

[15:01] But that's a whole other discussion. All right, so let me give you a second example. The second example, this is the United States. This is where we are. Okay, this is the dominant worldview of the United States.

[15:13] It's what you call pluralism. Pluralism. Pluralism is the idea, and it's sort of a religious type of worldview, worldview. In pluralism, every worldview is correct.

[15:27] And you just begin to think about that. In their minds, all religions are equally valid because all religions lead to the same sort of conclusion.

[15:39] All religions have a portion of the truth. Therefore, you're not supposed to argue, proselytize, or anything else like that because it doesn't matter. We all have the same sort of direction guidance, and we can just work together.

[15:54] And so, when you as a religious person, with your religious text, begin to say things that contradict other people, the expectation is for you to interpret your religious text in a figurative way so that it doesn't hurt somebody else's feelings.

[16:15] Pluralism. Pluralism. We're all in this together. We just need to work together. Everybody's got a portion of the truth. No one needs to stand tall and say that they know the truth.

[16:28] Right? Every truth is just as valid as another truth. You can tell someone's been infected with this concept when they have the idea of live and let live.

[16:43] Live and let live. God's love. Well, when Paul comes to verse eight, he is saying, listen, don't let anyone take you captive through philosophy and empty deception, through world views built on lies.

[17:02] That's what he's saying. And so what he does is he lays out two different false world views, traditions of men, elementary principles of the world.

[17:13] these two false foundations, he points them out. We're going to just look at them very sort of high level, just kind of summary like, and then he tells us the one true foundation that we can have, and that is Jesus Christ.

[17:31] So, I want to look at this in two points. One is false foundation, and the other is true foundation. Let's just see what he tells us. The first false foundation is that of the traditions of men.

[17:46] Now, I think that what Paul is talking about with traditions of men has to do with Jewish teachings that have been twisted.

[17:58] You know, like in the New Testament, Jesus had to deal with the Pharisees, and the Pharisees had taken Old Testament teachings and twisted them, right? So you remember in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, you've heard it said, you shall not commit murder.

[18:13] Well, Jesus wasn't looking at the Ten Commandments and saying the Ten Commandments were wrong. He was talking about what they had heard, not what they had read.

[18:24] What they had heard had been the Jewish rabbis taking and trying to explain the Ten Commandments, and they had totally twisted and messed it up.

[18:35] So Jesus is coming along saying, you've heard it said, but I say to you, and he gave what the true understanding of the Ten Commandments ought to have been, but was lost due to the Pharisees and people like that.

[18:50] So here, the traditions of men is another form of Jewish teaching in which it's been twisted out of its Old Testament context, out of its true meaning, and now being pushed upon these Christians to say, listen, this is what you need to do.

[19:08] Now, why would I say that this is what it is? Well, because when Paul uses the term traditions, if he uses it negatively, he's aiming back at something that's Jewish in nature.

[19:21] Galatians 1, verse 14, he talks about his own Jewish upbringing and says he was advancing in Judaism, a twisted form, right? Beyond many of my contemporaries, among many countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.

[19:40] And you can see down in chapter 2 of Colossians, verse 16 and 17, some of those things, right? He talks about the idea of food and drink, that has to do with fasting. He talks about festival days, new moons, or Sabbath days, which he says are mere shadow of things.

[19:56] So that's the first false foundation, is that it's sort of Jewish in flavor. So what were some of the things about this? In other words, let's just summarize this position to kind of get a grip on what it is that the Colossians were being taught.

[20:13] Because if we can't understand that, we can't understand what we need to do, right? So, give me a couple things. This false worldview is a worldview that has truth as something that's passed on.

[20:29] So it's the traditions of men, which is something as the idea of truth being passed on. It's a truth that the Colossians would have been comfortable with because it would have been things that had the language of the Old Testament, would have had the language of Jesus Christ, and as you looked at it at the surface, they would have said things that said, listen, you want to be able to get to God, you need to go through Jesus.

[20:51] And everybody would have been like, this is great. But there was false teaching that was added and compacted onto that because they were saying, listen, Jesus is great, but he's not enough.

[21:03] What you need is you need rituals. You need rituals in your life in order to have a more full Christian life.

[21:14] In other words, what they were doing is saying, listen, you've got Jesus, but now you need to go back and you need to do the festivals out of the Old Testament. You need to live in a booth for a week. You need to participate in Passover.

[21:27] You need to do these things to really have a deep and meaningful Christian life. Well, those things were done away with. You read the book of Hebrews and you can see that those things have been made obsolete.

[21:41] Those are not things we're supposed to be doing in order to grow in our Christian life. We need to understand them. But we don't have to do them. But they were, these false teachers were letting them know, listen, there are rituals for you.

[21:55] And these rituals promise a fuller knowledge of God. These rituals promise a more powerful, fulfilling life. These rituals promise protection from the evil one.

[22:07] Well, we may not face exactly the same kind of problem today, but let me give you a couple of red flags. If you have somebody who comes to you and they say to you that Jesus, as the final revelation of God, is good, but there's more of God you could have if you just listen to them, run screaming.

[22:31] That's a red flag. Secondly, if someone says to you that you can have a fuller Christian life, a more powerful Christian life, by tapping into this secret that they have that you can't find in the Bible anywhere, run screaming.

[22:50] I'll give you an example of this. Back years ago, I was preaching through the book of Acts, and the gentleman stopped by my office. He was a pastor of a local church. He was charismatic. And as a charismatic, I wanted to get his take on Acts chapter 2 because I'm Baptist and have been Baptist pretty much all my life.

[23:09] And if you don't know about Baptist historically, some of you, this may shock you, historically, Baptists are what you call cessationists. What's a cessationist? We believe that the gifts of the Spirit mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14 have faded away with the apostolic error, right?

[23:28] That sounded like error, but that was error is what I was trying to say. Anyway, so those gifts have ceased. As Baptists, that's where we live historically. Now, if you don't agree with me on that, that's fine.

[23:39] You can, you're more than welcome to be wrong. That's okay. The point is this. The point is this. As this man came by to teach, to talk with me, we got into this idea of the gift of tongues, right?

[23:54] And here's what happened. He said, he gave his whole spiel, told me his things. I was very respectful. Listen to him. And at the very end, he, he tells me this. He says, listen, let me pray for you and you can get the gift of tongues.

[24:08] And then as you begin to feel the spirit, you just start, let your mouth run. You just, just empty your head and just let your mouth run. And I thought to myself, where in scripture does it say, let your mouth just run?

[24:24] You know what I'm saying? Like, in other words, he's trying to give me instructions about how to do a particular gift that's nowhere in scripture. I mean, that doesn't say whether the gift is real or not, or it still is in existence or not.

[24:37] That's not the point. The point is he's going beyond what's in scripture. And when somebody does that, that ought to be a red flag. Third thing, let me just say this.

[24:50] Anyone who places a high priority on religious rituals, on religious rituals as the way to have a more fulfilling life in Christ, as a way to grow in maturity in Christ, as a way to truly live out the Christian life.

[25:08] anyone who puts that high priority on religious rituals, that's a red flag. That's a red flag. Because here's the thing.

[25:20] There is nothing that's secret about the Christian life. It's all right there in the Bible. I mean, listen, you could throw me away.

[25:32] Listen, I'll move back to East Texas and you get five other people to come through and you will never not have the truth of God because you've got the word of God in your hands.

[25:43] There is no secret to the Christian life. There is God's word and go look at it, go read it. You've got everything that you need in Christ. Well, let's talk about the second false foundation.

[25:58] This is elementary principles. principles. So, for all the kids that are not here, they could say, you mean at my school? Okay, you'll get that in a second.

[26:09] I promise. According to the elementary principles of the world. Okay, look, it's hot in here. Elementary principles of the world.

[26:24] No, no, I got this. We're good. You don't have to. Fans going. I'm good. Unless you're hot. The elementary principles of this world. The word elementary has to do with the idea of building blocks.

[26:36] So, the ABCs, the ABCs would be the elementary principles of language. Okay? So, it's rudimentary building blocks.

[26:46] Something that's sort of more foundational and basic to something else. And he says the elementary principles of the world. The elementary principles of the world are going to be things that the pagans thought helped to bring the world about.

[27:04] So, in other words, earth, wind, fire, and water. Right? Those are the basic building blocks of the world, according to pagans. And so, what Paul is saying is, listen, there's a whole group of people who are coming to you and they're saying, Jesus is great, but we have learned through our connection to the elementary principles of the world how you can go deeper in Christ.

[27:30] What? That, for our mindset today, that probably doesn't even make sense. But let me tell you a couple of things about them. One, in order to do this, Jesus is great because Jesus becomes for them a guru and a master who got in touch with nature, got in touch with creation, got in touch with the spirit realm out there, got in touch with the basic elementary principles of this world, and then began to teach us these things.

[27:56] And not only that, it's not built on ritual. You don't do rituals in order to come to know God. No, no, you don't do rituals. You do harsh treatment of the body. So they go overboard in fasting.

[28:09] They go and they beat their bodies. They do things, harsh treatment, asceticism, in order to put themselves in some sort of transcendental state that they can connect to the elementary principles of the world so they can arrive to a greater plane of reality in Jesus.

[28:26] That's just, doesn't that sound crazy? Okay, I hope that y'all think it's crazy because it's crazy. The problem that you and I might face is that it's a little bit like when people who are Christians have a tendency to marry to Christianity things that belong to the occult world.

[28:53] You say, well, I would never involve the occult world. Okay, well, let me ask you this. Do you read your horoscope? Good. Go down that path, right?

[29:05] From horoscopes to zodiac signs. What about reading a fortune cookie? You're all like, oh, yeah, I read that fortune cookie. It says if you want another one. Oh, that's the wrong side.

[29:16] Okay, yeah. The point is, is that when you try to tap into here in order into the world and the creation to try to get closer to Jesus and further up in your Christian life, it's like Jesus didn't give you the world to do that.

[29:34] Jesus gave us the world to point to him. To point to him. You know, the worship of angels, crystals, the use of crystals, even chi, chi.

[29:51] We took one of my kids to go study martial arts and one of the first places we went to was a place that was teaching kung fu. And we get there and this guy is talking about this thing called chi.

[30:07] Chi was this thing. He says it exists in all of creation. It surrounds us. It's through the trees and rocks and us. And I was like, wait a minute. Are you talking Star Wars?

[30:19] And he's talking about this chi that's in all these places. It's this power that pervades everything. And that this chi, if you can harness this chi, it's powerful enough to heal people.

[30:30] And he said Jesus had mastered the art of chi. That's why he could heal. And you know what? This man was a deacon in a church.

[30:44] Here's the point. There is false ways that people come to understand the world around them. They have these glasses. They are built sometimes by experience.

[30:57] They're built by pragmatism. They're built by what mama taught them or daddy taught them. They're built what a friend who was good to them at a good time said to them.

[31:08] And it's built on what they hear, what they experience, but not upon the word of God. And what Paul wants us to do is avoid being taken captive by such a thing.

[31:21] And when we try to avoid them things, those kinds of worldviews, what we have to understand is that everything boils down to the word of God.

[31:33] What are you going to do with the word of God? What you and I must do is we must know the word of God if we're going to avoid such things.

[31:47] A part of what Jesus is doing with his shed blood upon the cross through the promises of the new covenant is to grow in you a day by day growth by the spirit and the word.

[32:05] He has said he would take out the heart of stone and put in the heart of flesh. He said that he would put his spirit within you. All you need is the word, the spirit, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

[32:17] He is the one who gives us what we need. And that's what Paul's final part is about, is this true foundation. He says, don't be taken captive according to, don't be taken captive by this philosophy and empty deception that's according to elementary principles or tradition of men.

[32:39] But instead, base your life on Jesus Christ. Let him be the one who captivates you. Our life is to be according to Christ.

[32:52] I think this is exactly what Paul's talking about in Colossians chapter 2 verse 3 where he says, Jesus is the one in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

[33:04] And when we covered this verse, I answered, like, how do we understand that? What does it mean that in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge? So here's what I wrote and here's what I preached two weeks ago.

[33:16] I'm just going to read it right back to you. It means that we're supposed to interpret all of life through the lens of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, that is the scriptures, because you can't know anything rightly apart from him.

[33:34] What does the Proverbs teach? The beginning of wisdom. How does wisdom begin? Fear of the Lord. We cannot know anything rightly apart from the knowledge of the scriptures.

[33:50] And I will say that, and I think that many of you understand that. You've understood that long before I came onto the scene. You've known that you're supposed to interpret life by the scriptures.

[34:03] The question is, what difference would that make? How should that be applied? How far does that go? Well, let me pose to you just a few questions, okay?

[34:20] I just want you to think about these questions. And the way that I'm understanding these questions, and what I'm doing with these questions, is I'm thinking about them this way. How do you get the answer to these questions?

[34:37] So let's start easy, and then we'll gradually get more meddlesome. Where did we come from? Where are you going to find the answer for that?

[34:51] Who are you going to listen to about that? Where are we headed? Where do you find the answer for that? How do you know what is true and right?

[35:10] What's the standard by which we judge things to be morally good or morally bad? What's the standard we should use to judge things as criminal?

[35:22] What exactly is marriage? And how should it be defined? And where would you go to to look for that definition?

[35:35] What's parenting? What's the ultimate aim of parenting? How should parenting be accomplished? Where would you look for that information?

[35:47] What about politics? How do you know what you should do about politics? Should you join a civil organization? What form of government should we have?

[36:01] Do you have a mechanism by which you go to to decide such a question? Or is that just a question that normally you just don't think about? Because it's like, well, I live in America. Woo-hoo! That's great. Good country.

[36:13] Great government. As long as you can keep it. What's the basis on which we believe that it's right to pay taxes?

[36:26] Somebody going like, I don't want to pay taxes. I know. How much work should you do in your life? Like how many hours a week should you work?

[36:40] You just, because that's what your boss says? Or do you run to some other mechanism to decide the truth there? Who should you vote for?

[36:52] You think the Bible has something to say about that? Oh, yes, indeedy. Let me just pause there and say two things. Number one, early voting is going on.

[37:03] Go vote. And number two, never vote contrary to the word of God. Let the word of God form up and shape what ought to be.

[37:15] What's the mechanism by which we decide what's right and good and beneficial in attending a family reunion? Should you go? Should you not go?

[37:27] Do you just decide that because you have affections and sentimentality? Or is there some other standard outside of yourself that you look to and say, what should I do?

[37:38] Should your kids go to college? Should they take out loans for their degree? Why should your kids have a really good paying job?

[37:53] Do you know how to answer that question? And how do you answer it? Where do you run to to answer such a question? Are there space aliens? Do you know why it's hard to do things that are morally right and good?

[38:16] How do you know it's right? Okay. You just got to give me some latitude here. Don't be angry because I'm going to be an equal opportunist, I promise you.

[38:30] How do we know it's right to build a wall on the border? How would you make that determination? How would you decide that that's a right thing to do?

[38:40] How would you decide that's a wrong thing to do? Should we pay reparations to those who are descendants of slaves?

[38:51] How do you know that going to worship and being part of a church is the right thing to do? How would you make that decision?

[39:04] How would you make the decision to join a specific church? What's the mechanism by which you would make such a decision? Should you have cable and Netflix and satellite TV in your house?

[39:14] How would you make such a decision? When I say that we are to interpret all of life through the lens of Scripture, all of these topics and more, because the word all is quite comprehensive.

[39:36] We should interpret all of life through the lens of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is the only way to have a sure foundation.

[39:49] If we will not heed, you see, becoming a Christian is getting plucked up from one place and your roots deeply planted in another place.

[40:01] It's to have your life founded upon some other rock than some mud puddle over there. Becoming a Christian means not just sort of, I hope that this will be a good thing and I'll kind of identify with Jesus for a while because it kind of, you know, matches my sentiments.

[40:20] But it is a radical giving up of, I was taught to think this way, I will now take what Jesus says as the way to think.

[40:33] Do you understand what I'm saying? Let me just, let me just, one more thing. Just think about it this way. Maybe some of you had some great parents that taught you that Jesus is God.

[40:46] and I'm not knocking what we learn. But I am saying that if your parent also didn't teach you how to find that information yourself, that it's in the word, that it's built upon the word, no, that's just what my parents taught me, then that's just a tradition.

[41:08] You need to go back to the word itself. Go back to the word itself. And I know, I know, we're all going to find these moments in our lives where we'll look in our hearts and we will say, wow, I don't really have a Christian worldview about that.

[41:27] What do we do about that? What do you do when you find you've got a moment that you're actually thinking more like the world and less like the Bible? Let me give you this verse, Ephesians chapter 4.

[41:40] Paul says to the Ephesians, he says, so I say, so this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart, and they've become callous and have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

[42:13] He's saying, listen, you were saved, so don't live like you used to live. Don't think like you used to think. Don't let your heart be darkened like those that you came out of.

[42:24] You need to be different because something else has happened to you. And he goes on and he says, but you did not learn Christ in this way if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him just as truth is in Jesus.

[42:38] The only way to have a Christian worldview is to be saved first and second, surrendered to Him. And how do you do this, believers?

[42:50] How do you develop and get this Christian worldview? One, you have to be under the preaching of the Word.

[43:02] If you're not under the preaching of the Word on a regular basis, you're not going to grow that Christian worldview as robustly as it needs to be.

[43:15] Second, you need to be in the Word of God yourself. Reading it, listening to it, whatever. You've got to be in the Word. That's why we put out the seven-week challenge, right?

[43:27] Read the Word together. Father, husbands, fathers, we challenge you and your household to be doing that. I hope you're doing that. And here in a little bit, I'm going to pray for you. But we've got to be reading the Word ourselves.

[43:40] And third, you've got to live it out. You've got to apply it. Does the Word tell you something you ought to believe? Does the Word tell you something you ought to feel or some attitude you ought to have?

[43:54] Does the Word tell you something you need to do? Then you need to do it. Now this is a this is a difficult conversation, I think, for some people because they struggle to understand some of the things we're talking about.

[44:10] And I just want to encourage you that even if you are struggling, even if you find that you have failed in thinking on these things, the Gospel is good news for you.

[44:23] Because Christ has already paid the price. He's already paid the price for that thinking. And so now, by His Spirit, you can be empowered to think the way He wants you to think.

[44:37] Do not let anyone take you captive through philosophy and empty deception. But live according to Christ.

[44:49] Let's pray. for better better for better better better better than anything better better better! for better!!

[44:59] !