INTRODUCTION
I. DEFINE WORLDVIEW
II. IMPORTANCE OF WORLDVIEW
III. BASIS FOR WORLDVIEW
IIII. YOUR WORLDVIEW
V. RENOVATING A WORLDVIEW
CONCLUSION
I love bumper stickers! MOST bumper stickers ANYWAY! At times I wish I could hit the delete button on my onboard computer to erase some of them from my memory - but most I enjoy.
DRIVE DEFENSIVELY - BUY A TANK.
MY OTHER CAR IS A PIECE OF JUNK ALSO!
I OWE, I OWE, SO OFF TO WORK I GO!
I'M ENJOYING MY KIDS INHERITANCE!
Recently I saw one that wasn't really funny but was a little puny.
"Wyoming's view is up to you. Don't litter."
This introduces us to what I want to talk about in this study.
A few years ago our son mentioned our neat view from our apartments front window. I have really enjoyed watching the sky, the clouds and the sunsets myself. The interesting part is that our view was not all that great. We were in a basement apartment, across the street were more apartments and a large blacktopped parking lot, lot of electric and phone lines and poles, yet you could see the sky and a little grass and it was enough to be enjoyable.
Some would have looked out our front window and seen nothing but the negative and feel that we had such a poor view, yet my son and I saw the beauty of the Lord's handiwork from that same window.
We view things differently as believers.
We want to consider the fact that we all view differently - that we all view the world differently. Indeed, that is the world's trouble today! Indeed, that is the church's trouble today!
We Christians all view the world differently and as a result there is little being done for God's overall program in the American church.
Let me illustrate an improper worldview for you.
Read of Cain and Abel in Gen. 4:1-8.
Cain's problem wasn't Abel - it was Cain's worldview that was at fault. He viewed the world as created for him and his pleasure - he could do as HE pleased. He didn't have to do it God's way! Abel on the other hand knew God's worldview and acted upon that knowledge to God's glory.
Another Illustration. The Jewish nation. When they were walking this earth, they were to be expanding God's kingdom to the world. If you read through the Psalms you will find many references to the fact that God's knowledge was to be spread to the world. Indeed, the Israelites did not do this due to their worldview being messed up. They also thought the world revolved around them and no one else. They did not spread God's message - they as the church is doing today, sat on their glories, and buildings, and homes, and did nothing about those that were going to hell around them.
I. DEFINE WORLDVIEW
I would like to read a paragraph from a book entitled "SPIRITUAL WARFARE" by Timothy M. Warner (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1991).
"Worldview is the thought system we develop for explaining the world around us and our experiences in it. It is determined almost entirely by the society in which we grow up. In most instances, it is something we absorb subconsciously more than something we adopt after careful study, although study can change worldview drastically. James Sire defines this as the 'set of presuppositions or assumptions which we hold (consciously or subconsciously) about the basic make-up of our world.' It is a set of categories we develop into which we plug the data of our experience to give it meaning." p 24
What he is stating is that we take in information from around us all of our lives and we form it into "OUR" picture of the world around us.
I'm OK you're OK is a worldview.
Life is just a bowl of cherries is a worldview.
Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die is a worldview
Wyoming is God's country is a worldview.
Indeed, Are not most bumper stickers a statement of a worldview.
Q. Do any of these really depict the world as it REALLY is? NO!!
II. IMPORTANCE OF WORLDVIEW
Why is our worldview important?
Let's look at one illustration that we can all identify with. Adolph Hitler viewed the world as filled with corrupt, inferior people, while he and his people were a superior race. He acted upon his worldview and began slaughtering millions of people, while trying to conquer the world. His worldview was very messed up.
I personally believe that this is the problem with world evangelism today. We as believers have our worldview messed up to the point that we are doing very little to produce results for God.
We have about 50,000 missionaries on the field today, but that is going to shift drastically. They figure that most of that missionary force will be retiring within the next ten years and we have very few workers ready to replace them.
I talked to a missionary recently that is with one of the major fundamental mission agencies in the country and he mentioned that he was at his headquarters for orientation for the new years candidates. This mission had a whopping eight missionary candidates!
Those that we have ready to go to the field, in many cases can not raise funds to get to the field.
III. BASIS FOR WORLDVIEW
Gen. 3 is God's basis for a worldview! Gen. 3 shows that God is over all, that He has created, and that man jumped into sin the first opportunity that he had. Satan was able to cloud man's mind to the proper worldview that God had set in motion. We as man have through most of the ages viewed the world as a bowl of cherries to be eaten rather than a populace of lost sinners sliding into hell. That, in my opinion is the glaring problem of the church today.
If we were evangelizing we would fill our churches. If we were evangelizing we would be alive. If we were evangelizing we would be financially sound.
If we were evangelizing we would be doing what God wants done!!
The only valid worldview is this:
God created man to glorify Him.
Man jumped into sin.
Christ came to provide salvation for all of mankind.
God has set man as his main messenger of reconciliation.
If man fails, then the lost will suffer eternally in the lake of fire.
This worldview will produce a church that is evangelizing the lost around them as well as sending others to the world to do the same.
IIII. YOUR WORLDVIEW
I would like to read another quote from the same book. "So if you want to find out what individuals really believe - what their worldview is - you don't ask them, you watch them. You especially observe them under pressure and in crisis. What they do at such times reveals their real belief system, especially their beliefs about God and spiritual power." pp. 25-26
I would expand on that and state that you can know what a person's worldview is by watching how they live everyday life. How do they spend their money? How do they work in the church? How do they spend their time? How do they talk?
How do they help others? How do they react to shady stories?
A. Some questions: HOW DO YOU LIVE? Do you live as if Christ were coming tomorrow. Consider your cars, houses, etc. when you answer that question. Did you live Saturday as if Christ could come Sunday morning? Do you live as if the world were lost?
We were invited out to eat one Sunday. After a great meal we were walking to our cars and were talking of the meal. The other man mentioned, "It isn't fair that we eat like we eat and many are dying of hunger in the world." I agreed. Then it hit me - just what have that man and I done about it? NOTHING. If that were REALLY our worldview we would be out raising money for the starving people of the world.
The world is lost and on it's way to hell and what are we doing about it?
More questions: WHY DO YOU LIVE? Do you glorify God? How do you glorify God? Really, how do you glorify God? Do you advertise God? We need new terms you know. Advertise is to update that old term we used to use - witness. Or as an up to date missionary told me recently, "Do you interface with the lost?"
Do you evangelize? According to our quote, by observing these things we can analyze and determine our own TRUE worldview! Not the theological worldview but the real one, the "folk" one as this author calls it.
Another quote to stir our thinking. "The 'profession' level of belief is usually a theoretical or theological statement of the accepted dogmas of one's religion. This is the level at which religion is usually studied and discussed by the scholars and at which it is taught to the followers. The followers, however, usually practice the religion at a very different level - a level that is very life-related. This is often referred to as the 'folk' level of the religion. worldview finds its expression most clearly at the folk level of our beliefs, not the intellectual level." p 25
Christianity is more than a religion. Recently one of the people that I work with called me to his desk and asked, "Stan, you're a religious person, aren't you?" I replied that I hoped that I wasn't and then quickly added that my answer was a trick answer. I told him that I felt my beliefs were more of a lifestyle than a religion.
Even understanding this, we study things on the theological level in the church, but the Lord would have us go out and live it on the folk level.
V. RENOVATING A WORLDVIEW
If this is not your worldview you are part of the multimillion person deception - the church has been duped by Satan's lies via our: educational system, our national media, the federal government (they have done this by their example, and the laws that they pass that tell us the Bible is wrong. Abortion for one.
The Devil has duped us with false books and music that is on the market under the guise of being Christian. Why are we flocking to BOOKS when we have THE book for all the answers, to all of the questions that we have?
How do we renovate our worldview? Acknowledge God as supreme truth, and the only truth giver. Compare all "truth" with THE TRUTH - GOD! Acknowledge the Bible as the truth of God. Find the Bibles worldview.
We will restate the Bible's worldview:
God has created man for His glory.
Man has fallen into sin and eternal separation from God.
Man, if not stopped will spend eternity in torment.
God has provided man's needed remedy.
God is relying on you and I to deliver that remedy to lost man.
We are in a conflict and the enemy desires to set us aside by confusing us on what is important in this life.
Choose your side and stand on it!
CONCLUSION
What is your worldview. Does it line up with God's worldview? OR does it line up with Satan's worldview?
Are you viewing your neighbor God's way? Are you viewing your money God's way? Are you viewing your life God's way? Are you viewing your belongings God's way? Do you cling to those things?
I think that it is natural for us to like things. I have always liked my things. I have always liked buying things. I have always liked giving my family things. I do think however that the Lord has taught me one thing in the last move that we made. We loaded from 4:00 to 6:00 drove an hour and began unloading. In about an hour I knew that I was physically exhausted. We finally found some help and finished unloading. As I was sitting looking at the heap of THINGS that almost filled the living room, I was struck with the thought that: ONE OF THE JOYS OF DEATH MUST BE THIS - YOU DON'T HAVE TO TAKE IT WITH YOU!
Things aren't where it is at!
Money isn't where it is at!
Houses aren't where it is at!
Cars aren't where it is at!
God says that mankind is lost and on their way to hell. THAT IS WHERE IT IS AT.
Our worldview must line up with God's! God says in II Peter 3:9 that He does not want anyone to go to hell. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
I would like to close by having you read a portion of John's gospel. (Jo 3:14-21)
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
"That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
"For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
"But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."
God desires that all of mankind hear of His free salvation.
God desires that all of mankind have an opportunity to be saved.
God desires that we be the channel of that opportunity.
Our worldview will do one of two things.
It will demand that we sit on our pews come Sunday and do nothing come Monday.
OR
It will demand that we witness to those that we come in contact with.
I trust that you will consider your worldview.
THE USUAL CHRISTIAN'S WORLDVIEW
TOPIC BELIEVERS RESPONSE
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GLORIFICATION SELF
SERVICE SELF
COMMITMENT TO SELF
GIVING TO SELF
LIFESTYLE SELF CENTERED
EVANGELSIM THE PASTOR SHOULD DO IT
WORLDVIEW SELF IS TO BE FULFILLED
BELIEVERS THE CHURCH
LOST THEY EXIST/UNIMPORTANT
This represents what we can see in the next chart as Satan's worldview. Most believers by serving self are furthering all of Satan's worldview points, when in reality we ought to be fulfilling God's worldview.
TRUE WORLDVIEWS
TOPIC SATAN'S GOD'S BELIEVER'S
WORLDVIEW WORLDVIEW RESPONSIBILITY
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GLORIFICATION SATAN GOD GOD
SERVICE SATAN GOD GOD
COMMITMENT TO SATAN GOD GOD
GIVING SATAN GOD GOD
LIFESTYLE WORLDLY GODLINESS GODLINESS
EVANGELISM NOTHING MANKIND WITNESS TO MANKIND
WORLDVIEW SATAN FIRST HIS GLORY GLORIFY GOD
BELIEVERS THE ENEMY SOLDIERS FIGHTING FOR GOD
LOST HIS DESIRED MESSENGER TO