A CULTURE AT THE CROSSROAD

A CULTURE AT THE CROSSROAD

Psalm 107:27 They reeled and staggered like drunkards and were at their wits' end.

INTRODUCTION

A culture at the crossroad

Let’s look at how our worldview determines our belief. And how that will shape our lives.

Here is seven of the most popular worldviews.

· Worldview “the one with the most toys wins,” = materialism!

· Worldview = “I have got to think of me first” = individualism!

· Worldview = “if it feels good do it,” = hedonism!

· Worldview = “whatever works for you,” = pragmatism!

· Worldview – “God doesn’t exist, or if He does exist He doesn’t matter,” naturalism.

· Worldview = “you are your own God,” = humanism!

· Worldview = “God made me for His purposes,” = theism.

I don’t know what you believe, but I want to share 2 Common Myths about what people believe!

1. The Sincerity Myth!

“It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere,”

The problem with that is, You Can Be Sincerely Wrong.

I’ve been sincerely wrong many times in my life, (Anybody else want to admit…) I thought it was going to work out…was sure…sincere, but it didn’t work, Why, because it takes more than sincerity to make it in life.

I can have a Glass Of water and I sincerely think it’s water, but if it’s really arsenic it’s going to sincerely kill me, no matter how much I believe it’s water!

A Pilot can be Fly His Plane into the side of a mountain, he sincerely can think that he high enough to miss it but no matter how much he believed he was higher if he not than it will crash!

Eventually, “Sincerity Cracks Up As It Runs Into Truth,” truth is a mountain that isn’t going to move no matter how much you believe that you’re higher than it!

Truth is always true, if it was true 2000 yrs ago it’s going to be true 2000 yrs from today, in fact, if it’s new, its not true, because truth has been around forever.

ECC 1:9 THE THING THAT HATH BEEN, IT IS THAT WHICH SHALL BE; AND THAT WHICH IS DONE IS THAT WHICH SHALL BE DONE: AND THERE IS NO NEW THING UNDER THE SUN.

Now we’re constantly discovering truth all the time, truth about DNA…, but it’s been there all along, we just had to discover it! But truth is not new, it’s been around from when God created the universe.

Sincerity is not enough, I can sincerely say, “I believe that the sun revolves around the earth,” but it doesn’t matter how sincere I am about it, I’m sincerely wrong.

2. The Situational Myth!

“It doesn’t really matter what you believe because it all depends on the circumstance.

You can believe one thing in one situation and believe another thing in another.

And if you live that way, it will create great amounts of stress in your life because it doesn’t make sense.

Did you know that all those worldviews we just talked are all in Competition With Each Other, they’re all competing for your time/energy/efforts and especially for your money, they’re saying, “You want to put materialism first, (No) pleasure first yourself first,” and you cannot believe them all at the same time!

Some people like to pick and choose…,And think and say things like this:

“When I go on date, I’ll have this worldview, when I am at church I’ll have this worldview…when I am at work and need to close the deal I’ll have this worldview

When I need to cheat on a test…,” and we try to use what is convenient for us but all it does is creates confusion and stress and all kinds of negative emotions in our life.

Truth is always True no matter what Situation we’re in or how Sincere we are!

Survey recently concluded that 62% of Americans consider themselves to be deeply spiritual.

But when they are pushed and asked, “How does that effect your day to day decision making,” it didn’t.

· 24% said they make their moral choices Based On What Feels Comfortable!

· 16% said they make moral choices Based On The Bible.

· 9% said they make moral choices Based On What Makes Other People Happy, and that’s what I call caving in…being a people pleaser, if you make your decisions based on what makes other people happy, you don’t have a life.

· 7% said they make moral choices Based On What Produces The Most Beneficial Outcome For Me, that’s called self-centeredness.

Then they asked about Absolute Truth, and America was divided in 3 parts.

· 1/3 of America believes that Moral Truth Is Absolute, that it’s not dependent on circumstance. If it’s true it’s always true.

· 1/3 of America believes that Moral and Truth Is Always Determined By The Situation.

· 1/3 of America believes that They Don’t Even Know If Moral Truth Exists.

Your beliefs matter, and the Bible tells Us There Are 3 Reasons Why Your Beliefs Matter!

1st – Beliefs Matter Because Your Beliefs Shape Your Life!

PROVERBS 4:23 (TEV) “BE CAREFUL HOW YOU THINK; YOUR LIFE IS SHAPED BY YOUR THOUGHTS,”

If you don’t know what you believe and why…, then your life is being shaped by something that you’re not even aware of!

The Bible tells us that our beliefs determine our behavior...vision determines our values, so if there some things in your life you want to change, you don’t change them from the outside in, you change them from the inside out! It start with your Beliefs

2nd – Beliefs Matter Because Faulty Beliefs (Worldview) Cause All Kinds Of Problems In Your Life Unnecessarily!

PROVERBS 29:18 (MESS) “IF PEOPLE CAN’T SEE WHAT GOD IS DOING, THEY STUMBLE ALL OVER THEMSELVES; BUT WHEN THEY ATTEND TO WHAT HE REVEALS THEY ARE MOST BLESSED,”

When we don’t see God’s truth…what God is doing…have a worldview that’s correct and see where history is headed, then we stumble all over ourselves and live purposelessly.

But when you attend to what He reveals…pay attention to God’s revelation, then you’re blessed.

If you want your life to be blessed, you just attend to the truth…what God reveals…pay attention and get your worldview in line with reality and truth, not popular opinion.”

3rd - Beliefs Matter Because God Expects You To Know What You Believe & Why You Believe It, And He Expects You To Be Able To Explain It To Other People?

1 PETER 3:15 (AMP) “ALWAYS BE READY TO GIVE A LOGICAL DEFENSE TO ANYONE WHO ASKS YOU TO ACCOUNT FOR THE HOPE THAT IS IN YOU, BUT DO IT COURTEOUSLY AND RESPECTFULLY.”

Our world needs people who know what they believe and why…, and can explain it to others, because most of the people in the world don’t have a clue as to what they really believe…are a mish mash of all these different worldviews mixed together.

God says, “Your Beliefs Matter, I want you to be able to explain your worldview.”

All of the conflicts that we’re seeing today are a result of worldviews colliding with each other, the crumbling of our culture…crisis in our schools, controversies in our courts.

Corruption in our businesses, chaos in our government, confusion in our families, conflicts in our personal lives, are all caused by this empty attempt to hold onto and live out contradictory worldviews at the same time.

you can’t do it! This is the source of all of the problems in the world, Competing Worldviews and its time that we strengthen our Worldview.

How Do I Strengthen My Worldview?

1 – Learn The Truth!

That’s the 1st step in building a strong, biblical worldview,

PROVERBS 23:23 (NCV) “LEARN THE TRUTH AND NEVER REJECT IT. GET WISDOM, SELF-CONTROL AND UNDERSTANDING.”

Jesus told the story of 2 guys who went out and built houses, one builds his house on the shaky foundation of sand, the other builds his house on the solid foundation of rock.

When the storms came along and the winds blew and the man who built his house on a shaky foundation had his house collapse…, but the guy who built his house on the solid foundation of rock, his house stood the test of time.

Jesus said, “You’re going to either build your life on the Truth (What Jesus said) or you’re going to build your life on what Trends (Popular opinion)!

If you build your life on the shaky sand of human speculation it’s going to crumble when times get tough, but if you build your life on my rock solid truth that never changes, you will stand up under the most difficult circumstances.”

It’s your choice, you can build your life on truth or trends, if you want to be hip and cool and in style, that’s fine, but tomorrow you’re going to be un-hip…un cool…out of style because trends change that fast!

Whoever was on the cover of Rolling Stone one week was a hero and next week he or she a zero.

If you build your life on what other people think, what happens when they change their opinion and all of a sudden it’s out of style, then you’re just drifting thru life with no solid foundation.

The only way to be Eternally Relevant is to build your life on eternal truths that never ever change!

2 - Discern What Is False!

1 JOHN 4:1, “DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR. CAREFULLY WEIGH AND EXAMINE WHAT PEOPLE TELL YOU. NOT EVERYONE WHO TALKS ABOUT GOD COMES FROM GOD. THERE ARE A LOT OF LYING TEACHERS LOOSE IN THE WORLD,”

I love the Bible because sometimes it’s just flat out in your face.., “There are people out there who say they’re speaking for God but they’re not,” so you need to 1) learn the truth, then you can 2) discern what’s false.

What matters is not the teacher but the truth, teachers come and go, what matters is truth, that’s eternal.

3 - Turn From The World To The Word!

I want to break this verse down this morning!

ROM. 12:2. “DO NOT CONFORM ANY LONGER TO THE PATTERN OF THIS WORLD,

Notice “Pattern of this world” that’s talking about this world’s value system, Materialism, hedonism, individualism, secularism.

BUT BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND.

It starts with your beliefs, then your beliefs determine your behavior, which then determines what you become.

THEN YOU WILL BE ABLE TO TEST AND APPROVE WHAT GOD’S WILL IS, HIS GOOD, PLEASING AND PERFECT WILL.”

God’s will for your life is good…pleasing…perfect, but you’ve got to have a worldview shift…mind shift…renew your mind.

God says, turn from the world to the word.

You have 2 choices, “Am I going to get my advice on life from God’s word, (Which is eternal) or the world!” (Contemporary opinions)

PROVERBS 15:14 (NLT) “A WISE PERSON IS HUNGRY FOR TRUTH, WHILE THE FOOL FEEDS ON TRASH,”

You can cross out trash and write in television) “A wise person is hungry for truth while a fool feeds on trash,” its your choice,

“What do you want to build your life on, Truth or Trash?”

I know people who claim to be followers of Christ but they spend more time reading People Magazine than they do reading the Bible, “Do you spend more time reading truth or trash…listening to truth or trash…watching truth or trash.”

What you put into your mind is what’s going to come out in your lifestyle, if you want to change your life you’ve got to stop feeding on Trash and start feeding on Truth.

How many of you believe everything you read in the newspaper…watch on TV, read in the Bible,” then why do we spend more time watching and listening to something that we don’t even believe is true more than something we do something that is true?

Turn from the world to the word of God.

4 - Concern Yourself With God’s Agenda.

Jesus gives us this promise, LUKE 12:31 (NLT) “GOD WILL GIVE YOU ALL YOU NEED FROM DAY TO DAY IF YOU MAKE THE KINGDOM OF GOD YOUR PRIMARY CONCERN,”

Notice, “Primary concern! ”

You can’t have 2 primary concerns…, , “I want to make a lot of money, that’s my #1 goal and serve God,” Jesus said, “You cannot serve both God and money,” He didn’t say, “You should not,” He said, “You cannot, you can’t have two #1’s in your life.”

So what’s going to be #1 and what’s going to be #2, Jesus said, “Put Me first in your life and you’ll see amazing things. I’ll take care of all the rest.”

1 COR. 14:20, “STOP THINKING LIKE CHILDREN. IN REGARD TO EVIL, BE INFANTS, (be innocent regarding evil) BUT IN YOUR THINKING, BE ADULTS,”

What we need in our world more than anything else are people who have a clear worldview, people who know what they believe…why they believe it…explain it to people in the world who haven’t the slightest clue what they believe and most important, people who live it.

That, friends, will change the world!