Worldview Formation

Introduction

-{Colossians 1}

-Well, just when you think that the world couldn’t get any crazier, it decides to one-up itself into pure and utter chaos. Any thoughts of 2021 undoing the damage of 2020 flew right out the window.

~I saw a funny meme online that said:

I’d like to cancel my subscription to 2021. I’ve experienced the free 7-day trial and I’m not interested.

-Probably a zillion things could be said or preached about, but one thing that might be on all our minds is how we as Christians can live and be witnesses in a world with an uncertain future?

~And my answer is that I want the church to be a place where you are equipped to handle the issues of life that you run into. I want you to be able to see things and say things and make decisions based on your faith under the authority of Scripture.

-Although some people might want me to just give them a straight up answer on what to do, say, think, and decide for every circumstance that they might run into, I just can’t do it. There are too many contingencies in life for a pastor in a sermon a week and a bible study a week to be able to give you an answer to everything.

~There might be some that want me to preach against every possible danger and heresy and false teaching that there is out there, but the problem is that there are too many of them and I would speak about nothing else but that and still never be able to exhaustively address it.

-So, instead, I am going to attempt to do what I am called to do according to Ephesians 4—I am going to equip you so that you can think and act and decide according to biblical principles for any topic or subject you run into.

~When you see political chaos, you know how to react. If you run into someone preaching nonsense, then you will know it and be able to reject the nonsense.

-Another term for what I feel called as a pastor to do is WORLDVIEW FORMATION. I am to form a biblical worldview within you so that you know how to live in the world and culture in which you find yourself.

-I have spoken about worldview before, but let me give you a definition of worldview so you understand what I mean:

A belief structure and heart orientation held by individuals and shared by groups which, consciously or unconsciously, leads to a particular interpretation of reality.

~A worldview is how you see the world and by which you make decisions.

-So, if you claim to be a biblical Christian, then you live, act, think, and speak according to the Bible. And I want the theme of 2021 to be the church forming biblical worldviews in you.

~Right now, under current circumstances, it is hard to come up with a long-term vision and mission—so, I’m settling on a theme for a year, and this is it. We are going to have a Biblical Worldview formed in us.

-In the passage we are looking at, Paul prayed that a deeper knowledge of God would shape the way that they lived and thought—that knowing God through Christ would form their worldview.

~What Paul desired for the Colossian church is what I desire for us in 2021—that knowledge of God through Christ through the Bible would shape our worldview.

READ Colossians 1:9-14

Colossians 1:9–14 ESV

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

-Paul prays that the church would be filled with the knowledge of His will—that they would know what it is God desires (as is now laid out for us in Scripture).

~He says that this entails spiritual wisdom, which talks about applying the knowledge that is gained.

~He also says that this entails spiritual understanding—the word means to have insight such that you are able to put the facts together and draw an appropriate conclusion.

-The prayer is that the church would so know God and His will through His Word that they know how to live and are able to make decisions based one what they have learned. That is, that a Biblical Christian worldview is formed in them and that guides their life under any circumstance in which they find themselves.

-He then speaks of three ways that a Christian worldview should shape us:

1) Let it shape our walk

-v. 10

-Now, I want to make one quick note. Paul is under the assumption that everyone in the church is a born-again believer in Jesus Christ. That they have repented and placed their faith in Jesus and have been made spiritually new by the Holy Spirit.

~Someone who is still in their old, carnal nature will not be able to completely adhere to God’s Word and Ways because they are not under the authority of Jesus Christ and are therefore not under the authority of His Word.

~Sure, up to a point they might be able to fake it (maybe by taking the right stance on certain issues, and they make all the religious kind of social media posts), but when it comes to more mundane, daily living, they do what they want to do rather than what it is God wants them to do, or views they take on certain issues do not reflect Scripture. By this they demonstrate that they have not been made new.

~But if you have been made new in Christ, the Holy Spirit through the Word will shape your view of everything—it will form your worldview.

-And so, Paul says that this knowledge of God and His will is going to lead you to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord which entails pleasing Him, bearing fruit, good works, and an increased knowledge of God.

-Now, when the Bible talks about your walk, it isn’t talking about how your legs move you around, it is talking about your lifestyle. Through Christ there has been a transformation, and in cooperation with the Holy Spirit your character and witness and service and mind are shaped by the Word and it is demonstrated in your lifestyle.

~You conduct yourself in harmony with the responsibilities which your new relationship to God imposes and with the blessings that it brings. As theologian Herman Bavnick described it:

There is a yielding of the will and an illumination of the mind

-Having a Biblical Christian Worldview means that my ideas and opinions and ways of doing things, thinking about things, or saying things are all set to the side. I am going to think the thoughts of Christ. I am going to speak the words of Christ. I am going to bear fruit by doing the good works of Christ. I am going to make decisions according to the will of Christ.

-If I knowingly decide that I am going to do my own thing my own way and I don’t care what Jesus or anybody else has to say about it, that is not a Biblical Christian Worldview. That is rebellion. But aligning our walk with God through a Biblical Worldview is worthy of God.

-Cal Ripkin Jr. holds the record of consecutive baseball games at 2,632. But before he broke the streak that was set by Lou Gehrig, he had twisted his knee and was unsure if he could play in the next game. His wife suggested that he just play an inning and sit out the rest of the game (in order to keep the streak alive). He replied, “No! Either I play the whole game, or I don't play at all.” Doing any less would be unworthy of the game or the streak.

-Well, a Biblical Christian worldview shapes our walk, our lifestyle, because anything less than living according to these biblical standards is not worthy of the name Biblical or Christian…

2) Let it shape our reliance

-v. 11

-If you read Isaiah or some of the other prophets, you will notice that Judah and Israel (among their other problems) had the awful tendency to rely on anything and everybody other than God for their health and safety and well-being. They turned to Egypt to help them with the Assyrians and with the Babylonians. They turned to Damascus to help them with the Assyrians. On and on it went.

~Every single time, the prophet would tell them: STOP LOOKING FOR HELP AND STRENGTH ANYWHERE ELSE! TURN TO THE LORD!

-This is also the truth when you have a Biblical Christian Worldview. You stop looking for your greatest help and strength in the wrong places, but instead know that the Lord ultimately is our strength and refuge and fortress.

~Not that you don’t get help from anyone about anything. You need doctors to make you well. You need police to keep you safe.

~But it’s talking about the foundation upon which you build your life for your comfort and strength and support.

-Judah and Israel set their foundation upon their political allies instead of seeking the face of the Lord; and unfortunately, too many Christians and churches and denominations have done the same thing. They think that their party or their politician is what is going to do the church and the nation the most good.

~But if the past week or months or years have taught us, politicians are nothing but flawed human beings that can’t actually do a whole lot for you.

~Not that we don’t want good politicians in government. We sure do. But that is not the foundation of our strength and security.

-A Biblical Christian Worldview leads us to rely on the Lord. The Lord is our strength, and ultimately it is God through His Spirit that is going to give us the strength to withstand all that we experience in this world.

-We know this is true because, as Paul says in the verse, it is God that gives strength ACCORDING TO HIS GLORIOUS MIGHT. Our God is a Warrior King whose power is unlimited, and that power is available to His people.

-And what is this strength able to do for us? It says that we are strengthened to have endurance. That word ENDURANCE speaks of the capacity to continuously bear up under difficult circumstances. As things get difficult, it is God that helps us to bear up through it.

~But it also says that it gives patience/longsuffering. That speaks about emotional calm in the face of provocation from other people.

-So, God gives the strength to endure difficult times and endure difficult people. And it says it comes to us ACCORDING TO His glorious might. That little prepositional phrase is important.

~If Bill Gates were to give me $10 to get a Starbucks coffee, he gave me out of or from his riches and it doesn’t amount to much according to the grand scheme of things. But if Bill Gates were to give me $500,000,000, then he gave ACCORDING TO his riches…it is a significant portion out of which he had to give.

-God doesn’t strengthen us from or out of His might, but ACCORDING TO His might…we have access to an eternal, unlimited strength, and Biblical Christian Worldview relies on it rather than…

3) Let it shape our attitude

-v. 12

-A Biblical Christian Worldview doesn’t come across as arrogant or self-righteous. Neither does it come across as constantly complaining and murmuring. Rather, Paul notes that a Christian’s attitude is one of humility that leads to constant thankfulness for what God has done.

-I fear that too many within the Christian church have taken on this entitled air about them. They think that they deserve everything that they get and then some more on top of that.

~The culture has penetrated the church and caused us to think that the most important thing in life is our personal wealth and health and comfort and toys and gadgets…and that somehow we are worthy of all of it…and somehow we deserve all of it.

-We have taken on the culture’s attitude that the world, and dare we say even God, owes us. We take on the culture’s attitude that I am entitled to everything this world has to offer, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to get it. If God isn’t going to give it to me, then I’m just going to take it for myself.

-That is not a Biblical Christian Worldview, because if you had a Biblical Christian Worldview you would know that the only thing that you deserve (the only thing you are entitled to) is eternal hell. And the fact that God doesn’t give it to you is nothing but His grace and mercy.

~And so, the proper attitude is thankfulness. But not just thankfulness for all the stuff that you have on this earth. Paul lists the amazing spiritual blessings given to us through Christ, and when we meditate on these, they ought to cause us to get rid of any selfish, arrogant, complaining attitudes, and instead humbly bow in gratitude to God above.

He has blessed us:

~qualifying us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light—that is, eternal life

~He delivered us from the domain (authority) of darkness (Satan), and transferred us in the kingdom (authority) of Jesus. {We will always be in authority to someone—better to be under Jesus’ authority than Satan’s}

~We have redemption, which is described as the forgiveness of sins

-God through Jesus took care of our greatest needs, so the only attitude that is appropriate in response is that of thankfulness. That is formed when the Bible shapes our worldview.

Conclusion

-But now, I say that this is a theme for us in 2021, but how can we as a church minister in such a way as to form this Biblical Christian Worldview within each of us. That is where our ministries come in.

~Life Groups—will be studies of the Bible that give us a foundation upon which to build our worldview {We changed our Children’s and Youth curriculum last year so that the kids would not merely know ABOUT the Bible, but would know the truths that the Bible proclaims and what it means for their life}

~Sunday Morning Worship—Sermons will be expositional studies of a passage that will enable us to view the world and the culture from a biblical, critical standpoint.

~Wednesday Evenings—will offer theological studies to better understand what we believe and why we believe it so that we have a foundation upon which to view the world and live our life

~D-groups—discipleship groups of 3-4 same-gendered people that dive deep into the truths of Scripture that equips participants to foster their own growth in the faith----these are 1 ½ to 2 year commitments that also equips you to disciple others----this will take years to actually bring to fruition, but we have groups going that will form the basis for this ministry

~GO TO GROW—we want to still reach the community, but do so in a safe way because of COVID; we are partnering with a ministry called Saturate USA that wants to give gospel information to every household in the United States by 2027. They will supply all the material we need for free (other than including church information), and we will deliver these packages (that include gospel tracts, a Jesus Film DVD, and our church information) to every house in Harvest, and part of Monrovia and Madison

-So, we want to form a Biblical Christian Worldview and act on that worldview—Christian, pray that this would be true of you in 2021 {pray for nation}

-Maybe you don’t have a Christian worldview because you are not a Christian…