Choosing My Standard

Some would say beliefs don’t matter, but they do. Belief Behavior Connection It does matter what you believe… it matters a lot. Your beliefs determine your behavior and your behavior determines what you become. So the kind of person you are, at the core, is based on the things you have chosen to value. IOW, your convictions in life determine your conduct. Your conduct determines your character.

If you want to build a life of lasting success and significance, you have to build it on lasting values. Lasting success is built on values that last. That’s what we will look at for the next few weeks. Today will be an introduction to the next few weeks.

One thing most people in America will agree on, no matter what their politics are, is that America is on a moral decline. There is a decaying of moral value in our culture.

Some polls say that up to 80% of Americans see the decline of moral values as the most important issue of the day. You don’t have to look hard for news headlines or stories that show what a decline we are in. Greed is alive and well not only in corporate America, but throughout the country. Sexual immorality is rampant. We have DA’s who do not prosecute drug offenses anymore but will prosecute police.

Where have Values gone?

You can see the crisis of values in every area of life

Politics

Business

Education

Entertainment

Religion

If I asked you to list a story about each of these areas, you could do so easily.

What’s the cause of all of this?

Two Words…

Truth decay

Sorry to say that we do not value the truth in our culture any more. We value convenience… is it easy? And we value pragmatism… does it work?

People don’t really care about the truth. Some even say that there is no such things as universal truth or truths. All they want to know is does it work and is it easy?

This is a major shift in values that has taken place over the last 45 years or so. Back then, there were truths that everyone agreed on as being true. When they did something wrong, they knew they did something wrong. There was not much, if any disagreement about what was right or wrong.

Today is different. We have an entire generation of people who don’t know the difference between right and wrong. Out culture says, what may be right for you is not right for me. What may be right for you, may be wrong for me. We no longer have standards to measure your life and behavior.

What happened? How is it that in just 1 generation we went from general agreement on right and wrong to today people don’t believe it. As a matter of fact, if you stated that something is absolute truth, you would be attacked over it. This has happened in just one generation.

The Cause

3 Destructive Philosophies

1. Individualism

I live for myself. Only I can judge what’s right for me. No one else can say what they think is good for me. A survey of CEO’s and other executives showed that when these are facing a tough decision they consult with themselves 44% of the time. Only 3% consult with God.

This is nothing new. Individualism has been around for a while. The result in Israel was anarchy…

Judges 21:25 NLT

25 In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

Anarchy seems to be where we may be headed.

2. Secularism

Secularism can be summed up with this… God is unnecessary. It doesn’t mean that you don’t believe in God. You just don’t believe that you need him in your life.

Fro the last 45 years or so, we have been systematically removing God from every area of public life. God is not necessary, I can handle it.

This mindset has come around in one generation. Forty years ago, most school rooms had the 10 commandments on them as a standard of moral authority. School days would begin with the pledge and prayer.

Today its the opposite. There are no more 10 commandments on the walls of schools and the majority of people do not go to church. Talk shows put moral filth on their shows and try to tell us that this is normal.

The number one initatoir of values today is notGod, the Bible or the church, its television.

Romans 1:25 NLT

25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

Secularism or materialism i this case is when you worship things instead the right things. When you worship things instead of the God who made them, that’s secularism or materialism. Listen, there are more people out playing around outside in good weather than in churches around this city.

3. Relativism

There are no absolutes. The idea is that what’s right for you may not be right for me. No one can really say if something is right or wrong… because you don’t believe that there is… it’s vague.

It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere

If I believed that this cup had a good cup of coffee in it, but in reality had poison in it, you would be sincerely dead. It doesn’t matter what you believe… it matters what is true or not.

When people tell you th truth, they love you. When they just go, whatever you want… that’s not love. We need people that will say… that’s wrong...

There are no absolute truths

They teach this now. There are not absolutes in the world. This is both illogical and irrational. Don’t ever let someone mess with you by saying it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere… or that there are no absolute truths. The statement itself is an absolute.

The statement is irrational because or world is built on things that are absolutely true. Gravity is absolute. We make chairs to hold you up because God has made gravity to pull you down into the chair. When Nasa shot a rocket to the moon, they did not aim at the moon. They aimed at where the moon would be. Why? Because God established some universal laws that work all the time.

Think about this. You need a decongestant but the Pharmacist brings you an antidepressant. He says, there are no absolutes so I figured any medicine would work. Do you think the truth is important when you go to get meds?

People say that absolute truth is narrow. It is. That’s why it is the truth. And God wants you and I to know the truth.

What is there were no traffic laws? No law that says stop at an intersection… not lines in the road. We would all be dead. I think we need some absolutes in traffic. Even people who don’t believe in absolutes start believing when it impacts them. What is I build an addition but it overlaps onto your property? You would all of a sudden be a fan of absolutes.

Don’t let anyone con you into thinking this is new stuff. Individualism, secularism, and relativism have been around for a while.

In today's society, relativism -- which is the prevailing attitude -- the highest value in our society is tolerance. We value tolerance more than truth. You don't want to say the truth because you may hurt somebody, you may offend somebody. They may disagree with you. What we're supposed to do is tolerate each other. The worst sin in our society is to be intolerant. They will label you as judgemental.

It’s not judgemental to tell the truth. If God says a particular lifestyle is right and another is wrong, he is not judging, he is telling the truth. It’s not judgemental to tell the truth.

The word Tolerance has been re-defined in our culture. Here is what it used to mean. I will respect you and treat you with dignity even though I violently disagree with you.

The Bible teaches that we, as believers, are to be tolerant. We should never treat people like animals or less than human. Even the worst criminal or the worst person with the most immoral lifestyle, we're to treat them with love and dignity. Jesus did. He accepted people without approving of their lifestyle. He did not tell them to do whatever they wanted… that it didn’t matter. It did matter and he told them to stop sinning, but he always treated people with dignity. We are called to be tolerant in that way.

But tolerance in America doesn’t mean that any longer. Tolerance now mean that every idea is equally valid, equally true, that every lifestyle is right. That simply is not true. It’s not true that every idea or thought or belief is equal. Truth is narrow.

That idea of "All ideas are equally valid and they're all the truth even when they contradict each other." The extreme expression of that is called political correctness. God has something to say about this kind of nonsense.

Ephesians 4:17–19 NLT

17 With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. 18 Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. 19 They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.

Some people are so open minded their brains fall out. Some open minds need to be closed for repairs. They are not even thinking. Moses told Pharoah, let my people go. Today he might tell us, let my people think. Use your brain and not be fooled by the foolishness of our culture.

What’s the cost of these philosophies?

The Cost of these Philosophies

What's the cost of not having any standards, values, not even agreeing with what is true right and wrong?

Our culture is collapsing

It’s not just Christians that are noticing this. People from all different walks of life are seeing this.

Time - Lying: Everyone is doing it. Violence goes mainstream...

Porn - America is the number one producer and user of porn.

Suicide: rampant

Sexual immorality… horrible desires… pedophilia… rape…

Mom, I want a divorce...

What’s happening to the American Character? Good question… here is the answer…

The generation that forgot God… all of a sudden with no God there is no truth. And as a result we have a collapsing culture.

These stats vary, but here are some.

In the next 30 minutes...

228 children will be beaten, molested or abused.

57 will run away from home.

3/4 of the girls will sell themselves to survive.

Today in America, Adult bookstores outnumber McDonalds.

Every day in America...

3288 children run away from home. 1096 never return.

4896 children become victims of divorce.

14 youth are murdered.

3356 HS kids drop out

3533 babies born to unwed mothers, but another 1128 have abortions.

1643 teens attempt suicide… 18 die.

45% of teens regularly use alcohol… 6 will die in related accidents.

13,076 kids suspended in our schools

135,000 plus kids bring some type of weapon to school every day...

America is now not just the leading producer of pornography but we lead every other nation by a far margin of the number of citizens we have incarcerated. We have more people in jail in America than any other country.

That’s the cost of these philosophies.

Proverbs 29:18 The Living Bible

18 Where there is ignorance of God, crime runs wild; but what a wonderful thing it is for a nation to know and keep his laws.

We are seeing this every day. Why is there so much crime and breakdown and violence and gang warfare and people afraid to go out of their homes? Because of an ignorance of God. If there is no God, then there is no standard of truth. And if there is no standard, anything goes! If I want to burn down your house, I can. There is no objective standard. It may be right for me to burn down your house. May be wrong for you, but it's right for me.

ILL - playing cards and I just change the rules… if you look up the rules, I am wrong

This book, God's word the Bible, tells the truth. There's a lot of it in this book that I don't understand. There's a lot in this book that I don't like to read. There's a lot in this book that doesn't necessarily make sense to me. There's a lot that's not easy to do. But it is the truth. Because it came from God. It is the truth. And if you say something contrary to this, guess who's wrong?

Our culture is collapsing. I've heard many times, "I have to be unethical at work. I have to survive and everybody else is unethical so I have to do it too." The moment that attitude becomes dominant in our society we're doomed. It's over. Every culture has collapsed when the people move to the "I've got to do whatever it takes", when survival becomes more important than the truth.

Today, what we're witnessing is the flip flopping of values. What used to be called right is now being called wrong. What used to be called wrong is now being called right. What used to be called perverted is now being called sophisticated. We're flip-flopping all of the values. We're turning criminals into celebrities. We've put them in jail and then pay them big bucks to get movie rights and go watch their perverted life as entertainment. What's wrong with this picture???

Today in our society we have pornographers who their own daughters are calling incestuous and they are being nominated for academy awards and Oscars on one hand. On the other hand a first grade boy kisses a little girl, he's hauled in for sexual harassment. Honoring one and destroying another. What's going on here???

We kill millions of unborn babies and the elderly everyday and don't think anything about it, we're avidly protesting the protection of insects and parasites.

On one hand marriage is called out of date, confining, medieval age, servility for women and we don't need it. Unless you're gay. In that case we're going to promote gay marriage because it's a "really" good thing!

Something's gone haywire! Look what God has to say about it...

Isaiah 5:20 The Living Bible

20 They say that what is right is wrong and what is wrong is right; that black is white and white is black; bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.

God is not mocked. He says, whatever you sow you're going to reap and today what we're seeing happening in the decaying of our culture is we are reaping what we have sowed for the last 50 years.

Proverbs 29:18 GNB

18 A nation without God’s guidance is a nation without order. Happy are those who keep God’s law!

Chaos. Our nation was founded on the two presuppositions from God, in heaven, our rights are endowed by our creator, and that we are to follow basic moral laws that He has laid out. That's the cornerstone of our society. There was a study of 15,000 documents of the founding fathers of our nation -- letters, articles, documents -- and discovered that 34% of the quotes of all the founding fathers of our nation were directly from the Bible.

The entire concept of the constitution as well as our declaration of independence came from the Bible and the10 commandments. But even if our founding fathers did not believe in God, the truths of God are still true. God’s truth is not dependent of public opinion.

The question as we go into this series is not, "How can I change society?" but "How can I live a life of value in a world that can't even decide what's right and wrong?" and "How can I raise children with basic, lasting values in a world where teachers can't teach basic right and wrong because of relativity, secularism, and individualism and "How do I build my business on values in a world where everybody else is a dog-eat-dog, cut throat world?" What do I do?

Psalm 11:3 GW

3 When the foundations ⌊of life⌋ are undermined, what can a righteous person do?”

The Cure

The cure is to...

Rebuild the foundation

To rebuild the foundation to your life, your happiness, your business and of your family. That means that you start at the beginning with the Lord. He is truth and that’s where we begin.

What makes something wrong? It’s not because we say it's wrong but because it's anti-God. It's anti His character. God is honest. So when we're dishonest, it's wrong. God is faithful. So when we're unfaithful, it's wrong. God is just. So when we're not fair, it's wrong. When we are different from the character of the creator who made us, it's wrong. When we're like the character of the creator who made us, it's right. That's how you decide what truth is.

Proverbs 2:9 The Living Bible

9 He shows how to distinguish right from wrong, how to find the right decision every time.

There used to be schools and things that are trying to teach values without God. "Morality without God is impossible." Abraham Lincoln said that. And, "A moral government without God is impossible." George Washington said that.

2 Timothy 3:16 NLT

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.

Circle… What is true… what is wrong… what is right

If God says it, it's absolutely true, whether I understand it, whether I agree with it, whether I like it or not, it's true because it came from God.

How do I know when something is truth and when it's just an opinion? Two characteristics:

1. Truth is universal. If it is true, it applies to everyone, everywhere around the world in every culture. If it does not apply to everyone everywhere, it's not truth, it's an opinion. Because truth is universal.

2. Truth is unchanging. It's always the same. It doesn't change. It isn't impressed by fads or fashion. It is unchanging. For instance, if adultery was wrong 4000 years ago, it was also wrong 2000 years ago, it is wrong today and it will be wrong 2000 years from today no matter what anybody else says. Truth is unchanging and it is universal.

Facts change but truth doesn't. For instance, years ago, science used to tell us the smallest particle of life is the atom. The fact is since then we've discovered five layers beneath that. So that is not true. It was a fact but it wasn't true. Now we know there are even smaller things. When something changed it was a fact but with more discovery we learned that wasn't really correct.

What's the benefit of building my life on absolute, universal unchanging truth?

Psalm 119:105 The Living Bible

105 Your words are a flashlight to light the path ahead of me and keep me from stumbling.

If you build your life on God’s unchanging truth, you will not stumble around.

Proverbs 16:20 NLT

20 Those who listen to instruction will prosper; those who trust the Lord will be joyful.

If I build my life on the unchanging principles of God as found in His word, I will be happy and prosperous.

The choice we need to make

It all comes down to making a choice. One year Newsweek did a magazine cover titled, Whose Justice? Whose Morality? Whose Community? Whose Family? Whose Values?

That’s the issue. Whose values are you going to chose to live by? What will the standard by which we make our decisions in life upon? You only have three choices… internal… external… or eternal.

You can base your decisions on what you know and make yourself the ultimate decider of truth. IOW, you choose your values based on yourself. You your standards on what you think works… pragmatic.

Or you can choose external standards. I’m going to look at what everyone else is going to do. You will choose to live by whatever is trending right now.

Or you can choose god because his standards are eternal. They don’t change. As we begin this series, write down in your last blank what your standard will be and put one of three things.

My standard will be Me? Culture? God?

If you put “me” down, I hope to change your mind so come on back. But listen to me everyone. I am really not interested in what you think is right or wrong… what our culture thinks is right or wrong. I am interested in know what God says is right or wrong.

There is a lot in this book I don’t know or totally understand, and it’s not easy to follow, but it’s the truth and if I follow it, my life will be blessed.

This week has been an intro for the next sessions. We looked at problems and the causes of them, but this is all the negative you will hear in this series. We will look at a different character quality each Wednesday and Sunday. Wednesday is on responsibility.

So, what will it be? What will your standard be? Is it God? If it is, I want you to stand up. Now I want you to come to the front… just fill up the whole area.

Prayer

These people have said they want you as their standard… that they want to base their lives on you and your values. give us the strength to do that Lord.

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