Spectacle- The Arena
The next few weeks will be edgy, and especially next week, it will be PG 15, if not Rated R, for “sexuality”. We will be excusing OLDER kids during greeting right before the sermon.
- Sexuality
- Politics
- Religion
The Arena
- Setting the stage for the rest of our topics.
- Biblical worldview.
- Defining terms.
Worldview: is a view of the world, used for living in the world. A world view is a mental model of reality — a comprehensive framework of ideas & attitudes about the world, ourselves, and life, a system of beliefs, a system of personally customized theories about the world and how it works — with answers for a wide range of questions: What are humans, why we are here, and what is our purpose in life? What are your goals for life? When you make decisions about using time — it’s the stuff life is made of — what are your values and priorities? American Scientific Affiliation
- What can we know, and how? and with how much certainty?
- Does reality include only matter/energy, or is there more?
- Worldview: is a view of the world, used for living in the world.
WORLDVIEWS
Secular humanism: a philosophy or life stance that embraces human reason, ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making. Wikipedia
The theology of Secular Humanism is atheism. “Humanism cannot in any fair sense of the word apply to one who still believes in God as the source and creator of the universe.” Paul Kurtz, in his book “the Humanist Alternative”
Empiricism: the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience. Stimulated by the rise of experimental science, it developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, expounded in particular by John Locke and David Hume.
Postmodernism is the philosophical proposal that reality is ultimately inaccessible by human investigation, that knowledge is a social construction, that truth-claims are political power plays, and that the meaning of words is to be determined by readers not authors. In brief, Postmodern theory sees reality as what individuals or social groups make it to be. allaboutworldview.org
72% of Americans agree, “There is no such thing as absolute truth; two people could define truth in totally conflicting ways, but both could still be correct.”1 71% of Americans agree, “There are no absolute standards that apply to everybody in all situations.”2 53% of those who claim there is no such thing as absolute truth identify themselves as born-again Christians. George Barna, Virtual America
- A big problem.
- In his book “The big idea of biblical preaching”, Haddon Robinson, references Postmodern worldview being one of the biggest issues with CHristian thinking and preaching in the church. People start with there own various worldviews and then interpret scripture
- One article defining a biblical worldview explained it this way… (Show apple)
“An apple sitting on a table is seen by several people. A botanist looking at the apple classifies it. An artist sees a still-life and draws it. A grocer sees an asset and inventories it. A child sees lunch and eats it. How we look at any situation is influenced by how we look at the world at large.” Got Questions Ministries
A worldview asks big questions
- Where did we come from? (and why are we here?)
- What is wrong with the world?
- How can we fix it?
- Secular Humanist – 1. We evolved, 2. Religion 3. Free the world of religion
- Christian- 1. Created by God in his image to glorify and enjoy him forever, 2. Sin , 3. Jesus saves us through the gospel
Focus on #1.
- Q1. What is man’s primary purpose?
- Man’s primary purpose is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
- Q2. What authority from God directs us how to glorify and enjoy Him?
- The only authority for glorifying and enjoying Him is the Bible, which is the word of God and is made up of the Old and New Testaments.
- Q3. What does the Bible primarily teach?
- The Bible primarily teaches what man must believe about God and what God requires of man.
- When we hear that, we think conversation, which it is but I want to add something that has been a tradition of our faith for generations, and that’s human flourishing.
- Conversation with Pastor about rescuing a girl from human trafficking.
- Are you able to preach the gospel to them? Then why do it?
“And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:2–3
A city within a city
“According to Augustine, because God is the only source of any good to be found in the world, human beings can flourish and be truly happy only when they center their lives on God, the source of everything good, true, and beautiful. The only way to properly enjoy (and not pervert) good things in the world is to love them “in God” and in relation to him in the proper balance and shape. The supreme good for humans, Augustine argues on the basis of Scripture, is the double love of God and neighbor.” A BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF HUMAN FLOURISHING by Jonathan T. Pennington, PhD
- Story of the good Samaritan.
- When conversation through the people of God living as they are called by God to love him and love others, it changes everything.
- Application. The bible reads you.
- May all the people in your circle of influence be blessed!