Title: Developing A Biblical World View
Text: Col 2:6-8
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Introduction:
- What is a Biblical World View?
- It’s when you see the world and live out your morals around the Word of God.
- My morals are dictated by the Word of God and what it says.
- Every church needs to establish itself on issues and where they stand.
- Every individual needs to establish in there lives where they stand on issues.
- Why? Because our world is heading in a direction that would have been unheard of 10, 20 years ago.
- As Christians we need to take a stand on issues that our facing our nation today or we will lose our freedoms that we are presently enjoying.
- Christians today don’t know what a world view is, nor do they live by it.
- Pastor’s today don’t preach on it because they themselves don’t live by that standard.
- We should always go back and find out what the Word says concerning everything from the Great Commission (Evangelism) to how we live (Morals).
In his recently released book and a subsequent research report on world views, author and researcher George Barna made waves by citing statistics showing just 9% of all born again adults and just 7% of Protestants possess a biblical world view. That information pricked people’s curiosity regarding the world views of the nation’s religious leaders, prompting Barna Research to conduct a national survey on that topic among Protestant pastors. The numbers are now in – and the outcome may again shock many people.
Based on interviews with 601 Senior Pastors nationwide, representing a random cross-section of Protestant churches, Barna reports that only half of the country’s Protestant pastors – 51% - have a biblical world view. Defining such a world view as believing that absolute moral truth exists, that it is based upon the Bible, and having a biblical view on six core beliefs (the accuracy of biblical teaching, the sinless nature of Jesus, the literal existence of Satan, the omnipotence and omniscience of God, salvation by grace alone, and the personal responsibility to evangelize), the researcher produced data showing that there are significant variations by denominational affiliation and other demographics.
- The reason why churches today our struggling with morals and the Word of God is because half of the leaders and religious teachers don’t have one either.
- You can’t give something that you don’t have yourself.
The Denomination Gap:
(Note this is American Stats but Canada I believe is the same)
An example of the gap among churches is reflected in the outcomes related to the nation’s two largest denominations, the Southern Baptist Convention and the United Methodist Church. (Of the nation’s 320,000 Protestant churches, more than 42,000 of them are Southern Baptist and more than 35,000 are United Methodist; these two denominations alone account for roughly one-quarter of all Protestant churches in the U.S.) The Southern Baptists had the highest percentage of pastors with a biblical world view (71%) while the Methodists were lowest among the seven segments evaluated (27%).
Among the other segments examined, 57% of the pastors of Baptist churches (other than Southern Baptist) had a biblical world view, as did 51% of non-denominational Protestant pastors, 44% of pastors of charismatic or Pentecostal churches, 35% of pastors of black churches, and 28% of those leading mainline congregations.
- So out of the 51 percent of Pastor’s who have a world view, in most of these church the congregations do not.
- Barna says that 6 out of the 7 congregations where there pastor has a Biblical World view, the congregation don’t share the same thoughts or world views.
- Church whether it’s a lack of respect for the office of the Pastor, or they don’t care, if there is somehow churches can come together with there Pastor and share the same Biblical world views, the impart on our society would be powerful.
- If all of the 51 percent of churches where to follow the leadership of the Pastor concerning the Biblical world views of the 6 that Barna mentioned earlier, the churches would be a force to be reckoned with.
- Governments would be coming to us for advice, and revival would sweep across the land.
Interpretation Of Our Text (Col 2:6-8):
- Paul emphasizes that receiving Jesus is not enough. The challenge is to continue to live in Him.
- How do you do that without having a standard or a Biblical World View to follow?
- The distinction between “beginning” and then “continuing” in the relationship with Christ is critical.
- The Evangelism techniques today can overemphasize the decision to believe in Jesus and become a Christian.
- When this happens to little attention is given to being or living the Christian experience.
- Paul expresses very well that receiving Christ and being built up in Him are linked together.
- Donald C. Posterski is his book Reinventing Evangelism says it this way, “Becoming a Christian and being a Christian are like sunshine and warmth, they are inseparable.”
- If people today accept Christ but remain as mere infants in Christ, they are in danger of premature spiritual death.
I Cor 3:1 says, “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly, mere infants in Christ.”
- So let us desire to grow in our knowledge of God, the morals set out in the Word and Evangelism.
- All this needs to be done with purpose and no compromise.
- The ways of the world are often inviting. Satan is crafty. He is clever and very patient.
- He will be found to return and return again at a more convenient time.
- Without the full armor of God and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, the people of God will be persuaded to go in the world’s directions.
How Do We Know This To Be True:
Of the ten moral behaviors evaluated, a majority of Americans believed that each of three activities were “morally acceptable.” Those included gambling (61%), co-habitation (60%), and sexual fantasies (59%). Nearly half of the adult population felt that two other behaviors were morally acceptable: having an abortion (45%) and having a sexual relationship with someone of the opposite sex other than their spouse (42%). About one-third of the population gave the stamp of approval to pornography (38%), profanity (36%), drunkenness (35%) and homosexual sex (30%). The activity that garnered the least support was using non-prescription drugs (17%).
Morality perspectives vary tremendously according to people’s faith commitments.
Of the seven faith groups studied, evangelicals were the least likely to accept each of the ten behaviors as moral. Less than one out of every ten evangelical Christians maintained that adultery, gay sex, pornography, profanity, drunkenness and abortion are morally acceptable. In contrast, every one of those ten behaviors was deemed “morally acceptable” by more than one out of ten people from each of the other six faith groups studied. (The other faith segments included non-evangelical born again Christian, notional Christians, adherents of non-Christian faiths, atheists/agnostics, Protestants and Catholics.
- Lets break it down even further:
All Adults Evangelicals Born Again Other Faith Atheist/Agnostic
61% 27% 45% 69% 75% Gambling
60% 12% 49% 70% 87% Living Together
59% 15% 49% 71% 78% Lust or sexual fantasies
45% 4% 33% 45% 71% Abortion
42% 7% 35% 47% 69% Sex before marriage
38% 5% 28% 49% 70% Pornography
36% 7% 29% 46% 68% Using Profanity
35% 8% 24% 44% 61% Drunkenness
30% 5% 20% 41% 55% Gay relationships (Sexually)
17% 6% 11% 25% 38% Using Drugs not pre-scribed by a doc
Conclusion:
- It is not my desire to preach doom and gloom, but rather stress the importance of what Paul is saying in Col 2:6-8 which says, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principals of this world rather than on Christ.”
- It’s getting worse and not better.
- Now this morning, I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, not do I want to focus on what the world is doing.
- I much rather focus on what God is doing.
- Believe it or not God is still working behind the scenes bring people to Himself, setting churches on fire and people are getting saved.
- The purpose of this message is strengthen our faith and realize that God desires to use the church for something great and wonderful.
- The church is here to guide people into truth found in the Word of God.
- I am not concerned first with the world’s view of morality, I already o.
- But what I am concerned about is the church’s view of morality.
- Where do you stand on issues concerning your faith?
- What about Salvation, the existence of Heaven or Hell, The Second Coming Of the Lord
- What’s your interpretation of Gal 5, the acts of the Sinful Nature.
- What about Drinking, gambling, swearing.
- If we as individuals don’t define where we stand on issues, it’s easy to be swept away and form our own doctrine.
- Tonight I want to give you the top six fundamentals of our faith and why it’s a matter of life or death to live by them.
Lets Pray!!!
*(All information was gathered from George Baran research found at www.barna.org)
