The Benefits of a Biblical Worldview
How To Think Like God, Part 2
Last week, I made the case for consciously exchanging the “basic principles of the world” for a biblical worldview. I built this case on Paul’s letter to the Colossians, chapter 2, verse 8:
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. Colossians 2:8
There is a way of looking at the world with is both hollow and deceptive. It has no real substance and it is a lie. Undergirding this worldview are the “basic principles of the world. These principles oppose Jesus Christ.
Rather than buying the idea that God is like a doting grandparent in the sky who is tolerant of all my mistakes because He knows that I am basically good, I proposed that we accept the biblical view that God is both loving AND holy. That he is pure and separate as well as intimate and close. And that people are born sinful. I am not holy or good, but I sin and, left to myself, I am separated from God. As such, I cannot earn my way into God’s presence. You can see these points in the chart on the outline in your bulletin.
The world says…
1. God is loving and tolerant.
2. People are basically good.
3. People can and must earn God’s favor.
The Bible says…
1. God is loving and holy.
2. People are basically sinful.
3. People can do nothing to earn God’s favor.
We can only trust Jesus Christ.
Today, I would like to talk about the benefits of thinking about and viewing life from God’s perspective. What difference will it make if I believe what the Bible says and work at re-orienting my thinking? Pastor, how will my life be better if I do what you are advocating? As always, I am glad you asked. First…
1. YOU WILL BUILD A FIRM FOUNDATION FOR YOUR LIFE
Foundations are an important matter, though they are not usually visible. They are the unseen strength under the surface.
Have you driven by the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge recently? You cannot see much, because all the work is happening underwater on the foundation. It is quite a foundation. 33,000 tons of concrete and steel. 120 feet long. 72 feet wide. 72 feet tall. That’s 7 stories high. By volume, that’s four times as large the building you are sitting in. There are two of them, one for each tower that will support the cables and deck of the new bridge. It took two months apiece just to build the forms for the foundation and then many more months to slowly fill them with steel and concrete.
Why build such large foundations for the new bridge? The answer is simple. We want the bridge to stand. Eventually more than 100,000 vehicles per day will use these twin spans. It would be a catastrophe of horrendous proportions if the foundation did not support the towers, the cables, and the deck. Ask any engineer – he will tell you that the foundation is the most important part of any structure. Mess up the foundation and, no matter how good the building looks, you have doomed it to failure.
Note that the foundation of the original Galloping Gertie that crashed into the Puget Sound was strong. Only the bridge deck fell. Because the foundation was strong, the bridge deck could be re-built. It has been in use for over 60 years and will likely continue for another 60.
What is the foundation for your life? You are more valuable than 800 million dollars of concrete and steel. What are you building your life on?
Your thinking and the assumptions you have about God and yourself form the foundation of your life. Is the foundation made of the right stuff? The Bible says:
No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:11
Jesus Christ is the only secure foundation for life.
According to Colossians 2:8, you can build your life on the basic principles of the world or on the truth of Jesus Christ. Actually, on Christ Himself. The contrast is between the basic principles of the world and Christ Himself, not just statements about Christ. Why? Because, He is truth.
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
Jesus doesn’t only say the truth or just teach the truth. He IS the truth. He certainly tells the truth, but He is more. He Himself is the truth. We know the truth by knowing Jesus Christ.
Is this an important distinction? I think so. Just ask any of the middle school students in currently in the Confirmation class. They can tell you that the Christian faith is based on a relationship with Jesus Christ, not on intellectual belief in correct teaching. Christ Himself is the response to the assumptions about God and people that you run into every day.
This is why the Evangelical Covenant Church is not a creedal church. We do not recite the Apostle’s Creed each week. This congregation has published a Statement of Faith, but we don’t recite it together every week either. As important as accurate doctrine and correct teaching are, and they are very important, they are no more important than knowing Jesus Christ himself.
As followers of Christ, we must maintain our grip on Christ and the truth that he both is holy and loving. If you loose one or the other, the foundation begins to crumble and your life is in peril.
If we forget that God is holy, then we more readily fall into moral failure. Sin is no big deal, IF your God is not holy. IF God is less than utterly pure, forever just, always the Creator and never the creation, completely blameless, then I can afford to wink at sin. Then, I can laugh at jokes that should cause me to blush. I don’t have to worry about cheating on my taxes, cheating on a test, cheating on my wife… IF God is less than utterly holy.
BUT, if God is holy, and He is, watch out!
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory. Isaiah 6:3
If, like Isaiah said, God is three times holier than whatever you could possibly think of when you think of holy, and He is, watch out! It is a frightful matter for a sinner to fall into the hands of a holy God… unless that God is also a God of love.
If we forget that God is love, then we are left earning our way to heaven. God certainly isn’t going to help us. You might as well be a Muslim. In Islam, God is holy, but he is a little short on love. He is the Creator, but he is a little short on compassion for His creation. In Islam, God expects his standard to be met. Recently, a prominent Muslim was interviewed in Reader’s Digest. This man was dying of Parkinson’s disease. He said, “One day God is going to judge us. If the bad outweighs the good, you go to hell. If the good outweighs the bad, you go to heaven.” That’s what you get if God is holy, but short on love. It is a faulty foundation that cannot bear the load of life. The Bible says that I cannot earn my way to heaven by good works. I can only trust Christ to make me good enough.
The foundation we need is to know the true and living God. The One who is both holy AND loving. He has revealed Himself perfectly in the man Jesus Christ. God is holy and we are sinful. Sorry, but none of us got to choose the world we were born into. We need a Savior and God is love – Christ is that Savior. That’s the Good News!
Which is the next point… If you build your life on Jesus Christ and the truth of the Bible…
2. YOU WILL HAVE TRULY GOOD NEWS TO SHARE WITH OTHERS
There is no good news in the notion that you have to earn your way into favor with God. It is great news that He has already made a way for us to enter into a relationship with Him.
Have you noticed that some people seem to be working real hard but not getting anywhere? They are trying to live good decent lives, but the universe seems to be against them. It is like living in the old video arcade game Space Invaders. No matter how hard you try and how long you play, the invaders from space just keep coming. Just when you think that you have knocked off all the things you are supposed to do, another batch of obligations comes at you, only faster this time. You get worn out trying so hard to keep up doing what is good and right.
Have you noticed that others seem not to care about right and wrong? They make up their own rules as they go along to make allowance for their desires. They have been told, “If it feels good, do it,” so they do it. Then, they are surprised when things do not work out.
This is where the Good News comes into play - that God sent His own Son to take your place and my place on the cross. God has a high standard, but in a single life, the life of Jesus Christ, He received the punishment on our behalf for missing that standard. For all who believe in Christ and change the direction of their life to follow Him, God counts Christ’s perfect life as their own. That’s good news!
It is much better than thinking that you have to stack up enough good stuff to outweigh the bad. It is also much better than thinking that what you do in this life doesn’t matter to God - that you can do anything you want and He responds by patting you on the head and ushering you into heaven.
This good news has the power to change lives. How many of you read the newspaper most days? Or listen to the radio for your news? Or watch the news on TV? Or get your news on the web? It is nice to stay informed, but there is no power in that news. It is just information, but the message about Jesus Christ has the power to make people new from the inside out.
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Romans 1:16
Now try this with me. The next time someone is telling you about how bad life is or how a relationship is going sour or about difficulties at work or school, I want you to do more just nod your head sympathetically. I want you to say something like, “Have you talked to God about it? He cares about you and is able to make things better when we seek Him.” And just see what happens. They may give you a blank stare. They may run away screaming like they encountered a monster. Or maybe, just maybe, they may say, “No, I never thought of that.” If so the door is starting to open to be able to speak truth into their lives, the truth that the holy God loves them and has done everything necessary for them to know Him.
Now, repeat after me.
“Have you talked to God about it?”
“He cares about you.
“He goes to work when we seek Him.”
There is a whole mess of people that you are going to see in the next week that need to hear the truth about Christ and who need a touch from Him. God wants to use you to tell them and to be the channel for His touch. Just tell one. God does not rain Bibles out of the sky. That is not the way He works, and anyway, it would hurt to have those Bibles falling on your head. No. He sends people. After all, if you are a follower of Christ, someone told you. When you came to your senses, you too thought it was good news.
Give me a show of hands. If you are following Jesus Christ and you were told about Him through a person or a ministry of Graham Covenant Church, please raise your hand. See, many of you were told about Christ through this church or someone connected with this church.
As you and I orient our thinking more and more along the lines of Christ Himself, I pray and trust and expect that the number of hands will grow. One year from now, there will be more hands.
There are benefits to exchanging the basic principles of the world for the truth about Christ. Not only will you build a strong foundation for your life and have genuinely good news to share, but also…
3. YOU WILL FIND A NEW OPENNESS TO GOD’S LOVE
When you really get it, when you grasp God’s holiness in the face of your sin, then your heart becomes fertile ground for the seed of His love - the love that God has demonstrated in His Son Jesus. There is a heart response and an emotional response as the depth of His love sinks in.
Now, all you macho guys out there, stay with me. I know you are tough. You are impervious to pain. You are a rock. You are an island, but stay with me here. Do not tune me out. I am not talking about becoming a sissy or a blubbering fool. I am just talking about a deeper, more meaningful connection with God.
Remember, Christ’s love is a strong tough love. It is NOT a sissy love. Have you seen those little Precious Moments cards and books and statuettes? They have these ultra cute little kids. Their faces and posture just ooze care and compassion. I’m sorry ladies, but those cute little figures kind of make me want to puke. I never liked them. They just do not do it for me.
On the other hand, have you seen the movie, The Passion of the Christ? Man! If you want tough, then you want Jesus Christ. There is nothing wimpy about His love.
Men, a new openness to God’s love will give a depth and strength to your toughness that you never though possible.
Did you know that the Apostle Paul prayed for you? He prayed that you will grasp the deep and enduring love that God has for you. Let’s revisit a few verses that we looked at on Easter, this time reading from a different translation, The Message:
I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit – not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength – that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet firmly planted on love, you will be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19
Live it. Live in the fullness of God’s love.
Do you have any idea how deep God’s love is for you? It’s like the old children’s song,
So high, can’t get over it,
So wide, can’t get around it,
So deep, can’t get under it,
You have to go through the door.
Jesus Christ is the door. As Paul prayed, that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in.
Has God’s love captured your heart? Let me tell you a story.
Private First Class Milton L. Olive III was born November 7, 1946 in Chicago, Illinois. He died on October 22, 1966, just shy of his 20th birthday in Phu Cuong, Vietnam. The citation for his Medal of Honor reads as follows:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Pfc. Olive was a member of the 3d Platoon of Company B, as it moved through the jungle to find the Viet Cong operating in the area. Although the platoon was subjected to a heavy volume of enemy gunfire and pinned down temporarily, it retaliated by assaulting the Viet Cong positions, causing the enemy to flee. As the platoon pursued the insurgents, Pfc. Olive and four other soldiers were moving through the jungle together when a grenade was thrown into their midst. Pfc. Olive saw the grenade, and then saved the lives of his fellow soldiers at the sacrifice of his by grabbing the grenade in his hand and falling on it to absorb the blast with his body. Through his bravery, unhesitating actions, and complete disregard for his safety, he prevented additional loss of life or injury to the members of his platoon. Pfc. Olive’s extraordinary heroism, at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.
Milton Olive sacrificed his life, so that his four buddies could live. Army records reveal that Milton’s four fellow soldiers survived the war and returned home. His sacrifice was rare and incredible. But, his sacrifice was not unique. It is not beyond our understanding. Other soldiers have sacrificed their lives for their buddies. Soldiers are trained to watch out for each other and in the intensity of the moment, training and instinct and love take over.
Now, listen to something that does surpass our understanding.
For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life. Rom. 5:10
We were God’s enemies. Jesus threw Himself on a grenade (the cross) for his ENEMIES: you and me. That is holy love. A better analogy is if one of the Viet Cong soldiers on that day in 1966 threw himself on the grenade and saved 5 American soldiers.
Thinking like God and thinking about God’s holy love will create a new openness to receive His love. If you are filled up with your own self-importance or self-toughness or self-loathing, there won’t be much room for God’s love. Only when you stop trying to prove your worth to God, will you be able to know His love.
I hope that you will find a new openness to God’s love. Embrace it. Turn to Him and embrace Him. I am going to read more about God’s love and Christ’s sacrifice from the same passage in Romans 5. Allow these words to penetrate. Allow them to lubricate the hinges on the doors to your heart so that those doors will swing wide open.
Christ... didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for his sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. Romans 5:6-8 [The Message]
And the sacrifice that Jesus made for you as satisfaction of God’s holiness and the supreme expression of His love was not something that He just fell into or that he chose in the intensity of the moment. No. It was planned. He was prepared. He was intentional, focused, and purposeful.
I pray that you we be equally intentional in responding to that love. I pray that you will be equally focused and purposeful at evaluating the assumptions that undergird your thoughts, words and choices day-to-day. A few ideas can make a big difference in your life. The benefits are immense:
• A firm foundation that can bear the load of life in this world.
• Truly good news to share with others.
• A new openness in your heart to God’s love.
A Prayer to Think Like God
God, in my better moments, I want what you are offering. I need Jesus Christ as the foundation of my life. I want to share the life that you are giving me with others. And I am opening myself to more of your strong love. Help me to identify and throw away ideas from the world that erode the foundation. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Sermon Outline for Bulletin:
The Benefits of A Biblical Worldview
How To Think Like God, Part 2
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. Colossians 2:8
The world says… The Bible says…
God is loving and tolerant. God is loving and
holy.
People are basically good. People are basically
sinful.
People can and must earn God’s favor.
People can do
absolutely nothing to
earn God’s favor.
We can only trust Jesus
Christ.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
YOU WILL BUILD _____________________ FOR YOUR LIFE
No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:11
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory. Isaiah 6:3
YOU WILL HAVE __________________________ TO SHARE
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Romans 1:16
YOU WILL FIND _______________________ TO GOD’S LOVE
I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit – not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength – that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet firmly planted on love, you will be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19 [The Message]
For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life. Rom. 5:10
Christ... didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for his sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. Romans 5:6-8 [The Message]
A Prayer to Think Like God
God, in my better moments, I want what you are offering. I need Jesus Christ as the foundation of my life. I want to share the life that you are giving me with others. And I am opening myself to more of your strong love. Help me to identify and throw away ideas from the world that erode the foundation. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
