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The Christian’s World And Life View Series
Contributed by Ron Tuit on Jul 27, 2013 (message contributor)
Summary: Paul's doxology of Romans 11:36 describes what should be every Christian's view of the world and life.
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The Christian’s World and Life View
Romans 11:36
Did you know that every person who has ever been born on this planet has a World and Life View? Some people are more active in verbalizing or articulating what that view may actually be, but we all have one. Our world view is the driving force of our lives. We reveal it very clearly to God and to everyone around us every day. It is HOW we live our lives, what we do with our lives, and what we truly believe in our hearts, and how that is evident in our lives: It’s reflected in our priorities, what we do with our time and money, and basically, our world and life view is developed and displayed over the course of our lifetimes.
I have included an interesting survey for you to study personally and consider, “Do you have a biblical worldview?”
“Answer the following questions, based on claims found in the Bible and which George Barna used in his survey:
• Do absolute moral truths exist?
• Is absolute truth defined by the Bible?
• Did Jesus Christ live a sinless life?
• Is God the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe, and does He still rule it today?
• Is salvation a gift from God that cannot be earned?
• Is Satan real?
• Does a Christian have a responsibility to share his or her faith in Christ with other people?
• Is the Bible accurate in all of its teachings?
Did you answer yes to these? Only 9 percent of "born- again" believers did. But what's more important than your “yes” to these questions is whether your life shows it. Granted, we are all sinners and fall short, but most of our gut reactions will reflect what we deep-down, honest-to-goodness believe to be real and true.”(from “What's a Christian Worldview?” by Del Tackett)
Unfortunately, and sinfully, there are many inconsistencies in our lives: We may SAY and CONFESS that we believe in God and the Bible, but then, it isn’t all that evident in the way we are actually investing our lives. We have been looking at the Apostle Paul’s doxology, beginning at Romans 11:33:
(After an examination of God’s remarkable salvation by grace to those who would receive the gift of righteousness by faith, Paul exclaims): “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34 "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" 35 "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"
We looked at those three questions last week and the answer to each of them? NOBODY. That being the case, we should NOT HARDLY follow Christ, but WHOLE-heartedly follow Him. NOW HERE IS PAUL’S World and Life View, after all has been said and done: Romans 11:36: “For from Him and through Him and to Him are ALL THINGS. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.”
The last two weeks we began with the statement, “good and sound theology begins and ends with Doxology. Today we hear from Paul that: God-centered theology begins and ends with God. “For from Him and through Him and to Him are ALL THINGS.” God-centered theology makes God EXCLUSIVE in all things.
This verse is not the only time that such a statement is made in God’s Word. 1 Corinthians 8:6 says: “For us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.”
1 Corinthians 4:7: “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” Ephesians 4:6 says, there is “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (There are others I put in your outline.)
God’s Sovereignty in Creation
We’re going to look at three areas or realms where God is Sovereign, and the first is “God’s Sovereignty over all Creation”. When we speak of God’s Sovereignty we mean that God is LORD. God is the Prince, THE Ruler, the Lord over all creation. Try this! Try rewinding history all the way back to Genesis 1:1. Now go back a little further, and what would you have? You would have the first four words of the Bible: “In the beginning, God.” There was ONLY God, existing as Father, Son, and Spirit. (Look at John 1, Col. 1, Heb. 1, Eph. 1) That’s ALL you would have: Initially, everything that existed was GOD ALONE. Everything created proceeds FROM HIM. God is the source of all things physical that have ever been made.