005 sanctification and worldview church & culture005 sanctification and worldview

005 Sanctification and Worldview

Church & Culture005 Sanctification and Worldview

Church & Culture

005 Sanctification and WorldviewChurch & Culture

Biblical truth is not only a message about salvation; biblical truth is the truth about all reality.


Introduction

The focus of the Twentieth Century Evangelical church has been on justification Getting right with God - better known as salvation or ‘new

birth” Little has been done about sanctification, or how to live in a

fallen world after you have been saved or converted Justification is necessary and we need to be remind about

God’s saving grace, but most Christians don’t know where to go from there or if we know where to go then we don’t know how to get there

A new-born’s birth is initially the most important event in his or her life – if they aren’t born then nothing else matters Yet our birth is just a beginning if we focused on our births at

the expense of our growth and maturity, where would we be? It is the same in our spiritual lives in the church - if we only

focus on our birth what happens to our spiritual development?

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Our Cultural Mandate

The role of the church is not only to make believers out of non-believers but to grow and develop disciples “It is crucial for churches to lead people forward into

spiritual maturity, equipping the saints to carry out the mission that God has given us in the cultural mandate.”

Each of us are given a role to play in developing the creation and in working out God’s laws to establish a just and proper society

Today many Christians feel that their work is an obstacle to being able to “work” for God

Many Christians do not grasp the fact that we are God’s agents and that through our work under common grace we are doing God’s work in the world

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God’s Masks

Martin Luther understood man’s occupations as God’s “masks” – “God’s ways of caring for creation in a hidden manner through human means”

Through our work we become God’s hands, eyes, and feet

God feeds us through the hands of others – farmers, truck drivers, shop keepers, stock boys, checkout people

God provides for our health through the hands of others - doctors, nurses, x-ray techs, lab techs

God provides for our protection through the hands of others -our police, firemen, and soldiers

God raises His children through the hands of others - parents, family, teachers, church, coaches

“Even non-believers can be “masks” of God, avenues of His providential love and care”

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Participating in God’s Work Our work is not something we can just choose to

do for God It is the way God allows us to participate in His work, it is

our calling – Ro 1.14-15 God is not just engaged in the work of salvation

but He is also at work in preserving and maintaining His creation We have a role to play in it

Our role may come with a price tag Never forget that the means of salvation was the cross

Christ came in humility and human weakness He allowed His death at the hands of sinners to fulfill His

role, to complete His work Those who follow after Christ may be called to

share in His sufferingChurch & Culture


Begin by Denying Self

“By God’s grace, we can make a significant difference within our sphere of influence – but only as we ‘crucify’ our cravings for success, power and public acclaim

Lk 9.23 Standing against injustice maybe a career killer,

doing what is right may be unpopular and impact how much we can earn Suffering is part of the theme of the “theology of the

cross” of Luther This helps us from becoming to prideful or self-

righteous Developing a Christian worldview is a painful

struggle Inwardly we must remove the idols that we have held

onto all of our lives Outwardly we must deal with a sinful, unbelieving world

Suffering is most often the way of being conformed to, and remade into, being like Christ

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Developing Our Personal Worldview

A worldview is intensely personal Our worldview is the way we answer life’s

questions that we all wrestle with What are we here for? What is the ultimate truth? Is life worth living? How did we get here?

As Christians we wrestle with questions like: How do I know that Christianity is true? Why should I believe in Christianity over any

other belief system?Church & Culture


Biblical Worldview and Truth If we do not realize the truth of Christianity, we will either

walk away from the faith or we will just take everything on faith This effectively neuters us from engaging with others in the arena of

ideas With a biblical worldview Christians are able to give

reasons and arguments for the truth of Christianity instead of just having faith

Can there be an intellectual conversion to Christianity? Man cannot live without a sense of purpose, direction and

significance A biblical worldview is not only a message of salvation but

it provides us with the truth about reality, the truth about the world we live in “God’s Word becomes a light to all of our paths, providing the

foundational principles for bring every part of our lives under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, to glorify Him and to cultivate His creation”

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Results of a Biblical Worldview With a biblical worldview Christians can “appreciate

works of art and culture as products of human creativity expressing the image of God”

A biblical worldview exposes the false and dangerous messages embedded in secular culture by providing the tools to analyze and critique them

With a biblical worldview we can apply a distinctly biblical perspective to whatever we are reading: a newspaper, magazine, book; watching: TV, or a movie; listening: to music or the radio

A biblical worldview allows Christians to offer cultural commentary that goes beyond just “moral condemnation”

Our initial response to the “great works of human culture” should be to see them as a reflection God’s creativity

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Correct Our Failings

It is easy for us to condemn the world for its immorality, its pessimism or nihilism, but where is our concern for the individuals that demonstrate their lostness through their art or expression? Are we providing answers to their questions? Are we standing in gap for them by crying out in prayer to God

for them? Are we offering them something else to fill the emptiness of their

lives – if we indeed have the answer? Believers “need to move beyond criticizing culture to

creating culture “The best way to drive out a bad worldview is by offering a good

one” We were created to be culture creators All of our work, in every calling, is designed to create

culture It is offering up to God our work as service to Him

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Success in Philosophy and Health

Christian philosophers Philosophy is being de-secularized

Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga - “God and Other Minds” Demonstrates that theists could stand at the intellectual table with

their humanist/naturalistic peers Religion is good for your health

Freud declared that belief in God a “universal obsessional neurosis” – religion is harmful to your mental health

Now accepted that religious people have lower rates of depression, suicide, family instability, drug and alcohol abuse, and other social pathologies

The late David Larson turns around the medical community’s view of religion and mental health with his studies

Herbert Benson – “Our bodies simply function better when we believe in God” – he goes on to say that we are all “wired for God”

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Worldview Impacts Welfare Marvin Olasky provides an illustration for the proper approach

to welfare by using the example of the church in America in the 19th century

Church helps people change their lives, not just hand out money, by focusing on education and job training

Church helps people build a social network to connect with the family and church for ongoing support and accountability

Church corrects the moral and spiritual needs that lays at the heart of dysfunctional behavior – this goes beyond what any government can do

Olasky’s book “The Tragedy of American Compassion” was the genesis of what has become a decisive change to how America deals with welfare – “faith based initiatives

If Christianity is true it should always yield a better result in every discipline

“How can we come to the realization that Christianity is not only religious truth but total truth?” - the subject for our next series of classes

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