Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest
questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search
and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Meador, lead
pastor of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth
for the life we're searching for. So glad that you're with us today as we close out
our series called Dear God, tough questions that we have to be able to answer for ourselves
and for those around us. If you have your Bibles this morning, take them to Colossians
chapter 2 today. Today I'm going to talk to you about biblical Christianity and culture
conflict. Biblical Christianity and culture conflict. Let me ask you just a kind of a
quick survey today. How many of you see the conflict in culture today? Would you just
raise your hand if you can see it? And I think most of us can see the extreme conflict in
culture today and we can see the clash with biblical Christianity and where culture is
headed today. Now this series has been a great series. We've walked through questions like
does hell exist or how can a good God allow suffering to take place in people's lives?
We actually asked the question, how can God bless any nation but how can it bless America?
We asked that question back in early July. We dealt with the issue of transgenderism.
What is transgenderism? How does the Christian interact with those that are walking through
that transgender movement? How do we respond to that? And one of the most frequently asked
questions was a question that deals with culture that we have today. Like one of the questions
I got from the survey was, so what do we do with all the woke ideology? How do we face
intersectionality? How do we deal with CRT and some of the race ideologies that we have
today? How do we think through that, make decisions about that? Where do we stand in
regard to all those things that are swirling around us in modern day America that maybe
we haven't ever seen or ever dealt with before? And instead of trying to answer every one
of those questions, I'm going to give you one answer for all of them today. How do you
look at the world through a biblical lens and deal with all the things we're dealing
with?
Custodians chapter 2, 6 is where we'll begin today. If you have your Bibles and you're
ready, let's stand together if you would. I'm going to read God's word today from chapter
2, verse 6 and finally.
The Paul is writing to the church of Colossae, dealing with the same kinds of things that
we're talking about today in our world. He says, therefore, as you have received Christ,
Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. Having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him,
and established in your faith just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
So he begins by saying, look, in the same way you accepted Christ by faith, that's how
your faith walk is going to take place, by faith. And then he goes on and says something
in a negative sense here. He says in verse 8, see to it that no one takes you captive.
Now those are actually battle words. These are words about warfare that's happening.
He says, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according
to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather
than according to Christ. And then he comes back around and talks about the sufficiency
of what it means to be in Christ. And here's what he says, for in him all the fullness
of deity dwells in bodily form. If you can't get excited about that verse, you are not
alive today.
In Jesus Christ, in him all the fullness of the Godhead, all the fullness of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwell in bodily form in Jesus Christ. And in him you have
been made complete, and he is the head over all rule and authority. So much more, but
we'll stop there. What a passage that we can look at today. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray
that you will illuminate this text for us today because we need to know what it means
to stand on the sufficiency of Jesus Christ in life. And Father, help us to know how we
view what's going on around us from the perspective of the sufficiency of Jesus. Father, my prayer
today is that you will help us see like we haven't seen before. Help us understand like
we haven't understood before, and only you can accomplish that in any of our lives. So
we ask you to do that, and we thank you for it. We ask all this in Jesus' name, and I
believe what God's people said. Amen. Please be seated if you would. So what about all
these ideologies? You know, I saw something the other day that you probably have seen.
It's been on social media. And it says something like this, if Paul saw the church in America,
we'd be getting a letter. And I think that's a good line. But the letter we might be getting
is this one. The letter to the church at Colossae. And the reason that we'd be getting that kind
of letter is because of what was going on in the church at Colossae. It's the same thing
that's going on in our world today. Paul was writing to address false understandings, heresies
about Jesus Christ himself that mirrors modern day thinking. Greek culture accepted Jesus
as a good teacher, as a moral agent, as a moral influence, but not as God. There were so many
other gods that they worshiped, so many other philosophies they embraced, but they did not
embrace Jesus Christ as God. And if they didn't embrace him as God, then the next thing that
they concluded was everything he did and affirmed was optional and not absolute. And I'll tell
you this today, if you don't embrace Jesus as God in the flesh, then everything he says
is optional. You can take it or leave it. But if everything he said, if he is God, everything
he said is absolute and not optional. It's truth. And what Paul is writing to the church
of Colossians about is this idea of who Jesus is and the fact that he needs to be taken
not just seriously, but for who he really is. I'm going to summarize chapter one real
quick. Paul says to that church, Christ is not only God, but he's creator, he's center
of the universe and reconciler of mankind. Think about that. Christ is not just some
moral teacher. He is creator. And Colossians 1 talks about that. He is the center of the
universe. He holds all things together and he's the reconciler of mankind to God. If
you jump back to chapter one, you'll see it all in Colossians chapter one, verse 15. He
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him, all things were
created both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or rulers or authority. And notice this next line, all things have been created
through him and for him. And then it concludes that section by saying he is before all things
and in him, all things hold together. All things means all, all things hold together.
So if Christ is God, he determines how biblical Christians are to live and believe no matter
what culture says. He helps frame the biblical worldview through which we view what's going
on around us, Christ and the scripture. And that helps us be placed in the scope of where
things are and how things work. That's really important for us to understand the two key
things going on in this passage. And then I'm going to spend some time after talking about
the second thing that he gives us in this text. And I'm going to kind of break it down
in terms of how to apply the culture today and how it frames our worldview of how we
view things. This will be an important time for us together today because I hope when
you leave this room today, you'll view things out there differently maybe than you viewed
it before. So let's notice the first two keys that he gives us. First of all, it's embrace
the person and truth of Jesus by faith. Just as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk in him. I love that's where this starts. Everything about your stability, everything
about the balance in your life, everything about the way you view everything around you
is based on a relationship with Jesus Christ. And how did we begin that relationship with
Jesus Christ? By faith. By faith. Jesus often talked about having the faith like a child,
child like faith. When you and I came to faith in Jesus, it wasn't through the complexity
of religion, was it? When we came to faith in Jesus, it wasn't because we read all the
books of the Bible and accumulated the whole theological doctrine in our minds or learned
the terminology and the semantics of doctrine and theology. It's not how we came to faith
in Christ. We came to faith in Christ knowing that he died on the cross for us, paid for
our sins, and we knew we needed forgiveness and salvation. So with childlike faith, we
placed our trust in faith and confidence in Jesus Christ. Thank God it's that simple because
that's the only way we can come. But in the same way that you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, Paul now says, walk in him with that same simple childlike faith that says,
I may not understand everything that's going on around me, but I know who built this universe
and I know who it's for and I know who holds all things together and it's Jesus. So first
of all he says, embrace the person of Christ. It's a really, really huge thing. He goes
on and he says, having been firmly rooted, now being built up in him and established
in your faith just as you were instructed. In other words, grow your roots down deep
and let those roots nourish you and build you up strong in the faith that's in Jesus
Christ. Roots are important to be built up, right? You've got to have those roots going
down deep. You know that if you ever tried to take a tree out of your front yard the
way I did a few years ago. My wife one day walked outside the front porch where we live
and she looked over to the left and there was this growth of bushes and shrubs and crepe
myrtle trees and she said, you know we need to get rid of these and build a porch. Let's
pour a concrete porch out here. So we thought it was a great idea and I called some concrete
contractors and said, hey we need to build a porch out here, a poor porch. And they came
out and gave us an estimate. It was reasonable and they said, but the first thing you have
to do is you have to remove all those trees and all those shrubs and all those bushes.
And I thought, that's a job for a guy like me. I like to destroy things. I'm going to
destroy this thing. So I got started. I think it's going to take me a day. I got the shrubs
out in a day. I got the bushes out in a day, but the crepe myrtle tree does not want to
go. And I'm cutting most of the limbs off of it and now I'm just dealing with the roots
and I do everything including back my truck up and hook up the chain to the bumper and
try to pull it out and nearly strip out my transmission trying to get those roots out
of there. They would not come out. I used axes and chainsaws and shovels and I got down
deep and I cut down everything I could around the tree and I got it to wobble a little bit,
but later on concluded that there was a root that went straight down that I couldn't see
and I couldn't get it out. Finally I got about a 10 foot iron bar pole, about 10 foot long,
weighed about 150 pounds and I started prying, chopping and prying and chopping and prying
and I'm not kidding you, but at one point I literally thought I was going to die in
that front yard trying to get that root out. And I told my wife if I die it will be in
the front yard right here, it will be because you wanted that tree gone. Finally it came
out and it was gone and we could move forward. Now I tell that story because I want you to
know it ought to be at least that hard to carry you away from the sufficiency of Christ.
You roots ought to be at least that deep and they ought to be going down so deep that you
will be built up so strong that it won't be an easy task to move you away from the truth
and the faith that you have in Jesus Christ. You need to be rooted down deep and you need
to be built up with great strength. That tree spent years doing that in Texas summers and
it made it strong and you and I have to do that in life. Let me just give you some pointers
here, I think some thoughts about being rooted down. Your faith grows over time day by day.
It's not just one experience, it's not just going to a series of services, it's not reading
one book, it's day by day, moment by moment. Your roots go down deep like that. Secondly
your roots grow as you are exposed to prayer and the Word of God. The more you expose yourself
to prayer and the Word of God, the more God works in your life growing those roots deeper.
You talk to Him, you build your faith and what you are asking of Him and what He is
asking of you. You read God's Word and it shapes your understanding of who He is and
how He works and what He is doing in your life. I promise you your roots won't keep
growing if you don't keep exposing yourself to the nutrients that I am talking about of
prayer and the Word of God. Then thirdly your faith grows by knowing Christ's character
and trusting His commands. You grow by faith by walking by faith. God asks us to do things
that we wouldn't ordinarily do but He does that so we can learn to depend on His sufficiency.
We are complete in Him. He has all authority and all the power, we can trust Him. But you
grow in your faith when you exercise your faith in trusting in Him. Here's what you
want to be. You want to be Psalm 11. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the castle
of the wicked nor stand in the path of the sinner nor sit in the seat of the scoffer
but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law he meditates day and night.
Lots of insights here. He will be like a tree firmly planted by the streams of water which
yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither and in whatever he does he
prospers. Isn't that a great Psalm? It's a great way to start the whole book of Psalms.
Be planted by that river. Let your roots go deep. Be built up and established in your
faith. Do it day by day. Make it the priority of your life because only when you are able
to stand on that kind of foundation and only when you build on those kinds of roots are
you able to withstand the tsunami waves and the whirlwinds of different ideas in our world
today. And that brings Paul to his second point and that is embrace or rather resist
the principles of the world by faith. You embrace the person of Jesus Christ. You resist
the principles of the world by faith. And again I come back to that battle phrase. Verse
eight begins with the phrase. See to it that no one takes you captive. You know what that
phrase means. Invading armies would come in and if they captivated the city they carried
away people to be their slaves, to be their workers, to be their family members sometimes.
And they just dragged them away. They took them away from what they were familiar with.
They removed them from their homes and their families and their cities. They took them
captive. It's a battle term. So Paul adds to this embrace Jesus idea this other idea
and the other idea is you can be captivated by all these different things if you are not
deeply rooted in Christ. If you are not clear on what you believe about Jesus and then he
gives these different ideas. See to it that no one takes you captive through and look
at the text itself the word philosophy. We'll talk about that in a moment. And then there's
empty deception. And according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles
of the world, here's the big deal, and not according to Christ. You're going to hear
a variety of ideas from a variety of voices but Paul says don't be taken captive by any
of those voices especially because they contradict Christ and not according to Christ. That really
puts a blanket kind of an umbrella over all of them. So we embrace Christ but we do not
embrace deceptive thinking. The spiritually healthy person will grow deep in truth and
they will resist the deception of worldly thinking. Both are important to your spiritual
growth. It's a massive warning about whatever ideas that come along about whatever subjects
you have to be able to resist because you've already got your answer and that answer is
found in Christ. These terms mean something that was not only applicable in that day and
time but that hasn't changed much. For example, philosophy is the current wisdom of the age
and specifically a philosophy that's contrary to biblical truth. The idea of empty deception
means a fruitless and unproven speculation, a promise that will solve things, a promise
that says hey this is the solution to what we see going on around us but it's empty.
It doesn't build fruit and it's not based on absolute truth. The tradition of man is
a pretty clear idea. The idea is an idea or practice or theory that is man-made and not
finding its origins in divine truth. And I've got to tell you today even though you know
this, your life is not a laboratory where you experiment with man-made ideas about how
to live life. This world is not a laboratory where you experiment with worldly ideas about
what makes things happen in a good way or a bad way. We know what the Bible says, we
know what it teaches us. It's interesting that in the Bible the contrast between divine
wisdom and human wisdom is very, very stark, very stark. For example, in James chapter
three verse 15 he's talking about the wisdom that comes from above and then the wisdom
that doesn't come from above. And James of course is a straight shooter and he says this
really, really clearly. He says this in contrasting the two kinds of wisdom. This wisdom is not
that which comes down from above but is earthly and natural and demonic. I don't think you
can get further apart on the two ends of the spectrum. James in talking about godly or
spiritual wisdom, biblical wisdom we would say as well, is contrasting all the other
kinds of wisdom as earthly, as natural, and as demonic. Natural usually has a pretty good
connotation. We like natural things but natural wisdom is sinful wisdom. It's birthed in the
sinfulness of mankind, the selfishness of mankind and not in the perfect character of
Jesus Christ. So I know that at times we look at these different ideas swirling around and
we ask the question is no wisdom helpful to us? Is no human wisdom any good for us? Is
it not worthwhile at all? And my answer is always going to be not if that kind of wisdom
contradicts biblical truth. You can weigh everything else that you hear, read about,
but if it contradicts biblical truth, absolute truth that we find in scriptures, then it's
not divine, it's human and it originates with a fallen premise from the beginning. It will
not work in your life the way God's principles will. That brings me to really the big application
of all that I've said so far today. How does the believer think through the challenges?
How do they think through the challenges of life and culture? How do we think about things
spiritually? How do we think about them socially? How do we think about these different ideologies
that we hear about relationally? How about culture solutions to the problems that we're
facing today? What about our community? What about our nation? How do we evaluate ideas
and movements? How do we know if we're on the right track or not? So hopefully I can
answer all those questions with one answer. You need to pray for me if that's what you
think I'm trying to do here. The greatest lens a person can view the world through is
through a biblical worldview. The greatest way to evaluate and discern all these things
that you'll hear about and you'll hear about these for the rest of your life and they're
increasing. Just wait until artificial intelligence gets a hold of it folks. They're going to
give you all kinds of ideas that are not only not man-made, neither are they divinely given.
All kinds of things are going to come across our paths. We need a biblical worldview. We
need to be able to see with the lens that helps us see clearly. How many of you in the
room use corrective lenses on your eyes? You know, glasses, contact lens, something like
that. I need my contacts. When I was about 12 or 13 I realized that I needed some help.
I couldn't see things very well. My parents figured it out and I remember getting some
glasses and then later on contacts and I depend on them heavily. I depend on them in a big
way. I mean I can look at this room today and not even recognize one face in this room
without my contact lens. I'm sure you're all great looking. You're better looking without
my contact lens. Because when I've got the right lens on I can see everything really
clearly. Really clearly. That's how lenses work. World views are like that. Looking at
something from a biblical worldview puts a lens that you can look through and discern
whether something is this or that, divine or demonic. You can see whether it's just helpful
insight someone's trying to provide or something that God has actually given us as a principle
to live by. Only a biblical worldview will let you do that. So what kind of a view is
a biblical worldview? Now before I dive into a diagram that I'm going to spend the next
few moments of my message in, I want to refer you back to the message I preached last week.
Last week I preached a message about how can we know that the Bible is divine and not human
in origin. And I gave you four reasons why. We know beyond doubt that the Bible is divine
rather than human in origin. We found that in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 16 through 21
and we walked through that text and spent a lot of time on a statement that really helped
us embrace the Bible as the word of God. And basically I framed it in one sentence and
that is it's a collection of historical documents confirmed by eyewitnesses. That's the first
part of that. Everything we have in the Bible was actually seen not only by the eyewitnesses
that ultimately wrote about it but seen by other eyewitnesses who read those accounts.
It's a book that details supernatural life change in a way that can only be divine and
only be done by God. It also is filled with prophecies made and fulfilled that can only
be done with a supernatural element to them, most of them in the life of Jesus Christ.
And because of those and other evidence, archeologically we can have confidence it's divine and not
human in origin. When people say to me, how can you believe the Bible because it's just
a book written by man, I have that answer for them. Men can't make prophecy come to
pass. Men can't have eyewitness accounts that they just create out of nothing. Men can't
bring supernatural change in people's lives. Only God can do all that. And all those things
make me have confidence in the Bible, the word of God that I hold in my hands and that
you have in your hands. So I reference back to that as I walk into this worldview conversation
for just a few moments. And the question I want to ask you today is the most important
question and that is who determines truth and how do we respond to it in modern life?
So I want you to look at the screen for just a few moments and I'm going to ask the question
that's going to be a big question today. Did God create and did God communicate? Did God
create and did God communicate? You know we have a healthy home emphasis and in that healthy
home emphasis we emphasize five questions as the five questions that are life changing
for everybody at any time in history until Christ comes back and the first one is who
is God and what is truth? Who is God and what is truth? You answer that question, you're
well on your way to having a good understanding of truth and how God is at work if you answer
that question correctly. So here's my question for you today. Did God create and did God
communicate? There we have a God in heaven who created the heavens and the earth just
like we read in Colossians chapter one and did he give us the Bible as the word of God?
Now that's the first question. You know that 20% of America believe that. 20% in a recent
poll believe that the Bible is God's perfect word to us. It's not only accurate but it
is absolute and that's the first result of answering correctly with a yes. Did God create
and did God communicate? You're going to conclude that the Bible is accurate and is absolute.
Now I told you last week that 10 years ago 30% in America by the same poll believed that's
true but now only 20% believe that's true and I'm going to tell you the implications
of that in just a few moments. If you believe that the Bible is accurate and absolute there's
another understanding that you're going to build on and to agree on and that is that
the Bible addresses individual responsibility and accountability. While God speaks to the
world and while he speaks to the nations he primarily speaks to the individual doesn't
he? Jesus didn't die on the cross for the whole world but for the whole world individually.
He died on the cross for you. When God speaks to the world he does address nations but he
addresses you as an individual and you and I will stand before the judgment seat of Christ
one by one. It won't be cross city church on a Sunday morning standing before God. You're
going to stand before him one on one. There's individual responsibility and accountability
that comes before God because of what God has said. The scripture is accurate, it's
absolute so it's binding in our lives. And if you believe that then you'll also believe
that the gospel loves, convicts, and changes individuals. I love this fact about the gospel
that Jesus did die for all and that meant you and you and you and you and you and you
and you and I can go all throughout this room. Jesus died on the cross for every single individual.
We often say something like he had you on his mind when he died on that cross and you
and I can't understand that humanly speaking but divinely speaking God could know and did
know each of us as he died on the cross. It's all personal. He loves you and his word convicts
you and he will change your life as an individual. And if you believe that then you'll also believe
that changed individuals influence society. Now this becomes very important to us because
if changed individuals influence society and God works through individuals we really need
to know what it means to become salt and light, how to share the gospel, how to live in a
way that's like Jesus called us to live. The biblical worldview says those are the avenues
through which God works. And if there are ideas that he works in radically different
ways we have to come back and test the biblical worldview that I've laid out for you. Now
I'm going to give you this concession. This is extremely simple. It is extremely general.
But it categorizes in large categories what God has revealed to us. You say well what
about that other 30% you talked to us about? You know 20% believe the Bible is the word
of God. What about the other side of that spectrum? The other side of that spectrum
is the 30% of people in America that answer no to the question did God create and communicate?
30%. Now that's grown in the last 10 years from 20% on this end to 30%. In other words
there's a increasing number of people that do not believe that God created, that do not
believe in the existence of God, and that do not believe that God spoke. And so what
are their conclusions? How do they see things? Well first of all if you're in that category
you believe that society determines truth and solutions. In other words it's society
as a whole, culture as a whole. Whatever we can agree on as a culture becomes our truth
and when we have enough to agree upon our truth then that becomes the defining truth
of a culture or of a society. If you don't think that that's accurate look at your world
today at what is right and wrong in the eyes of culture. It's radically different from
what the Bible says. And if you believe that society defines truth and offers solutions
then you'll also believe that the responsibility or the focus ought to be to hold society responsible.
We're not going to try to hold individuals responsible because we don't know what's
going on in individual life but we're going to hold society responsible. In other words
if a large enough group of people do something that seems to be harmful we're going to try
to hold all that society responsible for whatever that might be without individual consideration.
It becomes a very common conversation today when people want things to change in the world
as a whole but are really unwilling to do anything about that problem that they perceive
individually. They want everybody else to change because that's the philosophy of not
having a God and not having individual responsibility. Thirdly if you believe that then society affirms
or condemns. Now let me ask you today can you think of who is being condemned by society
today more than any other group of people? If you answer the word Christian you'd be
correct. Why are Christians found in such poor esteem in the world today? It's because
the values have changed because a greater number of people have no love for the word
of God and they know that they have the power to affirm or condemn groups of people. I'm
not only a Christian I'm an old white man so that really puts me in the spectrum of
that lens of that target. Old white men by the way are often condemned as well. And I'm
not really trying to get into political realms I'm getting into cultural conversations by
talking about that. These are the way people believe and think. And if you agree with that
then you'll also agree that the only way to change the world is through cultural or social
revolution. We have to turn this thing upside down to get our desired outcomes. We have
to shut down other voices and make things radically different. You know those four things
that I'm describing on that side of the picture are products of postmodernism and secular
ism and even at the bottom Marxism if you will because that's the only way to really
get things to change. So you look at these and then you say well there's a big gap in
the middle there isn't there? And there is a big gap in the middle and it's the 50% gap.
The 50% gap are those that do not believe that the Bible is accurate and absolute but
they also don't believe that there is no God and they don't believe that society defines
everything. They're in the maybe category and 50% of people are in that category. It's
really interesting that the movement is as you look at the screen from left to right
and if you're in that maybe category you're saying things like this where the Bible is
helpful but it's not absolute. In other words it's kind of inspirational. I like to read
the Psalms. I like to read Proverbs. I like to read some of the stories in the Bible but
if it's speaking about my sin or my shortcomings or things I want to do that I don't want to
hear that I shouldn't do, no it's not absolute then. That's the largest percentage of people
in America today and it's growing rapidly. Sometimes from the 20 percentile the Bible
is accurate and absolute. They're moving over to say the Bible is helpful but not absolute.
You know it's not a very long distance from that block to the one on the far right that
says society defines truth and offers solutions. If the Bible is not absolute then if it's
an old archaic book, if it's not really divinely inspired, if it's not really God who knows
anything about this world today, if it's not that then before long you're going to be over
there saying well it's culture that tells us what to do. And in the maybe category if
you believe the Bible is helpful but not absolute your focus will be on society and not individual
sin. If the Bible is not absolute then we don't have to handle the uncomfortable text.
We don't have to deal with the uncomfortable principles. So we'll focus on society. It's
so much easier to condemn a society than it is to deal with the conviction of the heart.
So much easier. And if you believe that then ultimately you're going to say the gospel
only loves it doesn't convict. And basically removes the power of the gospel. I love that
Jesus died on the cross but Jesus did not die on the cross to change my life. He just
died on the cross to affirm me to love me. And you'd be only half right. He died on the
cross to love you. He did not die on the cross to affirm whatever life you have. He died
on the cross to give you a new life, his life. But if you're in that middle category where
the Bible is just a maybe for you, the gospel only loves it doesn't convict. And there's
only one conclusion and here's the conclusion. The church merges with society and it's not
different in any sense of the word. That is a pretty convicting picture. That has implications
as to why we need to embrace truth with our whole heart. The same things that Paul said
in Colossians 2. Embrace the person of Jesus Christ by faith. Resist the pull of all these
man-made principles and ideologies. Look at things through the lens of a biblical world
view.
So let me give you some principles that we'll end with today. How do we deal with cultural
conflict? First of all, we've got to cling tightly to the scripture for absolute truth
about life. Cling tightly to the scripture. If you don't have enough information to fully
anchor yourself in the Bible as the word of God that's absolute and accurate, spend more
time in there. Make sure you study it thoroughly. Make sure you dig deep archaeologically and
historically and in terms of prophecy and everything else until you can rest on that
spot and say by faith, this book is accurate, it's absolute, I'm going to build my life
on it. Otherwise you have no anchor in a tsunami wave of culture. No anchor. I don't know if
you've ever looked into the anchoring systems of big cruise ships. Did you know some of
those anchors are 40 tons as big as a house? They drop those anchors down when the storm
blows because it's the only way they can protect themselves from the wind and the waves and
everything that's going to happen in a storm. I'm telling you the word of God is your anchor
in life. I'm telling you the sufficiency of Jesus is the only thing that will anchor you
in the worst of the storms of life and you haven't seen the worst yet but they're coming.
So cling tightly to the scripture for absolute truth about life. Scripture is your anchor.
Remember verse 10 of Colossians chapter 2, in him you are complete. You're not complete
in some new idea that comes along and that's what the Greeks and the people of Colossi
were dealing with. They were looking for some great new idea. That's not what will complete
you. Your creator will complete you. He'll complete you through the gospel and through
his presence. Number two, trust the power of the gospel to change lives and societies.
You want your world to change? The gospel is your ship by which change takes place.
One of the greatest stories of gospel change is the man John Newton. It's a fascinating
story. He was raised by a sailor. He grew up to be a sailor and later on a ship captain,
later on owner of a ship and became a slave trader back in the days of slavery in England
in the previous century. He was guilty of transporting slaves to England. This man was
wicked to the core. I mean he was doing everything as wicked and with as much evil as possible
with no sensitivity, no awareness of what he was doing at all. But one day during a
storm on the sea, he feared for his life, fell to his knees, repented of his sins, put
his faith and trust in Jesus Christ and according to John Newton his view of the slave trade
changed immediately. How he stopped doing what he was doing and he joined forces with
a man named William Wilberforce and in England they overturned and made illegal slavery in
England during that period of time. And I share his story to remind you that the gospel
loves and convicts and changes individuals who in turn influences culture. That's the
way it works. One man, one man did that by the power of the gospel. So trust the power
of the gospel and when we talk about sharing the gospel, when we talk about inviting people
to hear the gospel or having conversations about the gospel, you're changing the world.
You're changing the world by changing their life first. And thirdly, remember your importance
in the very dark world of shining light and preserving culture. Remember your importance
as believers in Jesus Christ in shining light and preserving culture. Some will say, you
know it's so discouraging to live in a world that doesn't believe like what I believe in
and I know that's true. It's a dark world. It's a world where people don't understand
some of the things that you understand but it's a great, great place to shine light.
It's a great place to shine light. And I think our view ought to be, Lord, you have placed
us in this nation and this community for such a time as this. I need to shine brightly,
as brightly as I can. What was it Jesus said? You are the salt of the earth. You are the
light of the world. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good
work and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Go back and read that Matthew 5 passage. It's
just incredible in its power and its simplicity as to what we're called to do. In the case
it's not obvious, modern culture is self-destructive. It's always going to move towards destruction.
It's never going to be able to ride itself in any case. And you may not be able to ride
it either but you can shine light and you can preserve life through being salt and light
in the world that you're in. Your presence alone preserves and convects. And just like
salt keeps food from growing inedible, so Christianity preserves the culture as much
as it can, slows down the breakdown of society so we can help people come to faith in Jesus
Christ. You say, well, doesn't that kind of defeat? Aren't we supposed to try to preserve
society and save society and save culture and make it all right so that everybody lives
happily ever after? That's not earth where everybody lives happily ever after. That's
the coming kingdom that Jesus is going to bring himself. This world will not be here
forever and neither will you, thank God. You'll be with him. Our goal is not to preserve culture.
Our goal is to preserve truth and make sure we live the light and the salt that we be
called to live by. Boy, we have a challenge in front of us, don't we? But remember what
he said in Colossians chapter 2 verse 10, in him you're complete. You've got all you
need to face that challenge. That the workplace and the family and society by growing deep
roots and embracing Christ, I've been built up and resisting all of the waves of ideology
and standing firm on what God's called us to do. I'm confident because I've seen it
happen over and over in history. It's even happening now. God works through the remnant,
He works through the few and He works through you. In just a few moments I'm going to give
you an invitation and that invitation is going to be threefold. We have decision stations
at the back of our building and I invite you to stop there. You know, we've talked about
a lot of different things today but the most important thing you need to remember walking
out of here is the idea that you can have a relationship with Jesus Christ through what
He's done on the cross. He absolutely offers that to you. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life and we're here to talk to you about that at our decision stations in just a moment.
I'll dismiss us and as you walk out stop and talk to us. Secondly, I invite you to guest
reception room. It's just outside the center exit doors across the hallway. If you're a
guest today, if you're visiting, I would love to talk with you, meet you personally and
just share a few things with you about our church that I think will be helpful. And then
thirdly, I invite you to come back next week, a very special week, open house, food trucks
for those of you that love food trucks. I love food trucks and so come back and you
can eat here on the ground, bring someone with you but I start a new message series
next week and it's called Out of the Shadow. We're really going to be talking about what
it means to have deeper relationships based on the great commandment, love the Lord, do
God with all your soul, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength
and love your neighbor as yourself. It's based on those relationships and we're extremely
deficient in relationships in our world today. You and I ought to know more about relationships
than anybody else on the planet because of what God has done for us and we're going to
talk about what it means to go deep with relationships. Would you stand with me as I close this in
prayer today? Father, I want to thank you today that we have had this privilege of walking
through a text but also looking at a grid of where the world is today that we live in.
Father, my prayer is that you will strengthen our dedication to your word, to your absolute
truth. They will understand what's at stake. They will make our decisions to anchor our
lives on you. I pray for those in the room today that have never taken the step of placing
their trust and faith in you with childlike faith. And they've never done that and trusted
Jesus to give them eternal life, to forgive them of sin, but today they can do that. And
I pray that you will lead them, convict them, help them make that decision. And then today
as we leave this place, I pray that God as we look around us, we can look at the world
through the lens of a biblical worldview. Help us know what that means, how that works.
Thank you Father for giving us all we need to weather all the storms of life. Thank you
Father, we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.