1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Thank you, Nancy. I hope that's a prayer that all of us share with her. May God show us 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:14,000 how to live in deed and in truth. I invite you to take your Bible and turn with me to 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:28,000 Psalm 8, the Book of Psalms and the Eighth One, written by David. 4 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:39,000 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth, who hath displayed thy splendor 5 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:46,000 above the heavens. From the mouth of infants and nursing babes thou hast established strength 6 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:54,000 because of thine adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider 7 00:00:54,000 --> 00:01:03,000 thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, 8 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:12,000 what is man? What is man that thou dost take thought of him, and the son of man that thou 9 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:23,000 dost care for him? Yet thou hast made him a little lower than Elohim. Here probably 10 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:31,000 referring to the angels. Thou hast made him a little lower than the mighty ones, and dost 11 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:38,000 crown him with glory and majesty. Thou dost make him to rule over the works of thy hands. 12 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:45,000 Thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, also the beasts of the field, 13 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:51,000 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths 14 00:01:51,000 --> 00:02:03,000 of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, O Yahweh, our Adonai, how majestic is thy name in all the 15 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:16,000 earth. Have you ever asked yourself the question, why are so many Christians losing their battles 16 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:26,000 in Jesus Christ? Have you ever asked yourself the question, why do I lose so many battles 17 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:36,000 in my life if I am a victor in Jesus Christ and if he has won the war for me? Why do Christians 18 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:42,000 lose? The answer is that there are some who don't realize they are at war in the first 19 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:50,000 place. If you don't realize you are at war, it is easy to lose. Then there are others 20 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:58,000 who know they are at war, but they are ignorant of the nature of the war they are in. And 21 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:04,000 then there are those who don't grasp anything about their identity or their authority in 22 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:13,000 Jesus Christ as victors in him. Because of this, I want to spend several weeks on the 23 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:22,000 theme of spiritual warfare. I am calling it the invisible war. We need to understand that 24 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:30,000 we are at war. We need to understand something about that battle that we are all in. And 25 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:37,000 third, we need to understand who we are in Jesus Christ so that we can be victors and 26 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:45,000 not losers. Now as I say that, there are probably some thoughts going through minds here that 27 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:54,000 say something like this, I don't need this kind of a theme. This doesn't apply to me. 28 00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:01,000 And if that's the case, I am not at all surprised. Because if there is any theme that the enemy 29 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,000 wants you to be ignorant about, it is the one we are going to talk about in the next 30 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:15,000 few months. Today we are going to look at a foundational truth, a biblical view of reality. 31 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:23,000 This foundational message will help us to understand why the idea of spiritual warfare 32 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:35,000 seems so foreign to us. It is not foreign to everybody here. There are some who are 33 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:40,000 listening to me who have experienced such bizarre occurrences in their lives that they 34 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:47,000 have never told anybody to this day about them. Some of you have had experiences that 35 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:55,000 if you shared with somebody, you are afraid they would say you are crazy. Some of you 36 00:04:55,000 --> 00:05:06,000 have seen things, others of you hear voices. A survey was done on Christian college campuses 37 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:13,000 some time ago and it revealed that a great number of those students hear voices on a 38 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:22,000 regular basis. But you have never told anybody that, unless they label you as nuts, or psychotic, 39 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:29,000 or schizophrenic, or some other label. Where do these things come from? How do you explain 40 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:37,000 the bizarre things that happen to us? The answer is found in spiritual warfare, this 41 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:45,000 invisible war that is taking place around us all the time. We are not born with an understanding 42 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:56,000 of reality. We learn what the world is like as we grow up, or at least we come to a perception 43 00:05:56,000 --> 00:06:08,000 of what the world is like. Our problem is that our perception of reality may not be true. 44 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:22,000 What happens when a person or a whole generation grows up learning lies? The resulting view 45 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:30,000 of reality is inaccurate and false. Reality is unreal, it doesn't truly fit. But that 46 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:38,000 perception that the person has is that it is reality. Let me illustrate it this way. 47 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:44,000 We have an airplane pilot sitting in the cockpit. He is flying in the clouds. He can't see a 48 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:52,000 thing out there. So he is doing what he has been trained to do, he is relying on his instruments. 49 00:06:52,000 --> 00:07:00,000 But his instruments have not been calibrated properly. They weren't set right. So he is 50 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:08,000 flying along thinking everything is just great. His reality is inside that cockpit. He is 51 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:13,000 going by the instruments that he has learned to trust. He doesn't realize they are not 52 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:23,000 set according to what is true. The result of that is tragedy. I want to submit to you 53 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:31,000 that we have for the most part a whole generation or more in our nation that has been raised 54 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:40,000 on lies and thinks it perceives reality when in fact it is lost. It has lost its way and 55 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:50,000 everything is fine inside the cockpit. But one of these days, true reality, real reality 56 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:56,000 is going to appear. And then it is going to be too late. There is going to be disaster. 57 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:05,000 Charles Kraft writes, we see the world both physical and all other aspects of it as we 58 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:12,000 have been taught to see it. It is part of our world view to assume that our way of seeing 59 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:19,000 the world is right. We from western nations bordering the North Atlantic have been taught 60 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:26,000 or allowed to assume that our perception of reality is the same as the absolute reality 61 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:37,000 itself. This is the problem of world view. As we think about world view, what does that 62 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:44,000 word mean? It is not a very difficult concept really. A world view is the grid by which 63 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:51,000 we interpret what happens to us. As I said before, we are not born with that grid. It 64 00:08:51,000 --> 00:09:01,000 forms as we grow up. Based upon that grid, we then interpret things that we see and hear 65 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:08,000 and experiences we have according to that world view. A world view is a framework for 66 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:17,000 us understanding the world around us. There are four world view questions which if you 67 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:27,000 answer will expose what your world view really is. First of all, what is real? What is real? 68 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:42,000 Secondly, who am I? Third, what is the world about? And four, how do I explain events? 69 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:50,000 If you think about those four questions and write down answers, you will uncover what 70 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:57,000 your world view really is. I want you to know that your world view is very important because 71 00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:08,000 it influences everything about your life. Your world view influences everything about 72 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:17,000 your life. That is why it is so important that your world view aligns with the word 73 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:27,000 of God. As we think about this, I want us to consider this morning first some world 74 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:36,000 view alternatives. Basically, there are two views of the world. There is the spiritualistic 75 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:48,000 view and the materialistic view. Those accepting the spiritualistic view believe that ultimate 76 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:59,000 reality is spiritual and not physical or material. Ultimate reality is spiritual. That is where 77 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:08,000 it gets its name. Whether that ultimate spiritual reality is a personal God as in the Christian 78 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:22,000 view or it is an impersonal God as the Buddhists view it, the commonality is that ultimate 79 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:29,000 reality is spiritual and immaterial. Most of the five billion people in the world hold 80 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:37,000 to some form of the spiritualistic world view. Major religions of the world have this basic 81 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:44,000 view in common. Even though there may be vast differences in their other theology, underneath 82 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:51,000 it they have this world view that ultimate reality is found in the immaterial world, in 83 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:59,000 the spiritual world. Let me give you some examples of those who accept the spiritualistic 84 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:06,000 world view. First there are those who believe in animism. This is the most common world 85 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:17,000 view. It is the belief of tribal peoples of the world and it is the belief of Islam as 86 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:27,000 a matter of fact. Animism. The idea is that spirits inhabit all things. The rocks and 87 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:36,000 the trees and the water and that chair and that light up there, spirits inhabit everything. 88 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:45,000 And religion or life is about pleasing those spirits or trying to keep them off your back. 89 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:56,000 Animism. Then there is pantheism. The belief that God is everything and everything is God. 90 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:02,000 Multiplied millions of people in the world accept that as their world view. That is one 91 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:09,000 reason that there is starvation in India. Lots of cows walking around, they won't kill 92 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:18,000 them because those cows are gods. God is in everything and everything is God. Not only 93 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:25,000 do Hindus believe this, but parts of Buddhism, especially Zen Buddhism, accept this idea 94 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:33,000 that everything is God and God is everything. Then there is mysticism. Or we might call 95 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:40,000 it magic or sorcery. This is a world view of some. It basically has two parts. There 96 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:47,000 is witchcraft, the Wiccan religion. It is pre-Christian in the sense that it existed 97 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:54,000 long before Christ came to the earth. Those who practice witchcraft believe in the forces 98 00:13:54,000 --> 00:14:00,000 of nature. And these forces are spiritual to them, so they are under the spiritualistic 99 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:08,000 world view, you see. On the other hand, you have a post-Christian group called Satanists. 100 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:16,000 Now they exist primarily to mock Christianity and to worship the devil instead of Christ. 101 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:22,000 They likewise believe in spirits, so they are spiritualistic. But they are under the 102 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:34,000 category of mysticism or the magic world view or sorcery. Of course there is deism. Deism 103 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:39,000 is what many of our founding fathers in America believe. The idea is that God is a personal 104 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:45,000 God, but he created the universe and then left. He went off somewhere and has left the 105 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:51,000 universe to wind down according to the natural laws that he left in place. So you can't 106 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:58,000 really know this God, whoever he is. He created us, but we can't know him. And so you see 107 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:04,000 that our documents in the founding of our nation speak of God as our creator and we 108 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:11,000 as creatures and so on. Now some of them are also theists, which is the next group, but 109 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:17,000 deism was really prominent in America 200 years ago. Then there is theism, and that's 110 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:29,000 what we accept. Theism believes that God is a transcendent and eminent, eternal and personal 111 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:38,000 being. God is transcendent in the sense that he exists above, beyond, and separate from 112 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:46,000 his creation. He is transcendent. He is different than we are. He is not created. He is the 113 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:53,000 creator. But God is also eminent, which means that he is a part of his creation. He is not 114 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:59,000 off somewhere. He is with us. It's not that the creation itself is God, but he is in his 115 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:05,000 creation everywhere. He is eminent. And then of course he is eternal, and God is personal. 116 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:14,000 He is a person. He has the elements of personality. So those are some of the sub-views that fall 117 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:22,000 under spiritualistic worldview. You didn't know there were so many, did you? There is 118 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:29,000 another worldview that is in our world today. It's called the materialistic worldview. And 119 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:34,000 as you might expect, it's just the opposite of what I've described. Those who are materialists 120 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:43,000 believe that ultimate reality is in material things, in physical things, not in the spiritual. 121 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:54,000 The children of the materialistic worldview include communism, or Marxism, atheism, and 122 00:16:54,000 --> 00:17:05,000 the one that controls our culture, evolutionism. Dr. Ed Murphy says that there are five important 123 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:11,000 conclusions that result from the materialistic worldview of reality. Number one, the universe 124 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:20,000 is a cosmic accident that has no ultimate purpose. And so astronomers discover that 125 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:29,000 the universe, they say, is billions and billions of years old. Matter has always existed. It 126 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:33,000 exploded into its present form, and someday it's going to come back together, but matter 127 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:39,000 has always been here. And it's all just accidental. We don't understand where it came from. It 128 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:48,000 has no purpose to us at all. Secondly, human life is a biological accident that has no 129 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:57,000 ultimate significance. Our ancestors washed up on some primordial shore and began evolving, 130 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:03,000 and so here we are today. And it's all accidental. There is no real significance to human life 131 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:12,000 beyond that. Third, life ends forever at death for each individual form of life, including 132 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:19,000 humans. In other words, when you die, that's it. There's nothing beyond that. That's the 133 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:29,000 materialistic worldview. Fourth, mind has no separate existence or survival apart from 134 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:39,000 the brain. In other words, the ability to think and to reason that we have is simply 135 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:46,000 the reaction of chemicals and electrical impulses in our brain. And when our brain dies, we're 136 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:55,000 done. There is no mind that goes beyond that. Basically, man is a machine. And when the 137 00:18:55,000 --> 00:19:07,000 machine stops, that's it. And fifth, humanity's intuitive historical belief in an ultimate 138 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:15,000 mind or spirit or God who is behind, within, and outside of the physical universe is a 139 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:22,000 form of self-deception. In other words, if you accept the Christian viewpoint, you are 140 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:29,000 self-deceived. And until the last two months, this has been the position, the official position 141 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:36,000 of psychiatry and psychology. If you believe the Christian worldview, you have a mental 142 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:44,000 illness. You are deceived because that is absolutely impossible for a God to exist beyond 143 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:50,000 the materialistic world. This is all there is. There is no God by supposition, by presupposition. 144 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:58,000 There is no God. Thus, humanity's corresponding belief in human uniqueness, dignity, purpose, 145 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:09,000 and survival beyond death is a non-real view of reality. Any idea that a person lasts beyond 146 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:17,000 death is just non-real. It's ignorant to the materialistic worldview. Now, the materialistic 147 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:23,000 worldview, or the naturalistic worldview as it's sometimes called, leads to a philosophy 148 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:31,000 of life that is called nihilism. Nihilism means nothingness. It's the philosophy of 149 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:37,000 nothingness. This philosophy was espoused by a man whose name you might have heard somewhere 150 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:46,000 along the line, the name of Friedrich Nietzsche, who was a German atheist who died in 1900. 151 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:55,000 He boasted, God is dead and we have killed him. His philosophy of life results in no 152 00:20:55,000 --> 00:21:00,000 ethical values at all except what is good to each individual. You decide what is good 153 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:09,000 for you, I'll decide what's good for me. Now, does any of this begin to sound familiar? 154 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:14,000 You see, this is the whole worldview that controls our culture. And so what I'm telling 155 00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:21,000 you this morning is that you and I have been reared in a culture and an educational system 156 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:32,000 for the most of us that has lied to us about what reality is. That's why spiritual warfare 157 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:43,000 seems so far out. Have you been to an art gallery recently to look at modern art? So 158 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:52,000 called? You look at it and say, I don't understand that. You know why that is? You have something 159 00:21:52,000 --> 00:22:01,000 up here, you have a brain. You say that doesn't mean anything and you're absolutely correct 160 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:08,000 and that's what the artist wants you to know because his philosophy is that life is nothing 161 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:13,000 and he reflects it in his art. Life has no meaning, therefore he scribbles all over this 162 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:23,000 canvas and calls it art. And our world applauds and says, isn't that marvelous? It's nihilism 163 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:34,000 and it comes out of the worldview of our culture. So our music comes out of that as well. One 164 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:42,000 of the most famous musicians in grunge rock killed himself two days ago. Why? He was simply 165 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:49,000 living out his philosophy of life which he has sung to your children. Which says that 166 00:22:49,000 --> 00:23:00,000 life is meaningless. Be angry, rebel, do something, but in the end it's all nothing anyway. And 167 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:09,000 finally, practicing what he believes, he put a shotgun to his head. You understand how 168 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:15,000 this is relating to the world that we live in? The current western view of reality is 169 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:21,000 the materialistic one. It arose out of the enlightenment, which might better be called 170 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:30,000 the endarkenment. The enlightenment, ladies and gentlemen, was an absolute disaster to 171 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:37,000 humanity. But it is applauded in our schools and our universities as being the greatest 172 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:43,000 thing that has happened to man in his history. But the enlightenment was an absolute disaster 173 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:50,000 because it exalted human reason above divine revelation and exalted man to the center of 174 00:23:50,000 --> 00:24:01,000 the universe and has led man to nothingness. Our worldview today says that the universe 175 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:10,000 is a closed system. The events that take place around us are uniform cause and effect relationships 176 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:15,000 which are entirely predictable. This happens and this results and because that happened 177 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:24,000 this results and on and on it goes. And there is no possibility, according to this worldview, 178 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:37,000 of some transcendent reality like God intervening. Because God just can't exist, you see. Because 179 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:44,000 what's real is what's material. And it results in ethical relativism where there is no object 180 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:53,000 right and wrong and what is good is what's good for each individual. Does this have any 181 00:24:53,000 --> 00:25:00,000 relationship to the abortion debate? And choosing what is good for me, the right to choose, 182 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:07,000 the right to privacy? Does this have any relationship to Dr. Kvorakian and those who believe in 183 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:15,000 assisted suicide? Life is meaningless. I mean if life has no purpose and it ends at death 184 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:20,000 and it's all meaningless anyway and you're in pain, the absolute most reasonable thing 185 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:28,000 in the world to do is to kill yourself. If you accept that worldview. Kvorakian is right 186 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:39,000 on target with nihilism, with the materialistic worldview. Maybe this helps you understand 187 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:44,000 a bit of what you see happening in our culture and you're trying to say where in the world 188 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:50,000 is this stuff coming from? Well though we have been taught these kinds of lies, many 189 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:54,000 of us have also been taught the Bible through the years and so we have enough of that that 190 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:58,000 this other stuff doesn't make sense. But for those who have not had the Bible, all of this 191 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:02,000 other stuff just fits right in. It's all they know. They're the pilot in the cockpit, 192 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:11,000 their instruments are wrong, they're flying to disaster and don't even know it. There 193 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:18,000 are two tiers of reality to Western thinking as it evolved. First there's the spiritual, 194 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:24,000 let's say it's up here. This is religion, this is where there's faith and there are 195 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:30,000 miracles and the sacred and other worldly problems. And then down here is the material, 196 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:38,000 here is science, here is sight and experience, the natural order, that which is secular and 197 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:45,000 this worldly problems. The Western worldview separated these two through the enlightenment 198 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:50,000 and now it's come to the point of declaring what is up here in the spiritual as being 199 00:26:50,000 --> 00:27:03,000 mythical. It doesn't really exist. And what is scientific, what is material is truth. 200 00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:09,000 Ladies and gentlemen, that's the philosophical reason why they don't want creation science 201 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:16,000 in public schools. You don't want to teach kids myths. You want to teach them the truth. 202 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:22,000 Creation science belongs to the spiritual realm, you see, that doesn't really exist. 203 00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:33,000 It all comes out of the worldview of our culture. Our nation was founded on the materialistic 204 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:40,000 worldview, even if it was deism in part. But now that has changed to a materialistic worldview 205 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:48,000 and that folks is the heart of our cultural war that we're engaged in today. Now I don't 206 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:53,000 have time to talk about it except to mention it, but there is a new worldview that is emerging 207 00:27:53,000 --> 00:28:01,000 very rapidly in the last ten years. You see the nihilism and the materialism that the 208 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:09,000 West has adopted has led to nothingness quite naturally and that doesn't satisfy the heart. 209 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:13,000 We are created for something more than that, though they don't want to say it in those 210 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:21,000 terms. And so there is a new worldview emerging called the New Age worldview and it is sweeping 211 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:27,000 into our public schools. Do you know that there's curriculum in some public schools 212 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:37,000 today teaching them how to have spiritual experiences, accepted seances, how to curse 213 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:46,000 somebody under witchcraft. You see there under New Age there is again a wedding of the spiritual 214 00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:52,000 and the material in the Western worldview except they're tying in to the dark side of 215 00:28:52,000 --> 00:29:01,000 what is spiritual instead of God. Well having talked about the false alternatives, let's 216 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:07,000 talk about the worldview actuality before we go. We get this out of Psalm 8. What is 217 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:13,000 the truth? How ought we to see the world from a biblical perspective? If some of what I 218 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:24,000 have picked up as I have grown up is an error, how do I get that flushed out and begin to 219 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:33,000 live on what is biblical? We don't have time to expound the Psalm but just look at it with 220 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:41,000 me and notice first of all that there is a spiritual reality. Oh Yahweh, God's personal 221 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:51,000 name, Adonai, God's title of greatness. How excellent is your name? There is God. And 222 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:59,000 not only is there God but there are angels according to verse 5. God has created man 223 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:07,000 a little lower than the angels. They're part of the spirit realm too. Is there material 224 00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:15,000 reality in the biblical worldview? Yes. He talks about the field and the seas and fish 225 00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:23,000 and all kinds of animals so there's animate and inanimate physical reality. So you've 226 00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:36,000 got these two again. What brings them together? The answer is humanity. You see man is part 227 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:51,000 spiritual and part physical. We are made by heaven out of the elements of the earth. So 228 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:59,000 we link together the spiritual and the physical. That's the biblical view of reality. The 229 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:07,000 result is that we are affected by what happens in both of these other dimensions. We are 230 00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:12,000 affected by what happens in the spiritual realm which the Bible in Ephesians at least 231 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:21,000 calls the heavenlies. And we are affected by what happens on the earth. We are related 232 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:29,000 to both realms. We learn of the spiritual through revelation from God, the Bible. We 233 00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:39,000 learn of the material by science and our senses. That is the worldview actuality. Spiritual, 234 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:50,000 material and humanity linked to both of them. Now let's try to close with some applications 235 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:59,000 of this worldview. To do that let's go back to our four worldview questions. The first 236 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:10,000 question is what is real? What does our culture say? What is real is what is material. The 237 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:21,000 Bible says what is real is God. God being defined as an infinite, eternal, supreme and 238 00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:30,000 personal spirit who has disclosed himself to man through the Bible as well as through 239 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:38,000 his creation, history, conscience and ultimately in the incarnation of the Logos, the Word 240 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:49,000 Jesus Christ. So what is real? The answer is very simple and extremely profound. God. 241 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:56,000 There is where we begin with our presuppositions in our worldview. God is what is real. He 242 00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:04,000 is the ultimate reality. Second question, who am I? Well according to this psalm we 243 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:12,000 are made by God. He has made us a little lower than the angels. We're not on the same 244 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:19,000 level as the angels in God's order. We're a little lower than the angels. We are specially 245 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:26,000 created people made in the likeness of God with emotion, will and intellect and we are 246 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:33,000 responsible for the choices that we make in life. This is very important. It means that 247 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:42,000 we have value because we are. Not because of what we do or don't do, but because of 248 00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:50,000 what we are. We are the created beings of God. And even in the most depraved of human 249 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:56,000 beings there is still that image of God, however perverted and twisted it may be, because there 250 00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:08,000 is still the element of personhood there. You are important to God. You are one who 251 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:15,000 is filled with dignity. Yes and perhaps depravity as well until the redeemer comes and saves 252 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:23,000 you from your sin. But you have dignity as a created being. And yet there are vast numbers 253 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:29,000 of people who have thoughts going through their minds constantly. You are nothing. You 254 00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:37,000 are worthless. You might as well end it right now. Just go out and kill yourself. Your life 255 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:45,000 has no significance. Nobody cares. God can never accept you if God exists. And some of 256 00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:54,000 you are struggling with those thoughts today. You need to understand that those thoughts 257 00:34:54,000 --> 00:35:06,000 can arise from yourself. They can also arise from and be magnified by angelic creatures 258 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:11,000 who are seeking to destroy you as one who has great value to God. We are going to talk 259 00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:18,000 about that more in spiritual warfare. What is the world about? Well the revelation of 260 00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:24,000 the scriptures provides a context for understanding how the world came to be, how it got into 261 00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:29,000 its present condition and where history is heading. Just to sum it up, what is the world 262 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:37,000 about? It is about the glory of God. It is about God fulfilling his purpose. About God 263 00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:48,000 giving significance to his creation because it is his. How do I explain events as the 264 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:55,000 outworking of God's eternal and good purposes? You see God is ultimately sovereign and in 265 00:35:55,000 --> 00:36:04,000 control of everything, even my pain. And I may not understand that. I may not be able 266 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:14,000 to comprehend why. But I can know this, that there is a God who is good, who is in control. 267 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:24,000 And yet aren't we brought up to say to people, good luck? Well fortunately, hey there is 268 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:33,000 no such thing as fortune or luck. They are myths. There is only providence, God's providence. 269 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:40,000 How do we interpret events? As a battle between the cosmic forces of God and the fallen creature 270 00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:49,000 Lucifer. God has established the rules for this battle and both sides operate within 271 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:59,000 those boundaries. God will ultimately demonstrate his wisdom through the execution of his victory 272 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:06,000 and won at the cross. But for the present time there is a cosmic battle going on and 273 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:12,000 ladies and gentlemen because we as human beings are linked to the spiritual realm, we are 274 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:19,000 involved in that battle and whether we want to be or not is not even the issue. We are. 275 00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:22,000 Some people like to think, well if I just stay ignorant of it, the devil will leave 276 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:29,000 me alone. He's got you right where he wants you. And leave you alone is the furthest thing 277 00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:37,000 from his mind, let me tell you. The need we have is to become equipped to do battle. 278 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:45,000 And it begins with understanding our world. Some people reject the whole concept of spiritual 279 00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:52,000 warfare because they have bought into the lies of the western civilization. We need 280 00:37:52,000 --> 00:38:00,000 to get back to what the Bible says reality is. Dr. Ed Murphy in the handbook for spiritual 281 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:06,000 warfare says, the biblical world view dimension can be expressed in one statement, present 282 00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:14,000 reality exists in a state of cosmic earthly conflict or spiritual warfare. That's reality. 283 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:20,000 So our attempt in the next few weeks is going to be to discover what reality is according 284 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:27,000 to the Bible. What is our need? Our need is number one to repent of our error in world 285 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:36,000 view. To examine the way that we think and the way that we interpret events around us 286 00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:46,000 and to see where we have based our lives upon what is untrue. To repent of that, to flush 287 00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:57,000 it out. To do that, secondly, we need to pray for discernment. That we may not be deceived. 288 00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:04,000 And third, as we begin to grasp what the biblical world view is, we need to practice it. We 289 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:10,000 need to incorporate it into our lives and not continue to live like that pilot who is 290 00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:18,000 in his cockpit heading for disaster. Let's allow the instruments of our lives to be recalibrated 291 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:24,000 according to the word of God and our study of it together so that we may fly through 292 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:29,000 this life victoriously. Now some people get very scared when you talk about spiritual 293 00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:35,000 warfare. Folks, there's nothing to be scared of. There's something to be vigilant about, 294 00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:43,000 but nothing to be scared of. Because Jesus Christ has already won the war. We're involved 295 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:52,000 in skirmishes. There are very real battles that we face, but the war has already been 296 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:58,000 decided and the Bible has already declared who wins, we win. There's nothing to be scared 297 00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:06,000 of. And greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. We are more than conquerors 298 00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:16,000 through him who loved us. He is the one who always leads us in triumph. And so we approach 299 00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:24,000 this theme and this subject humbly, asking God to teach us. But we also approach it with 300 00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:34,000 confidence, knowing that in Jesus Christ we are victors, because he is the victor. And 301 00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:40,000 that as we get equipped to win, to fight this battle, we will win some of the battles that 302 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:46,000 we constantly lose now. That's my goal and I hope you share that with me. Our God is 303 00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:54,000 a God who reigns. He is an awesome God. He is majestic above the heavens. Let's worship 304 00:40:54,000 --> 00:41:10,000 him right now. Oh Lord, Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. 305 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:18,000 Lord, in principle we do at this moment repent of the false ideas that we have gleaned as 306 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:30,000 we have grown up. Show us where we have believed lies and built our lives on them. And we pray 307 00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:36,000 that as we learn what true reality is that we will know how to incorporate that and we'll 308 00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:46,000 know so that our lives will be based upon the truth. We worship you as the one who is 309 00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:53,000 the victor. And we press on in our search for the truth because you have commanded us 310 00:41:53,000 --> 00:42:04,000 to do that and because you reign above all things. Amen. 311 00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:07,000 Let's stand together and sing about our awesome God. 312 00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:44,000 Right now I'd like to ask these folks to come forward so that we can extend the right-handed 313 00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:51,000 fellowship to you. John Hennessy, Steve and Ann Lomb, Jim and Deb Kaufman, Eric Crane, 314 00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:57,000 Deb Lonson, Catherine Murkey, Tim Larson, Krista and Tim Larson, Paul Peterson, Bruce 315 00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:03,000 Devon Olson, Dennis and Sharon Bryan. If you'll come and form a line right here we will come 316 00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:10,000 by afterward and greet you. We welcome you into our church. And we're going to sing 317 00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:16,000 again this chorus. Can we throw it back up there? I want you to notice that chorus that 318 00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:22,000 says our God, that's where we start, is an awesome God. We're not just singing a chorus, 319 00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:29,000 we're singing reality. He is an awesome God who reigns from heaven above. That's reality. 320 00:43:29,000 --> 00:43:36,000 And notice what kind of a God he is, why he's powerful, loving, awesome. Let's sing again 321 00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:38,000 what reality is. 322 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:46,000 Our God is an awesome God who reigns from heaven above. 323 00:43:46,000 --> 00:44:00,000 Our God is an awesome God. Our God is an awesome God. 324 00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:04,000 God bless you, thank you for being here. Come by and greet these new members right after 325 00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:17,000 you have been dismissed. God bless you.