BUILDING A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW
Roman 12: 1-2
04/28/13 © Dr. L. Nelson Bell
There was once a professor who was so focused on his work that he so often forgot or just didn’t notice the simplest details.
You could say he was an absentminded professor. One morning his wife said, "Now Henry, remember, today is the day we are
moving houses. Here, I'm putting this note in your coat pocket so you’ll remember, okay. Don't forget."
The day passed by and the
man came home to his house. He entered the front door, and found the place empty. Distraught, he walked out to the curb and sat
down. A young boy walked up to him, and he asked him, "Little boy, do you know the people who used to live here?" The boy
replied, "Sure, Dad, mother told me you'd forget."
How often do we become so absorbed in this world that we forget who we are and whose we are and where we are going?
Many times, life is happening all around us and we only partially understand what’s going on. We only think we fully grasp the
reality we are in, but we may be completely wrong. We can be very confident of our perceptions, since for most every person,
perception is reality. However, what we see is not always what’s really going on. Sometimes there’s a much larger narrative being
played out of our sight.
The problem we face is there is often a gap. The world tells us one thing, but God may be telling us something completely
different. So, let us turn to Paul’s letter to the Romans and read chapter 12:1-2. Hear God’s word:
1I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to
God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by
testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to
God!
Let’s bow our heads in prayer. Heavenly Father, give us eyes to see the truth, the way life is, the way You see it. Remove any
scales from our eyes that we may be able to perceive reality. In Christ’s Name, we pray. Amen.
I read the other day about Deborah Kendrick. Deborah loves to attend Broadway musicals even though she is blind and always
struggles to understand the setting and the movements of the characters onstage. Recently, however, she attended a play, in New
York, that used a new technology called D-Scriptive.
It’s a technology that conveys the visual elements of the stage production through a small FM transmitter. A recorded
narration, keyed to the show’s light and soundboards, describes the set and the action as it unfolds onstage.
Writing in The Columbus Dispatch, Deborah said, “If you ask me if I saw a show last week in New York, my answer is yes . . . I
genuinely, unequivocally mean that I saw the show.”
Her experience struck me as a vivid illustration for my theme today. There’s a narrative running through our lives all of the time
and we need to see beyond what’s in front of us to see reality as God sees it.
For every one of us, we can look around our world, at our circumstances, at our headlines and interpret our events. It’s called a
WORLDVIEW. Our worldview is the way in which we see the world. Everyone has their certain twists or their bent in how they see
things or their slant in how they perceive things around them. We all have certain lenses through which we see the world and some
may be based upon our shared life experiences or shared geography. Even our respective generations in which we were born
shapes the way we view the world.
For example: If you’re from the Senior generation, which are those who were born before 1925, you are a part of the Last Great
generation. You fought the last great war and you saw America emerge as a world power. The generations which followed inherited
a strong nation, which they didn’t build.
The next generation is known as the Builder generation. 60% of those born in the time between 1926 & 1943 identified with
Christianity. To the vast majority, God was a part of culture. As you grew up, your parents from the Senior generation, who were in
authority at that time, they added, “In God we Trust” to our currency, and the clause “under God” was added to our Pledge of
Allegiance. The Builder generation shared their parents DNA and closely identified with their inheritance.
If you were of the Boomer generation, born between 1944 and 1964, only about 43% identified themselves as Christian, which
was a 17% drop. The question, “Is there a God?” became more prevalent. Boomers witnessed the 60’s, the introduction of Rock n’
Roll and Vietnam.
Then comes Generation X, and now only about 20% identified themselves as Christian and many in that generation ask the
question, “Which God are we talking about?” That’s a 23% decrease in the Christian faith from their parents. They don’t tend to be
career people. To them, there are 76 million Boomers climbing the corporate ladder ahead of them and they don’t like the view.
There’s also the view that the church, its boards, its Sessions are crowded with Boomers and if the Gen-Xers want contribute, they
have to go elsewhere. There’s no room for them to advance their ideas or sometimes to even serve.
And finally there’s the Millennial generation which starts in 1984. They don’t know what a broken record is. They’ve never
dialed a phone. They have never experienced a day without Starbucks. And statistically speaking, only 10% of this generation
identify themselves as Christian.
Each generation creates its own culture and this is the world we live in and coincidently, these types of things shape our
worldview. If we experienced the Depression, WWII, or Disco, Polio, Vietnam or the Cold War or 9/11, all these things seek to
conform us to a worldview.
Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind...”
We all have a worldview. The task before us is to not be conformed to it, but to be transformed by the renewal of our minds.
Our minds need to be held captive by God and His written Word. That kind of worldview is called a biblical worldview. The Bible
becomes the lens through which we see, interpret and understand our world and the events before us.
According to a recent nationwide survey completed by the Barna Research Group, only about 4% of Americans had what they
referred to as a “Biblical” worldview. In that survey, participants were asked these simple questions:
 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? Using slightly more broad questions in another survey, the results rose from 4% to only 9%. That’s still very low.
Our world wants to shape our understanding of God, our understanding of the value of life and our circumstances, our prayer
life, our witness, our worship attendance, behavior and more.
I want us to take the next few moments and look at a few examples in Scripture, where we see some people who have what we
would ultimately call a biblical worldview and while we do this, see if we can see ourselves in these people. You may or may not
know these stories in great detail, but let me summarize the context of each story.
In 1 Samuel 17, we have the familiar story of David and Goliath. Saul’s army is camping in the Valley of Elah. Jesse sends his
youngest son David to resupply his brother’s with food at the front lines.
When David arrives at the Israelites’ encampment, he soon learns about the giant across the valley. He sees Goliath and hears
about his taunts and disrespect for God. He learns that everyone is afraid of Goliath and so the Israelites stand their ground, a safe
distance from the Philistine. It makes sense. After all, Goliath is about 9 feet tall.
David, however, sees things differently. David sees God’s honor being insulted. Goliath has stepped over the line with his
insults. To David, that cannot be tolerated. David also sees God’s faithfulness and protection in his past from bears and lions that
tried to carry off his sheep. David knows that Goliath will not take any Israelites prisoners, if he has anything to say about it.
David has eyes that see things differently than King Saul, his brothers and every other soldier around him. David sees that
God’s honor is worth his very life. David runs into battle, picks up enough stones for Goliath and his brothers. Defeats Goliath in a
matter of minutes and the Israelites overtake the Philistines, all because David saw what no one else could see.
Do you see an overwhelming giant? Or, do you see the faithfulness of God to fulfill His promises?
Let’s jump over to the New Testament and see what one of Jesus’ disciples saw. In the 24 th chapter of Matthew’s gospel, there
was a time when Jesus had just fed more than 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. The disciples witnessed this and the day
came to a close. Jesus sent the disciples ahead of him while he dispersed the crowd.
Hours later, the disciples are having trouble crossing the lake when Jesus comes walking up to them...walking on the water.
They think it’s a ghost, and Jesus reassures them he’s not a ghost.
Then Peter says in v28: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Jesus said, “Come.” So Peter got out of
the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out,
“Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him…”
What Peter saw influenced what Peter did. Peter sees Jesus and with his eyes on Jesus, Peter can do what Jesus does...Peter
walks on water.
But then things changed. Peter saw the wind. I don’t believe gravity became stronger, but Peter’s faith became weaker because
he stopped looking at Jesus. The wind and the waves were always there. The disciples had been fighting the elements for hours and
their progress was frustrated. But now, with his eyes on the wind and the waves, Peter became afraid. And when fear crept in, Peter
began to sink.
What we look at can either help us to walk on water or create fear in our hearts. What are you looking at? Who are you looking
to?
Let’s go back to the Old Testament, to Numbers 13. The Israelites were on the cusp of claiming the Promised Land. This was
the land God said was flowing with milk and honey. It was a great land full of opportunity and resources; abundant with crops to
sustain all the people.
Moses sends out 12 spies to survey the land. The spies return and give their report. All 12 spies say that the land is indeed
great. It’s everything God said it was and more. They all saw the descendants of Anak who inhabited the land and how small the
spies felt in comparison.
But here’s the difference. Ten of the spies kept their eyes on their overwhelming adversaries. The inhabitants were huge and
they were perceived to be immovable. However, two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, kept their eyes on something else. They were
looking at God’s promises and the fact that God is bigger, and that God told them to go take the land.
But the people of Israel looked to the majority and they followed the 10 who gave the bad report. The people grumbled against
God and God said: “Truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD, none of the men who have seen my
glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my
voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.”
Those 10 spies, who looked to their own understanding, died before the Lord. They didn’t see the land God promised, so they
missed out.
But Joshua and Caleb kept their eyes on God and God spared them and brought them into the promised land.
There’s blessing and hope for those who look to the Lord and trust in Him to fulfill His promises.
What catches our eye? What are we looking at? Who are you looking at?
Now let’s go over to John’s gospel, chapter 12. It’s days before the Passover and Jesus and the disciples have been invited to
a dinner at Simon’s home. They are all reclining at the table when a woman walks into the room. She takes a jar of pure nard and
begins to anoint Jesus’ feet. Then she lets down her hair and begins to wipe his feet with her hair. Some of the disciples complain
and ridicule Mary because in their eyes, they see waste and they say as much. The nard she is pouring on Jesus’ feet is a very
expensive ointment, which is worth a year’s wages. The disciples could have sold that expensive perfume and given to the poor.
Sounds noble.
However, Jesus defends Mary’s actions. Mary is sacrificing this perfume for her Savior. She is giving Jesus her most
expensive possession because her eyes are on Jesus, not on the value of her stuff.
The disciples’ eyes are on the value of the stuff, not on the love she has for her Savior. And Jesus, He sees her heart, which is
full of generosity and Jesus recognizes her loving.
Throughout Scripture, there are examples of how people can see God through their circumstances. Joseph, even after being
betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery, could see after many years, that all the bad which happened to him was allowed by
God to insure that something greater was going to happen.
There was the time when Jesus and His disciples witnessed people putting their offerings into the temple treasury. A poor
widow placed her two mites into the treasury and Jesus saw with His eyes, that she out-gave everyone else around her while no one
else could see her sacrifice.
And then even more importantly, there was that day what we celebrated just weeks ago. When Jesus went to the cross and
died on Friday, it was the worst day of the disciples’ lives. They were crushed. But they were looking at the events only through their
natural eyes. God did something great. He was saving us from our sins and offering us eternal life through the death of His Son.
What are we looking at? What captures our attention?
Part of the long-term mission of the discipleship department of HPPC is to foster a Biblical worldview wherever we can. Our
desire is to live out what Paul said to the Romans: We should not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of
our minds. Our minds can be renewed as we are informed, confronted and challenged by the transforming truths of Scripture.
What should we focus upon? How do we transform our minds and not conform to the world?
There are two things we can look at, everyday, which complement each other, and which can help transform our minds.
The first is: Daily look intently at Scripture. James 1:25 says: “...the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives
freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.”
There is no substitute for the blessings that come from seeing the world and our lives as God sees them.
And secondly, to whom do we fix our gaze. We fix our eyes on Jesus. Hebrews 12:1 encourages us saying: Let us fix our eyes
on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down
at the right hand of the throne of God.
As we leave this sanctuary, we’re going to walk out and see a pretty day. We may see friends and family later on. We may see a
car broken down. We may see a contentious neighbor. We may see a Goliath before us? Is it the denominational concerns? Do we
see an impending vacancy in the Sr. Pastor position of HPPC as surging waves in the church? Do we not know that a small rock in
God’s hands is mightier than our biggest adversaries? God’s faithfulness and promises are greater than all the descendants of
Anak.
As we face our circumstances, and interpret our times, no matter what they may be, may God grant us the wisdom to see them,
not as they appear to us, but as they really are in God’s eyes.
Let’s bow our heads in prayer. Heavenly Father, we can so easily deceive ourselves as we rely upon our own perceptions.
Father, there can be such a huge gap in our understanding of who You are, how You work, how You want to work and how things
should be because we can be so complacent, we can be sometimes way too comfortable and we don’t understand just how great
and magnificent Your glory and Your holiness really are. Father, we pray that You will continue to use Your Holy Spirit. Bring to our
mind’s eye Your plans for us and all Your plans around us to reveal Yourself and to draw us and others to You. In Christ’s name, we
pray. Amen.