Gospel Vision, Part 1 // Calvary Church

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] i got a chance for more [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's a big place [Music] [Applause] [Music] those who need it there's is [Music] is [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's amazing let's stand to our feet we love life change here at calvary church we're gonna sing about it today we raise a hallelujah and i raise a hallelujah in the presence of my hallelujah louder than the unbelief is [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] place [Music] [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] is [Music] [Music] the roof off this place with [Music] enemies [Music] in the presence [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] of is storm [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] sing a little louder [Music] i was oh but he brought me [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] so is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] there's a place [Music] me [Music] i am [Music] [Applause] i am [Applause] i am [Applause] [Music] i am [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] amen and amen you may have a seat before we sing this next song i just want us to remember what we just sang that your identity is not found on this side of heaven it's found in him in heaven you are a son you're a daughter of the most high king in this next song you've heard a lot on the radio it's called the goodness of god and it's straight out of scripture and i want to read a scripture i believe that's completely inspired in the chorus of this song and it's out of psalm 23 verses 5 and 6 and it says this you prepare a table before me in the presence of man he's what we just sang and raise a hallelujah you anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows listen to this in verse six only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life and i will dwell in the house of the lord as long as i live amen surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and we will see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living listen to the words of this song it's a beautiful depiction and a beautiful prayer of what we have in jesus his mercy never [Music] i fails you lord oh your mercy never fails me it's all my days i've been held in your hands [Music] of the goodness of god [Music] of the goodness i love your voice [Music] i've known you as a friend i have lived in the goodness [Music] [Music] [Music] i of will goodness of god oh jesus it's your kindness that leads me back to your heart come on listen to this and let's sing it together is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is foreign [Music] yes [Music] [Music] oh will see it again is is [Music] you know life isn't always good sometimes life is hard and maybe this morning you're here you've come into this place or maybe you you're watching online and as you're watching life has been hard it's been difficult and you go man this morning we sang about how great god is how good god is that we're going to raise a hallelujah but you know what god didn't promise that life was going to be easy but here's what he has said that he is going to be faithful and that he is good and that we that have called on the name of jesus we are a child of god so let's not forget that this morning as we worship life is hard but god is good and we get to live in his goodness you can go ahead and have a seat this morning if this is your first time at calvary i want to tell you just welcome we're glad that you're here whether you're here on our clearwater campus or your first time watching online every week i hear of people that you've been watching online but maybe you're here in the room for the very first time and i want to just welcome you to calvary my name is justin facenda i'm the lead pastor of group ministries here at calvary and i'm so glad that you are with us this morning here's what i would ask you to do because i know sundays get busy and get kind of crazy especially when service is over and lunch is calling so if you would just for a moment if you're a first time guest if you just take your phone out and if you would text the word calvary to the number ninety four thousand you'll get a message that will come back and you can reply back with option number one that will let us know that you're a first time guest and we would love to follow up with you this week and welcome you to the calvary family last week was a great week we went out to sand key park last sunday evening for our beach baptism it was a great time the weather looked daunting but god showed up the weather passed by and we watched over 60 people go public with their faith and the really cool part of those 60-some people that came out 29 of them were either children or students that we watched make a public profession of faith in christ it was incredible and guess what those students those children are starting on their faith journey that baptism isn't the end of the journey it's the start of the journey and we get to as a church get to minister to children and students every single week it's a part of our next generation ministries and here on our clearwater campus we have an awesome next generations team that helps to lead that we have christy ridgway who leads in our preschool ministry we have candace vasquez who leads in our children's ministry and tom cooney who leads in our middle school and high school ministry and they are phenomenal what they do but here's what we need we need volunteers that are going to come alongside and go you know what maybe part of my faith journey is stepping out and serving to help others on their faith journey so this morning we have this thing that we do at calvary called team calvary orientation where we help show you how you can take those next steps in serving on a team here at calvary that might be the next step on your faith journey is to step into somebody else's faith journey one of these students that maybe we just need somebody that's gonna rock a baby or maybe teach a bible lesson or listen to some bible verses or to hang out with teenagers and play ping-pong and spike ball because who doesn't want to do that right because we're about building relationships to help bring people to dynamic life in christ to calvary so what is god stirring in your heart those 29 students and children that gave their life to jesus and made a public profession maybe you need to step out and be a part of that ongoing team calvary is going to meet right after the service when we exit out of these side doors over here at the end turn left and you'll go to our choir room lunch is provided we'd love for you to be there the way that you can sign up to let us know that you're going to come if you take your phone and text the word calvary to the number ninety four thousand and select option number two that will help give our team a heads up that you're gonna be there but we would love for you to come out and go man my next step on my faith journey is to reach out and invest in these young people that are just starting their faith journey i'm gonna invite pastor brent reeves to come out with a special announcement this morning as he gives us an exciting update on x-150 so pastor brent share with us thank you justin well good morning i am so grateful my wife and i are so excited to be here at calvary you guys have welcomed us and in these short few weeks that we've been here we feel right at home but what we're most excited about as we come here is what god is doing through x150 i love x150 it's the vision that god has given this church to help us fulfill the great commission the mission that god has given us to do and i am so very thankful for what's happening here let me make an announcement in light of x150 this morning let me announce that we have a new partner a new national church planting partner and we're very excited to introduce them to you this morning reality church in miami is our newest partner as we seek to plant churches throughout this nation and so we are very very grateful for what god has allowed us to be a part of and what god is going to do in the miami area let me tell you just a little bit about miami miami is home to some of the richest people and some of the poorest communities in the united states it's a very diverse area and the need is exceptional 78.8 of the people in the miami area are lost and so we have a strategic partnership with reality church and with pastor carlos loll we're so grateful to god for his leadership and how he is leading this church and let me just mention this last weekend reality church in miami launched they had their first service and the people who were a part of that core team for weeks prior to that met people encouraged people served people invited people prayed for people and last weekend something great happened when they opened their service their first service and so i want us this morning as a calvary family to rejoice with our brothers and sisters there at reality church they had 240 people show up last sunday for their first service and it gets better there were also four people in that service who indicated that they were trusting in christ for their salvation so calvary family i want to encourage you this morning to pray faithfully for pastor carlos and for reality church in miami pray faithfully that god would continue to give the members of that church the opportunity to share the hope of the gospel with people who are far from god pray that this church will be able to shine the light of christ in their community and let's pray big for this church let's pray for god to pour out his holy spirit on this church in such a way that it would be evidenced by this the church is making disciples who are making disciples who are making disciples multiplication let's pray that that church would grow by multiplication this week i had the opportunity to speak to pastor carlos and to begin to learn more about himself and his ministry and what's going on there and in the midst of the things he shared with me as i learned more about him he shared with me his deep gratitude to all of you for your support and for your prayers calvary thanks for your generosity and all that you are doing to make the name of jesus known to preach the gospel to make disciples to plant churches throughout this nation and throughout the nations of the world let's bow and let's pray for reality churches they're even meeting right now father thank you for pastor carlos thank you for the opportunity to support and pray for him and his team god would you multiply this church would you so pour out your spirit on this congregation and on your people there that in the midst of all of the lostness in that southern florida area in that miami area god would you use them to make disciples who in turn make disciples who in turn make disciples for your glory we pray these things in jesus name amen [Music] so [Music] so i don't know if you've seen these signs they're usually in somebody's yard or sometimes you'll see them in other places billboards and other things but they've really been come popular across the country and it's a sign a yard sign that just has some bullet point statements that says black lives matter women's rights are human rights no human is illegal science is real love is love and kindness is everything and so there are a lot of people that put those signs out as kind of a political statement and it's interesting how people respond even to the sign like some of you read those words and you're like hey that's great what's wrong with kindness what's wrong with love what's wrong with all those things and then others of you cringe when you see the same sign because you're like hey i know those are slogans and behind those slogans there's some other things that aren't being said and i kind of i kind of react to that but whether you cheer or whether you cringe one thing is sure that sign those statements kind of highlight some of the cultural divide that we find ourselves living in rebecca mclaughlin who wrote a book entitled the secular creed spoke about those signs and their popularity and she called those signs a new kind of secular creed you know christians have for years put in critical statements little sentences statements about what we believe we sometimes sing a song called the creed i believe in god the father i believe in christ the son i believe in the holy spirit our god is three and those are all creedal statements she argues that those signs that have popped up all across the country represent a kind of new secular creed why is it i wonder that when people look at the same set of circumstances the same set of facts that we see radically different things taking place the reason is because we have different ways of viewing the world the term worldview is a term that has been coined to describe how a person views the world how we see determines how we process information how we understand the choices and the dilemmas that we face and ultimately what we see determines what we choose what i see determines what i do which further creates whom i'm becoming how do i know that the lens through which i'm looking at the world is the right one a couple of months ago i described how some people are looking at the same situation but describing very different realities if somebody were asked to describe a beach on the oregon coast and let's say they were looking at their beach house and looking through a window they might describe a rocky coast with huge boulders and huge rocks and crashing waves and a fearsome ocean and it's probably raining outside but if they were looking through the window at the beach here in clearwater or tampa bay they would see well it's probably raining outside but other than that they would probably describe a beautiful sandy beach and usually a corn calm warm water that just invites you to go out and take a walk take a walk in oregon and you'll see signs that say don't turn your back to the water because a killer wave could pull you out to sea at any moment you don't have any signs like that in pinellas county see people will be talking about a common reality but they're talking about two different things it all comes down to the view from your window what do you see through your window to the world that's what we mean when we talk about a person's world view what do you see a gospel worldview is a way of seeing the world through the lens of the gospel a gospel vision is when we see through the gospel lens and i want to tell you that a christian worldview or a gospel vision is critically important for a couple of reasons we are going to over the next six weeks take some time to talk about gospel vision because it is so very important that those of us who are followers of jesus christ understand how to see the world through a biblical lens we must learn to think biblically we must learn to discern wisely we must learn to choose carefully we must learn that and we must teach the next generation to see through a gospel lens and i'll give you three reasons number one because the gospel lens helps us grow in our walk with jesus we grow in wisdom and maturity when we grow in gospel vision number two it helps us communicate with others it helps us to speak to people who have a different view a different lens when we know what they're looking at and how that's different than what we're looking at and instead of just arguing with one another like ships that pass in the night we can actually begin to see what they see so we can help them see what we see and the third reason that it's important to develop a gospel vision is because it is going to get harder and harder in the future for those of us in this culture to be faithful to biblical truth and the gospel it is going to cost you something it is going to cost your children and their children something and let me tell you we are not going to have the courage to stand if we don't have clarity in our convictions if we don't have a clear gospel vision then we are sitting ducks for a spiritual enemy who the bible says blinds the eyes of people so they cannot see the bible gives us the way to have a gospel vision and we're going to take our bibles and we're going to turn over the next six weeks to the book of romans the book of romans is one of those books in the bible that is absolutely foundational the book of romans is a book that helps us understand the gospel a gospel vision and then what difference that makes in our life now we're not going to start at the beginning in fact i'm going to start in chapter 12 today romans 12 1-2 and let me tell you why i'm starting there because romans 12 is the corner where the book of romans turns the first 11 chapters deal with what the gospel is and chapters 12 through 16 turn a corner and say so this is the difference it makes in your life but right there at the corner are these two verses in romans 12 1 and 2 and they are a good place to begin understanding gospel vision this morning romans 12 we're going to look at verses 1 and verses 2. and i want to invite you to stand here at our campus or any of our campuses those of you at eastlake in clearwater and seminole and of course online you're listening closely as we read from the word of god romans 12 and verse 1. therefore brothers and sisters in view of the mercies of god i urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to god this is your true worship do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good pleasing and perfect will of god father in an age which is pressuring us to conform it's people who feel the pressure to conform to what others think and others see show us how our minds can be renewed by your truth transformed by your truth so that we can see the world and see the truth that you have for us is our prayer in jesus name amen and you may be seated so a couple of weeks ago there was a notable uh mma fight you know what mma fighting is we got some mna fight mixed martial arts is what amen and those of you that are not mma fans um it's kind of like a cross between boxing and wrestling like real wrestling not the funny tights and playing around kind of the between boxing and wrestling and karate and kind of like a back alley mugging all thrown into one okay that's mma and uh and so it's become kind of this popular fighting sport people tune in to watch the fights on the weekend well there's a women's mma division does that surprise you there's a women's division and i mean those are some tough women i mean they are strong and they're tough and and so there's a women's division and it is a rough sport but a couple of weeks ago there was a a match which made national news because of one mma fighter whose name is alana mclaughlin mclaughlin won her first fight now i used the word her in quotation marks because mclaughlin was not born a her mclaughlin was born a he and not just any male but this guy was a tough guy in fact for seven years mclaughlin was a member of the u.s special forces and if you see a picture of mclaughlin when he was a he you will know this was one bad dude i mean he is muscled up tattooed up he's a guy that most of us wouldn't want to be messing with special forces but a few years ago mclaughlin began to tran to transition as part of the whole transgender movement that's going on in our culture and began to identify as a woman and then filed to be able to fight in the women's mma division and two weeks ago mclaughlin fought in mclaughlin's first fight and you can see the pictures of him beating and bloodying and bludgeoning and choking this other woman who fight who was a fighter until he was finally declared the victor and when i saw those pictures of this biological male beating up a woman in professional sports i thought to myself everybody everybody deep down knows that's wrong it's just half the population can't say it because their politics won't let them and undergirding that politics is an ideology that informs the way we view the world and so like the people in hans christian andersen's parable we know the king has no clothes we can see it with our own eyes we know it but we can't say it because our ideology won't let us that's how mixed up we are and i want to ask how did we get to this point how did we get to this point where people aren't allowed to see or say what their eyes see and their brains can reason how did we get to this point in all these issues where leading politicians in america would refer to women as quote menstruating persons end quote how did we get to that point and it's not just issues relating to sexuality and morality but what about justice or racism or the role of government there are more divisive issues than we could name and they seem to be getting more complex all the time so the question is how do we think about those things how do we process those things why do you believe what you believe and why do you even see what you see are you just going to believe what you're told to believe what your parents told you to believe what your political tribe tells you you have to believe even what your church says you have to believe why do you make the choices that you make is there a better way is there a wiser way to face the challenges of today and to know what is right look i'm not saying these are easy issues i'm not even saying that all christians always agree on every fine point of any particular issue but i am saying this we must learn to think biblically we must learn to discern wisely and we must learn to choose carefully as followers of jesus we are not left to our own devices to figure this out but we are given a roadmap in the bible as we said in the book of romans paul wrote this letter to roman christians and he laid out an understanding of the gospel that is one of the most profound arguments for the gospel that has ever been pinned so profound so coherent is this argument that law students were for years required to study the book of romans to understand the logical sequence that paul used to explain the message of the gospel in romans 1 through 11 he lays that out and then in romans 12 he turns a corner and he says this did you see it therefore that's the first word and we've taught you as you study the bible whenever you see the word therefore you should ask what's it there for see we're very deep here very deep you have to be very intellectually savvy to follow along with us so there whenever you see it therefore go what's it there for because it's always pointing back to a previous argument so this therefore in romans 12 1 is for romans 1 through 11. like he's got through this whole conversation and then he says therefore in view of the mercies of god that is in view of everything i just got through telling you this is what you need to do you need to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to god and then he says in verse two and verse two is our key verse for the next six weeks do not be conformed to this age he says in view of everything i've just explained to you about the gospel do not be conformed to the spirit of this age he was talking about them but he could have been talking about now he's talking about any age people are going to pressure you to conform they're going to pressure you to be quiet when you want to speak up or to say something that you really don't want to say or do something that you really don't want to do and he's saying don't be conformed to the don't try to blend in with everyone else don't try to be like everyone else instead he said in verse two be transformed be changed be different and then he says be transformed by the renewing of your mind he's saying learn to think differently than everyone else around you learn to be renewed in your mind so that you may be transformed and be able to understand the will of god what he's saying is learn to see the world with a gospel vision a gospel vision is based on three things a gospel vision is is uh there are three truths about a gospel vision in these verses number one a gospel vision comes from the gospel that just kind of makes sense doesn't it it comes from the gospel and what i've again explained to you is that romans 1 through 11 is is this explanation of this gospel so a gospel vision is one that sees the world through a gospel lens for the last several weeks we've we've been telling you really the last several months we've been uh i shared with you a couple of questions we you could call these worldview questions in fact this was back in the summer i last gave this to you every religion in the world every philosophy in the world wrestles with these four questions and how you answer these four questions really determines how you see the world this is your world view in fact these four questions are very helpful even in having conversations with people who have a different worldview than you so we need to understand these four questions and how the gospel answers them the first question is why is there something rather than nothing this is the question of origin see i love the question this way and dr al mohler helps us phrase these questions why is there something rather than nothing see even if evolution were completely 100 percent true still doesn't answer this question why is there something rather than nothing where why is there something why is there reality that's the first question every religion tries to answer that here's the second question what has gone wrong why is everything broken like why is there evil in the world why do people do evil things why is there violence why is the world broke what what went wrong something's wrong that's why we have hospitals something has gone wrong so what went wrong every religion tries to answer that here's the third question is there any hope is there any hope again every religion every philosophy tries to answer that question and then here's the last one and we kind of tweaked the way we worded this one how does it all end how does it all end and by the way those four questions as i already said are great conversation starters with people who share or have a different world view than you why is there something rather than nothing what went wrong is there any hope how does it all end every religion every philosophy tries to answer those four basic questions so what is a gospel view see tell me what you see from your the view from your window and i'll tell you what you're going to choose tell me what you see i can tell you what you're going to choose and i can tell you who you are and i can tell you what you will become because what you see determines what you are watch the view from your window so what's a gospel view how do we build a gospel view a gospel view is when we view the world through a gospel lens and so i uh have a diagram here that i just want to use and um little can we do a little classroom time is that okay so what this represents is a frame a frame through which we see the world this is the window and this is the view from the window okay so how do we frame a gospel lens how do we see the world we're gonna we're gonna use four sides of the frame to build a gospel vision here all right and we use this tool a lot of ways but we're going to use it today for gospel vision and the first part of the frame of a gospel vision is i'm just going to write the word god because the first part of a gospel vision is you understand the truth about god it all starts with god in a gospel vision everything starts with god in the beginning god and i want to give you two words for every one of these all right when you talk about god i'm going to use the word great god is greater than you could possibly imagine whatever category you have for greatness he blows it away and on the other corner i'm just going to write the word goodness god is great and god is good the frame starts with how i understand god all right the next part of the frame in a gospel vision is how i understand man by man here i mean man and woman okay so we're all in the same boat here you women look prettier but you're just as messed up as we are so man means everybody all right mankind and i want to write two words when i talk about mankind i'm going to write the word blessed because as human beings we are made in the image of god we are made like god in some ways we're blessed we think about the future we think about transcendent thoughts we have hope your dog doesn't think transcendent thoughts your dog doesn't think what happens after i die animals don't think that they just want to know when they're going to get fed we're you're made in the image of god we're blessed but over here i'm going to write the word broken because we're also broken the bible says we've all sinned and come short of the glory of god that's romans 3 23. so what's broken in the world starts with what's broken inside of every one of us so you have to understand god you have to understand man and by the way romans one through three is all about this so if you wanna just romans one through three it's all about the condition of man and how broken we are there's a second part or third part of the frame i need to understand god i need to understand man i'm just gonna write the name jesus right here because the third part of our frame is understanding what happened when jesus came to the world and i'll give you two words here jesus is the son of god that means he is defined he is equal with god he is the creator of heaven and earth with god the father but he came to be the savior of the world he is the son of god but he came to be the savior and by the way romans 4 and 5. are talking all about what jesus has done for us that jesus came to save us and then i'll go over here in the last frame i'm just gonna write the word grace i could write saved or a redemption but grace is shorter so i'm going to write the word grace and it's a good word because grace is the fourth part of the theme and i'll give you two words here i'm going to write the word reconcile because grace is that god has reconciled this to jesus and then up here i'm going to write the word renew because the promise is that because of what god has done for us he will make all things it's better than just restoring everything he renews everything this answers the question why is there something rather than nothing the answer is because there's a god this answers the question what went wrong we did all have sinned and come short of the glory of god this answers the question is there any hope the answer is jesus romans 5 1 says we have been justified by faith through christ we have peace with god that's romans 5 1. so right there and then this answers the question what happens at the end where does it all end for the christian there's hope and by the way this is romans 6 through 8. there's hope because of what god has done for us in christ we are reconciled and one day he renews everything this is the frame that is a gospel vision the truth about god the truth about man the truth about jesus and the truth about grace or what god has done for us when you begin to see the world through a gospel lens you begin to see the world as it truly is you begin to see yourself as you truly are you begin to see god as he truly is now what does a secular frame look like well i don't have time to redraw a frame but but i would argue honestly that a secular frame turns this upside down does that surprise you a secular frame begins with man not god you're at the top of the frame and whatever brings us happiness and freedom and fulfillment is what we put up there that's where you begin with in a secular frame and god sometimes they won't use the word god but any authority which would suppress our freedom any authority that would limit our freedom any authority that wants to hold us accountable is down here and what we think went wrong with the world is that some people are impinging on our freedom and in a secular world view the answer is to resist authority the answer is to war against authority that's why there is a particular animosity toward religious authority it's much harder to control and so the ant the hope is hey let's let's war against authority and where does it all end in a secular world view if i can live out my happiness if i can do whatever i want to do if nobody will limit my freedom that is where real life is mark sayers writing about the primary worldview in the west today said this he described it in seven ways one the highest good is individual freedom happiness and self-expression number two traditions religions received wisdom or regulations that restrict human freedom happiness or self-expression must be reshaped deconstructed or destroyed number three the world will inevitably improve as the scope of human freedom grows for the primary social ethic is tolerance for everyone's self-defined quest for individual freedom and self-expression that explains the response to the mma fighter five humans are inherently good six any large-scale structure or institution should be viewed with suspicion at best or it's evil at worst and four or seven forms of external authority are rejected and personal authenticity is lauded these beliefs have not so much been argued he writes as they are assumed we do not receive them as intellectual propaganda to be obeyed instead he wrote they are communicated to us at almost every subconscious level through the high priest of advertising and the techno properties of the silicone valley good and individual happiness are the same thing in this world view you want a less intellectual description watch tv i saw a commercial for a sports book a gambling service uh and uh the 30-second spot owns opens with the star jb smoove who is pumped up preparing to face a giant mass of people in a scene that harkens back to ancient rome in a cadence smoove says i am you are we are i am you are we are all caesars and in a sense that is it we are all caesars we are all kings we are all emperors we are the kings of our own domain and whatever we want is what we should pursue now you understand why when people wrestle with issues like ships passing in a night they may be talking about the same issue like people on different coasts but they're not looking at the same reality take the issue just one issue hot button issue not trying to get in your face or stir up anything but let's just take the issue of abortion you take the issue of abortion it doesn't surprise you that when people have a gospel vision it starts with god and they begin to think about people as created in the image of god and they begin to think about accountability to god and they begin to have compassion upon persons who are weak and vulnerable the highest good is what does god want and who are people in the image of god and so they begin to defend the rights of the unborn but when somebody with a secular worldview looks at the same issue their highest good is individual freedom their highest good is personal autonomy even sexual liberty and anything that would infringe upon that needs to be negotiable needs to even be removed so an unborn child is simply an infringement upon my liberty because man is up here and god is down there you're talking about the same issue but you're not talking about the same issue it's the view from your window which is why gospel vision is so important because until we see the world through a gospel lens we are going to be vulnerable to the pressures of the age and we will be unable to disciple a rising generation that is being taught through instagram facebook television movies popular entertainment to look at the world not through a gospel lens but everything coming at them for hours every day is telling them to look at the world through a different lens and we get like what one hour a week to tell you that's not the way the world is that's not reality it won't work if we don't learn to see and disciple a rising generation through a gospel vision it's rooted in the gospel number two it is motivated it's motivated by worship it's motivated by worship that's why he says in view of the mercies of god in view of everything i've just told you that's that frame 11 verses 11 chapters then he says i urge you in view of this present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to god this is your true worship this is what worship is worship isn't music that we sing worship is not traditions that we observe worship is the bringing of ourselves to god to be a living sacrifice this becomes the motive for our life instead of living for ourselves we seek to find our life in him when we live to worship him instead of ourselves it forever changes the way we view the world in romans 12 we see that in view of god's mercy my reasonable response is to offer myself as a living sacrifice instead of living for myself and what i want and what i demand i now see the path to real life as self-sacrifice and worship of god now you understand why a gospel view is a radical departure from a secular worldview in a secular worldview i worship myself in a gospel world view i reserve my worship for god alone we're to be living sacrifices and here's the third thing very quickly i want you to know about gospel vision it results in wisdom he says don't be conformed to this age be transformed and that's what we're praying we're praying in the next six weeks we will give you tools to begin transforming your mind and the result of this look at verse two of a renewed mind a gospel vision is what that you will discern the good pleasing and perfect will of god when you see the world through a gospel lens it means you see the world as it really is people as they are jesus as he is the tragic irony is that even though we are living in a culture which has rejected fundamental gospel truths and therefore no longer views the world our reality through a gospel lens we are still reaping the benefits of such a view let me explain in her book mclaughlin comments on the irony of the yard signs and by the way she does a great job of respectfully addressing every issue and what we can agree with and what we cannot agree with but in her book referred to as the secular creed she addresses each line of the creed and argues this that each line of the secular creed actually stands in a soil that is unmistakably christian she writes clear the christian soil away and you won't find a solid secular rock you find a sinkhole she continues to our 21st century western ears love across racial and cultural differences the equality of men and women the idea that the poor oppressed and marginalized can make moral claims on the strong rich and powerful sound like basic moral common sense but they are not she writes these truths came to us from christianity when you rip that foundation out you won't uncover a better basis for human equality and rights you will uncover an abyss that cannot even tell you what a human being is like cartoon characters running off a cliff we may continue a short way before we realize the ground has gone from underneath our feet but it has gone without christian beliefs about humanity the yard signs claims aren't worth the cardboard they are written on where does the idea that black lives matter come from except some core belief that every person is created in the image of god take away the idea that every person bears the image of god and no one's life matters if we're just highly evolved animals then black lives don't matter white lives don't matter your life doesn't matter the sick and infirmed are just a drag on society and the only lives that do matter are those that are judged to matter by any given mob at any given time historian noah historian yuvel and noah harari an israeli historian not a christian wrote these words americans got the idea of equality from christianity which argues that every person has a divinely created soul and that all souls are equal before god he writes however if we do not believe in the christian myths about god creation and souls what does it mean for people to be equal if you believe that women are equal to men in terms of worth and value and deserve not to be objectified and exploited you have a gospel lens to thank for that tom holland is a historian who is also not a christian he stopped believing in the bible as a boy but he wrote a book about the impact of christianity on western civilization and he writes quote every person being possessed of equal dignity was not even remotely a self-evident truth a roman would have laughed at it to campaign against discrimination is to depend on large number of people sharing in a common assumption that every person possesses inherent worth the origins of this principle lie not in the french revolution not in the declaration of independence not in the enlightenment but lie in the bible according to verse 2 when our mind is renewed that's when we can discern the good and pleasing and perfect will of god again i tell you three reasons i started out with these you need a gospel lens because you need to know how to think our maturity our wisdom is dependent on it two you need to know how to communicate with those around us we have to understand the frame they're looking through and by communicating spiritual truth and the work of the holy spirit we pray their eyes would be open to the gospel so they can see the truth and we need this because we need to know how to endure in the years to come it is not going to be easy to hold to the truth it is going to cost you something it may cost you a lot it may cost you everything and our courage is going to be found in our convictions or it will not be found at all which is why we must ground our convictions in the gospel truth second corinthians 4 4 says the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of christ we need to see through gospel eyes with gospel vision in 1999 john f kennedy jr the son of the former late president was flying his plane he was an amateur pilot and off the coast of massachusetts headed toward their vacation estate in martha's vineyard the plane crashed and he lost his life the cause of the wreck was something that pilots know as spatial disorientation pilots are familiar with the term it's what happens particularly with amateur pilots or novice pilots when weather conditions our circumstances create this spatial disorientation it's the phenomena of being in the plane and trusting your sight but you your sight is betraying you what looks up is really down and what looks down is really up and the plane can be spinning and you think it's level your eyes can be playing tricks on you which is why great pilots don't trust simply their eyes they trust the instruments they know their vision can be flawed they need something to give them a better vision spatial disorientation can result in horrific tragedies but spiritual spatial disorientation can result in the greatest tragedy of all you see the world and you think you see it as it is but you are looking at it upside down it is the truth of the gospel of jesus christ which opens our eyes to the truth and grounding our convictions in the gospel is what gives us a gospel vision to know how to think to know how to communicate and to know how to endure so let us pray that god will give us gospel vision i want you to pray with me this morning heads are bowed eyes are closed and it may be that you're here today and you've never responded to the gospel maybe you're listening out one of our campuses or online you've never responded to the gospel and opened your heart to jesus you know you pray for scales to fall from your eyes but they fall from your eyes when you see jesus and trust him everything changes and you may be here today and you've never acknowledged your sin and need of a savior but today you feel like god is moving in your heart and you believe this truth that jesus died on the cross for your sins that he was buried and raised from the dead if you're here and you've never trusted him but want to maybe a simple prayer you're online a simple prayer simple decision in your heart begins the transformation of your mind confession god i confess that i'm a sinner i confess that jesus christ is the lord who died on the cross in my place and was buried raised from the dead and i confess my faith i ask you to forgive me of my sins i ask you to come into my heart and make me new on the inside if you prayed that prayer i hope you'll let us know online let us know if you're in an area where you can let somebody one of our hosts know or you can text my hope to nine four zero zero zero anytime i hope ninety four thousand any of our campuses you can text that somebody will follow up with you in a moment we're gonna sing a final worship song i love that we end our worship with worship and responding back to god it's a worship moment and yet during that worship moment you may need to pray with somebody so there are always people here at the front just willing to pray with you if you want to pray with somebody if you prayed a prayer like that to confess christ i would encourage you to tell somebody today or they'll be here when the service is over and the worship is over and we're dismissed they'll be here at the front you can come find one of them pray with them you can go to our next step area talk to one of our volunteers just tell somebody today you want to follow jesus and do that father we thank you for speaking to us we thank you that you love us we pray that you will give us eyes to see may the scales of deception fall from our eyes give us eyes to see gospel vision the world as it is ourselves as we are you as you are we may know life as it was intended to be it's our prayer in jesus name amen amen i'm going to let you stand it's just us here at clearwater and you're still watching online we're standing we're going to worship together the lord if you need to pray with somebody you can come and pray we want to invite you to come we're going to sing as the lord speaks you worship you pray right now as the lord speaks to us [Music] worthy of every breath we could ever breathe [Music] worthy of every breath oh [Music] [Applause] who you are with your heart and leave [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] who you are [Music] no one like [Music] likes my [Music] is [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] there is [Music] who you are [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] upon your love [Music] [Music] and that's exactly what gospel vision is all about and we have a firm foundation and we won't be shaken as we close out this morning our prayer team is down front and we would love for you to come if you need somebody to pray with or just to come and spend time at the altar it is open for you for those watching online you can reach out to somebody that's a host online they would love to pray with you as we close out this morning if you're a first time guest our team would love to meet you at our new here area right in the middle of the lobby on your way out here at clearwater we would love to say hello put a gift in your hand shake your hand and get you connected at calvary so make sure you stop by if you want to help be a part of the faith journey of those children that we talked about earlier you want to stop out and go man i want to help disciples students and children at calvary or you want to volunteer in any other capacity we'd love for you to join us at team calvary orientation immediately following the service exit out this side go to the left to the choir room and we'll start shortly with that we hope that you'll join us for it thank you for giving and being faithful to give you can give on your way out in the boxes by the door online you can continue to give at calvary.us give we love you we are so glad that you are part of the calvary family have a great week we'll see you next week you

Channel: Calvary Church

Views: 1,872

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: jygpF9B0EDE

Length: 104min 29sec (6269 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021