Video Transcript: Witness and Worldview

And so having said that, we're going to move now into the very last section of our statement of faith. God calls us to spread the gospel to people who don't yet follow Christ. And God calls us to a worldview and way of life in which we seek to honor Christ in every area of thought, and action. 

First of all, the call to witness Jesus Great Commission is stated at the end of Matthew 28, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. 

That last assurance is so wonderful, Jesus is with us always. He's speaking with all authority. And under that great commission of Jesus, what are we to do, to make disciples to baptize, to teach so that they will live according to Jesus commands, Jesus gave that great commission because people need the Lord. And because we can glorify God only by trusting Him, and obeying Him, we fulfill our true purpose when we're trusting and obeying Him, and we're entering into salvation. 

And so we Christians can't neglect the Great Commission, the call to make disciples of all nations. Already in Old Testament times, there were calls to make God's glory known widely tell him his salvation, from day to day declare His glory among the nations even then, when God was working in a special way, with the chosen people of Israel. They weren't chosen just for their own benefit. They were chosen to be a display of God's glory and goodness and love and truth to the nations. They were to tell him his salvation. 

And we in the New Covenant, who follow the Lord Jesus are also to tell of salvation from day to day, to make sure that God's glory is made known widely. God deserves to be praised, and people need to be saved. If he had to summarize why we should spread good news, why we should witness that pretty much sums it up, God deserves to be praised, and people need to be saved. 

So the Apostle Peter says, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. So spread the gospel, do it gently do it respectfully, but do it because there is a trend in our own time to say, You know what, that's cultural imperialism, to try to foist your religion on somebody else, to try to get them to believe what you believe? Well, it's not me trying to make other people like me. It's trying to help people, know Jesus, because Jesus is salvation. Jesus is life. And if I love other people, I don't want to let them go on living without Jesus. 

So let's not be embarrassed about our calling. Let's not be embarrassed about our mission. Let's not be embarrassed that evangelism, and spreading the gospel to all peoples is what Jesus himself has called us to do. We at Christian Leaders want to raise up leaders who spread good news who declare salvation who proclaim Jesus. 

And that's why it's a part of our very statement of faith, that spreading good news, bringing the Gospel to others. Is Jesus Great Commission to us. And along with that, not just witness, but worldview. What do we mean by worldview, that God is Lord over everything, and that all that we do and think, to be done in his honor. 

Psalm 24, verse one says, “The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell there in It”.

So it's all his not just an hour on Sunday mornings are not just what happens when we say our prayers or read our Bible, those things are very important. And we've emphasized that, but it's all his, and the occupations that were involved in everything we do our family life, whatever it is, it's his, all things were created through Jesus, and for him. And in Him, all things hold together. That's pretty comprehensive, all things, he's what keeps it all together, and he claims at all. And because he's Lord of all, we want to honor Him as Lord in everything that we do.

Genesis 1:26, “declares what is known as the cultural mandate, Be fruitful, and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion”. 

This dominion over the creation is the cultural mandate. God appoints humans to cultivate the creation originally, that was tending the garden of Eden, and then expanding that garden to include more and more of creation. And so cultivating the creation in developing it, and developing what's called culture, where human flourishing in the arts, in our knowledge in our learning, that's all part of carrying out that cultural mandate. 

God wants us to multiply in the sense of having children in the sense of evangelizing people and winning them to Christ, but also in spreading out and making a difference in all the different dimensions of life and having dominion over the different dimensions of His creation. This applies to our personal life, we have a whole course called spiritual fitness, or total fitness, that course is called. 

And it explores seven different areas of Personal fitness, your Spiritual fitness, your walk with God, your Physical fitness, the health of your body, and taking good care of your body through eating well through exercise through getting the rest that you need. 

Financial fitness, wisely managing your Finances, developing an income and spending wisely, Intellectual fitness, sharpening your mind loving God with your whole mind, becoming more and more knowledgeable about the ways of the Lord and about areas of life that God calls you to be knowledgeable about, 

Emotional fitness, where we rejoice in the things that God rejoices in, where we mourn the things that grieves God, where our love is expressed to others. Your emotional life is an important part of who you are. And God can feel our emotions the way he wants them to function.

Relational fitness, treating other people the way we would want to be treated Do to others as you would have them do to you forgive others, as God has forgiven you. Don't take revenge. Deal with your enemies the way God wants to do by loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you. Treating your friends and your family, the way God guides you to. This is all part of living a total life that's pleasing to God.

And then Vocational fitness, the calling that you have the job you get paid to do, as well as your hobbies and other things that God may call you to do. But you may not get paid to do it. Some people may be great writers, or excellent singers and musicians and have a gift for that, but they're not going to make money doing it. But they do it as volunteers in church life or in other settings, where they're using their abilities, in some cases, getting paid, but in other cases, not paid a lot of retirees, a lot of people in volunteer work. 

That's part of your vocation from God, you're calling from God, but not always your actual job. But certainly your job itself is something that you do in a way that's honest, that honors God that's productive. You choose work that's going to be useful and helpful to others. So those are seven spheres of personal life, where God calls us to Total Fitness. And this is part of a worldview as it's expressed in individual life. 

Now, a worldview doesn't just express itself in individual life, we also need to honor God in public life for CS Lewis wrote, There is no neutral ground in the universe, every square inch, every split second is claimed by God and counter claimed by Satan. So whatever our hands touch whatever our minds think about we need to be discerning is this of God and are we honoring God in it? And different people have different callings. So if you're called into the sphere of education of school of, of universities, honor God in that if you're Call them to the arts, whether it's music or visual arts, or, or painting or film, or any of the other arts. 

Let your art be an expression of honor to God in the realm of science, what a blessing sciences. And so many of the early scientists had their worldview shaped by God, they believed in a world that was formed by one great mind, and that had patterns in it that the human mind could detect. And because they believed that they explored and made many of the great discoveries of science, and we should continue in the realm of science, if God calls you in that area, science, medicine, similar fields. 

Think about how you can best honor God, in that calling in business, in the management of money in the management of people in enterprise and being an entrepreneur, there are ways to dishonor God, there are ways to honor God in the in the sphere of government, God calls you into being involved in policy, or even running for political office. 

Do that with a sense of wanting to serve God in public life and interest in all of society in the way that that we relate to one another. Now, there's a danger here. When you believe that God is involved in every aspect of life and every aspect of public life, and you happen to be a leader in the church or a preacher, you might be tempted to start pontificating on everything as though you're an expert on education, that you're a top notch scientist that you know all about the arts. 

So you're going to tell the scientists how to do their job, the artists how to do their job, the educators how to do their job, the business people how to do their job, the politicians how to run the government, and so forth. Be very cautious of it's not that God is not in charge of all of life, but there may be limits to your own understanding. 

And there are also limits to what God calls ministers as such, to be involved in, in our preaching, were to outline the main principles as revealed by God in Scripture, predominantly, the way of salvation in Jesus Christ and knowing God because to know God is eternal life, and how to live according to God's commands. 

These are things we must preach, but when it gets into the details of various callings, what God wants is Christians in those callings, who become very learned and skilled in those callings, not to preach us to know everything, but instead, people with different gifts, personalities and opportunities, who are bringing their ability and their experience to bear in that aspect of life. 

So in making a worldview and God's claim on all of life, part of our statement of faith, we're not saying that preachers need to be know it alls who pontificate on the details of every sphere of life, we are saying that God calls Christians wherever he sends them in whatever they do in public life, as well as private life, to be walking with him and applying their faith by the help of the Holy Spirit to the sphere of life that they're living in. 

So we're called to witness and we're called to have a god saturated God ruled worldview. God calls us to spread the gospel to people who don't yet follow Christ. And God calls us to a worldview in a way of life in which we seek to honor Christ in every area of thought and action.