1. "What you believe about God's word will determine how you view the world around you. If your worldview does not come from God's word, it will come from the world. But you have one. Sadly, according to George Barna, the percentage of those with a biblical worldview has been declining in each successive generation. And guys, what I want you to know is that this isn't among non-believers, this is among believers." [17:39] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "Our worldview establishes what we believe to be real. It helps us set that up. So our beliefs then establish what we believe is true, which, that's the scary part, and we're gonna talk about that some more, but we're living in a day where absolute truth, your truth, my truth, our beliefs establish what we believe is true. Our values determine what we believe is good, and our behavior influences what we do then." [20:37] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "Our worldview shapes what we hold to be true about those questions. Here are some popular worldviews that exist today. I just wanted to show you some of them. This is not all of them, but these are our present worldviews held by people in our culture. Pragmatism. I want whatever works for me. That's somewhat of a selfish way to live. Individualism gets even more selfish. My interests are the center of my reality." [22:35] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "If you are not intentionally being transformed by the word of God, you are being conformed to the world. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18 tells us the key to transformation is to regularly gaze on God. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." [50:28] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "In a believe-in-yourself world, Christianity calls you to deny yourself and to take up your cross. In a you-do-you world, which emphasizes expressive individualism, authenticity, and nonconformity, Christianity is about conforming to the likeness of Jesus and being imitators of God. In a consumerist and greedy culture, Christianity calls you to costly generosity, a willingness to give up material possessions." [51:08] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




6. "In a world which has normalized the discarding of unborn lives and the dehumanizing of people, Christianity insists that all humans bear the image of God and are worthy of dignity and protection. In a pluralistic world, with a diversity of beliefs in which all roads lead to heaven, what a comforting thought, Christianity calls you to believe there is one path to heaven, trusting in Jesus Christ alone." [52:27] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




7. "What you believe about God's word will determine how you view the world around you. If your worldview doesn't come from God's word, it will come from the world. Paul's saying, but receive, receive transformation from the word. The negative command says don't be conformed, but the positive command is to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It refers to interchange." [48:27] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




8. "God does not just want to be a part of our lives, He wants us to be completely committed to Him. God isn't interested in beasts today. He's not interested in animal sacrifices. He's looking for bodies of believers who will be sold out to Him. And as someone has said, the problem with living sacrifices today, is that they keep crawling off of the altar." [42:46] (24 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




9. "The thinking of our age says that our body must tell the will what to do. But the Bible says that our will must bring the body as a living sacrifice to God. The body is a wonderful servant, it is a terrible master. Let me see if I can illustrate this. There is a story about a pig and a chicken. And the pig and the chicken are walking down the road one day, together when they came upon a sign advertising a breakfast fundraiser." [40:39] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




10. "The share of born again believers who say that they are deeply committed to practicing their faith fell from 85% to 50%. That's half of Christians, okay? Half of people who say, I believe in Jesus. He's the Lord and Savior of my life. Half of those people say, well, I'm deeply committed to practicing my faith. What you believe about God's word, will determine how you view the world around you." [19:57] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

We're starting a new series today called "Unashamed."

And part of where that comes from, I love the song we just sang about welcoming the Holy Spirit.

And I brought it up first service too, but I don't know what you mean when you say that, but I'm welcoming him into my life. That's where he dwells. He dwells in us. And we're asking him to come. We're asking him to move. We're asking him to, you know, to work in our hearts and our lives. And it will be evident to the whole congregation when he does.

And, you know, one of the things that I remember about beginning my preparation for full-time ministry, my freshman year when I went to Lincoln, I was enrolled in a class that was offered all but one semester. If you went with the four-year trajectory to graduate, there was a class that you had to take. You had to take all but one semester. It was a class called IDS, Interdisciplinary Studies.

And it was so comprehensive, like a pretty overwhelming class, but the first semester of it was such a beautiful foundation because that semester what we learned about was this: What does it mean to have a biblical worldview? What does that look like? And unfortunately, like the importance of that, it gets so lost. In churches, it gets lost among believers.

And worldview is so important. And what I want you to understand, like if you wear glasses, this could make a lot of sense to you. That middle part of the image there is a lens. Like it's a lens you see everything through. That's what a worldview is. It's the thing we're filtering everything in the world through.

And here's what I want you to know. You can't not have one. Everybody has a worldview. Everybody has a lens that they're filtering the world through. At its basic level, a worldview is the lens that we see and define and make judgments about the world around us. It's the framework from which we view reality. It's the framework where we make sense of reality.

Jeff Myers, president of Summit Ministries, he defines a worldview like this: A pattern of ideas, beliefs, convictions, and habits that help us make sense of God, the world, and our relationship to God and the world.

In our present cultural environment right now, it's impossible for followers of Christ not—I shouldn't say impossible, but it needs to become—maybe a better word I should use there is imperative. I think it's imperative. It is so necessary as believers for us to be convictional, courageous, and compassionate.

That's why we sing about and pray about inviting the Holy Spirit in. Holy Spirit, presence of God, be in my life. Be so with me today that you would convict me as I make decisions and what I'm doing. And then to have the courage and the compassion to live it out.

I mean, we have to know what we believe, we have to know why we believe it, and we have to know how to communicate it to other people. It's crucial.

And here's the takeaway, and I want you to get this today. It's going to be on the screen multiple times, long enough for you to write it down. But here's what we're talking about today as we begin this formation of a biblical worldview.

It starts with the word of God. What you believe about God's word will determine how you view the world around you. If your worldview does not come from God's word, it will come from the world. But you have one.

Sadly, according to George Barna, the percentage of those with a biblical worldview has been declining in each successive generation. And guys, what I want you to know is that this isn't among non-believers, this is among believers.

Among boomers, 10% of people said, yes, I have a biblical worldview. Gen X, that number lowered to 7%. Among millennials, 6%. And now with Gen Z, 4%. According to Barna's research. Barna summarized these findings by saying, this is frightening. These results generated a headline for an article in the Christian Post where the article title read this: "Biblical worldview much closer to extinction." Terrifying.

The news continues to get worse because according to the American worldview inventory for 2023, there are some alarming trends taking place today. The share of the population that claims to hold this biblical worldview—I mean, look at it. It has gone down. From six to four.

Now my question is, are we just not passing our lens down to our children? To the next generation? To have conviction and know what they believe and why they believe it and how to share it? Or is the problem that we didn't have the conviction to do it ourselves, so there was nothing to pass?

The share of born-again believers who say that they are deeply committed to practicing their faith fell from 85% to 50%. That's half of Christians, okay? Half of people who say, I believe in Jesus. He's the Lord and Savior of my life. Half of those people say, well, I'm deeply committed to practicing my faith.

What you believe about God's word will determine how you view the world around you. And if your worldview does not come from God's word, it will come from the world. Simply put, our worldview affects our reality. It affects our beliefs. It affects our values. It affects our behavior.

There's a progression about it. Look at this progression with me. See, our worldview establishes what we believe to be real. It helps us set that up. So our beliefs then establish what we believe is true, which, that's the scary part, and we're gonna talk about that some more, but we're living in a day where absolute truth—your truth, my truth—our beliefs establish what we believe is true.

Our values determine what we believe is good, and our behavior influences what we do then. All of this is so important because our worldview then, our view of God, of what's happening, our view of the world itself that we're living in, helps us make sense of life's biggest questions.

Origin. Fundamentally, it's one of the questions that everybody wrestles with at some point. Where do I come from? It deals with the question of identity. Who am I? It deals with the question of meaning. What is my purpose? Why do I exist in the first place? It deals with our morality. How should I live then? How should you live? How do we know what's good and what's bad, what's right and what's wrong? Where does that come from?

And the question that I think is on so many minds and hearts often: what about our destiny? What happens when we die? Our worldview shapes what we hold to be true about those questions.

Here are some popular worldviews that exist today. I just wanted to show you some of them. This is not all of them, but these are our present worldviews held by people in our culture.

Pragmatism. I want whatever works for me. That's somewhat of a selfish way to live. Individualism gets even more selfish. My interests are the center of my reality. Consumerism. My worth is tied to what I own. Maybe you've seen that kind of worldview play out in a relationship or in a home where the amount that you're loved is equal to the amount that you're given. That's how we show love in a consumeristic worldview.

Naturalism. Since this world is all there is, I can live like I want to. This is it. When it's done, it's done, it's over. So I can pretty much do whatever I want, but, I mean, that winds a lot of people up in a bad way.

Moral relativism is a worldview that says my truth is more important than absolute truth. My truth, your truth, you hold your truth, I'll hold mine. Hedonism. My goal is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. I think this one's pretty present in our lives today. Like, if there's not a medicine for it, we need to find it. Keep pain out of my life, keep discomfort out of my life. I'm supposed to be experiencing pleasure at all times.

Nihilism says that my life has no meaning so I can do what I want. Moralistic therapeutic deism. Do you see what's happening? These titles are starting to build on one another because what's happening—and I'm going to mention this again later—but even in churches, even amongst Christians, people are starting to take and borrow from other worldviews to form one that just, they can start to make sense of some of those questions.

Moralistic therapeutic deism says God is not involved in my life. There is a God. He's the one true God, but he's not active, he's not living, he is not involved. He has removed himself from what we experience on this earth. He wants my problems to be solved, and he wants me to be good and nice to others, but he has nothing to do with it.

Apologist Frank Turek describes our challenge today like this. He says most people are not on a truth quest. They are on a happiness quest. Whatever is going to make them happy, they are going to believe. That's a slippery slope to be on because do you see how relative truth is then? I mean, relative is very—truth is very relative when, well, it just, it depends on how happy I am at the moment, what my truth is.

And these, this kind of thing like, it leads to things like substance abuse, it leads to things like abusing other people, mistreating other people because when I'm not happy, right, well my truth completely changes. Well, there needs to be a truth beyond how I feel. Something absolute.

Someone has said that Christians suffer from multiple worldview disorder. And I wonder if that makes sense to you. Do you understand that? That the believers mix and match their beliefs even if they're contradictory at times.

And then there's scriptures like 2 Corinthians chapter 10. It was on the screen during the bumper. Verses three through five. Though we walk in the flesh—another word, translation for that word for flesh is world—we, though we walk in the world, we are not waging war according to the world. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the world but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

You get that? You understand what that's saying? Like, the warfare that exists in my God has the power to break the strongholds in my life, to loosen chains, to allow me to be free from the slavery of this world and the hurt and the pain and all of the things that are going on. My God's that powerful. His ways are that good.

We destroy arguments, it says, and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. What does that look like?

Church, to take every thought captive to obey Christ. I want you to get a Bible out. If you've got, I know there's one near you underneath the chairs, but if you would get out a Bible or if you use your phone or another device, open up to Romans chapter 12. We're gonna be right here in Romans chapter 12 in the first two verses today and I really wanna take some time just to break down what Paul is saying, what his plea is.

What believers is in these verses. These verses are very important to me. They come out of my education about having a biblical worldview and that same education is shared by my wife; therefore, we made a decision a long time ago. We are about trying to raise our children to enter into the world as young adults viewing and taking things in through this lens: biblical worldview. It's what we wanna create and I think Paul, he does a great job of getting us there practically.

Look at Romans 12 starting in verse one. I 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.

Do not conform, do 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.

I think this two-verse passage lays out for us how to develop a biblical worldview, the foundation where it starts. And the first thing I see is that we need to respond to God's urgent appeal. It starts with a response on our part.

Based on the doxology that's found at the end of chapter 11 here, Paul begins chapter 12 and he says, I appeal to you. Even though he could have used a command, he could have said, I am commanding you. I'm telling you to. But instead, Paul makes an appeal. It means to call near, to invite, to beseech in order to persuade someone to do something.

The Amplified Bible translates it this way. It says, I beg of you, brothers, we are being asked to make a decision of our wills. But make no mistake, the decision is ours.

The second thing I see here is he says, allow your behaviors to flow from your beliefs. Ground your behavior in something. Don't make it something erratic. Don't make it something chaotic. Don't make it something that doesn't have any conviction about it. Make your behavior flow from what you believe.

Look at the next phrase. Therefore, brothers, Paul, he's making a shift from the first 11 chapters and he's moving away now from creed and he's moving into conduct. He's moving away from principles and he's talking about practice now. He's moving away from exposition into exhortation, from belief to behavior, from doctrine to duty.

This is a transition phrase here. What Paul's saying, he's saying, I've talked a lot to you about theology and what we believe. Now I want to talk to you about how to live. That's why I think it's interesting that the first two letters of the word doctrine form the word do. It's something that we do. It requires life.

Theology is never meant to be cold and lifeless. It must always have a practical application. It's as if he's saying, based on your position in Jesus Christ, this is what you now need to put into practice.

Or to say it another way, what you believe about the Bible ultimately determines your beliefs and your behavior. Notice he refers to his readers as brothers. It literally means from the same womb. Guys, Paul is expressing his tender affection for the members of God's family.

He's begging believers, not unbelievers, he's talking to believers and he's begging them to do something they haven't done yet. The other thing I see is that we're to be motivated by God's mercies. Motivated by God's mercies. This plea is based on the mercies of God, which is in the plural. It refers to God's multitude of mercies.

In 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3, God is called the Father of mercies. He is not merciful just once. He is merciful again and again and again. He is consistently and constantly full of mercy. And how do I know that? I live in it.

Romans chapter 9 and Romans chapter 11 talk about this word mercy five different times, but now have received mercy. By the mercy shown to you, they may also now receive mercy. That he may have mercy on all. Many of us think we have to do penance to perform, to get God's mercy. We have it backwards. God gives a multitude of mercies apart from anything that we do.

And it should cause us to surrender everything we are and sacrifice everything that we have. We're living in response to his mercy, not to earn it. Let me tell you something. This has been something I've committed to this year as a staff for years now. We begin our day every day at 9 a.m.

And our days start before that obviously, but at 9 a.m. we come together as a staff to pray. And when we do that, one of the things that I've been practicing for some time now is I like to pray on Monday. I like to pray on Monday because I like to begin our week and that first day the way that I begin, try to begin my days personally.

Every week when we meet to pray, I just, God, thank you that your mercies are new today. That your mercies are new for me today and this week as they are every day and every week. God, you are so merciful and it never runs out.

And can I just take a page out of Paul's book and tell you as I'm praying that, that I'm praying that for myself because much like Paul, of those who need mercy, I am the worst. I so need it. I need his mercies. It's been a prayer that I've been praying really simply. I've even prayed it this past weekend with our elders.

I have prayed a simple prayer with not much added to it because of the depth and the weight of it. Lord, would you just have mercy? Would you just have mercy? Would you have mercy on this situation, on these people, on this church? Like, would you, God, be merciful? I know you are.

Jesus said it like this, Luke chapter 7, verse 47, but he who has been forgiven little loves little. My prompt to continually be reminding myself of how merciful our God is is because I want love to grow in my life. And the more aware I am of his mercy, the more his love is able to flow from me in behavior.

One pastor put it this way, he said, indeed the extent to which we do not offer ourselves to God reflects the extent to which we do not understand the depth and significance of his mercy. It's interesting that Paul doesn't say, in light of God's grace, but instead focuses on mercy. Why? Because God's grace is demonstrated when we get what we don't deserve, whereas mercy keeps us from getting what we do deserve.

If I receive what I deserve, church, I would end up in hell, and so would you. Lamentations chapter 3, verse 22 offers hope, though. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end.

To he is. And in view of God's multiple, multiplied, and multifaceted mercies, we must voluntarily and enthusiastically respond by offering our lives to him in submission.

What you believe about God's word will determine how you view the world around you. If your worldview doesn't come from God's word, it will come from the world.

The next thing I see in these verses is that we need to offer our bodies on God's altar. Paul urges believers, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. And this word, present, it's a technical term. It was used to describe the offering of an animal sacrifice on an altar in the Old Testament.

It's that idea, going back to the sacrificial system that existed for God's chosen people. This idea, it means to offer once and for all. It has the idea of relinquishing one's grip. In the Old Testament, a live animal was brought to the priest, and the owner of the animal would lay hands on the beast to symbolically say, this animal is taking my place.

The animal was then slaughtered, the blood was sprinkled on the altar, and the sacrifice was burned completely. A significant feature of this sacrificial system in the Old Testament was that according to Leviticus chapter six, the fire on the altar was kept constantly burning, never to die out.

Every morning, the priest that was officiating laid fresh wood on the fire before he presented the burnt offering to God. The idea of a living sacrifice must have been a novel idea to these people then. As Paul's writing to them, it was something they had not heard before, except maybe in the case of Abraham and his son Isaac.

A living sacrifice among people? They were used to offering an animal to be killed because once a sacrifice is offered to God, it can't be taken back. When we are called to present our bodies to the Lord, we are told to offer our total being to him, not just bits and pieces.

First Corinthians chapter six, verse 20 says, for you were taught, you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body. That word body refers to the totality of our being, our entire being, our entire life, all of our activities.

David Guzik writes this: the thinking of our age says that our body must tell the will what to do. But the Bible says that our will must bring the body as a living sacrifice to God. The body is a wonderful servant; it is a terrible master.

Let me see if I can illustrate this. There is a story about a pig and a chicken. And the pig and the chicken are walking down the road one day together when they came upon a sign advertising a breakfast fundraiser, and the chicken said to the pig, in a very generous way actually, the chicken said to the pig, we should donate to that worthy cause. How about, I give an egg, and you give the ham.

The pig replied, wait a minute, for you, why is it that for you that seems like a contribution, but for me it's a total commitment? You see where I'm going with that? My fear is that too many of us have made a few contributions and resist total commitment. We're comfortable contributing, not sure we want to be all in committed.

God does not just want to be a part of our lives; He wants us to be completely committed to Him. God isn't interested in beasts today. He's not interested in animal sacrifices. He's looking for bodies of believers who will be sold out to Him.

And as someone has said, the problem with living sacrifices today is that they keep crawling off of the altar. Paul, he goes on and he says, the offering of our life is to be holy and acceptable to God. Sacrifices were to be without blemish, without defect, and in like manner, we're to offer our God our best church, not our leftovers.

Not our leftovers. When we do, it is pleasing and agreeable to Him, and this offering is then our spiritual worship, Paul says. The word worship is sometimes rendered as service. This word spiritual translated as reasonable. Worship is not just what we do during this service then, on Sunday morning. Worship is what we do every day of the week.

And by the way, I'll just say this because I think this is helpful for some to hear. I think it is very messed up when we say things like, I didn't get anything out of worship today. That statement makes zero sense. We sound foolish. Because true worship is not about getting; it's about giving myself to God.

And so maybe the statement should be, I wonder what God got out of that today. The next thing he's saying is that we need to resist conformity to the world. Verse 1, it calls it for a decisive commitment to fully surrender. Verse 2 tells us that we can maintain that commitment by renewing our mind and not following the pattern of this world.

Don't be conformed any longer to this world. The tense here indicates that we need to stop conforming because what he's getting at is, it's in our nature to conform. We need to be aware of that and stop. The word conformed is where we get the word scheme from. Fashioned.

And Paul is saying stop being pushed into the fashion of this world. That word world, it refers to the world's systems. It refers to the popular culture. It's rebellion to God. We're bombarded with unbiblical worldviews, church. We are absolutely bombarded with it through entertainment, through celebrity influencers, through music, social media, the internet, news, politics, education.

All designed to seductively draw us in and sometimes we are so conformed to the world that there is little noticeable difference between a Christian and a non-Christian in it. Because a conformist is afraid to be different than anyone else.

Exodus chapter 23 says, you shall not fall in with the many to do evil. Titus chapter 2 says, renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. First Peter chapter 1 exhorts, as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. James, he states it bluntly, in James chapter 4, friendship with the world is enmity with God.

Some of us are facing incredible temptations and you feel yourself being pulled to conform to go along with the way of your friends and I'm just pleading with you this morning like, Paul, please don't give in. Church, don't give in.

Unfortunately, some will internalize the world's values so much that we don't even recognize them. Have you heard the modern-day parable of the frog in the kettle? That when a frog is being cooked for frog legs or whatever, when it's being prepared, that if you drop a frog, a live frog, into a boiling pot of water, it will immediately hop out. It's a reaction to what's happening.

But if you drop that same frog into a pot of warm water and you heat it up so hot, slowly over time, the frog will stay in the pot and it will slowly boil to death. Slowly turning up the heat so that the frog can comfortably soak in the pot until it eventually boils to its death.

Church, I'm afraid this is some people's existence. The world is slowly turning up the heat and we are slowly, some, boiling to death. When conditions change gradually, we're deceived by the slow, incremental rises in temperature and like the frog, we're all susceptible to the dulling of our senses.

And while it's easy to blame our culture as the reason that we're being deceived, the author suggests that the water that the frog is being cooked in is our own spiritual apathy, our own missional indifference, our own prayerless irrelevance.

In essence, the frog stands in danger of boiling in its own water and just as Jesus warned us, some of the churches in Revelation, some of the churches that had this precarious spiritual condition, we too need to recognize that our own need to take responsibility for the situation is dire.

Church, what you believe about God's word will determine how you view the world around you. If your worldview doesn't come from God's word, it will come from the world.

Paul's saying, but receive, receive transformation from the word. The negative command says don't be conformed, but the positive command is to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It refers to interchange.

I like how J.B. Phillips translates it. He says, don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within. There's a verb tense here to keep on being transformed. Get the word of metamorphosis in your mind. That's where that word comes from.

A metamorphosis is not something we can do on our own. It's a deep inner change, a total change from the inside out, and at its core, it involves a change in form. Like when Jesus was transfigured in Matthew, and it says, he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

I'll say it as clearly as I can. If you are not intentionally being transformed by the word of God, you are being conformed to the world. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18 tells us the key to transformation is to regularly gaze on God.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. And so Paul says, adjust your will to God's will.

The last part of verse 2, it says, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, the good, acceptable, and perfect. When we wonder what God's will is for our life, the first place to start is by living out this. Having a Christian, a biblical worldview.

Until you offer him your body, your mind, and your will, you won't understand his good, pleasing, and perfect will, and you won't have a godly worldview. A biblical worldview of the world which seeks to answer God's life's biggest questions.

Brett McCracken put together a list of some ways that a Christian worldview is countercultural. And I just want to kind of end with this list for you. I want you to see this, or hear this.

So if you can tune in for just a second. Here's how a Christian worldview is countercultural today.

In a believe-in-yourself world, Christianity calls you to deny yourself and to take up your cross.

In a you-do-you world, which emphasizes expressive individualism, authenticity, and nonconformity, Christianity is about conforming to the likeness of Jesus and being imitators of God.

In a consumerist and greedy culture, Christianity calls you to costly generosity, a willingness to give up material possessions.

In a self-oriented world of self-promotion and self-help and self-ease, Christianity calls you to be an others-focused servant.

In a world that says you should be free to do with your body whatever you wish, the Bible says glorify God with your body.

In a sexually progressive culture, which sanctions pretty much anything, Christianity says that sex is intended for the union of one man and one woman within the covenant of marriage.

In a world which has normalized the discarding of unborn lives and the dehumanizing of people, Christianity insists that all humans bear the image of God and are worthy of dignity and protection.

In a pluralistic world, with a diversity of beliefs in which all roads lead to heaven, what a comforting thought, Christianity calls you to believe there is one path to heaven, trusting in Jesus Christ alone. Amen?

The list could be much longer, but the Bible gives all the answers we need. Where do we come from? We're created by God. Who are we? God made us in His image as male and female. What is our purpose? God created us to know and follow Him as we fill the earth and reign over it as responsible stewards for His glory.

What is our core problem? That we're all sinners. We are sinners who fall short of the glory of God because we pridefully resist His authority. How is the problem solved? Jesus died as the final sacrifice for sin. He rose from the dead on the third day.

And when we turn from our self-centered ways, and when we trust and give our allegiance to Jesus as our Lord and King, we will be saved. How should we live? We should live according to the way of Jesus, the Messiah, which can be summarized as loving God and loving people.

And what happens when we die? We will either go to be with the Lord forever in heaven, or we will live apart from Him in hell for eternity.

Many have searched and have sought out these questions and these problems and tried to address them with a plethora of worldviews, but I'm telling you, no worldview makes the most sense in answering these questions.

And I'm open to arguing. I'll just end with this. As the praise team comes to lead us in response, General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, was once asked to reveal the secret of his success.

And after some hesitation, tears came to his eyes, and he said, I will tell you the secret. God has had all there was of me. There have been men with greater brains than I have. Men with greater opportunities.

But from the day that I got the pour of London on my heart and caught a vision of what Jesus could do with them, I made up my mind that God should have all of William Booth.

Friend, I'll just plea with you like Paul. Settle this now. Jesus is Lord, and everything you have belongs to Him. Have you ever given your all completely to Him?

I love what Andrew Murray said in this regard. He said, God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life that is wholly yielded to Him. He's ready. Are you ready?

God, as we continue in our worship and as we seek to respond to your word today, Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit would bring conviction. I pray that your Holy Spirit would bring guidance.

And God, I pray that our surrender would be so great. Because I know in the midst of our brokenness, in the midst of our wrong, and in the midst of chaos, your mercy is so good.

Father, thank you for Jesus who makes all this possible. We pray it in His name. Amen.