Session 2

Worldview, Culture &How We are to Influence

Culture

1998 survey: Belief in God

93%90%

Military

70%

Business owner

50%

Politicians 3%

2%A&E Media

19% Christians in U.S. have a biblical worldview.

Bridgers 3% 77- 2010

The Barna Update, “Americans Worldview," 2009.

Biblical Worldview by Generations

Builders 65% <'46

Boomers 35% '46-'64

• Source: Thomas Rainer in “The Bridger Generation”

Christian Worldview

Busters 16% '64-'76

Bridgers 4% 77- 2010

24%General population

believe Satan is real

52%Christians

believe Satan is real

Belief in a Literal Satan

When you’re deceived you don’t know you are deceived.

84% of Christian 18 to 29-year-olds admit that they have no idea how the Bible applies to their field or

professional interests. ---Barna Group, June, 2012.

Today’s Cultural Covenant?

Covenant of Tolerance

“I won’t tell you what to do as long as you don’t tell me what to do.”

Culture and the

American’s changing attitude toward same sex marriage since 1996

1996 20130

20

40

60

% in Favor

Same Sex Marriage

27

53

Attitudes by age on gay marriage June 2013

Rom 12:2

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Romans 12:2 (MSG)

Don’t become so well–adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity,

God brings the best out of you, develops well–formed maturity in you.

7 Nations Greater and Mightier

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou” (Deuteronomy 7:1).

Kingdoms of this worldThe seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:

“The kingdom of the world has becomethe kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” Rev.11:15

August 1975, Boulder, Colorado

• Bill Bright, Campus Crusade for Christ• Loren Cunningham, Youth with a Mission

Why no progress since ‘75?

Why?

• Stopped at evangelism. • Strategy - Church mountain • Pluralism in calling - sacred/secular

hierarchy– support raising– contributes to a poverty mentality

Immaturity of marketplace

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit,

according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of

the world, and not according to Christ. Col 2:8

How We Lost the Mountains

The Most Christianized City in America

British television documentary

TV DocumentaryMost Christianized City in America

Dallas, Texas

Criteria: More people in church per capita on Sunday than any other city

Comparisons

• Life in Dallas was examined in a variety of ways:

• Health care • Hospitals • Emergency care • Contagious diseases • Infant mortality rate • Job availability

• General economics – How easy is it to get a job? – How easy is it to get

housing? – The relationship between

potential income and potential housing.

• Homelessness • Racism The existence of

abuse • Crime rates • Economic discrepancies

Results

The city was one of the lowest ranking cities in the nation providing core services

No one would want to live in a city in that condition.

Dallas Pastor Responses

“Those things do not concern us. We are spiritual leaders”

“A gospel that does not deal with the issues of the day is not the gospel at all.”

Martin Luther

Prov 29:2

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules,

the people groan.

Would the community notice if your local church shut its doors tomorrow?

Would your workplace notice if you were no longer there?

Is your industry different because of you?

Accomplished through Obedience

If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. - - Deut 28:1-2

Deut 8:19-20 Then it shall be, if you by any means

forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

Why we lost the mountains Disobedience

Deut 28:15-19

However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you...

Head vs Tail The LORD will make you the head, not

the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow

them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. - Deut 28:13-14

?

LIFE OF JESUS

Dominion (influence) is a result of our love, humility and obedience to God, not a goal to be achieved. It is the fruit of our obedience.

“Use your authority and you will lose your influence; use your influence and you will gain

authority.” Loren Cunningham

#1:

Why we lost the 7 mountains? Disobedience

If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. - - Deut 28:1-2

Our enemies didn’t have to kill us, we simply disobeyed God which entitled our enemies to

take our mountains.

The Gospel of Salvation Vs

The Gospel of the Kingdom

Reason #2: Satan’s Key Strategy

#2 Gospel of Salvation

vs Gospel of the Kingdom

And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preachedin the whole world as a testimony as a testimony to the whole world, and then the end will come. –Matthew 24:14

Gospel of the

KingdomSalvation

HealingHearing God

ProvisionWork

Sonship

Kingdom? A kingdom is the governing impact of a

king’s will over a territory or domain, his influence over a people, and a government led by a king.”

-- Myles Munroe, Kingdom Principles

An Incomplete Gospel

Gospel of Salvation

• Proclamation evangelism• Addresses only the “Soul”• Sacred vs Secular

• “Rapture” mentality

Focuses on Transaction

Nigeria

Gospel of the Kingdom

• Soul and body• Impacts all aspects of society

– Material, social, earthly, secular

• Occupy

Focuses on taking dominion “Possess the Land”

Almolonga

Reduced Wholistic Gospel to Only the Entry Point

1. Get people saved2. Get them in church3. Focus on other unsaved

Early Gospel• Transformed Israel• Transformed Roman Empire• Laid Foundation for Western

European Nation’s Prosperity

Ff

“Christians have become more known as a political action group rather than a people modeling the

love, power, and servant-hood of Christ.”

– Network TV Producer

Early church changed Rome

by living the gospel

in an ungodly culture.

Failed Strategies

Jesus’ Method for Change

Problem Solving = Influence!

Culture changes when ideas are adopted, institutionalized, and lived out.

Will never legislate moral behavior

Unbiblical View of Work and Ministry

Refer to Change Agent course for theology of work

“We have a leadership vacuum”

-- Henry Blackaby“I do not see societal transformation

coming through political leaders or pastors. I see it coming through the marketplace”

Many people shall come and say,

"Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He

will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in

His paths." Isa 2:2-3