Well, good morning church family. It is so good to be here with you. Thank you so much here in person those watching online. You know, these last couple of weeks, we've really enjoyed some incredible guest speakers as walked through this series, Skeptics. Welcome. And the purpose of the series is that we wanna help, you know, why we believe what we believe. And so in week one of the series, we talked about the resurrection of Jesus and the evidence for that. In week two, we, we try to wrestle with a difficult topic of how can God be loving and then there's violence and we looked at really explaining and understanding why there's violence, especially in the Old Testament. Then in week three, my friend Brent came and he shared really the meaning behind the question. Why am I a Christian? Why do we believe in that at its core? The gospel equals freedom. And last week, we really wanted to understand, really, has God preserved his word? Can we trust the Bible? Do, how do we know what we have is what was written 2000 years ago? Well, over these last couple weeks besides wanted to have you have some other voices speak into our lives at our church family as I was enjoying those as well. It also gave me time to really prepare for the fall and let me just tell you just a little brief hint that this is gonna be the best and biggest fall in our church's history. And so there's a lot of planning behind it, a lot of exciting things that are gonna share with you in weeks to come. But right now just know that there's a lot of cool stuff happening behind the scenes as we prepare for this incredible season here at Mission Grove Church. You know, we talk about being for the community. And so thank you so much to all those who give, we do a lot of fun things. So for example, this, this week we bought um and we s served a catered breakfast to the entire staff here at the school so that when they came in for the first day of meetings, we partnered with the PTO and we brought breakfast and, and gave out a bunch of stuff to the entire um faculty and staff here at the school. And so we can do that because of you. So I want you to see that and know that and then I love seeing people step up. And so again, remind you to download that free devotional written by Kyle there to go along with this apologetic study and So we wanna connect with you beyond a Sunday. So that's a great way to do that. So let me pray for us and then we're gonna jump into the message today, dear heavenly Father. Just thank you for who you are and just truly being great. God, it's my prayer that we can just not just your information, but God may we experience transformation. We know that you are present here with us, but we know that on our own strength, nothing, it's gonna change. But God, when you are with us, when you are for us, nothing's gonna stop us. So God, we ask for your spirit to move today. We ask that we can just be changed and challenged by your word, God, whatever brought people here today, God, whatever people brought with them today where we lay it all at your feet and we humbly submit before your word. We ask that you move in a certain thing. We pray. Amen. I think back to the time in our marriage when my wife and I got to purchase our first home, maybe you think back to that time where you got to purchase your first home or if you haven't purchased one yet, you're you're in expecting and excitingly waiting for a time in the future where that can be. But for everyone who's ever purchased a home, there comes a moment when you get in that home and especially the first time you think yourself I have no idea what I'm doing. There's a lot involved, for example, our first home that we purchased was in Florida and I was super excited because it had a pool much like in Arizona, Florida is hot, but it's muggy. It's humid. Right? So, so I was super excited to have a pool and I know nothing about pools whatsoever. And so I went to the pool store and I bought any chemical that I couldn't pronounce. And I brought it home and because we bought the, bought the house and the pool was blue. I was like, this is cool and I didn't do anything because it just looked like water and it's clear, it doesn't seem like anything's in the water. And so I was like, this is great and then the pool became green like, well, that's not good. And so I went over to the cabinet where I had all these chemicals I couldn't pronounce and I saw this stuff like chlorine tablets were like, I don't know how many, like one, if one is good, maybe 10 is better. And I threw it in and then I jumped in, I'm like, my eyes are burning, like, maybe not. And so I'll go back and, um, I find this thing called Shock and I'm like, that seems scary. Let's dump it in and I dumped it in and like the next day it was blue. It was awesome. I'm like, wow, this home ownership thing is easy. And after a few days it turned green again, I was like, man, that's not cool. And so I dumped in more stuff and, and what started to happen was as I would dump in these chemicals, the time in between of growing blue to green got shorter and shorter and shorter. And they got to the point where no matter what I did, there was just kind of like bacterial like stuff, greenness that I couldn't get rid of. And I was just at a loss. I'm like, well, we gotta get rid of the pool at this point. We gotta go. It's my only option or I just will never swim again. And I'm just done. I tried, it was a good run while we had it and I go to the pool store. I'm like, I don't know, I've done all the things like I am a pool expert, but I need a little bit of help. So just if, if you were me, what, you know, what would you do? Hypothetically speaking? And the guy was, well, have you checked your pool filter? And I said, what's a pool filter? It's like you've never changed the pool filter. It's like, I don't even know what that is or where that is. And so after some education I go home, I was like, oh, it's not just the water, there's the pump on the side. And so I take, I take the lid off and when I pulled that thing out it was the greenest nastiest there were like, animals living in it. It felt like. And it was just like, oh, it's like, no wonder this thing wasn't clean because it didn't matter what I put in the pool because it was running through a filter that just was gross if you don't have a pool, um, be grateful for the lack of work on that. But, but even if, if you don't, don't own a pool, I guarantee that most people here in the room, maybe there's some of you that are on top of it who have forgotten to change their air filter when in the proposed time that you're supposed to, right? Like you're supposed to change those things pretty regularly. Not like every couple of years. And um, and so like maybe you pull the air filter out and it's just like, oh, how are we still breathing? You have experienced that, right? And so why, why are these filters so important? Well, whether it's the pool or the house or maybe even the car, a filter controls, what gets through and what I wanna talk to you today is about, what is the mental filter or mindset that you have that stops certain things from coming in and allows other things to come through. See everyone has a filter and today we're gonna call that filter a world view. And so if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down that everyone has a worldview. So what is yours? And why do you believe it? Every single person here, a world view is not, you might hear it coming from a Christian perspective. You might hear a preacher like myself or someone say you need to have a biblical world view. Like here's the reality though that every single person here has one has a way in which they see the world. Now, you might be someone who doesn't like to think about life and abstract things like, well, I just don't think about it. Ignorance is a world view, not caring, actually is part of a worldview. And so whether you have, you think you have one or don't, whether you care or don't, whether you're super s super skeptical, doubtful, believe something completely different, have a bad church experience, whatever you bring with you today, understand this, that every single person has a way through which they see the world. And so we just want to take a step back. We wanna ask ourselves, what is it that you believe? And why do you believe it? See, we started this series defining apologetics this way, apologetics is the ability to give reason or defense. We share that it's important to understand the evidence thus giving you confidence in what you believe as Christians, we walk by faith. Well, the reality is all religions require some level of faith. Even atheism requires a level of faith that you believe the world is a certain way. Well, today we wanna close that loop, we started with apologetics of giving reason and defense and we wanna close that loop and really discuss what is a world view. Let me give you a working definition. A world view is the filter. Think like pull filter is a filter through which you explain, interpret and apply life. Those three words are important when you explain life, that is why does something happen when you interpret? You ask the question, what does that mean to me? And then when you apply it's well, then what do I do about it? And if you don't wanna think at like a theological or intellectual level, at its core, what you're saying is why does stuff happen? What does it mean? And what do I do now? And every human asks those questions, why do world views matter? Worldviews matter? Because big things happen and we naturally try to answer tough questions, you know, when someone gets sick or has cancer, why? What does that mean? How do we respond when you lose a job? Why did that happen? What do I do now when you get the promotion? But it doesn't seem as fulfilling or maybe you're, I don't know what I wanna do with my life. What's the purpose? What does that mean for me? Where do I go from here when you experience betrayal? What happened? Why does that hurt what do you do now see the filter that you have the filter through which you see life. Another way to picture it is like the lens through the, like the context, contacts lenses or glasses through which you see the world. Because if you don't have the right prescription, the world's gonna seem buzzy, it's not gonna make sense. It's gonna seem noisy and chaotic. Well, the word of God actually highly values intellect and our world view and how we think it's not just a blind faith. Yes, it's faith, but there are reasons and evidences for why we believe what we believe. The Apostle Peter, the guy who walked on water and then fell again, the guy who kept doing crazy things and then falling back down. He writes this letter later on in his life. First Peter 315, he says, but in your heart to honor Christ, the Lord is holy. Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. So it's a combination of apologetics and worldview. Why do you act the way that you do? What does this mean? Why do these things happen? He says, and you do so with gentleness and respect Jesus. When he was asked the question, what is the greatest commandment? He replied in mark 1230 he said, you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul with all your mind and all your strength. This means that searching through the scriptures, this means searching through the world and, and getting courage and confidence and knowing why you believe what you believe is actually an act of worship, questioning things is an act of worship. Paul is right near the church in Rome. He writes this in Romans 12 2. He says, do not be conformed to this world will be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That by testing again, worldview filter, by running it through the filter by having the right filter in place. You may discern what is the will of God that you may know what is good and acceptable and perfect. Paul writes to a different church in Colossi in Colossians chapter two verse six through eight. He says, therefore, as you receive Christ, uh Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him rooted and built up. So there is a security, there is a strength that is there and established in faith just as you were taught. Notice the learning aspect and then abounding in thanksgiving. There's an attitude aspect. But now the next verse verse eight, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world. And not according to Christ, there is defense and there is offense, but on both cases, there is responsibility in the life of a believer and then a little bit later in that book, in chapter four verses five and six, he says, walk and wisdom towards outsiders making the best use of time. Letting your speech always be gracious season with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. So are you prepared to give an answer? Can you explain why something happens? What it means? And what do you do about it in your marriage? Why does this happen? What does it mean? How can you respond in your parenting in your friendships in the workplace with your finances? Explain interpret apply. This is a human challenge, not a Christian one, just the Christian world who gives us a way to answer those questions. Paul in the end of his life, writes a letter, very personal letter to spiritual God, Son Timothy who's leading a church in Ephesus. Second Timothy two, second Timothy 42 through four. Now this was written to a pastor about 2000 years ago, but honestly, it could have been written this morning. Here's what I mean. Preach the word be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is coming. When people will not endure sound teaching, but have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves, teachers that suit their own passions and they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths coming in this morning. Now, more than ever, you are being bombarded with more content than at any point in human history. There is more information being uploaded videos to youtube, tiktok, Instagram to social media platforms. There is more content being generated within 1 to 3 months time than all of human history combined up to this point. Think about that you have access to more information in an instant in a moment right now than anyone at any point in history. What our world needs right now is not more information, what our world needs is, explanation, interpretation and application. In other words, at the core, we're seeking transformation. This is why this matters. Let's get real practical here. The, the title of this message is five questions everyone must answer and no matter your filter. If you're gonna get serious, you gotta think about these big questions in life and every belief system, every religion and every just even if you're not religious, you still have to attempt to answer these five questions. What are they? First one is identity? Where do I come from now? With these questions, I encourage you to do two things. Number one, go all the way back, go past the assumptions, go past those things and then follow all the way through. In other words, if you have a belief, where does that stem from in its origin? And then where does that conclude in the extreme? I'm gonna show you why this matters in just a moment. But right now just notice your identity. Where do I come from here to quote the theologian rednecks. Where do you come from? Where do you go? Where do you come from? Cotton Eye Joe. OK. That was bad. That was, that was bad. But here, here's the reality. Every little thing, every pop song, every dance song, every social media post has a world view attached to it. So the first question, our identity is, where is it? Where do I come from? Second question here is purpose. Why am I here? Why am I here? The third question here is destiny. Where do I go when I die? These are heavy questions, right? Suddenly like I'm just trying to figure out what I'm gonna do for lunch. You know, like I got, I'm gonna start Monday morning with 1000 emails. OK, I get it. But see the filter behind that helps you approach life as you know it fourth question that we ask ourselves is meaning, how do you explain abstract realities? For example, morality? What's right? What's wrong? What's good? What's evil? What is your standard? Right? Those things matter. How do you describe love? It's not just a series of chemistry and chemical reactions and synapses fire in your brain. You understand your heart. There is an experience that you have. There is a narrative story that is told that you believe to be true. There is objective reality, the world exists and then there's the narrative or story that you tell to explain that world and everyone has a story that they tell that they define love or they a story that and maybe you didn't experience love as a child. Well, that's a story you tell yourself well, then you end up telling yourself, maybe I'm not worthy. I don't deserve it or I did something or I was betrayed. And so I can't trust again and then you take that into the current relationship. So the stories we tell ourselves matter. How do you define beauty? Like all these things that we experience in life that requires explanation, interpretation, application. So we have identity purpose, destiny, meaning. And the final one here is redemption. And that's how do you explain and escape suffering. Now, as much as we would love to live in a world with fluffy clouds and unicorns, we've all walked through something very difficult. And so how do you explain that? What do you do about it? See these five questions are so crucial. So then how we make decisions in this life and different worldviews sometimes focus on one of those five questions and they completely ignore the others, but you really need all five. You know, if I try to answer the question, where do I come from? I say, well, I've evolved and I I we're not gonna get into the macro versus micro evolution side. We can talk about it if you would like. But let's just take that belief that while we have evolved from monkeys, we evolved from this animal, which evolved from this, you know, the comedian Nate Barazi said, I guess our DNA is 98% similar to monkeys. And he said, you know, I said, I'm super grateful for that other 2% whatever that 2% is. Let's hang on to that one. Right. That separates it. So this idea here that like, well, we're so close. So we must have come from them and came from this and OK, take that all the way back. Ok. Well, where did that come from? Where did those come from? Those cells? Where did this come from? Even if you do not believe in creation? And let's say you believe in Big Bang. Where did that come from? Have you ever gone home and gone into your kid's room and thought, where do we get all this stuff or maybe in your garage? Right? You walk in and you're like, you're doing this thing, you know, like you're like ducking through and you're like, where do we even get this stuff? Earth is pretty big. There's a lot of things that have to be very specific for it to work. And Earth fits like a million times in the sun and that's this one star of one galaxy in one spot. Where did this all come from? And then if I did come from those things, if I came from chance. What you're saying is my life. If you take it to the end is saying that my life actually doesn't have a purpose or meaning and then I'm gone and it's done like that's what these are, these questions matter. Part of why I call myself a Christian is on one hand, is the personal experience and transformation I have seen with the power of Christ in my life and the Holy Spirit in my life. That's why it's important to tell your story. But one of the other reasons why I am a Christian, because if you take a look at these five categories, I truly believe Christianity gives the best answers to help us explain, interpret and apply. Where do I come from? You were created in the image of God, sir, your uniqueness, your passions, your desires, your personality was on purpose. Doesn't that mean something? Why am I here? You recall in Ephesians 210 God's workmanship created by God to do the good works that he called ahead of time for you to walk in. So we are called to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love others the way that He loved us and to go and, and to thrive and to reconcile and to create and to build and to connect with the world. So that it gives then meaning to what we do. If God created us on purpose with a purpose if in the garden, God created marriage and healthy relationship and connection and walked with them and then gave them a job to do in the garden and says, you have a purpose and you are valued and you are loved and destiny. We're reminded of the brevity of life that anyone's life can end in a moment. And in that moment, the most important question is, do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Now, while that seems exclusive, the reality is, is that anyone can come to him and believe in Him. And that if you reject God and all that He is, where is the one place in eternity where there is no God? He so in a sense, it is intense and it's real. But when you reject God in a sense, you are asking for help and then you look at redemption and the Bible doesn't shy away from suffering. In fact, Jesus Christ himself suffered, the early church suffered, they experienced persecution and sadness and darkness. But what they said is, oh, where there is darkness, there is light where there is Brokenness, there is blessing. Not only does God give you perseverance and endurance for the suffering right now saying that you can suffer well and suffer like Christ did. But he also offers you hope for a future because through Christianity, through the filter and the worldview of God's promises, we know that suffering is temporary. Why am I a Christian because Christ gives me identity, purpose, destiny, meaning and redemption. OK. How do other worldviews stack up to this? We don't have a ton of time, but let me just kind of broad brushstroke. Some of these OK, naturalism, naturalism is the, is the belief that there is no supernatural that everything comes from a natural state. So what's in the world is of the world and nothing beyond that? Well, subcategories under that then is atheism. So there is no God. Ok. As you start walking through those questions, well, where do we come from? I stuff? Ok. Well, then if we just came from stuff, then what's our purpose? I don't know. Where do we go after what? We just, it's annihilation theory really is what that is. So you just cease to exist. That's super uplifting, right? How do you explain morals and standards of redemption? Right? Like if it really is survival of the fittest, then when the weaker ones die as a species, we should rejoice because oh good, we're gonna survive. But we don't think that when something happens, our heart breaks. Why? Because we are made in the image of God and God's heart breaks and he saw the Brokenness of the world and he sent his son Jesus for us. Atheism doesn't have an answer for that. I think it actually takes more faith to be an atheist than a Christian because you have no answers and no hope and no promise and no purpose. You got a bumper sticker, right? Ok. There's other ways of this agnosticism. That's what it seems humble at its best. It's humble saying. I don't know. At its worst. Honestly, it's theologically lazy. I don't know. Well, what, I don't know. Well, why did this happen? I don't know. You have no answers for anything and I get the realistic doubt, but it doesn't help you. Humanism. Humanism is great because it answers that question, meaning and it completely ignores everything else, right? It's, it's like, yeah, humans who we're good, we're enlightened. We're smart. Look at us, we got a phone, they can have this information and we can communicate to each other. We're awesome. It, but you got no standards. It'd be like if you go to a sporting event and you go, yeah, sports team, what are we doing? I don't know. What are the rules? There aren't any, how do you score points? No idea. But we're winning like it doesn't you see what I mean? Like it doesn't help you. It feels good for a moment. But e existentialism is really just a step further and just says, ok, your experience is unique to you. And so that's real. OK. But what about the collective experience of humanity? And it still doesn't answer questions of what do you do with the tough things of life? This is what these are the views people hold though, right? Some other examples here is uh pantheism. Pantheism. Pantheism is really this idea that God is everything or everything can be a God. Panentheism is like more if you think of like Jedi, the force like God is in everything, it's kind of new agey spirit and crystals. Do you need energy? You have that energy? Oh, I can see your aura. Thanks, like, like, and I know people believe this and I, and I, I'm friends with people who, and I've talked with many who believe this. But when you get down to things like suffering and meaning and where you come from, where do you go? There are no answers. You know, when you think of beliefs and teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism, right? There is like a removal of suffering or there's like many gods or if you self actualize into and become a god. You know, the problem with that though, with reincarnation, it's kind of two fold 1, 2000 years ago, there was maybe a couple million people and now there's 8 billion people. And so where did all these people come from? If we're always just cycled and reincarnated? And then second, um if we're getting better every time, then why isn't the human race better? Like why are there still mass shootings and injustice and wars? And then when you see it, so my sister in law is loves to travel and she just traveled to India and she experienced, she got to see the differences in the caste system. And see when you believe in being re incarnated, what you, what you see then is you see poverty and you say, well, they probably did something in a previous life and so they deserve that. And so there's no motive to help people. So when you believe in these things, everything is a God, then there's this, there's not really a motive to help people. There's not a answer to justice. There's not a redemptive point other than if you just keep working hard or maybe one day you might be able to judge other people. Polytheism is really the belief of multiple gods where you see this here is, you know, you don't see as much. You see it more in older cultures and pagan worship. You can put Hinduism in that context. Maybe you could also potentially put Mormonism in there while they believe in one chief God, there is a, a core belief that if you're good enough, you can become a God create your own spirit babies and start your own planet. Uh That's not a joke. That's a, that's a, within a, a belief system. OK. And so this idea of multiple gods here, there's postmodernism, which is the, the predominant belief in today's culture where this is a scene. It's more, it's if you want to nerd out on it, it's moralistic therapeutic deism, meaning that God created the world stepped out and said, OK, you guys, good luck. It's like the teacher took attendance and then left the classroom and left all the students alone said, ok, just figure it out. And so you wanna feel good, you wanna be right? But then you really have no standard for everything. And so postmodernism what it does is it takes truth and it makes it relative and you say everything is relative, sexuality is relative, politics is relative, identity is relative, everything is gray and whatever you make it. The problem though is that very statement? Everything is relative is an absolute statement. And it doesn't, it doesn't give you a standard from which you can judge or make adjustments to anything and there's no redemptive component. And so in your Brokenness, you just celebrate Brokenness instead of figuring out how to get hold. And then last year you see theism belief in a God, you see more major religions, predominant religions. You see Judaism, Islam Christianity, you might be able to fit Mormonism in there as well as there is a belief in one chief God. OK? And as you start to work through these different religions, the difference here though is that redemptive component, the other religions force you to earn your way to heaven and give you a standard that you will never meet, that you spend your entire life trying to reach something that you will not reach and you live with unmet expectation and you live with constant guilt and shame that you are never enough because you have to earn your love from God. And if you don't receive that love, you will be judged. And so that's terrifying. Now you see some commonalities between these religions because at least in this case, you have one God. And so you have a standard and you explain where you came from and where you're going. But the big difference here is the redemptive component. That's why a lot of these religions use similar vocabulary but actually have a different dictionary because they mean very different things. And why I believe in Christianity is because through Christ and Christ alone, my life can be redeemed and grace is so much more freeing than this in real time. I wanna show you this video here. There is an intellectual guy, one of the most for mo for known uh intellectuals in the world, Jordan Peterson. And I, I can't speak to his faith. I can't speak to whether or not he's a Christian or not. But what's really interesting is I want you to watch this clip because in real time, through the study of history and intellect, he is processing the probability and the power of what happens if Jesus Christ really is who he says he is, go ahead and check out this clip. So OK, so you can think about Christ from a psychological perspective and the, the critic, the critic, my critic, this particular critic that I've been reading said, well, that, that doesn't differentiate Christ much from a whole sequence of dying and resurrecting mythological gods. And of course, people have made that claim in comparative religion. Joseph Campbell did that and young to a lesser degree I would say, but Campbell did that. But the difference and CS Lewis pointed this out as well. The difference between those mythological gods and Christ was that there's a, there's a representation of, there's a historical representation of his, of, of his existence as well. Now, you can debate whether or not that's genuine, you can debate about whether or not he actually lived and whether there's credible, objective evidence for that. But it doesn't matter in some sense because this, well, it does, but there's a sense in which it doesn't matter because there's still a historical story. And so what you have in the figure of Christ is an actual person who actually lived plus a myth. And in some sense, Christ is the union of those two things. The problem is, is I probably believe that, but I don't know, I don't, I'm amazed at my own belief and I don't understand it like because I've seen sometimes the objective world and the narrative world touch, you know, that's the union synchronicity. And I've seen that many times in my own life. And so in some sense, I believe it's undeniable, you know, we have a narrative sense of the world for me, that's been the world of morality. That's the world that tells us how to act. It's real, like we treat it like it's real. It's not the objective world, but the narrative and the objective world touch. And the ultimate example of that in principle is supposed to be Christ. But I don't know what to, um, that seems to me oddly plausible but I still don't know what to make of it. It's too, and partly because it's too terrifying a reality to fully believe. I don't even know what would happen to you. If you fully believed it, if you believed in the story of Christ or if you believe that history and, and let's say the narrative make meatless both. I think, I think you, because when you believe that you buy both those stories, you believe that the narrative and the objective can actually touch, you can see the wrestle because if this is true, then it changes everything in a moment. We're gonna practice a church ordinance known as communion. And if you're not sure if you're a Christian, if you don't believe this, I invite you to just have a moment of silence and let this pass. But if, if you call yourself a Christian, I invite you to, to open elements. And if you haven't received those, we'll, we'll have someone walk around and pass those around and, and to hang on to those and reflect on what it means to know Jesus and we'll take those elements in just a moment. But let us remember that in Jesus, our filter, our world view our life. We have identity and purpose and meaning and dest and redemption. His belief in Christ truly changes. Everything was pray. You got it. If there is someone here today who doesn't know you God, I pray that they can put their faith in you admit that we've sinned and we can't make it to heaven on our own. But really believe in you Jesus as Lord and savior that you rose from the dead and that through you, we can have eternal life and a meaningful life. Now, not because of anything we've done but by receiving your gift of grace. Yeah, we check our filters this morning where we put in a refreshed renewed filter and biblical worldview that changes how we explain, interpret and apply our lives. Let us remember all that you've done now in your son's name. We pray. Amen.