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| Rev. Brent Russett |
Pastor of
Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:
http://www.sunnysidechurchottawa.com/ _______________________________________________________
PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, November 10th, 2013:
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‘Belief Systems’
Good morning. And welcome to good news in
the morning. My name is Brent Russett. I am the Senior Pastor at Sunnyside
Wesleyan Church. It is my pleasure to look at some of life’s challenges, and
then bring you some good news in the morning.
This program is sponsored by Good News
Christian Ministries. If you want to look us up on the internet, or to re-listen
to this program you can find us at Goodnewsinthemorning.ca
This morning I
want to look at belief systems and why they matter. But before we do that lets listen to.
Music
Sandi Patti – Let there be Praise
A decade ago we
went out to Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick. I know I a guy on the Island
who runs whale watching tours, so we thought we would try to see some whales
with him.
We got up early,
and met him at his boat. But the weather wouldn't cooperate. The fog was so
thick you couldn't more than a couple of meters over the side of the boat. We thought
we would try to go out anyways, and hope the fog lifted.
My friend drove
his boat out of the harbour, through this pea soup fog, out into the ocean,
avoiding the islands on the way. He had radar and sonar, and GPS tracking
systems. These told him where we were. Here we were in the middle of the Bay of
Fundy, and couldn’t see a thing, but he
knew where we were, because his interments told him.
What if the instruments were miss-calibrated. What if
the GPS was giving off false readings. What if the radar was out of whack. If
that were the case, we would have the feeling we were going the right way, and
then when we ran into an island or something we would be puzzled. Our
instruments would be telling us something different than reality.
We use a different instrument to navigate through life.
They are called belief systems, or paradigms, or mental models. They are the
glasses through which we interpret life. The images, assumptions and stories we use to interpret our world and guide our actions This is true whether or not you are a Christian. Everybody has beliefs,
and that helps them interpret the data of life around them.
If someone comes to you and says, I've got a headache,
and you say, I have an aspirin you can take. You are showing a belief system.
You are showing your belief in a scientific view of the body, where the
chemistry can be altered by drugs. If you were to go to some parts of the
world, they would say go meditate. There mental model is that the mind has
control over the body. If you were to go to other parts of the world they would
send for a witch doctor to cast out an evil spirit. Their paradigm is that pain
comes from the Spirit world.
The thing about belief
systems are that we assume they are right, so we don't even examine them.
Anyone who has married someone different than them becomes familiar with this
dynamic early in marriage.
We
acquire belief systems from the culture we grow up in and we assume they are
true. We would hardly question the chemical intervention for a headache. That
is just the way things work. Others would hardly question the role of the
Spirit world. That is just the way things work.
The problem comes
if your belief systems are wrong. You assume the world is working on way – but
in reality it is working another way. You can see that on a global scale. AIDs
was so devastating in Africa because some governments denied its existence. A
common belief was that the cure for aids was to have sex with a virgin. Wrong
belief systems devastated Africa.
But it
is also true on a personal scale. I know people whose personal story tells them
that when they walk into a room all people see is there lack of hair, or their
big feet, or big nose or whatever. These people then act in a way that tries to
compensate for this and it skews how they behave and how people behave towards
them. The reality was probably that people hardly noticed what they were so
worried about.
I know people who believe that people conspire
against them, and then they behave in such a way to bring it upon themselves.
How
you think about your life -- and how the world works – matters. The way that
you think about life, has a way of forming your life.
What
you believe about God matters. It will determine the quality of our spiritual
lives. We as Christians believe that there is One God over all. But that we are
separated from God by sin. We believe that God sent his only begotten son
Jesus, to deal with that sin. He did so by dying on the cross. Now anyone who
comes to Christ can know God personally.
That
is the core message of the gospel. But our belief system
is much more extensive than that. If you are going to
mature in your Christian life, then you are going to have to know and trust the
character of God. You will need to trust in his goodness, even when life isn't
good. You will need to trust in his love, even when you don`t feel love.
These things come down to what you believe
about God. If you hold wrong belief systems in these areas then your faith and probably your life is
likely to get beached on an island somewhere.
I
have seen too any people’s faith shipwrecked who believed that if people are
claiming to be Christians, then they should be more holy that they appear to
be. They saw hypocrisy and because there view of the world is that people
should live totally consistent with their beliefs, then they abandon Christ.
The reality is that people will fail you. Jesus is the only one who will never
fail you. But people’s faith has been shipwrecked over a wrong belief system
If we are going
to go onto spiritual maturity then we have to have a deep settled faith in the
character of God. But we can`t because the glasses, the belief systems, through
which we view God, warp his character.
Come with
me to Colossians2 the apostle Paul
writes this,
1 I want you to know how much I am struggling
for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally.
2 My
purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that
they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may
know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,
3 in
whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Paul says I am
really working on your behalf. I want you to know that I my purpose is twofold.
That you will become strong as a community. (encouraged in heart and united in love) In that strong
community they are going to find a treasure. the full riches
of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God,
namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge.
In other words.
If you are going to have a right belief system. If you are going to see things
through undistorted glasses, if you are going to have your navigational
instruments calibrated properly, it all comes down to knowing Christ well. If
you can see Christ, and the treasures hidden in him you will have what it takes
to navigate well.
Col 2:4 I tell you this so that no‑one may
deceive you by fine‑sounding arguments.
There is a war
going on for your mind. Now keep in mind that Paul is talking to the church in
Colossae. There will be people who come into the church, or into your home via
the media and they are going to sound really good. But Paul says if you want to
have true wisdom and knowledge look at Jesus.
Paul
goes on
Col 2:6
So then, just as you received Christ
Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him,
How did you
receive Christ. Through faith. You believed him. You trusted him. How do you
continue to live. By believing in him and trusting in him.
But that is not
how we are prone to live. We are prone to trust Christ and. Christ and our own
strength. Christ and the power of our prayers. Christ and our good works.
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as
Lord, continue to live in him,
7
rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were
taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8 See
to it that no‑one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy,
which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather
than on Christ.
See
to it that you don`t get imprisoned by false belief systems.
Let’s
take some time to listen to some music and then I will take you through some
common false beliefs systems about God.
Music
- Steve Bell – the
Wellspring 2:37
Let me run through some of the more common false
belief systems. The first one goes like this
I know God loves
the whole world. So he must love me. But he loves me because he has to. I am
not really loveable to God. I’m a second class Christian.
This belief
system cools people`s faith down. They don`t want to pursue God to much
because, what`s the use. They sometimes try to be really good so, maybe God
will accept them.
Go back to
Christ. You have more faith in your badness than in his goodness. You really
believe that God loves you because what you do, not because of what Jesus has
done. Jesus has taken away every obstacle to God loving you. Now God`s love is
directed towards you unhindered. Go back to Jesus.
Another common false
belief is almost the opposite. Some people are trying to be really good so that
God will love them. But the opposite of that is that God doesn`t really care
how you live. You can go and sin as much as you want and God doesn`t care.
Go back to Jesus.
Does that sound like him. Can you picture Jesus saying, Oh it doesn`t really
matter how you live. Go do what you want and I`ll just over look it. That is
not the Jesus of the Bible. That is not Jesus I know. That is the sin of presumption.
God will forgive, so I can just go ahead and do what I want. Go back to Jesus. What would he say.
There is another
false belief system going around that Christianity is all about what I believe.
It is another philosophical system through which to view the world. It is all
about morality.
Go back to Jesus.
Jesus wants to connect with you. He want to change you. He wants to come into
you. He wants to have fellowship with you. Go back to Jesus. Christianity is
more than faith about God --it is about a relationship with God.
The Christian
life is all about connection to Jesus. It not just a moral code. It is not just
a nice set of rules. It is connection to the vine. It is us getting our
Spiritual life from Jesus.
You really need
to understand that the Christian life is about Jesus. It is about our
connection to him. For to misunderstand this will lead you into all sorts of
false beliefs.
One of the big
ones these days is that I am blessed because of what I do, because of my
performance. It is the amount I pray that determines my blessing. It is the
amount I do good that determines my blessing. It is the amount I give that
determines my blessing. It is the amount I worship that determines my blessing.
I am blessed because I do the right things.
Those are human
traditions and elementary principles of this world. You are not blessed because
of your good behaviour. You are blessed because of your connection with Jesus.
You are not
blessed because of the amount you pray. You are blessed when your prayer
connects you to Jesus. You are not blessed by the amount you worship. You are
blessed when your worship connects you to Jesus. You are not blessed because
you give. You are blessed because when you are honour God, with your giving,
you show love and it connects you to Jesus.
Your performance doesn’t bring blessing. Connecting
with Christ brings blessing.
On the opposite
end, you are not cursed because of all the bad things you have done. You are
not cursed because you have performed poorly.
There are things
that happen in life that have consequences. Some people feel, I can never be
blessed because of this. You are not cursed because of what you have done. What
matters is that you are connected with Jesus.
When what you
have done has separated you from Jesus, then it hurts. When you refuse to
confess you sin. You will hurt. When you refuse to let go of the guilt you will
hurt.
You self
condemnations disconnects you from Jesus. Trusting in the forgiveness of God
reconnects you to Jesus. Your false guilt beaches you. Your trusting in Jesus
connects you.
What you believe about who God is, who
you are, and how the world works will determine the quality of life you have?
There is a prayer I pray sometimes
and part of it goes like this. “I will not judge God, his word, myself or
others on the basis of feelings or circumstances.” The reason why I pray that
prayer is sometimes I do judge God myself and others on the basis of feelings
or circumstances.
How are you to think about who God
is, who you are and how the world works. You need to become familiar with the
bible. Especially the New Testament. Especially Jesus. If you have a choice
between your feelings about God, or your feelings about the yourself and what
the word of God says about God and yourself – who are you going to believe.
When the word of God tells you that
God is good, but you look around and you don’t see the good, what are you going
to believe. When the word of God tells you that you are blessed with every
spiritual blessing – and you feel you are not – what are you going to believe?
What you choose to believe about who God is and who you are and how the world
works will determine the quality of your life.
Faith is often a choice before it
becomes internalized. My question is will you make the choices of faith, rely
on the Spirit and get to know Jesus and his word? That is how you live in the
truth.
Will you trust what Jesus has to say
about life in this world?
Let’s
Pray,
Lord,
My prayer is that each person here, would have a true understanding of who (they)
are, and what it means to follow you.
Lord
Jesus, we’re so often tempted to follow our feelings, follow how we’ve been brought
up; follow all those things. But, Lord, I ask that you would help us to follow you.
For
each person listening I ask, Lord, that you would just give them a sense of who
you are. Help them to take the next step on their spiritual journey.
I
ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Thank
you, Listeners for your words of encouragement, and for keeping us in your prayers.,
Keeping this program on the air continues to be a work of faith. As you
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Alan
Churchill, the founding pastor of this ministry is writing a monthly
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(It has been a pleasure to spend
this morning with you. My name is Brent Russett. You can follow me on Twitter.
@brentrussett)
May
you know Jesus Christ personally and
profoundly. May the Holy Spirit reside
deep within your heart. And may the
heavenly Father surround you with His constant and abiding and accompanying
love
Music
Jars of Clay – Show you love 3:34
- Rev. Brent Russett
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