We welcome you to Stone's Hill today!

A typical Stone's Hill service has:

* music (so feel free to sing out);

* some announcements (things that are upcoming that you can be a part of);

* a message out of the Bible (God speaks to us through his Word);

* and an opportunity for you to respond to the message (either immediately in the case of a decision that needs to be made OR in the future as you live out the message in your daily life.)

So relax and enjoy your morning! We're so glad you are here!

Why a series on “A Biblical Worldview Church”?
Three important reasons:

1. Personal: Christ-followers must measure our involvement and activities, our use of time and money against one yardstick, not as a burden, but as a gateway into total life flourishing: Is it consistent with a biblical view of life, and does it bring glory to God? Your beliefs about reality will impact your personal life and moral choices – who you marry, what you do, and how you raise your kids. People function on the basis of their worldview. We are inundated with worldview ideas daily. Worldviews are important because they get lived out.

2. Apologetics: What will you do when your kids come home from high school or college biology class where their confidence in truth has been shaken? What hope will you offer when your neighbor buries a 12-year-old? What story can you share when someone has already written the suicide note? We are all faced with a smorgasbord of worldviews every day, all of which make truth claims about life and about our place in this universe. Enjoy people, but you have to be discerning about ideas and beliefs.

3. Evangelism: We are champions of the Larger Story which orients all of life. This series allows us to have meaningful conversations with people and really get at the root of our differences. We can stay away from surface level disagreements and focus on how people answer the questions on the cards. When we are familiar with worldviews, it enables us to love our neighbor with the Good News of the Gospel by helping them understand their worldview, how they came to it, and what shaped it. And just maybe, a friendship will be born out of all of this. You have the message that our fragmented world needs.

Biblical Worldview
The story of the world can be told with FOUR WORDS representing four plot moves. All worldviews must deal with the questions that are raised in these four plot moves.

Plot Move #1
Creation. This tells us how things began, where everything came from (including us). Who made the world? Where did we come from?

Plot Move #2
Rebellion. This describes the problem. What went wrong with the world? What is wrong with us?

Plot Move #3
Redemption. This gives us the solution, the way to fix what went wrong. What is God doing to fix our world? What is God doing to fix us?

Plot Move #4
Restoration. This explains what the world will look like once the repair takes place. How does it all resolve eventually? Will we become what God intended?

Two Major Worldviews Summarized
Biblical Worldview: A Biblical Worldview says that God is the Author of our universe, that we are accountable to Him, and that we have hope of being a part of His grand story to triumph over all evil in our world through Jesus. You see, Christians believe that there’s a larger story going on in human history; that there is a God and He made all that we see and know, including human-beings and it was perfect; that something went wrong in the world because of our rebellion prompted by the Evil One; that God has initiated a plan to fix this mess and that Jesus’ coming was promised way back in Genesis 3:15; that I am part of His plan to restore this world to all that He intended for it; that as I live a life He endorsed and as I struggle to make sense of all the suffering in this fallen world, somehow Christ’s takes shape in me and uses me to give hope to the broken. That’s a Christian Biblical worldview in summary form.

Secular Worldview: A Secular Worldview says that we have no Author, that we are not accountable to anyone, and there are no ideals or grand story's of redemption. The prevailing post-modern story is this: “Once upon a time, there were no big stories, only local ones. So don’t pretend you know the big story of the world because you might start to believe yourself and therefore begin oppressing people who disagree with your story.” Since we are on our own, we should seek all the gratification and satisfaction we can now. Each individual is free to create a belief system that works for them. And then at death – full stop. Life is over. We cease to exist. So, in this worldview, we are marooned on a pale blue dot in a possibly endless cosmos. We are unnoticed, insignificant, and on our own. Humans have huge problems and may not be able to ever overcome them. And there is no hope beyond the grave.

Which worldview do you want to shape your life and the lives of your children and grandchildren? What you believe about yourself and your worth and value ties directly to your worldview.

Would you like to have Jesus in the center of your life and worldview? Welcome Him into your life today!

Temptation
Genesis 3 provides the record of the historical fall of human beings into sin and death. It is also a picture of what temptation is like. This passage is a perfect case study of temptation, for sin cannot be blamed on environment or heredity. Satanic strategy… crafty and deceptive... is designed to:

Confuse Us. “Indeed, has God said …?” was his introductory question for Eve (3:1). Modern paraphrase: “Are you sure that’s what God said? Are you certain that is what he meant?” Doubt God’s Word.

Caricature God. “has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” Of course God hadn’t said that! In fact, he said that Adam and Eve could eat from any tree of the garden—except the one (2:16–17)! Attack God’s character.

Downplay Sin. “You surely will not die!” the devil said to Eve in 3:4. Sin isn’t that big a deal, the devil tells us. “OK, God said don’t eat from the tree. But come now, do you really think he’s going to kill you over this? Go ahead. You know he will forgive you.” One time won’t hurt. Presume on God’s grace.

Beautify Results. "You’ll finally be free!" It was all about pleasure, and the pain was hidden. Hide from God’s presence.

Whether they wanted to admit their sin or not, Adam and Eve’s rebellion came with great consequences. They lost their capacity to rightly enjoy God’s good gifts. Perfection was replaced with pain (3:16a). A joyful marriage became an unequal partnership (3:16b). Happy cultivation became sweaty toil (3:17). The beautiful garden became a briar patch (3:18). Once-imperishable bodies began slowly to decay and die (3:19). And they were thrust out of their garden home forever (3:22–24). Everything that was once so good was turned on its head. As we read on in the book of Genesis we find that murder, rape, disease, drunkenness, and death were further results of the sin of Adam and Eve. And the world in which we live today is mixed-up and messy because of their original sin.

[With help from - Strassner, Kurt. Opening up Genesis. Leominster: Day One Publications, 2009. Print. Opening Up Commentary.]

Heaven’s Dilemma
God says “I need somebody who’ll be willing to go to the other tree. The first tree got them kicked out of the garden. I need somebody who’ll hang on another tree to bring them back in the garden.” Jesus said, “I’ll go.” If one man Adam jumped into the hole with all of humanity tied to his waist, then a Second Adam can sky-rocket to heaven with all of humanity tied to His waist and thereby save the world!

So, what he first Adam messed up, the second Adam fixed up. “I won’t eat from a forbidden tree, but I’ll hang on one if I have to, in order to defeat Satan.” The Story of the World can be told with FOUR TREES (see your cards). And because He obeyed God and was sinless, God raised Him to new life, gave back to Him and all mankind their rightful rule, and every person who believes in Him has this new life surging through their veins and are a part of His New Community, the Body and Bride of Christ, who rule over the powers of darkness.

How does Jesus Christ deal with the tree? In the garden of Gethsemane, he’s struggling. There’s a garden. See centuries after Adam and Eve are struggling in the garden over a command about a tree, Jesus is in a garden, and he’s struggling over a command about a tree. It’s called the cross. He knows he has to go to the cross and die for our sins and pay the penalty we owe, and he’s struggling.

Think about this. Adam and Eve were in a bright sunny garden, and God said, “Obey me about the tree, and you will live,” and they didn’t. Jesus Christ was in a dark garden, and God said, “Obey me about the tree, and you’ll be crushed,” and he did, for us. Here’s what he did. He climbed the tree of death and turned that tree of death, the cross, into a tree of life for you and me. There’s the reversal of the tree sin.

What’s the tree sin? Us putting ourselves where only God deserves to be, putting ourselves in the place of God. The tree salvation is God putting himself where we deserve to be, on the cross. See the original tree sin was us putting ourselves where only God deserved to be, taking prerogatives only God deserves to have, putting ourselves in the place of God, but the tree salvation, which is a salvation of Jesus Christ, his death on the cross, is God coming down and putting himself where we deserve to be and taking it for us.

You have to see Jesus Christ climbing a tree of death and turning that tree of death for him into a tree of life for you and me. That will finally begin to take the toxins out of your soul, and you’ll finally start to actually believe God loves you. This is the only thing that will take that out.

The last verse of this chapter says God threw Adam and Eve out of the garden so they couldn’t reach out and get the tree of eternal life. There is an angel, it says there, put before that tree with a sword that goes right and left, back and forth. The only way back to that tree is through the sword. Anyone who will lead you back to the Tree of Life and give you eternal life is going to have to go under the sword. Why? Because the penalty for disobedience is to be cut off. The Bible tells us about the Messiah, about Jesus Christ. He was cut off from the land of the living. He went under the sword. All of your sins were charged to him, so now they’re covered, in God’s sight.