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!

It has been said that our world is becoming a “post-Christian” world. Post means after. Christian means an era of time when Christ and His teachings were a dominant influence in society. Culture means the way we think and value things. This means that, over the course of recent generations, there has been an observed decline in the Church’s influence in society. In a post-Christian culture, the dominant worldview is no longer founded on Christian principles — or at least we can no longer assume that they will be.

As the church enters this time of exile from the center to the margins, we must have a vision through the unique challenges that are presented. As a Christian, in a hostile environment where the dominant values run counter to one’s own, you now experience exile while you REMAIN in your homeland. Just demonstrate that you are unwilling to conform to the tyranny of majority opinion, and you’ll know exile while still at home – forced removals, cancellations, disenfranchisement, job losses.

What is the way forward in a hostile world? Discerning the meaning of the present moment requires sobriety for no one knows how hostile it may become. Eventually, a post-Christian society moves from assuming Christian values to ignoring them, to resenting them, to repressing them, and eventually to persecuting them. What was once Christian and is now post-Christian will eventually become anti-Christian, led by those who actively destroy it.

God’s people do their best work when in exile. We always have. Exile infuses communities with new creative energy that rises to meet the challenges of new cultural circumstances. The way forward is to look around and understand our context, to look back and gather the resources the Word affords to us, and then to look forward with a clear vision of how we can function as the Lord’s people in a time of contemporary exile.

That’s why we have transitioned to “A Biblical Worldview Church.” It’s a vision for how to do life in cultural exile and it empowers you to come together with a game plan that will prepare your family to live in this world rather than just integrate with dominant culture. It’s the local church that can form a vibrant counterculture.

How do we build biblical worldview communities within our condition of internal exile, and under increasingly hostile conditions? Can we live with joy and confidence though marginalized? If you’re caught between a host empire you cannot embrace and a church that has no worldview mission, where do you go?

For much of recent history individuals and Biblical Worldview institutions could plan, execute, and flourish with their visions of a better world. That may no longer be the case in a few years. But don’t despair. For in the midst of the chaos of a crisis comes opportunity. The history of the church tells us that crisis always precedes renewal, and the framework of renewal offers us new ways forward. A Non-Anxious Presence shows how that renewal happens and offers churches and leaders strategic ways to awaken the Church and see our culture changed for Christ.

The question is: How? How can we engage a post-Christian society? How can we influence a culture which is desperate to press you into it’s mold? This is not to say that God isn’t at work in dominant culture. He has his “Daniel’s” strategically placed to do His bidding in the “Babylon’s” of the world. There are others who are being prepared to become “Esthers” (in Persia) and “Jonahs” (in Ninevah) and “Josephs” (in Egypt) – those who bring a biblical worldview to the culture, but within the culture itself.

So our primary job is not to make everything “Christian” in culture. Our job is to live out a Biblical Worldview wherever we find ourselves and bear witness to the truth. But, there’s no room for neutrality. The corrosive soil and polluted air of a secular worldview will have to be breathed by your children. You will face marginalization for living out a Biblical Worldview.

Daniel gives these incredible insights as to how we can live in a post-Christian culture, a secular age that wants to push a Biblical Worldview to the margins, if not completely out of the picture. So far, our sermons in the Daniel series can be succinctly stated:

Jer. 29:1-14 – Live your life

Dan. 1:1-7 – Stamp your child

Dan. 1:1-7 – Draw your line

Dan. 1:8-21 – Stand your ground

Dan. 1:8-21 – Love your people

Dan. 2:1-23 - Face your crisis

Dan. 2:24-49 - Know your prophecy

Dan. 3:1-30 - Trust your Savior

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If you stand for God and a Biblical worldview, you can expect the furnace. The golden statues of our culture are numerous. There is the furnace which men kindle if you don’t bow to them.Men create their furnaces based on their worldviews and idols. If you don’t submit, then you get the furnace.

Daniel 3:1-30 can be broken down this way...

They did not bow (1-7).

They did not bend (8-15).

They did not budge (16-18).

They did not burn (19-30).

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Our hope rests on the "fourth man in the furnace." Nebuchadnezzar understands this has been a contest of the gods, and he says, “… no other god can save in this way.” What way? Showing up in the appearance as a man. When people say, “I can’t believe in Christianity because of the furnaces. I can’t believe in Christianity because of the suffering. I can’t believe in Christianity because of that,” okay, fine. The furnaces are going to come, and you’re going to go into some kind of furnace. Who will you go in with? What kind of God belief will you go in with and what could be better than this kind of God? That’s what Nebuchadnezzar understood.

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You see, if you die in him, and you wake up in his arms, there’s nothing but freedom and liberation and joy. Therefore, you see, you’re always safe. When these men said, “We actually believe our God is going to deliver us, but if not, we don’t care, we’re not going to bow down to your image,” they’d already won. Before they were even thrown in the furnace, they’d already won. They were spiritually fireproofed before they were physically fireproofed.

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If you need a companion you can trust in a hostile culture, can I offer to you the Savior – the Fourth Man in the fire?