Living With Questions 1

Living with Questions: Does What I Think Really Matter?

I. Introduction: Think throughout history and answer this question – When have ideas every changed the course of history?

A. Thomas Edison: invention of the light bulb
B. Henry Ford: the invention of the car
C. Bill Gates / Steve Jobs: electronics and technology
D. Martin Luther King, Jr.: equality for all
E. Martin Luther: we are justified by God through faith alone
F. Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf – whites as a superior race over Jews and Africans
G. Vladimir Lenin: rise of social communism, clash between the “have’s” and “have not’s”
H. Thomas Jefferson / John Adams / Benjamin Franklin: Declaration of Independence, rise of democracy
I. Jesus Christ: I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
J. Orville and Wilbur Wright: invented air travel
K. Hugh Hefner: mainstreaming of hedonism
L. Radical Islamic Ideas: led to the destruction of the WTC
M. Billy Graham: everyone to hear and respond to the message of Christ
N. Rick Warren: discover the purpose that God designed you for in life
O. John Dewey: education through experiences
P. Charles Darwin: evolutionary theory
Q. William Wilberforce / Abraham Lincoln: the end of slavery
R. Mother Teresa: loving the unlovable

II. Living with Questions: Does What I Think Really Matter?

A. The DIVERSIONS
1. Are we living with purpose or are we living through diversions?
2. What are things within our culture that become diversions for us?
a. Money
b. Trends
c. Watering down God to insignificance
d. Music / Media
e. Busy Schedules
3. Why do we seem to WANT diversions?
a. Ignore the pain in our lives
b. Avoid the nagging feeling that there must be something more
c. Don’t want to feel alone, lonely

B. The DESIRES of our hearts -If we are honest with ourselves don’t we desire:
1. A sense of adventure and purpose in life
2. Goodness to reign and evil to be destroyed
3. To belong
4. Long to count or matter to someone
5. Don’t want to be lost

C. The DESTRACTIONS of the moment - Then why do we:
1. Throw more money at fashion so we will look like everyone else?
2. Throw ourselves into casual sexual encounters in an effort to find intimacy?
3. Throw ourselves into an endless cycle of online gaming?
4. Throw more hours into work we may not even believe in just so we can have more?

D. There are many DECISIONS we will make with our thoughts and ideas:
1. Who will I marry?
2. Where will I go to college?
3. Who are my friends?
4. What relationships do I value?
5. How much time do I invest in: television, books, health, video games, fashion,

music, entertainment, etc.
6. What affects my emotions: what makes me angry, happy, content, frustrated, raging, laughing, etc.
7. What are my heart’s desires, for good or bad
8. What do I believe?

Ideas can either brainwash us into being slaves or shape us into leaders! Ideas will ultimately determine the kind of people we will become. Ideas are no small thing!

E. DISREGUARDING ideas can lead to disaster just like:
1. Driving down the interstate with your eyes closed
2. A sea captain who’s shipwrecked because the idea of a compass didn’t matter
3. A mother of a dead child because the idea that seatbelts save lives didn’t matter
4. A homeowner after a burglary because the idea that locks protect us didn’t matter
5. A dead friend after an explosion because the idea of making illegal bombs didn’t matter

F. God’s DESIRE for us as we craft our thoughts and ideas

1. Romans 12:2
a. Don’t not just buy into our mindless culture but instead open our minds,
reach out and grab great ideas, harness them, take them into our souls and live them out!
b. Tap into the mind of God! Discover his plan and purpose for your life! Ideas matter to God! He framed the world with them from theology, science, philosophy, etc.

2. 2 Corinthians 10:4,5
a. Our protection is to arm ourselves with the best ideas we can find and then walk in them.
b. There are many competing philosophies out there as well as those that want to steer us far away from God! This is a battle for our minds. What you and I think really does MATTER!