Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Matthew Maher: The Church Hasn’t Lost Ground, We’ve Surrendered It

Transcript

Matthew Maher: The Church Hasn’t Lost Ground, We’ve Surrendered It · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

0:00
Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
0:10
defending biblical Christianity, no topic, off limits.
0:16
And now, here's your host, David Firazzo.
0:20
Welcome, friends.
0:21
Family in Christ.
0:22
Thank you so much for tuning in and watching, listening, and of course, all of you are on
0:25
social media that share the podcast.
0:28
Thank you for helping us get it out there.
0:30
And it's more important than that, thanks for your prayers and your support and encouragement.
0:35
It's great.
0:36
Coming up, we're so blessed to be able to talk to some of the people that we get to talk
0:41
to.
0:42
I mean, we just recently had our 500th episode of World View Matters.
0:48
And it's like, wow, hey, we've been, it doesn't seem like we've been doing it that long.
0:52
But we talked to a lot of great people like today's guests, Matthew, Mayor, but we're
0:56
going to get to him in a minute.
0:57
I need to shout out to some sponsors for the World View Matters conference.
1:01
It's coming up.
1:02
And we just want to let you know right now we are, we have less than a hundred seats available
1:07
at this point.
1:08
So if you're interested in thinking about it, seriously considering it, come on to Green
1:12
Bay, Wisconsin, May 1st and 2nd, stay at the Delta Hotel, tons of restaurants and conveniences
1:20
around there.
1:21
And you'll hear a great, well, we've got 12 speakers, 15 sessions each night, Friday
1:27
night and Saturday, and then we're going to do a Q&A with the speakers of that day.
1:32
And two full days, man, jam packed.
1:35
So there you know a lot of that we have all these people in World View Matters.
1:39
So we're so thankful, so blessed.
1:42
If we do an annual conference, we're going to hopefully twist past your Matthew Mayor's
1:46
arm to get him in here.
1:48
But anyway, I'm going to shout out to some sponsors.
1:51
I want to thank Alpha Omega Gold, brand new top level sponsor of World View Matters.
1:56
The website is a.o.gold.
1:59
We're thankful for their sponsorship, Christian Run, investment business and ministry.
2:05
And I also want to thank Crossway Christian Fellowship and coming soon ministries, the latest
2:12
three to jump on board.
2:14
And you can see all the sponsors at the bottom of the website.
2:17
By the way, that's Pastor Brad Reeves.
2:19
He's out in Maryland.
2:21
So we've got a church in New Mexico sponsoring, a church in Maryland sponsoring, one way Christian
2:27
church in Green Bay, of course, my pastor David Roth.
2:30
But go see the sponsors at the bottom of the website worldviewmattersconference.com, world
2:37
of view matters conference.com.
2:40
You'll see the speakers, you see the topics, you'll see the agenda.
2:43
I don't have the schedule up yet, but that's coming soon.
2:46
But thank you guys again, less than a hundred tickets left and we're about a month out.
2:51
Less than that when this will air.
2:53
So I want to give you this important website to jot down truth over trend.com and I love
3:00
this book.
3:01
I've told this guy many times, discerning the devil's playbook.
3:04
I wish I would have written it.
3:06
It's so concise, such great points and we've talked about it several times.
3:11
But today we're going to talk about the biblical worldview and the decline and what's going
3:14
on with the church, pastor, Matthew, Mayor.
3:17
Welcome back to worldview matters, brother.
3:19
David, thank you as always for having me.
3:22
I love watching what you and your team are building.
3:25
You are growing in the right direction.
3:27
Crazy.
3:28
Crazy.
3:29
So glad that you were able to execute your first ever worldview matters conference.
3:34
So blessings upon that.
3:36
Yes.
3:37
And as you just pitched it with those out there that are considering supporting the ministry
3:43
but also cleaning from it, make their journey, join the efforts and you will be blessed by
3:50
the many voices of great wisdom.
3:52
And that's what's needed today and that's going to be the thread of our show.
3:56
Yeah.
3:57
How do we rely on God's word and his wisdom so that we don't get distracted and confused
4:04
by all the noise?
4:06
Discerning the times, understanding the times and this crazy day, you might want to call
4:11
it a cultural storm but there's so much confusion and deception which you and I have talked
4:16
about before.
4:17
But before we do that, you brought up something I'm just thinking of.
4:20
I want to ask you about the what do you call the temperature, the environment of Christianity
4:27
out there where you're at New Jersey area because here there's no other conference like
4:33
the one we're doing in Green Bay.
4:35
There's nothing like this that I'm aware of in the state.
4:38
Now there used to be a prophecy conference every spring and fall at a Calvary Chapel
4:43
in Appleton, Wisconsin, twice a year but two years ago they stopped doing it.
4:47
And then there was a conference out on the east side of Wassa, Wisconsin, Christian news
4:52
was putting that on there not doing that this year but in our Northeast Wisconsin, there's
4:56
nothing.
4:57
The biblical worldview, the church so needs these speakers.
5:01
The body of Christ needs this because our time is short.
5:04
What's it like in your neck of the woods, Matthew?
5:07
There's nothing like that in my neck of the woods and I hate to categorize the state
5:14
I live in with, and we do this all the time, a right, left paradigm.
5:18
I live in a blue state, but I'm doing better these days to say no, I live in a dark state.
5:25
The state that I currently live in is very oppressive, the Northeast, which sadly you
5:31
see the decline from the inception of our nation, David.
5:35
The Northeast boasted in Christian institution, boasted in Christian seminary.
5:42
So for it to be so upside down today is again, it's par for the course and what we're going
5:48
to be talking about.
5:49
But voices like mine that are passionate about teaching the word of God, the full counsel
5:54
of God's word are few and far between and I'll say that to prop myself up at all, but
5:59
I hear from other people out there that are looking for solid, biblically teaching churches
6:03
and they can't find them.
6:05
So what they're left to do is to tune in online to live stream so that they still get
6:10
bed and they find teachers that bring clarity in the midst of cultural confusion.
6:16
So I applaud what you guys are doing out there and man, taking some pages from your book
6:21
and might have to start my own conference here in New Jersey.
6:25
You know, yes, especially if there's nothing there and you never know what God's going
6:29
to do until you try and he put this on my heart a couple of years ago, actually longer
6:33
than that and I was going, I just don't know.
6:37
But here we are.
6:38
We're taking the leap and it's for the body of Christ and it's for such a time as this
6:42
because one of the themes is redeem the time, redeeming the time because if you look
6:48
at what we're going to talk about our culture around us, it's bad enough.
6:52
God is a good description, dark, demonic, oppressive, deceptive.
6:58
But if you look at the church and Matthew, Mary, now let's talk about the body of Christ
7:03
and the church in America, bring up this first article at The Washington Stand.
7:08
This is on the research we're going to be talking about Biblical worldview among adults
7:12
at 4% as generational crisis grows more severe.
7:21
This is a Biblical worldview, adults in America.
7:26
The church isn't a lot of trouble.
7:27
I mean, if you look at the lack of influence around us, it's evident.
7:32
If you look at the major institutions in America and that's really sad to say, people
7:37
meet like my parents and my grandparents, especially my grandparents.
7:41
I wrote a chapter in one of my books that one of the chapters was, what would our great
7:44
grandparents think if they could see America today?
7:50
And why?
7:51
If they're Bible-believing Christians, if they went to church, if they understood looking
7:55
what happened?
7:56
Well, there's always a demonic influence, there's always Satan pushing his agendas.
8:00
But the church had to back out of culture, so to speak, and we, as a church, have some
8:08
responsibility into the garbage and the darkness we're seeing around us, don't we, Matthew?
8:14
Yeah, so it can be said just like this, the culture is doing a better job, discipling
8:21
people.
8:22
That's the word.
8:23
That's a Biblical word, discipleship, to be a student of Jesus Christ, to be a Christian
8:28
is to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
8:30
And where do we derive our knowledge of our faith and our Savior?
8:35
The Word of God.
8:37
So the reason there's such a decline in what we call a Biblical worldview and the data
8:42
suggests it's on a decline and it's getting even worse, 4%, that's out of 330 million
8:52
and that's all of the citizens in America, not just the adults, the adults would probably
8:57
be, I don't know, you probably have a better number than me, 260 million adults, that's
9:02
only 10 million Americans that espouse a Biblical worldview, 10 million.
9:11
And the study even suggests the complication of that 4% from applying their faith holistically
9:19
to every area of life.
9:21
So we're not in a good condition.
9:24
We know that it only requires repentance for people to come back to the Lord Jesus Christ
9:30
and that is what 2nd Chronicles chapter 7 verse 14 boasts, not just for the theocracy
9:37
of Israel and the Old Testament, but a people group who are willing to repent and come back,
9:42
the Lord says he will heal that land.
9:43
I don't see that happening and I don't want to be a pessimist.
9:46
I'm a Biblical realist, but the trends and the patterns are pretty disheartening.
9:53
So I want to use, go back to the word disciple in a minute.
9:57
Would you just share the very important point we need to remind people of?
10:00
I talk about it all the time, but let's talk about one other study.
10:04
This is not, it is related, but it's not in this research.
10:08
There was a study that Barna did, I believe it was last year, maybe two years ago, of young
10:14
parents.
10:16
So we're talking about parents in their 20s, maybe early 30s, but primarily in their
10:20
20s, young parents, parents that have young children, the Biblical worldview among that
10:26
group was two percent going down.
10:29
So if you look at the future of America, if the church does not wake up and engage, and
10:34
if we don't preach the gospel successfully and make disciples as we are called to do,
10:40
and be salt and light, we forgot that application, Matthew.
10:44
If we don't get back to some sort of influence for righteousness for God, we see what's coming
10:50
by the research.
10:51
We see the lack of Biblical understanding in worldview.
10:54
So the word disciple, the LGBTQ might use the word recruit, but they're making disciples.
11:02
The left is they're making disciples, they're recruiting, they're using their propaganda,
11:09
they're deceiving, they're making a K through 12, they're using the education system,
11:13
and I put education in Eric quotes, the education system.
11:16
For those of you that are listening to audio only, Eric quotes over education system,
11:21
but they are raising a generation of social justice activists and leftists that are opposed
11:27
to God, not just don't believe, but they are hostile toward the Biblical worldview.
11:33
Your thoughts, Matthew, and we'll jump into more of this research.
11:36
The Great Commission, Jesus says this, we often miss this part.
11:38
He says, all authority has been given to me on in heaven and on earth.
11:45
And then he says go in light of that, therefore make disciples of all nations,
11:49
baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe
11:56
all that I have commanded and then the promise I will be with you to the end of the age.
12:01
If that doesn't motivate the Christians to get out of their comfort zone and go and
12:06
take Jesus at His word and with passion and clarity and conviction seek to make disciples
12:13
of all nations, and of course baptizing them, that means baptize them in the name of
12:19
the One True God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
12:22
Now you take that and you look at the world, how they've been able to reverse that.
12:26
They too go, but they baptize in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusivity and
12:32
their produce.
12:33
They're making what we call social justice warriors.
12:37
And listen, there are social causes that the church should get behind because we are the
12:42
only ones with the truth and the antidote to bring healing to any type of societal ill.
12:49
And we have four, we have four fitted that space and that's why the world's going to fill
12:54
that void.
12:55
But I'm watching so many cultural movements that are more passionate about making followers
13:03
and the churches.
13:05
And that's where it, that's where you see the problem.
13:07
You see the church has retreated.
13:10
We have Christians who know the word informationally, they have big heads.
13:16
But I think they've never allowed that information to descend into their hearts and be doers
13:20
of the word.
13:21
And that's what James rebuked.
13:22
Don't just be a hear of the word, be a doer of the word.
13:25
And I think one of the things that stood out to me, David, in the study was just that,
13:29
the failure to apply what is called a biblical worldview.
13:33
In the areas where the lowest category where Christians fail to apply their faith, guess
13:40
what those categories were.
13:42
Go ahead.
13:43
I know them, Emily.
13:45
Marriage and the value of life.
13:48
When you think about those three, family marriage and the value of life, why those three?
13:52
That's not a coincidence.
13:54
That's exactly where the cultural war is waging.
14:00
On the family, on the biblically defined marriage, and of course, how God defines life
14:07
from the womb to the tomb.
14:09
And if the Bible doesn't speak clearly to those areas, culture will.
14:16
And people will listen to whatever voice, whatever talking head they have access to.
14:21
And that is why what you do and what pastors do in their pulpit, it matters.
14:26
And people are desperate to hear biblical truth for such a time as this.
14:31
I think so.
14:32
I think more people are understanding, especially maybe since the assassination of Charlie
14:37
Kirk, more people are desperate, more people are waking up, more people are paying attention.
14:41
I'm talking, not talking about Christians necessarily.
14:43
I'm talking about young people that are going, oh my goodness, he just got killed for just
14:48
speaking the truth.
14:49
What do you believe?
14:50
So I think a lot of people are waking up.
14:51
But I want to get back to the study.
14:54
Just let's review briefly.
14:55
In the 1990s, the number of, as far as the biblical worldview in America's was 12 percent,
15:01
12 percent in the 90s, one in eight Americans.
15:05
And then in recent years, it dropped to 6 percent and now 4 percent.
15:11
So I want to mention the three categories and let you share a little bit more Matthew.
15:17
It says, even among the small group known, and it says small group, remnant, I might
15:22
call them, the small group known as integrated disciples.
15:26
That's those with the highest level of biblical alignment.
15:30
And we might say application, but they used the word alignment.
15:33
There are still massive gaps between what people believe and how they actually live.
15:40
That's in the remnant.
15:41
That's in the solid Bible believing churches and Christians.
15:45
So you're thoughts on that will keep going.
15:48
People drift, even if they've been raised in a religious environment, even if they
15:52
call themselves Christians, people drift, discipleship must be intentional.
15:58
It is a proactive agency that the church is responsible to steward well, to make, and
16:06
the right word is replications of Jesus Christ.
16:10
That's what we are called to be.
16:11
We are called to be replicas of our Lord and Savior.
16:15
And that's what makes the salt and the light and the ingredients of influence.
16:20
That's what makes them so potent because I am not inherent light.
16:24
I am reflective light, which means I must position my life in such a way that I'm reflecting
16:29
the inherent light of Christ.
16:31
And if I'm shining his light, what's going to happen is I'm going to want to get around
16:34
people who are not of, let's say, like skin color or looks just like me.
16:41
No, people of like-mindedness.
16:44
And I'm going to want to sharpen them and iron is going to sharpen iron.
16:48
And that's going to be contagious.
16:49
And there should be such a passion to do just that, but we're seeing a decline.
16:53
We're seeing it go in the other direction.
16:55
Why is that?
16:56
I believe David, the churches are full.
16:59
So it's not a church attendance problem, it's a worldview formation problem.
17:05
That's kind of where the rubber of faith is not meeting the road because it's one thing
17:09
to say, I believe it's another thing to actually take what you believe and apply it to every
17:15
area of life.
17:16
So I think churches are full.
17:18
I just think that a lot of pulpits are shirking their responsibility to bring that spiritual
17:23
formation to bear and challenging the people that God has entrusted to that specific fellowship.
17:29
My responsibility every single Sunday and Wednesday night is to open the book, open the
17:34
Word of God and teach it, the plain rendering and reading of it and let the Holy Spirit
17:39
through me and through the people bring it to bear.
17:43
I am not there to comfort the people and tell them what they want to hear.
17:48
I'm a shepherd, I'm going to protect them.
17:50
I'm going to feed them, that's the grit that I believe the spirit of God gives the
17:55
shepherds like the prophets of old, they're going to be fiery, but I'm not there to make
18:01
sure that everyone's feelings are tended to and it's just come in how you are.
18:07
Let's all get along.
18:08
No, no, no.
18:09
And I think more pastors need to actually get a little bit more spiritual grit and the
18:15
days are getting darker.
18:17
Jesus is going to be returning hopefully sooner rather than later.
18:23
The time is now and the sad reality, let me say this, the sad reality is the church
18:30
is not lost ground in this war.
18:33
The church is given ground in this war that's given up ground and why is that?
18:42
We have believed the lie of separation of church and state in America.
18:49
We have allowed that lie to be woven through the various institutions and various mediums
18:56
and it's caused every Christian maybe with sincere hearts to say, you know what, I don't
19:01
want to be considered political, so I'm just going to avoid the topic at hand or I'm
19:05
going to sit on the sideline altogether because Jesus is coming and we use that as an
19:12
excuse not to get involved and be that salt and light that we're called to be.
19:18
Okay, Matthew, Mary, you brought it up, brother, come on, you brought it up.
19:23
I wrote a chapter in my book, Canceling Christianity.
19:26
One of the chapters was called the second biggest lie in America.
19:31
What is that?
19:32
The separation of church and state because they believe and most people have this wrong
19:37
understanding that that's the separation of Christianity, right?
19:41
Not any church, you know, but the Bible believing church and state.
19:46
Get that out of influence, get that out of culture, but can we, can I quote you now from
19:49
what you posted on Facebook or do you have it memorized?
19:52
I have it memorized.
19:53
You can quote it and I just want to be very clear.
19:56
It was inspired by listening to Speaker Mike Johnson articulate the true meaning behind
20:03
what is known as separation of church and state and he did such a fabulous job bringing
20:08
us back to the founders intention for the first amendment, the establishment calls.
20:15
And then the founders intention was never for Christianity not to influence the state.
20:22
I say the church is the conscience of the state.
20:25
We keep the state accountable.
20:27
Yep.
20:28
We're not under the state.
20:29
We're called to submit to government that's Romans 13, but we're our own institution.
20:33
God founded the government.
20:34
He founded the church and he founded the family and those are the three major institutions.
20:39
And they work hand in hand when the family is founded on the word of God.
20:43
Of course, they're going to produce citizens of the state that are cooperative, that are
20:46
obedient, that are God honoring.
20:48
And the church plays its role in discipling the citizens of the state, but where to be citizens
20:53
of heaven, which is interesting because one of the categories in the study and I like
20:58
you to find what I what I wrote on social media in a second.
21:02
One of the categories of, you know, the participants, you had integrated disciples.
21:07
You had emergent followers, we should be more focused on reaching the emergent followers
21:12
category.
21:13
They're kind of like on the fence.
21:14
And the third category, the saddest was world citizens and that word world and citizen,
21:21
a global citizen.
21:22
I mean, they're being discipled by the world and the culture and we are called to be citizens
21:27
of heaven, discipled by heaven while on earth.
21:31
So go ahead, David.
21:32
Take it away.
21:33
Quoting Matthew mayor from his Facebook post, I nabbed this.
21:37
First comes the lie of separation of church and state.
21:41
Then comes submission of church to state, then the suppression of church by state.
21:52
What was meant to protect the church is now used to silence and sideline the church.
22:00
Silence the church and the state will preach in its place.
22:06
That is so good.
22:07
Go ahead.
22:09
Thinking about the life separation of church and state.
22:12
And as I thought about the word separation, I realized, okay, what they really want us
22:16
to do is blind submission to the state.
22:20
And you're talking about when the state legislates godless, immoral laws or legislation
22:28
where told we must just romance 13 pastor bow down to the state and it's like, wait a
22:33
second.
22:34
Other verses where believers chose to obey God rather than man and don't get it twisted
22:41
for a second.
22:42
Both Peter and Paul both have passages that talk about submitting to the state.
22:47
Both were killed by the very states that they were telling their followers to submit to.
22:52
And why were they killed by the states, the Roman Empire is because they were unwilling
22:56
to bow the knee to the godless state of that Roman Empire.
23:00
So separation of church and state always leads to submission of church to state.
23:07
And that's of course talking about submitting to godless policies and laws.
23:12
But we should be the most upstanding citizens in our country, make no mistake.
23:16
We should pay our taxes as we're called to do.
23:19
We should file all the laws on the books unless they violate with God's law and God's book.
23:26
If you don't catch it, submission of church to state inevitably, historically, we have
23:32
pages of history books that tell this tale, always leads to suppression of church by the
23:42
state.
23:43
And that's ultimately the stage we're currently in.
23:46
There might be a season of mercy because of the current administration.
23:49
And I believe we should be even more bolder than ever before.
23:52
I think we should be more aggressive than ever before with the truth.
23:54
But there's coming a day and I can prophetically see it, David, we're suppression and silencing
23:59
and censoring and yes, even persecution of the church and Christians, the remnant who
24:06
have a biblical worldview who are of this 4% and declining are going to be placed in
24:14
positions where if they do not conform, they will be punished.
24:20
And I believe we're close to that.
24:22
And I also believe that sometimes one of the reasons God allows it is because when people
24:29
become complacent, you know what spurs them on?
24:32
You know what wakes people up that are complacent?
24:35
Persecution?
24:36
Yeah, persecution.
24:37
Amen, brother.
24:38
So I know we went in the end, our book, The Bible, our God is on the throne, He is victorious.
24:48
And if I keep that as my perspective, then what can man do to me?
24:54
Who am I to fear, David?
24:56
If I believe that my God is sovereign over the affairs of man, and I think that's what
25:04
we need more of.
25:05
We need more voices that are willing to tell it as it is and preach the gospel and let
25:09
the consequences fall where they may.
25:12
Amen.
25:13
We need the boldest of the early church and the disciples who said we must obey God.
25:19
Rather than man, and we cannot help but speak about things we have seen and heard when
25:23
it comes to we got the resurrection Sunday.
25:26
You know, this is this is the season.
25:27
We're focusing more on the empty tomb and the truth of the resurrection.
25:31
But I think I want to direct people to there.
25:35
This is so extensive this research.
25:37
I just want to make sure you know where you can find it, friends.
25:40
It's at the cultural research center at Arizona Christian University.
25:44
It's George Barnas group, the cultural research center.
25:47
There it is.
25:48
At Arizona Christian University, you can look that up and there's just so much in these
25:53
categories.
25:54
We could do several podcasts, but I do want to say there's been a drop off what they
25:58
refer to as worldview weakness.
26:02
There's been a drop off in this, especially in the younger generations and they call it
26:06
cataclysmic.
26:08
So we need to pray.
26:09
We need to preach the gospel.
26:10
We need to stand for the truth because they don't know what truth is.
26:14
Some of them, some young people, but this hovers between 5% down to just 1% when it comes
26:21
to millennials in generation Z.
26:23
So Gen Z is around 1%.
26:25
So we're we really have our work cut out for us.
26:28
The education system is doing us a disservice, but we are not to give up hope because God
26:33
is still on the throne, as you said.
26:35
And he has us here for a reason.
26:37
So let's see what and it just takes one election, right?
26:41
The Biden administration was coming against Christians.
26:44
They were jailing people just praying outside an abortion clinic and abortion business.
26:49
They were doing all kinds of things to suppress the biblical worldview in our culture and
26:54
even on big tech social media.
26:56
So friends, we're like Matthew's right.
26:58
We're likely going to see more of this 30 seconds brother.
27:00
I'll let you share whatever you'd like to wrap us up.
27:03
The word of God, all the answers are right here in the word of God.
27:06
The other category that sadly was lacking was about God, creation and history.
27:11
And I tell you the truth.
27:13
The word of God in the book of Genesis chapter 1 tells you everything you need to know about
27:17
God's design, creating the image of man, all of us, every human, as dignified, worth
27:23
because we are creating the image of God.
27:24
You move right along.
27:25
He created two biological genders, male and female.
27:29
That settles that argument and he defines marriage between a man and a woman.
27:34
And when you make your way through with those foundational truths with a biblical worldview,
27:38
it brings clarity to all the issues of our day.
27:41
So get back in the book, Christian, spend time with the word of God.
27:45
Amen.
27:46
Pastor Matthew, mayor, that's truthovertrend.com, it went by so fast, brother.
27:50
Thanks for your time.
27:51
Good to see you.
27:52
God bless you, David.
27:53
Thank you for all you do.
27:55
Family and Christ, God bless you and as always, keep speaking the truth about things that
27:59
matter.
28:00
See you next time.