Messes, Dirty Laundry, and the real Christian life Part 2

Today I want to cover another topic that many Christians deal with, they become overwhelmed by and the enemy keeps them trapped by and God wants to set people free today.

 

The enemy makes you feel like a failure but if you recognize the root of this situation you can use it not a deterrent to faith but as a stepping stone to it.

 

Let’s look revisit the hall of faith this week and look at our heroes

 

How can we ever live up to them?

 

Well let’s take a look at them

 

Hebrews 11:1-3, 7-10

 

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. 7….By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

 

Abraham left everything to follow the call of God. Can you imagine one day saying to everyone you knew

 

 

 

  • We are packing up and leaving everything we know… business, family, friends
  • We don’t know where we are going but we will know when we get there
  • I don’t know how long we will travel and others will be living on our land but God is giving it to us
  • BTW I’m 75 years old and I’m going to be a father soon

 

That takes faith…amazing faith

 

Have you ever found yourself having great faith like this?

 

You see the Lord move in your life, you see an answer to prayer that really is a miracle.

 

But then something happens that hits you in your area of weakness

 

In the tradition of the Nomads if a man saw a woman he liked and she was the wife of another they would simply kill the husband and take the woman as their wife. Abraham had this nearly happen to him…twice

 

Genesis 20:1,2

Abraham moved south to the Negev and lived for a while between Kadesh and Shur, and then he moved on to Gerar. While living there as a foreigner, 2 Abraham introduced his wife, Sarah, by saying, “She is my sister.” So King Abimelech of Gerar sent for Sarah and had her brought to him at his palace.

 

Let’s hear from Abraham

 

Abraham: I know I’m going to get killed this time…I got away with it once…those Egyptians they are all “wrath of Ra” kind of stuff so God was able to protect me there but this King Abimelech he is a different kind of guy….hey you (talking to the audience) don’t judgment me which one of you packed everything up and took all your stuff and your family 600 miles we aren’t talking planes trains or automobiles here we are talking…I heard from God, who by the way I never heard from before, we packed everything up my wife, staff, and all our stuff and left…see I am a man of faith, even a prophet…but this thing…oh why am I cursed with such a beautiful wife….this is real….God I’m going to die this time I just know it…(cell phone rings) “Hello, King Abimelech…your sending Sara back and you need me to pray for you…so you’re not going to kill me? I’ll be right there….(to audience) I knew it all along I knew God would protect…see ya got to go get my wife

 

Genesis 20:6,7

In the dream God responded to Abimelech, “Yes, I know you are innocent. That’s why I kept you from sinning against me, and why I did not let you touch her. 7 Now return the woman to her husband, and he will pray for you, for he is a prophet. Then you will live. But if you don’t return her to him, you can be sure that you and all your people will die.”

 

The devil knows our weaknesses perhaps even better than we do He knows what buttons to push..even though Abraham had lied he was still a prophet of God according to God

 

We have all been there one day we are floating on cloud 9 everything is going so well…we have mountain moving faith in operation it doesn’t seem like anything can stop us then WHAM!!! Something hits us and fear grips us and overwhelms us

 

Does that mean we are a failure? Does fear completely cancel out our faith?

 

We need to realize fear is really about a lack of control and God wants to show us how he can be in control of what is out of control.

 

I know this sounds weird but to me at times, fear can be a precursor to faith

 

From a positive side…anytime God asks us to do something new… there is always going to be a little bit of fear and trepidation.

 

The first thing the angel had to say to Mary Luke 1:30 was “Don’t fear” in Matthew 1:20 Joseph is told not to be afraid to marry Mary

 

Joshua is told by God as he takes the reigns of leadership Joshua 1:9

 

“This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

 

But what if it is not doing something great for God but you are facing something the doctor says, a financial crisis, or any other way your world is falling apart…that doesn’t make you a bad Christian it just makes you someone who God is helping to get to the next level.

 

Fear is a choice….after the initial shock

 

When we are afraid we can choose to live there or we can choose to ‘fearfully and with great trepidation” choose to trust the Lord.

 

Fear can help us to see where we need the Lord the most

It can at times help us to grow in our faith

It can protect us from doing the wrong thing

It can cause us to stop and seek guidance and wisdom

 

The negative of fear is it is a reaction to our lack of trust in the Lord…but once again God knows we will go through this and is always prepared to help.

 

 

David was serving the Philistines and threatened by Saul. His enemies were all around him….he was afraid for very real reasons when he wrote

 

Psalm 56: 3,4

But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. 4 I praise God for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid?

What can mere mortals do to me?

 

As I mentioned earlier with Joshua and Abraham all the great men and women of God faced fear, they struggled just like you and I but they didn’t push it down, ignore it or hide from it…they dealt with it head on.

 

I hope in this series if you get nothing else you begin to grasp that our messes and dirty laundry are nothing to hide from but to bring them to the light so they can be dealt with and we can grow

 

Notice how David handle his fear

 

  • took it to the Lord honestly telling Him he was afraid
  • In the midst of his fear he began to remember the promises of God and praise him for them
  • He reminded himself of who God is (in the midst of his fear)

 

The Lord did deliver, we know the story…he still went through some tough times but he kept coming back to trusting the Lord

 

Isaiah 41:10,13

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

 

For I hold you by your right hand—I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.

 

The enemies of Israel have just taken out everyone and God is reminding them that even though they went through this tough time if they choose to trust him as they have turned back to him he will never allow their enemies to defeat them again.

 

What fear are you facing right now?

– is it your future

– your finances

– health challenge

– your kids/family/marriage

 

When God told Israel through Isaiah that he was there to help here is what God promises when we are afraid the word “help” means

 

– to surround

– to protect

– to supply all that we need to overcome

 

Fear is very real and it is nothing to look down on yourself about or to feel defeated over.

 

Whatever you are going through God wants to help you

 

He sees your fear and understands it but also wants to help you through it

 

– be honest with God about how you feel

– Remember His promises to you if you do know any it is time to get into the Bible here are a few

 

Proverbs 3:25,26

So don’t be afraid of sudden disasters or storms that strike those who are evil. 26 You can be sure that the Lord will protect you from harm.

 

Psalm 23:4

I may walk through valleys as dark as death, but I won’t be afraid. You are with me, and your shepherd’s rod makes me feel safe.

 

Psalm 46:1-3

God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3 Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling.

 

John 14:27

I give you peace, the kind of peace that only I can give. It isn’t like the peace that this world can give. So don’t be worried or afraid.

 

2 Timothy 1:7

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

 

– Trust Him that He is going to come through for you despite your fear.

 

God doesn’t love you any less because you are battling fear…in fact He wants to draw even closer to you to surround you, protect you, and give you all you need

 

Will you let him today?

 

 

 

Messes, Dirty Laundry, and the real Christian life

Messes, dirty laundry and the real Christian life Part 1

 

Take a look around the church this morning….

What do you see?

Many people come into church after that have been through a rough week, month, or year and believe…everyone has their act together, everyone is so perfect

But if you really spent time with any family you would hear real stories of messes, dirty laundry and everyone learning to trust in God’s faithfulness on a daily basis.

 

The statement on the wall in the lobby says, “we do real” here and I know the enemy would like to condemn you, make you feel imperfect, make you feel as if you can never attain to being the person God has called us to be…

 

Even the Apostle Paul, the writer of most of the New Testament knew God had more work to do in him

 

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” Philippians 3:12

But we have this hall of faith, this cloud of witnesses to live up to. How can we ever live up to them?

Well let’s take a look at them

 

Hebrews 11:1-7

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. 5 By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

 

Able and Enoch we really don’t know enough about for today’s teaching but Noah, we have a lot of information about.

 

Here is how we are introduced to Noah

 

Genesis 6:9

“This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.”

 

We know the story God was going to destroy everything Noah said no problem I’ll build an ark and the animals came two by two. Rain for 40 days and nights…He and His family were the only people left on the face of the earth.

 

Do righteous people, godly people do stupid things?

No, not truly righteous and godly people….well you better think again

 

Genesis 9:15

One day he (Noah) drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent.

 

Let’s hear from Noah today

 

 

Noah comes walking on the stage obviously drunk maybe interacts with a few people

 

Noah: Ok…OK don’t judge me, the grapes just got a little fermented who knew they would taste that good…For a little over a year I shoveled manure, lived in a cramped space with every animal DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT’S LIKE?….lions roaring, kangaroos hopping, skunks spraying… you get the picture. Starting out the new life I had a little trouble, not as good with raising pigs as I thought…I thought I’ll talk to Joe the pig farmer then I remember Joe’s dead…ran into the same problem with shearing the sheep…never did it before would like to have asked Earl the shepherd how to do it but Earl’s dead…don’t get me wrong (Noah still staggering and slurring his words) I’m so grateful God protected me and my family…I love Him you know…I just miss everyone so much I have PFTD you know that’s Post Flood Traumatic Disorder it makes it hard to cope. (Noah makes his way back to the prayer room and passes out there at end of lines, no one can see) Excuse me I think I’m going to be sick and pass out now, just not sure which I’m going to do first. Wow, these clothes are really uncomfortable!

 

OK, OK we don’t know exactly why Noah got drunk just he was still a righteous man…did he get drunk all of the time? No, but any of us can blow it, grief does funny things to people

 

As Christians when we lose a loved one, lose a job, lose a friendship, go through a divorce, have a miscarriage, lose a dream, or some other devastating thing, grief can set in.

 

We want to put on the smiling face and just get through it or we want to break down and cry, get angry, or just get depressed for a while then we feel guilty or others make us feel guilty for not being the “good Christian”

 

That being a good Christian thing is what trips us up. Perfection is sometimes what we believe we are to obtain but that is not God’s plan for us…His plan is for us to become perfect in him and that only happens by learning to be real, honest, and surrendering daily to Him.

 

Being a good Christian means going through stuff, letting God be God in our lives

 

Let me ask you something

 

Is the Bible God’s word?

 

Is everything in the Bible true?

 

If so then let’s look at what the Bible has to say

 

When I am counseling people who have just lost a loved one I will remind them of Jesus words.

 

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4

First, something we need to realize it is OK when we have a loss, regardless of what it is or how important or unimportant it may seem to others it is OK to mourn that loss

 

Mourning here means to experience great loss. It is not “Christian” to hide the pain and hurt of the loss…it is Christian to walk it through and trust the Lord to bring the comfort

 

Jesus is saying here in “Blessed” “how fortunate are those that mourn” why because as we mourn, whatever the loss is, we will have the Holy Spirit meet us in a very real place and He can in our pain, despite our pain, through our pain pour the fruit of the Spirit to get us through it.

 

Speaking of getting through it Remember Isaiah 43:2

 

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.

When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,”

 

Being a Christian does not mean that we go through life oblivious to pain, struggle or trial. Can you imagine what Noah and his family went through in very practical ways….

 

-what do you feel like with just one rainy day let alone 40

– what would it feel like that everyone you knew was dead mother, father, aunts, uncles, neighbors

– living in a confined space with all those animals and their bodily fluids and cleaning constantly, feeding nonstop, and the noise

– We know when they got off of the ark, they had no idea how many months days or years it would be

 

We sometimes mourn things thinking we have missed God’s plan when in reality what we are going through, as uncomfortable as it may seem, is God walking us through the fire and the flood.

 

God does not normally cause things, we would interpret as bad to happen but if we are willing, He will use them to give us strength, wisdom, courage and to help us build trust with Him.

 

Don’t allow anyone to belittle your grief…don’t feel you are not a good Christian because you are grieving some kind of loss…instead, use your time of grieving to allow the Lord to teach you more about himself.

 

Isaiah 41:10

Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

 

In the midst of our loss, our sense of grief, our mourning the Lord can be there and minister to you when you are ready and when you are willing…he can teach you about His strength, His help and watch and learn what it is to walk in His righteousness.

 

In the middle of your loss, he will come and bring life to you when you feel the most at loss

 

Psalm 119:50

Your promise revives me; it comforts me in all my troubles.

 

Grief over a job loss, dream loss, a loved one, a baby, a relationship, or anything is real and Christians even good ones go through it but that is the point of it we must allow the Lord in His gentle, unique way to take us through it and then walk us out of it.

 

Hebrews 4:15,16

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

 

He gets it…He really does…The enemy also gets it and wants to keep you there…there is an appropriate time for grieving, mourning, and feeling the loss and then it is time…because He understands exactly what we are going through to allow him to start lifting us out of it pouring out the grace that we need

 

Today we want to do that…if you are ready then we want to pray that the Lord lifts you out of that burden you have been carrying for so long

 

BUT

If you aren’t ready…that’s OK come and allow someone to pray with you that you can sense his comfort with you right this moment right in your grief and so you can sense His help, His strength, His love, Jesus wept with those that mourned once the weeping was done He took action…let us help you get through the mourning

 

If you are feeling depressed, angry, frustrated, loss, confusion, all of these may be signs of mourning Come let the Lord meet you there!

 

 

 

 

 

Who are you really?

Who are you really?

 

a teaching that should radically change your view of who you are

 

We are told by people everyday who we are some emphasize our failures and make us feel small and useless and some emphasize our successes and make us feel good but it creates in us a performance mentality make us feel if we don’t keep performing we will not be loved and accepted.

 

God sees us differently and today I want you to see what the Word says God sees who you are!

 

Even if you have been walking with the Lord for a long time you may need to be reminded of what God’s word says rather than what people say

 

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: John 1:12

Such a simple verse sounds very “yes that’s nice”, sort of vanilla

What this verse says is that you have no reason for failing to become a success….you have so much more going for you according to this verse than you know!!!

Ok don’t look at me like that….you believe God’s Word, the Bible is true right???

While our translations are correct sometimes the emphasis is not what it should be as we read the text.

Have you received him?

What Paul is saying is

 

– Have you realized you are a sinner in need a savior?

– Have you realized you are at your greatest when you decrease and He increases?

– Have you realized your goodness is not good enough?

– Have you said, “Jesus I give you control”?

– Is He in control of your job, attitude, finances, future, and family?

 

If these things are applicable to your life, if you are daily trying to walk this kind of walk then you have welcomed Jesus into your life and are daily choosing to follow Him….you have received Him!

 

Are we all good with that? Everybody good?

 

Say with me “I’ve received Jesus!”

 

What does John say next “to them He gave the right to become children of God”

 

Another vanilla thought, nothing exciting except what it really says

 

The word translated here “right” is the Greek word “exousia” which means delegated power, delegated authority, or influence.

 

The moment you received Christ, the moment you invited Him to take control of your life He delegated to you the power to become a Child of God.

 

Stop for a moment and think about this…at that very moment He delegated all of the power, authority and divine influence that is in the name of Jesus, into your life

 

So don’t ever allow anyone to make you think you are weak, useless, less than what you are. You have the power and authority of the Almighty God living in side of you daily working in you to fulfill your destiny and to impact the world!!!

 

Say with me…I am walking in power and authority

 

That same explosive, phenomenal, amazing power and authority that was resident in Jesus lives in you (I need an explosive fireworks video here)

 

So what’s holding you back???

 

I know stuff…stuff from your past, from what you believe about yourself, stuff other people have said about you

 

I’ve got more good news….let’s look at one other verse

 

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

 

Ok we just got done saying we have all received him right?

 

The word used here “Kainos” which we are translating as “new” means brand new, recently made and it also means something that was made superior.

 

See when you came to Christ he made you absolutely completely new you are not your old self you have been made into something superior to your old self

 

Say with me “that’s amazing!

 

Then you add to that the word translated “creation” which carries the same meaning as the creation of the world. The Holy Spirit is telling us as the universe was created out of something that had not existed we are not a revised version, corrected version of our selves or even and improved version we are totally and completely new.

 

None of our failures, nothing anyone has defined us by, nothing from before we came to Jesus matters. You are a completely brand new creation in Christ nothing that happened before you came to Jesus matters

 

Why do we allow it to hurt us, feel the weight of it, because the devil has convinced us this amazing miracle has not really taken place but to the father it has!!!

 

Think about it…what is holding you back from fulfilling you destiny, purpose, or walking in freedom? None of it has any right to limit you!

 

When Christ came to you and you received Him he created you to be free from your past, free from all the family drama you went through, liberated from all your former hang-ups

 

You can….

 

So stop laying claim to your family’s genetic problems, inheritable sicknesses, dysfunctional behavior, disorders, hang-ups, curses, or any other negative thing that was a part of your life before Christ. That old person no longer exists. They are dead. You are brand new.

 

Let me take you today to one more verse

 

Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

 

This verse is saying on the day you came to Christ God put forth all of his creative artisanship to create you in to a most beautiful masterpiece.

 

There is nothing cheap about you…when you received Christ all of God’s creativity, wisdom, intelligence artistry went into making you completely new.

 

No one has any right to call you or define you as dumb, stupid, a failure, to beat you up with your past. According to the scripture all of those things are lies, false feelings you are utterly and completely new.

 

As a Christian every time we ask for forgiveness it is all new as well!

 

But I still feel like a failure?

I still am acting like my unsaved self or I carry the things from my Father or Mother

I am constantly reminded of my former self

 

All I can tell you is what God’s word says…You must make the choice to believe it and allow The Holy Spirit’s power to transform you to come into alignment with God’s Word

 

God holds his word above his name and what I have described for you today is really who you are!!!

 

Are you ready to believe it?

 

– You have been delegated all of the power and authority in Christ to accomplish all He has called you to do

 

– You are nothing like your old self you are completely brand new made out of new stuff

 

– Not only are you made out of new stuff but you are a masterpiece work of the Father’s hand exactly what the world needs to bring them to freedom

Is that amazing or what?

 

Not feeling it? Great that is why I was given this to teach, God wants you there come today and allow someone to pray for you and allow the Lord to put these verses to work in your life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preparing for what’s next

Preparing for what’s next

I believe the Lord is going to bring great success to our church families, the Valley, our state, and nation

I believe as you begin to apply the things we have been learning through the teaching, your reading your daily devotions, your time in prayer every day God is giving us success

WE see it in the miracles we hear the Lord is performing here, every week someone shares with me the impact the service had on their lives, and I hear from many of you how the Lord has used you to touch hearts and lives….that is really a large portion of the purpose of church to equip you to impact the world.

The Lord is moving us on to success and blessing for what He has in store for us next…The position and authority he has called us to, but we must not neglect what He is doing in us now and especially not neglect what God is doing in you now.

WE begin this morning with a promotion story

Joshua 1:2

“Moses My servant is dead. Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. 

God speaks to Joshua directly for the first time….He has promoted him and promises great success

Joshua’s preparation for leadership and success was built over time 40 years to be exact

I believe as we look at Joshua’s preparation we can learn how to be a success and prepare for the next steps

In the chronology of the Bible, we first see Joshua here

Exodus 17:9

And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.”

Somewhere along the line Joshua was trained to be a soldier. He used those skills to honor the Lord.

Many want God to pour all kinds of blessings on them. We want to see God move in our lives. God may have even placed a desire or a dream in your heart. Joshua shows us first how to begin to see that fulfilled it is all a matter of choosing to trust

1) Joshua trusted in the gifts and skills God gave him

 Joshua served the Lord with what the Lord had given him…

One of the odd things I see about human nature is that the things that come easiest to us we don’t seem to value….we want to do something else that seems in our eyes harder or more valuable in some way and in some ways it is more valuable to us because we don’t have the skills

People who come by being a parent easily don’t think anything of it

Ron or Dean with dry wall and mudding they have done it so much

Even one of the greats in baseball Roberto Clemente, in an interview about his greatness he simply said, “I love baseball, and I come to play!”

If we choose to recognize that anything we can do, is a skill and a gift and every good gift comes from God then….

Do what you can to the best of your ability, and it will honor God

Ecclesiastes 9:10 says “whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all of your might.” 

In preparing for what’s next, we need be faithful to use what God has given us now!

2) We see Joshua trusting in the people God has placed to mentor Him!

Joshua’s hope was not in the perfection of Moses but in Moses love of the Lord

Exodus 24:13,14

So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. 14 And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Indeed, Aaron and Hur are with you. If any man has a difficulty, let him go to them.”

Moses and Joshua leave the people in the hands of Aaron and Hur and head up the mountain of God.

Moses had the advantage of being in the presence of God for the 40 days he was up there….Joshua was alone feeling nothing from God, seeing nothing from God. He may have even been fasting like Moses

His hope was in trusting God, in Moses. He knew he was called to serve and didn’t doubt that call…No one will ever be a good leader until they learn to be a good servant…God will never trust someone with authority who doesn’t know how to work under authority

Romans 13:1-5

For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. 

God places authority into our lives to help make us the best we can be

– Protect us – helping us to see what we sometimes can not see ourselves, literally defending us at times, spiritual authority protects by helping us understand God’s word, call to living, and His commands and praying for us.

– Present truth – often we do not want to see the truth we would rather deceive ourselves to save ourselves from pain…Unless we deal with the truth, the pain may be worse later… It is like when you do not discipline your children because it is hard on your heart or too wearying, later they end up not getting a solid career, into the right school, or even end up in trouble with the law…Speaking truth lovingly saves us pain

there is also a very positive side of authority speaking the truth and that is when the devil has lied to us and tried to tear us down, robs us of our hope and dreams…those in authority can speak life back into us…The truth of God’s word and restore hope

– Challenge and cause growth – the authority in our lives like our Fathers and Mothers is meant to push us to grow…To challenge us to become everything we are called to be. We will only grow to our fullest by having the authority train and challenge us one of the greek meanings behind this is the training of a vine, so it will produce more fruit.

When it came time for Joshua to lead, Moses and the Lord knew he could be trusted to obey the instruction of the Lord because he learned first to obey the instructions of the man of God, God had placed over him

He trusted in the presence of God

Exodus 33:11 So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant  Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.

This takes a faith walk to believe that God is real and that He created you for a purpose…That faith walk in order to be a great leader needs to grow into knowledge

Proverbs 2:5 Then you will understand the fear of the Lord,

And find the knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord gives wisdom;

From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;

We must have a real life knowledge of God to moves us to the next place to know as Hebrews writes that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, to know that He is good, to know that He is, to know that he is real, powerful, present, he knows everything.

This is only developed by spending time with Him. Joshua was not satisfied with having a relationship with the Lord only through Moses; he wanted a real relationship with him in person where he got to know the Lord and his ways

Psalm 103:7 says He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.

Joshua wanted to know God not just what he could do

When you understand who God is you are ready for promotion insecurities and fear fade away…By knowing who God is, it is easy to discover who you are and your gifts and call…you can stand up for anything and also stand against anything

He trusted in the word of God

This is probably the most famous story of Joshua’s life

Numbers 14:6-9

But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; 7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’ 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”

God had promised Israel a land of their own. He did not say how they would get it. Every promise of God was just as He said but they had to fight to get the promise….God knew there were giants and high walled cities, rivers to cross, mountains to traverse when He promised the land.

To move into the next step, you must trust God at his word for the first step.

First missions trip God told me to go….no permissions, no plans, no meetings set up, no hotel or transportation arrangements and me responsible for $50K of equipment I learned to rely on the Lord rather than my abilities

Shot video on the great wall BBC paid 100K for permission, met numerous persecuted Christians met the head of the three self-church, had the military always two steps behind us…there was no communication back home.

Joshua saw the problems but believed in the promise more than the problem…

Are you prepared for what’s next?

– When the Lord can trust you to use what you have

– When He can trust you to trust Him that he placed the leadership over you

– When he can trust you to get to know Him

– When He can trust you to trust Him at His word

Then you are ready…you may say I’m too old, too settled, too comfortable…you can make excuses all day, but until you are dead God has a NEXT plan for you if you the next plan is death, don’t you want to go see Him and have Him say “well done?”…why waste time…prepare for what’s next

What do you want out of life?

What do you want out of life?

 

There’s a loaded question. Our culture is turning more fatalistic every day. People feel their lives are out of control, well I guess that’s just the way it is. I guess this is the best it can be!

 

What if I told you that is absolutely a bold faced lie that there is a promise of God, even a law of God that you can apply that can bring you to a place of fulfilled dreams or if applied incorrectly constant frustrate and even disaster.

 

Do you want to know what it is?

 

What God wants out of your life is for you to live in the fruit of the Spirit, to love one another and to love Him and for you to fulfill your destiny, what you were created for! Want that?

 

A very important plan and law of God that helps complete this is found in Galatians 6

 

 

Galatians 6:6-9

Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.7 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. 9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

 

Paul is talking to a struggling church. They are struggling particularly in trusting the Lord to come through for them financially. They have not been supporting properly, the teachers who have come to them and they are reaping their failure because of that. Paul is referring to that here

 

Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.

 

Have you ever trusted the Lord for something and felt that he had not come through for you?

 

You put some thought, study, prayer time into believing God would come through for you in some area only to feel like he let you down?

 

What is the result? You give up, get angry, become embittered, pessimistic, negative, depressed, hopeless…The saddest part if you never achieve what was birthed in your heart in the first place you lose your dream you settle for something less that what God has planned for you.

 

The Galatians had the same struggle they believed God would supply all of their needs, financially, emotionally, spiritually but instead of being consistent and pursuing what God had for them they stopped, giving up their dream and their future in the process.

 

How do I know this? Here is what Paul says to them

 

Do not be deceived!

 

The tense Paul uses here is a command he is saying “stop being deceived” apparently either false teachers had come in and were telling them to stop sowing seed, or they became frustrated with the results in the short-term and stopped pursuing God’s plan and began pursuing their own (we will see that in a moment)

 

God’s law of sowing and reaping was established early (Genesis 8:22 as long as the earth remains there will be seedtime and harvest) and today we live in a day where it has been abused and ridiculed, but it is a law of God that works.

 

I can see how it is easy in our culture to become disillusioned we want everything fast…we want our finances to turn around, our relationships to turn around, other people’s attitudes in general or toward us to turn around but it took time to get these things to sour and will take time to heal them so I can give you three guarantees

 

If you continue to be frustrated and give up whatever you are hoping will change, but for the worst I guarantee it!

 

I can also guarantee that if you sow bad seed, bitterness, fear, anxiety, anger, frustration you will reap that and so much more just like it.

 

I can also guarantee that if you continue to sow good seed, finances, love, hope, truth, time you will reap in return, finances, love, time and so much more.

 

More about these in a moment…The key is, don’t get frustrated don’t stop believing God is always faithful! Paul then says…

 

God is not mocked;

 

The word “mocked” means to sneer at to stick your nose up. It is to say “don’t be stupid you can’t possibly still believe that God will bless you financially if you give, you can’t possibly believe God will heal your marriage if you keep loving, you can’t possibly believe God will return time back to you if you volunteer…What a foolish belief.

 

It is never foolish to trust the Lord it is nearly always foolish to trust flesh.

 

Often what has happened to people is they have tried trusting the Lord and gave up too soon and they soured on the law of sowing and reaping saying “it doesn’t work” but a law of God must work because it is his law.

 

Paul doesn’t want this negative mentality to sneak into the life of the people of faith so he speaks loudly and firmly according to the text…

 

“For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”

 

When Paul is saying “whatever” it literally means anything that you sow you will gain that in return…finances, love, time, grace anything is a seed to be sown and when you do you will reap…that being said

 

The tense Paul uses here describes a person who sows regularly, continuously, habitually. God promises that if you sow steadily, regularly he will come through.

 

I know this is used a lot for finances and it does apply to that but let’s say you are having a struggle with your boss or a series of clients or a neighbor or family member. Paul is saying if you regularly, habitually, steadily sow peace, patience, and love. If you continually go the extra mile, when you need it, God will do that for you.

 

Here is a way that part of the verse can be translated

 

“Stop letting people lead you astray from the truth! You might try to turn up your nose at the law of God, but it won’t change the law! It remains true that whatever you regularly and habitually sow — regardless of what it is — that is exactly what you will regularly and habitually reap.”

 

 

It is a law the Lord has established…some who have sown finances, time, love have gotten frustrated because they have given up too early that haven’t been faithful in the sowing and the result is God can’t bless or there is very little blessing!

 

 

Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 9:6

 

“But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”

 

The challenge Paul presents to us is also that not only do we reap blessings but we can reap hassle. Let me give you a practical example

I hate getting jerked around or getting ripped off so when I feel as if someone is jerking me around this ARRRGGGHH rises up inside of me. There is a part of me that wants to fight for my rights, to push off the injustice of mistreatment but what I’ve learned is

 

I can be a jerk to the person, sowing jerky-ness into the situation and in return they generally will reap them being a jerk to me OR I can extend kindness and understanding into the situation and reap that in return.

 

Regardless whatever we sow and in what portion we sow it. God’s promise here is that we will definitely reap in proportion to our sowing.

 

I have made the choice to sow into my future. I have done it with bosses in the past treating them the way that I would want to be treated when I became someone’s boss. I have done it with people who didn’t have a clue, treating them with kindness and respect knowing that there will be times when I am clueless and I will need to be respected that way.

 

It does work for finances, we are doing well financially please don’t feel I am trying to trick you or manipulate you out of your money. I know from personal experience. When you learn to tithe first, then give offerings beyond that and then give to those in need beyond that you never have to worry about money, God will not be out done he will take care of…

 

– Our home

– Cars

– Kids college

– vacations

– investments

– peace of mind

– wisdom and insight

 

all because we have sown bountifully, consistently, steadily since I first earned any money.

 

But what do we do when it doesn’t seem like it is working?

 

Yes, there are some people even though you pour out love and kindness, patience, grace and mercy and in return, they are still jerks.

 

There are still may be times where you give and you don’t seem to see the blessing in your life

 

What do we do? Here is Paul’s answer

 

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

 

The idea of not growing weary is to not become slack so as to allow anything to be stolen from us. To keep up the good work know our reward is coming.

 

When Paul writes “in due season” means, just as it does in nature; “when the time is right” when the harvest is ready and plentiful. Paul is saying, at just the right time, when you will benefit the most. When His blessings will meet your need the best, you will reap!

 

God has a plan to bless all of us

 

So keep sowing love and you will gain love in return

 

Keep sowing patience and you will reap patience in return

 

Keep sowing forgiveness and you will receive forgiveness in return

 

Keep sowing financially and you will reap financially in return

 

Let me ask the question I asked at the start, “what do you want out of life?”

 

Paul has shown us that what we want, we need to sow and as we do continually, steadily, habitually, God, at just the right time, will pour back into us. Paul said it this way in

Ephesians 6:8

“knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord”

Matthew 6:14

“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

Mark 9:35

“If anyone desires to be first (the greatest), he shall be last of all and servant of all.”

 

God has a plan to bless you, to fulfill the dream He placed on your heart.

 

Start today choose to walk in forgiveness, love, grace kindness, in financial trouble or have financial worries start tithing, giving offerings and giving to the needs of others

 

Want to be a leader, start serving others

 

Wherever you want to get, what you want out of life is in your hands today.

 

Here is a simplistic way to look at this

 

God has placed a dream in your heart. To get there, you do things His way, sowing into your dream by sowing into others!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reaching the world from Albania – Guest Speaker Chris Dakas

This teaching is from my friend Chris Dakas a former police officer from Wooster, Mass. who has been surrendering his life daily as a missionary in the Balkans region and Greece. Chris and his bride Laura are modern days Apostle Pauls, founding churches, a radio station, and many practical missions to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of Albanians, Greeks, Muslim, Orthodox, and atheist alike. Enjoy the encouragement, challenge, and teaching from Chris!

BTW the picture is from the first trip that I took my family to Albania!

The Judgment Free Zone

The Judgment free zone

 

There is a place that calls itself the judgment free zone because no one is permitted to judge others, be prideful, or feel ostracized (everyone is welcome, everyone belongs)

 

Sounds like a church you might want to attend

 

It is called “Planet Fitness”

 

The goal and their purpose is to make everyone feel like they belong that is not easy.

 

I hear it, there are clicks in churches what is ironic is most of the time those that say there are clicks are in a click themselves of those who feel they are not in someone else’s click

 

They are so judgmental in that church and while I understand there are churches that are judgmental sometimes the claim of judgmentalness is based on that fact that the church wants people to live the Christ-filled life rather than allowing sin to destroy them.

 

All of us have our prejudices and insecurities

 

We battle how we feel about ourselves and the way we feel about others

 

We are each a work in progress and I would like to challenge each of us today to become Planet Fitness Christians and live in a judgment free zone

 

We have two main challenges to living in the judgment free zone

 

1) Judgment of others

2) Judgment of ourselves

 

I want us to have a base line this morning of two passages of scripture

 

1 John 4:17,18

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

John 3:17

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

 

– One price

 

At Planet Fitness everyone basically pays the same price

 

Their fee is either 10/month or 20/month depending on the services each person wants.

 

Young, old, all races, backgrounds, rich, poor, heavily educated, limited in their education all are essentially one price, so the cost is equal for everyone and you can’t tell the differences of education, wealth, background are not really known. They can all work along side each other comfortably because everyone is welcomed

 

One price has been paid for us all there is no one who more special to God than another

 

From a judging others stand point–

– we all are on the same playing field

– all equally loved by God…

– for any of us to look at someone and judge them from the point of their position as a child of the King violates God’s love for them.

 

The scripture from 1 John says we have a boldness on the day of judgment because we have loved perfectly in a mature manner, the best way we knew how…not looking at anything on the outside to make a judgment.

 

Luke 5:29,30

Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. 30 And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

 

Yes the people who walk through our doors may be sinners, the person sitting next to you may be a sinner but we tend to look on the outward appearance …we never know what is going on in someone’s heart.

 

If we are going to reach people where they are, they need to feel loved first and we will “teach them to observe all things” later.

 

In the next verse Jesus response is… “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.”

 

If we are not a judgment free zone those who are sick, in need of spiritual healing will only feel condemned how can they know the love of God if we don’t show it to them

 

– judgment of ourselves

 

how can we walk free of judgment if we feel condemned ourselves?…we need to understand only those who are condemned already should feel condemned…do you sin?

 

Well let me ask that another way…who has not had a bad attitude, a bad thought or done anything that violates God’s word that’s sins of commission we have committed who here has seen a person in need, or someone hurting and in need of prayer, saw someone you knew needed Jesus and did not share with them who Jesus is to you and what He has done for you…those are sins of omission….we all battle sin but Christ died for all of our sin

 

We may feel others are judging us that they must know our sin but they don’t! God is looking at our hearts too…how do you think David was a man after God’s own heart with all he did…Every major figure except for Jesus failed…

 

God is looking at your heart so don’t live under guilt and condemnation

 

– repent of what you need to

– ask forgiveness

– walk in freedom

 

we are a judgment free zone especially when we live…

 

1 Corinthians 11:31,32

But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way. 32 Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

 

If you simply check your heart on a regular basis you will live in a judgment free zone. If you feel the Lord is judging you, it is because he wants you to look at yourself and he loves you enough to bring conviction. So unless you feel the Lord putting his hand on something in your life walk in freedom in a judgment free zone

 

Like planet Fitness, one price has been paid for us all so we might live judgment free sinner or saint so we would all know and live the love of God

 

2nd thing about a planet Fitness is everywhere you look in their gym it states…”YOU BELONG”

 

– You Belong

 

John writes this in 1:12

“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”

 

Notice nowhere does it say you have to be completely mature, have all your ducks in a row, be sin free, be perfect or even be just like me

 

We will work on that the whole maturity thing in time, but for now regardless of where in life someone is…if they have made a commitment to Christ they are part of the family…..if they are not we want them to feel so loved by each of us that they want to become part of the family

 

Judging others

 

If someone is walking through our church doors they should feel that it is a safe place a judgment free zone where they can feel the presence of God, and see His love in the people around. They may be the exact opposite of someone we would easily accept as a friend but we have to trust that the Holy Spirit brought them through our door…if they know Him they will grow if they don’t our love for them will draw them in…we can’t sit in the seat of judgment

 

God didn’t send his son to condemn the world but that the world might be saved…how will that happen if all they feel is judgment.

 

Judging ourselves

 

What this means for you is that you belong regardless of this weeks failures, regardless of what others may say or infer…you are part of the family and God keeps His promises

 

Jeremiah 31:3

Long ago the Lord said:

“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.

With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.

 

Am I preaching a sloppy grace this morning an easy believism?

 

No, I am focusing in on what Jesus did with the woman caught in the act of adultery or Zacchaeus

 

John 8:10,11

Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” 11 “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

 

The first thing Jesus did was love the woman, poured grace and mercy on her…she was guilty, a sinner, broken, not necessarily repentant until….Jesus… the love of Jesus touched this woman’s heart she no longer felt condemned she felt love and knowing that very real love she knew she belonged and he was able to reach her and say “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more…repentance complete, love won, sinner turned saint…outwardly still dressed the same but inwardly changed by love

 

Zaccheus

 

Luke 19

When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”

 

What did Jesus say to this sinner, this thief, liar, hypocrite, scum of the earth, traitor to his own people and race….remember a past sermon where I shared the meaning of I will be a guest in your home?

 

It meant Jesus was saying to him, I want to engage in a deep friendship with you, I love you!

 

Zacchaeus response…verse 8

Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”

 

Jesus response…

9 Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

 

How are we to find the lost..to actively seek them…so they might be saved if we are judging them or they see us constantly judging one another

 

No one here is perfect I am not asking us to ignore trouble areas, sin areas, deceit, failures or danger but I am asking that everything you do, every attitude you have toward your family here or those who are not yet your family is love

 

Love wins every time…yes we deal with sin here…yes we recognize brokenness, hypocrisy but we don’t shame people into repentance…we don’t judge people we compare their actions and attitudes to God’s word and if they don’t line up we recognize we too are sinner’s saved by grace that can be tempted by the same things or worse and we lift them up, love them to the truth, disciple them into freedom

 

Where are you today?

 

Do you spend most of your time judging others because perhaps you secretly feel they are better than you or worse than you? Have you allowed your insecurity or prejudice to rob you of God’s love for others?

 

Come to the altar this morning and allow the love of God to flood you with His love and heal your brokenness. A price has been paid for you and you belong…you are here so you are family

 

Maybe you are on the other side Do you feel condemned, rejected something happened somewhere that you allowed into your soul that crushes you every time. It may hurt to have relationships, it may hurt to see others happy…Come and receive healing, deliverance this morning…if you have a relationship with Jesus, you are family and you belong.

 

Maybe today you don’t have a relationship with Jesus maybe you came here perhaps expecting to be judged

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please don’t ask me…How can you trust the Bible when it is so full of myths and contradictions? Part 2

Please don’t ask me…How can you trust the Bible when it is so full of myths and contradictions? Part 2

 

Last week we talked about some of the seemingly contradictory statements in the scripture and this week we want to focus on the things people consider “myths” regarding the Bible

 

Gone are the days when people naturally trust people at their word, especially those in authority. The government, Business, and churches are all scandalized with that come to a natural distrust of all authority including the Bible.

 

Today I want to look at some objections to the Bible that may come up from your friends and how to respond to them.

 

– The Bible is very old and was written by gullible, illiterate people; therefore, we can’t trust it

 

The truth is there are both gullible and discerning people in any age, in every system from business to politics to science to the church…we always have both

 

The people from the era and region of the Bible had people who memorized large passages of scripture and then passed it on verbatim to disciples, the figured accurately the circumference of the earth, and managed to sail ship and travel through deserts using only the stars and the sun as their guide and we lose our phones and keys regularly and can’t remember how to get anywhere without our GPS.

 

The fact the Bible was written in ancient times has no bearing on the literacy or the naivety of the people who put it together.

 

Let’s look at several verses here, and you tell me how gullible the author was. 2 Peter 1:16-18

 

For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 18 And we heard this voice, which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

 

Do you think Peter was gullible believing folk tales or made up stories? Let’s look at another example from John

 

1 John 1: 1-4

 

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

 

Do you think this was something John made up or was it something he was accurately describing an experience?

 

When the early church was founded being a Christian in some cases was punishable by death. Confessing Jesus as Lord was being a traitor to Rome and many died for their faith. Yes, some die today for a lie but not something they have experienced, it would be futile to die for something you know was a lie.

 

– The Bible was written too far after the events actually happened to be considered reliable

 

The early creed that Paul proclaimed in 1 Corinthians 15 was written by the Apostle Paul in AD 56, a little over two decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus. It was a creed handed down to him, something that was developed not long after Jesus ascension. According to non-biblical sources, Paul was beheaded by Nero in 64AD, so all of his letters were written before then

 

1 Corinthians 15:3-9

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that, He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that, He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all, He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.

 

Notice he states that many are still alive (verse 6) who could verify exactly what He is saying here.

 

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John were written by contemporaries of Jesus. Matthew and John were disciples and Mark a scribe to Peter. Luke was a scholarly investigative reporter and well educated as he was a physician and right hand to Paul. All four Gospel were written well within the contemporary life of those who saw Jesus.

 

There are also non-biblical references to Jesus which If you go to the website or look at the attached notes on the app you will find some of the references. Gary Habermas who wrote, “The Historical Jesus,” lists thirty-nine ancient sources outside of the Bible that provide over one hundred facts about Jesus’ life, teachings, death, and resurrection.

 

The archeological evidence too is outstanding from Ossuaries with prayers to Jesus from around 50AD to even graffiti on walls making fun of Christians to the discovery of Peter’s home. Science continues to support the truth of the Bible especially the life and times of Jesus.

 

– Even if it were accurate at first, the Bible has been translated and copied so many times it can’t be accurate now

 

Often when you ask people specifically what they are talking about here they either don’t know, or they think Greek to Latin-German- to modern English with changes all along the way, like the kids game of telephone if that were true it would be scary and they would have every right to question its accuracy.

 

All translations begin with the Greek Text for the New Testament and Hebrew text for the old. We still have these text to refer to, and every translation is done directly from them, and there are now more texts that have been discovered for the Bible than any other book hundreds of times more to compare the accuracy of each one to each one.

 

We can easily compare the earliest text of both to later text copied and see that there is no significant difference even from the earliest writings

 

– The New Testament consists of carefully chosen books, banning others that shed light on the real Jesus of history

As I have mentioned before movies and books like the DaVinci Code have postulated to modern audiences that Jesus is not who the Gospels say he is

 

In the 20th century a series of books was discovered called the Nag Hammadi, they are Gnostic “gospels” all written 100 – 400 years after the original gospels and none of them written by disciples, apostles, or anyone who had experienced the risen Christ.

 

Gnosticism is much more complicated than this but allow me to try to give a basic understanding

 

Christianity and Gnosticism are mutually exclusive; however, it is easy for a Gnostic mindset to seep into our thinking if we’re not careful.

– The Gnostic is pursuing goodness, but, instead of seeking to be regenerated by Christ, he grabs hold of a man-centered purpose for living.

– The Gnostic thought makes man “wise in [his] own eyes” (Isaiah 5:21), something Proverbs 3:7 pointedly advises against: “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.”

–  The Gnostic Jesus brings a message of self-redemption. Man only needs to examine his inner “spark” to find the knowledge needed to free himself from his material body and reach God.

– there is a Great God that is good and perfect, but impersonal and unknowable.

 

These are the books that are quoted as the Gospels of Thomas, Barnabas, Philip, Mary, Judas, Peter and others. Supposedly attributed to apostles or those close to Christ but each of these written at least 100 years too late. With thousands of contradictions to Jesus own words.

 

If you look at a table of contents of your Bible, you will see they were written by either a prophet or apostle or by someone with a direct relationship to one.

 

The books chosen for our new testament had been used and verified as the truth by the church since the first century. Truth does not contradict itself.

 

Initial acceptance by people to whom the work was addressed was crucial. What was the original audience’s sense? Did they accept the book as an authoritative word from God? Here are some examples

– Daniel, who lived within a few years of Jeremiah, called Jeremiah’s book “Scripture” in Daniel 9:2.

 

– Paul called the Gospel of Luke “Scripture” in 1 Timothy 5:18.

 

– Peter affirmed that Paul’s letters were “Scripture” in 2 Peter 3:16.

 

I hope this helps

 

Our last supposed myth is

 

– How can one religious book be right and all the others wrong? Isn’t it more likely all contain some truth, and all contain some error?

 

The Buddha said “‘Do not do unto others what you would not have done to you.’

(the negative version) Jesus said Luke 6:31 “Do to others as you would like them to do to you.”

 

There are some versions of truth in most religions because truth is truth

 

The clear differences of the Bible is

 

  • the way of salvation – every other religious book stresses salvation through works, Jesus stresses salvation through what He did on the cross and through Him, by grace alone through faith alone
  • We are all sinners in need of a Savior we can only be saved through God’s redemptive plan, Jesus Christ John 14:6 “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”
  • Predictive prophecies about Jesus

– Isaiah 53 is an example predicting the suffering and death of the Messiah 700 years before his birth

– Zechariah 12:10 “They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died.”

 

It’s easy to look at the crucifixion of Jesus from our side of history and see clearly how his brutal death fulfilled these prophetic words. But what really shows the divine insight in the words of these prophets is that these words were written not only hundreds of years before the life and death of Christ but also centuries before the Roman practice of crucifixion, with its horrific piercing of the hands and feet with nails that were pounded into the wood of the cross, had even been invented.
There are a number of other predictive prophecies regarding Jesus’ life I have included them in the additional notes on the app and web site

 

I hope if your friends ask you about the Bible and its contradictions or myths about it that you now have enough to at least begin a discussion. If we can see the Bible to be real, then we can wrestle with some of the stories that may challenge us. The key is to not read into them things that are not there such as exact dates and times for some things, exactly how God did it.

 

Some of these things science will eventually prove but for now, if God’s word can be proven to be correct and viable in so many different ways, then it is easy to trust the stories to be accurate and true

 

 

 

 

Additional Information about the notes

Information that verifies the Bible was spoken of and recorded in the writings of non-Christian writers of the era

 

  1. Flavius Josephus (AD 37?-101?, a Jewish historian) mentions John the Baptist and Herod – Antiquities, Book 18, ch. 5, par. 2
    1. “Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod’s army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness.”
  2. Flavius Josephus (AD 37?-101?) mentions Jesus – Antiquities, Book 18, ch. 3, par. 3.
    1. Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles.  He was [the] Christ.  And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, (9) those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; (10) as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.  And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.
  3. Flavius Josephus (AD 37?-101?) mentions James, the brother of Jesus – Antiquities, Book 20, ch. 9.
  4. Flavius Josephus (AD 37?-101?) mentions Ananias the High Priest who was mentioned in Acts 23:2
  5. Tacitus (A.D. c.55-A.D. c.117, Roman historian) mentions “Christus” who is Jesus – Annals 15.44
    1. “Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.”
      1. from http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/annals.mb.txt
    2. Thallus (Circa AD 52, eclipse of the sun) Thallus wrote a history of the Eastern Mediterranean world from the Trojan War to his own time.  His writings are only found as citations by others.  Julius Africanus, who wrote about AD 221, mentioned Thallus’ account of an eclipse of the sun that had taken place at Jesus crucifixion.
      1. “On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down.  This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun.”
        1. Is this a reference to the eclipse at the crucifixion? Luke 23:44-45, “And it was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 the sun being obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two.”
      2. The oddity is that Jesus’ crucifixion occurred at the Passover which was a full moon.  It is not possible for a solar eclipse to occur at a full moon.  Note that Julius Africanus draws the conclusion that Thallus’ mentioning of the eclipse was describing the one at Jesus’ crucifixion.
      3. Pliny the Younger mentioned Christ. Pliny was governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor.  Pliny wrote ten books.  The tenth around AD 112.
        1. “They (the Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.”
      4. The Talmud
        1. “On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged.  For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, “He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy.  Any one who can say anything in his favor, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.”  But since nothing was brought forward in his favor he was hanged on the eve of the Passover!”
          1. 3:13, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”
          2. Luke 22:1-2, “Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching.  2And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might put Him to death; for they were afraid of the people.”
  • This quotation was taken from the reading in The Babylonian Talmud, transl. by I. Epstein (London: Soncino, 1935), vol. III, Sanhedrin 43a, p. 281 as cited in Habermas, Gary R., The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ, (Joplin, MO: College Press Publishing Company) 1996.

 

 

Some of the Predictive Prophesies about Jesus

 

– The place of the Messiah’s birth being in Bethlehem (see Mic. 5:2);

– His being of the lineage of King David (see 2 Sam. 7:12-16);

– His being born of a virgin (see Isa. 7:14);

– His claim of deity (see Isa. 9:6);

– His rejection by his own people (see Isa. 53:3);

– His betrayal for thirty pieces of silver (see Zech. 11:12);

– His extreme
suffering and disfigurement (see Isa. 52:14);

– His death on our behalf (see Isa. 53:5-6);

– His burial in a rich man’s tomb (see Isa. 53:9);

– His subsequent resurrection (see Psalm 16:10)
 

Please don’t ask me…How can you trust the Bible when it is so full of myths and contradictions? Part 1

I want to start today with a story

 

PT: Some time ago the mother of a dear friend of ours was killed. We first learned of her death through a trusted mutual friend, who reported…

 

Person 1: “Our friend’s mother had been standing on a street corner waiting for a bus, had been hit by another bus passing by, was fatally injured, and died a few minutes later.

 

PT: Just a few minutes later the grandson of the woman who had died gave this report

 

Person 2: My grandmother was involved in a collision, was thrown from the car in which she was riding, and was killed instantly.

 

PT: The boy was quite certain of his facts, relayed them clearly, and stated that he had secured his information directly from his mother—the daughter of the woman who had been killed.

 

Who was telling the truth? Which story should we believe?

 

Many people who have problems with the Bible are only saying so because of what they think they know, the information they have in hand…a great way to help them is to ask them, “Specifically what problems do you have? What passages in particular bother you?

 

Most people have only heard the Bible can’t be trusted or only heard there are lots of contradiction to it but don’t have anything in particular they can point to

 

When they do have particular issues, many times it stems from issues that seem to be contradictory like the report of the woman’s death. Did she die on the street corner or in a car? By the way, this is a true story…more about this later

 

When people begin to read the Bible they look at the Gospels and wonder, “why four books about the same things?” Then as they begin to read they see seeming contradictions that my raise doubts in their hearts, supposed contradictions like these

 

Case #1: What was really written on the cross above Jesus’ head? Every Gospel says something different.

  • Matthew 27:37 says, “And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
  • Mark 15:26 says, “And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”
  • Luke 23:38 says, “There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”
  • John 19:19 says, “Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

 

Case #2: How many angels were at Jesus’ tomb after the Resurrection?

 

  • Matthew 28:2 mentions one angel. “And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.”
  • Mark 16:5 says there was “a young man” in the tomb. “And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.”
  • Luke 24:4 mentions two men clothed in dazzling robes. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.

 

Case #3: How many blind men greeted Jesus outside Jericho?

 

  • Matthew 20:30 says two, and neither is named. “And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
  • Mark 10:46 mentions one, named Bartimaeus. And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside.  

 

Case #4: How many demon-possessed men did Jesus meet in the region of the Gadarenes?

 

  • Matthew 8:28 says Jesus met two. And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.
  • Mark 5:2 mentions one. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.  

 

Case #5: How many donkeys did Jesus ride on as he entered Jerusalem?

 

  • Matthew 21:7 mentions two, a donkey and a colt. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.
  • Mark 11:7 And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it.

   Luke 19:35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it only mention one, a colt.

  • This raises another issue: is the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 wrong because it mentions both a donkey and a colt, and therefore supports Matthew but seems to contradict Mark and Luke

 

Case #6: Did the centurion outside Capernaum ask Jesus to heal his servant, or was it someone else who came to Jesus?

 

  • Matthew 8:5 says it was the centurion. When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him,
  • Luke 7:3-6 says the centurion sent two Jewish elders, then some friends, to speak to Jesus on his behalf. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” 6 And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 

 

Case #7: How did Judas die?

 

  • Matthew 27:5 says he went out and hanged himself. And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.
  • Acts 1:18 tells us he fell, and “his body split open, spilling out all his intestines.” Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.

How do we answer people when they bring up these or similar seemingly contradictions?

 

We recognize that we are only getting part of the story, the eyewitness are only reporting what they thought were important or the details that they paid attention to rather than everything that was going on at the time. Often when we get a fuller version of the story seemingly contradictory details make sense in light of the broader understanding of the story

 

Let’s go back to our story…was someone lying? Was someone making things up? Both eyewitnesses were people of integrity. The best posture in light of this information is to think, “Somehow I’m not getting the full story so let’s wait and see what more information develops.

 

Here is what actually happened

 

We learned that the grandmother had been waiting for a bus, was hit by another bus, and was critically injured. She was then picked up by a passing car to rush her to the hospital—but in the haste, the car in which she was being transported to the hospital collided with another vehicle. She was thrown from the car and died instantly.

 

As with this story the Bible is full of accurate, trustworthy accounts, at least this is the basis of our belief as Christians so as we look further into the contradiction we know there is truth that will clarify any contradiction

 

Let’s look at the contradictions I mentioned earlier

 

Case #1: What was really written on the cross above Jesus’ head? Every Gospel says something different.

 

We see a consistency with all of the accounts being “King of the Jews”

 

The sign most likely said “This is Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews which means each of the accounts were accurate just not complete. Secondly we are told in John 19:20 that the sign was written in three different languages which could also account for the differences in recording “Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek.”

 

Cases 2-5 the numbers of angels, demonized people, blind men, or animals let me present a thought.

 

If I walked out of the sanctuary this morning and said there is a chair in the sanctuary I would be correct. If someone else walked out of the sanctuary and said there are 270 chairs in there, they too would be correct, they are just giving more detail then I did. I didn’t say there was only one chair in the sanctuary. Using the angels as a example

 

In the story of the Resurrection, where two angels appear, there is obviously also one angel present; the text doesn’t say “one and only one angel.” Matthew and Mark, who mention one angel speaking, are giving partial details; Luke adds a bit more by also mentioning another angel. And when Mark says “a young man,” he’s describing one angel’s appearance (Luke does this as well when he mentions “two men . . . clothed in dazzling robes”). two blind men, two demonized men, a donkey and its colt all mean that there was one there and there was an additional person but to some of the authors only the detail of the one was important to them

 

Case #6: Did the centurion outside Capernaum ask Jesus to heal his servant, or was it someone else who came to Jesus?

 

In cases of authority a delegate can be sent to speak with the authority of another person. We see that today when the President is quoted as saying something when in reality it was an aide or press secretary or someone else given the authority to speak on the president behalf. The centurion’s quote gives credence to these differences when he says Matthew 8:8,9

 

“Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

 

It is very easy to see that an emissary(s) of the centurion very well could be speaking in his authority and that a Roman soldier would send emissaries of Jewish leadership to speak on his behalf to a powerful Rabbi/prophet. It would be more politically correct in this day.

 

Case #7: How did Judas die? Hanging or falling

 

It is totally possible that both accounts are extremely accurate. Keep in mind our story of the grandmother. Let me share with you a very plausible explanation to unite the two accounts

 

Realizing that he had betrayed the very Son of God and refusing to come to God for grace and forgiveness, Judas decided to do the unthinkable. He went out to a field and found a tree at the top of a rocky cliff, hastily threw a rope over a branch, secured one end of the rope to the tree, and tied the other end around his neck. As his final destructive act, he swung himself out over the precipice. [This squares with the account in Matthew 27:5.] But then, whether before or after dying of strangulation, either the rope or the branch broke, and his body went tumbling down onto the rocks below, disemboweling him in the process and ensuring his demise if he hadn’t passed away already [thus explaining the record in Acts 1:18].

 

I hope that this sampling of some of the so-called contradictions gives you an idea that if an honest reading of the scripture can occur every contradiction can be reconciled.

 

Something to think about as scribes copied the letters and Gospels that could have easily tried to reconcile these seeming contradictions but instead chose to leave them in just as they were. That’s a strong argument for how carefully the biblical text was transmitted throughout the centuries and is another reason why we can trust its accuracy.

 

Don’t worry if your friends have found other things they believe to be mistakes or contradictions in the Bible. There are some great tools for you to use to help bring clarity two I would recommend are

 

1) Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe’s The Big Book of Bible Difficulties

2) Gleason Archer’s New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties

 

with what I have shared today and the use of either of these books you can easily help your friends resolve and conflict they might perceive.

 

As I mentioned earlier

 

Many people who have problems with the Bible are only saying so because of what they think they know, the information they have in hand…a great way to help them is to ask them, “Specifically what problems do you have? What passages, in particular, bother you?

 

Most people have only heard the Bible can’t be trusted or only heard there are lots of contradiction to it but don’t have anything, in particular, they can point to

 

When they do have particular issues, many times it stems from issues that seem to be contradictory. I have given you some tools today to help you clarify some things regarding the supposed contradictions. Some times people hope the Bible is not true because if not, then they don’t need to be accountable for anything that is in it but if it is true then they are accountable for everything that is in it!

 

If you remember this quote from Mark Twain

 

Mark Twain:  “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand”

 

Depending on how close you are with your friend, You might want to ask them…”Is there something in your life you are afraid you will have to change or give up if the Bible is proven to actually be the Word of God?”

 

If they begin to answer this question, listen completely and intensely, don’t interrupt. With compassion, love, and wisdom

 

As always we have to work from a point of love…they don’t know what they don’t know…so love them to the truth.

 

Next week we will answer

 

Please don’t ask me…How can you trust the Bible when it is so full of myths and contradictions? Part 2 and deal with some myths about the Bible like

 

– How can one religious book be right and all the others wrong? Isn’t it more likely all contain some truth, and all contain some error?

– The New Testament consists of carefully chosen books, banning others that shed light on the real Jesus of history

– Even if it was accurate at first, the Bible was copied and translated so many times that it surely has been corrupted

– The Bible was written too far after the events actually happened to be considered reliable

– The Bible is very old and was written by gullible, illiterate people; therefore, we can’t trust it

 

 

 

 

Please don’t ask me…Isn’t evolution a fact, so why are you relying on religion when science has the answers?

Please don’t ask me…Isn’t evolution a fact, so why are you relying on religion when science has the answers?

Today I am going to deal with the topic of science, creation, and God.

I would normally present arguments against Darwin’s Origin of species (today’s evolution illustration), but many times when we are preparing for a discussion about evolution (macroevolution) as outlined by Darwin, we need to begin in the beginning. Darwin begins with the idea of one cell, and as he states in his book, it is from this original cell that the “tree” of life that began macroevolution began.

 

A few things before we get into this…

First, evolution, on one hand, is fact, that is microevolution (microevolution) – defined as changes within a species – for example, there are different breeds of dogs or horses, but despite their difference in size, shape, or color they are all still dogs and horses

 

Macroevolution (Charles Darwin tree of life)– as defined, is all species have their origins in an original cell. There has to be any proof, no fossil record or anything else that would suggest this to be a fact it is a theory and simply that.

 

For the sake of argument we are not going to spend much time on that the challenge before all those who believe in evolution, “where did the original cell come from?”

 

There are three “missing elements” that have to be in place for Darwin’s theory to even be a theoretical possibility:

 

– the origin of the universe (and all matter),

– the origin of the first living organism

– the encoding of information in DNA.

 

Our goal when addressing this question for our friends is to lead them to an understanding that before we even get to the possibility of evolution, we have to discuss how that first cell, Darwin describes as the root of all living things, came into being.

 

The Bible is clear for us on two points today regarding this argument

 

  • Matthew 28 tells us to “go into all the world and make disciples” when arguing these point as with two weeks ago the topic of homosexuality it is important that we make disciples first and then teach them to observe all things. We could lose someone coming to Christ if we immediate engage in an evolutionary debate rather than posing the question anyone who believes in evolution must answer apart from God

 

  • I can not go into as much detail as I would like because of time but this is a skimming the surface type of thing, and there are some books I could recommend if you want to go deeper but we begin with the book, the Bible

 

Genesis 1:20,21

 

And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

 

Genesis 1:24-28

 

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

 

This is the creation story I believe, regarding the origin of man but to get there for those who believe evolution we must help them to think through and reconcile the three missing elements I mentioned earlier…this is hard and very cerebral, but I am hoping this morning to give you an understanding that you can share with others

 

  • The origin of the universe and all matter

 

Carl Sagan, (Carl Sagan) the agnostic, scientist and astronomer said: “In order to make an apple pie you must first invent the universe.”

 

In other words, to place it in an evolutionary mindset, for evolution to get off of the ground, you have to begin with the stuff…where did the stuff come from to create the universe we talked about some of this when we discussed proof for the existence of God

 

Remember matter, matters where did the first cell come from where have the chemicals originated to create the first cell?

 

To eliminate God from the equations, you must believe that all of the stuff was just here randomly bumping into one another until finally, something came together into something that eventually developed into the building blocks of life. Without cause or purpose, these things eventually became us.

 

We can come to an agreement that the Big Bang happened all of this mass of energy and matter, but there is no answer as to where that energy and matter originated that is a question apart from God that can not be answered.

 

Most scientists will state that all matter, energy, and time began at the Big Bang but apart from God that cannot answer how that happened. However, they do try to argue it away by using philosophical naturalism or the elimination of anything supernatural possibly occurring.

 

The good news is many scientists are walking away from that point of view over 1000 from leading universities around the world including all the Ivy League and for those of us here in Pittsburgh CMU, Pitt and of course there are more truly thinking scientist and professors from Penn State. They have all signed a document called the Dissent from Darwinism found at this website   www.dissentfromdarwin.org.

 

The statement says this… “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.”

 

I don’t think I need to stress this point further as I explained the weekend of May 5th you can hear it here

 

http://christiancenter.us/please-dont-ask-mehow-do-you-know-god-exist-especially-since-we-cant-see-hear-or-touch-him/

 

or on our app under weekend messages

 

Just as a quick reminder we said this

 

  1. Whatever begins to exist must have a cause for its existence. 2. The universe began to exist.
  2. Therefore, the universe must have a cause for its existence.
  3. The attributes of the cause of the universe (being timeless, existing outside of space, and so on) are the attributes of God.
  4. Therefore, the cause of the universe must be God. And this squares perfectly with the book of Genesis
  • The encoding of information in DNA

 

It takes vast amounts of information to form one single cell

 

(William Dembski)“The key feature of life is information—specified complexity. Even the most simple bacterial cells teem with vast amounts of information. A single primitive cell would require hundreds of thousands of bits of information precisely sequenced in its DNA. . . . In the entire history of the universe, chance can only produce 400 bits of prespecified information, equivalent to Shakespeare’s famous lines “To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer.” The first primitive cell is therefore far beyond the reach of chance-based mechanisms. Because there is not evidence of simpler life forms from which bacteria could have evolved . . . Evolutionary biologists are left with a mystery.

 

Dembski and McDowell “Understanding intelligent design” William Dembski is considered the “dean” of intelligent design

 

If one primitive cell takes that much information to sequence what about human beings Francis Collins who headed the Human Genome Project described the information contained in human DNA this way (Francis Collins)

 

“This newly revealed text was 3 billion letters long and written in a strange and cryptographic four-letter code. Such is the amazing complexity of the information carried within each cell of the human body, that a live reading of that code at a rate of three letters per second would take thirty-one years, even if reading continued day and night. Printing these letters out in regular font size on normal bond paper and binding them all together would result in a tower the height of the Washington Monument. For the first time on that summer morning this amazing script, carrying within it all of the instructions for building a human being, was available to the world.”

 

When President Bill Clinton stood next to Francis Collins (Clinton Collins photo) to declare the completion of the Genome project, he said, “We are learning the language in which God created life.”

 

Why use such theological terms?

 

Because the scientific breakthrough revealed the vast enormity and impossibility of all of this the idea is that only the finger of God could cause this to happen.

 

Dean Kenyon (Dean Kenyon), biophysicist, from San Francisco State University co-authored a book attempting to prove the origin of life without supernatural involvement only to find himself after more research repudiating his findings, “I had come to the point where he was critical of all naturalistic theories of origins. Due to the immense molecular complexity of the cell and the information-bearing properties of DNA, Kenyon now believed that the best evidence pointed toward a designer of life.”

  • The origin of the first living organism

 

The last point I want to make today is that while Darwinian evolution starts with a cell at the base of the tree of Life where did that original cell come from?

 

Many other scientists over the decades have proposed a variety of theories about the original inception of life—from sheer chance, to the (later disproved) inherent attraction between the building blocks of living matter, to life “riding in on the backs of crystals,” to a theory known as panspermia, which says that life was planted here by beings from outer space.

 

Many scientists simply accept that life is here, acknowledge that they don’t know how it got here.

 

The first life did not come through gradual, successive steps, as the theory of Darwinian evolution demands. Mathematician William Dembski,

 

The first life form emerges suddenly. According to standard dating, this first emergence of life was around 4 billion years ago. For the first 500 million years, the earth was too hot and turbulent for any life form to exist. And then, shortly after the earth was cool enough, certain types of bacteria appear suddenly and abundantly.

What this means is, contrary to what we’d expect according to the principles of Darwinian evolution in which the earliest life-forms should have been traceable back to smaller and simpler component parts, the fossil record shows early life just showing up—bam!—unannounced and fully formed.

 

So not only did Darwin not have an explanation for first life but the way, according to the fossil record, that life formed flies in the face of his theory.

 

Just to build a simple protein you need to get the just right amino acids together. Add to that they must be all left-handed amino acids and they all must fall into a very specific sequence. The possibility of all this happening is one chance in a hundred thousand trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion. That’s a ten with 125 zeroes after it! And that would only be one protein.

 

There is no scientific record nor statistical chance that life could have formed without some kind of intelligence or power

 

As Christians, I believe we have the best answer to the beginning of life

 

You may have noticed that I’ve said very little in the way of direct criticism of Darwin’s actual theory of evolution. Instead, I’ve shown that his theory can’t even get off the ground without three preconditions that neither Darwin nor broader science has been able to explain:

 

  1. How did the universe and matter, in general, get here? (Yes, I accept some version of the Big Bang, but naming it doesn’t explain it; the entire universe exploding out of one infinitesimally small point . . . sounds to me, not like a scientific explanation, but like a miracle of God.)
  2. Who wrote the informational instructions—the DNA “recipes”—that are required for life to form or replicate?

 

  1. How did life originate in the first place? (Science offers no real answers.)

 

I believe all three of these points powerfully demonstrate, from a scientific perspective, the need for an intelligent designer.

 

Please remember when discussing these points our goal is to make disciples first, we are not making converts to creationism that will come as they study God’s word but disciples knowing that Jesus can and will meet them where they are today