Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is
an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,
with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.
We invite you to connect with us from wherever
you are through our website, ecb .asia, or our
mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed
by this week's sermon. Do you remember the first
Bible that you ever got? I know, there was a
time in which the Bible didn't look like my phone.
I remember my first Bible. It was black leather
with gold, beautiful. And as you open it, fine
paper, beautiful print, and the words of Jesus
were all in red. And I was just seven years old.
That was a birthday gift that I got that time,
and I remember it. Because it was so beautiful.
I almost didn't want to open it because it looked
so fragile, you know. And I had the privilege
of growing up in a home where my parents followed
the Lord Jesus. They themselves were not Christians.
All their lives. They in fact grew up in homes
where the parents did not know the Lord. But
as teenagers, both of my parents came to know
the Lord independently. They met each other.
They married. And that's how our family began
from there. So I was born in a Christian home.
But it was a congruent one. My parents believed.
They followed Jesus. And they walked the talk.
So from the beginning, I was taught about Jesus.
I was taught about the Bible. I would read my
Bible. And I was fascinated by the world of the
Bible. I never had to question anything because
everybody around me believed the same thing.
Then when I went to college, I studied a bachelor's
degree in Bible studies and music. So I spent
four years of my life in my early 20s. studying
the Bible in the context of academia. And that
was so insightful. I learned so much, and it
was great. But after that, the Lord opened the
door for me to get my master's in theology at
an institution in the U .S. called Dallas Theological
Seminary. And it was a great place to go and
study theology. But something happened then that
I never anticipated. I had a faith crisis. And
to that point, I had never even thought about
questioning the Bible. But it happened then.
And it's because I was in a stage of having to
study much more in depth. I was studying theology,
not just Bible. And at that moment, What you
start doing is that you have to engage in so
many topics, read so many books, and then you
have to study Hebrew, you have to study Greek,
and you write what is called exegetical papers.
You take a passage from the Bible, you translate
it from the original language, and then you have
to start translating. And you realize that there
are some words that can be translated one way
or the other. And it depends on context. And
there are decisions that are made by people who
translate. That I did not know about. I thought
the text was what it was. And that's what the
Bible says. I didn't realize that there was an
element of human interpretation in the translation.
And then secondly, I never even had thought about
how did we get the Bible. I just had a Bible
and it looked nice. But I never had to spend
time thinking, well, but how did we get the text?
And that's when I discovered that there were
manuscripts, some manuscripts that had been copied
throughout centuries, and that some manuscripts
have variances. And it's like, what? Variances
in the text? How does that work? So in that moment,
I had to start looking at the Bible that I grew
up believing in. And for the first time, I started
wondering, how do I know this is true? How can
I trust this thing? Does God even exist? Or I
believe in these things because I just inherited
them, and I grew up in a Christian home, so I
just believed it because my parents told me.
Never in my life it occurred to me that in my
mid -20s, as I was doing my master's, I would
have that experience. So I remember that I talked
to a couple of classmates and professors and
said, you know, can you pray for me because I'm
going through a faith crisis. And I had their
support. It was a time of engaging in understanding.
Because I realized that doubt, as it's put in
theology, is faith -seeking understanding. So
going through that process of doubt, it was not
opposite to faith. It was just part of the journey
in my life of moving from belief to conviction.
What do I mean by that? The way I put it is like
this. Imagine that I'm given this gift of Legos.
For those of you that have kids, you know what
Legos are, right? So I have this beautiful toy
that is all made up of all these little parts
and I like it. It's so nice and my parents give
it to me. So I have it and I enjoy it. But one
day somebody came and took that beautiful toy.
threw it on the floor. And now all the pieces
are all over the place. And now it's my job to
have to figure out how the pieces go together
so I can build it. That will require understanding.
Before, I didn't need to understand anything.
I just had to enjoy it. But now, I had to understand
it in order to build it. And that is what was
happening in my spiritual journey at that moment.
I was moving from belief, a system that I inherited,
To now having to put it together and realize,
do I believe this or do I believe that? Where
does this go? How does this connect? And that
process was disorienting. It was hard, but it
was worth it. Because when we have belief but
not conviction, we can't just work in this place
of just following God, but, you know, from a
comfortable place of distance. And we don't engage
with things because we don't know and it doesn't
matter. But when you cannot avoid it, and you
have to engage with it because you are in crisis,
and you need to know the answer because you want
to understand, then suddenly you start developing
conviction. And when conviction is born, it's
like a solidity, a foundation that is developed
that takes your journey with the Lord to another
level. That journey is what taught me this important
spiritual lesson that I want to share with you.
And that lesson is that the Bible is truth. And
that I am a follower of Jesus, not because I'm
religious, but because Jesus is truth. And until
we understand that, we will continue approaching
the aspect of following Jesus or identifying
as a Christian as a matter of opinion rather
than as a matter of truth. And what I discovered
in my journey of wrestling through these things
was a whole framework that has to do with what
we call epistemology, the study of what is true.
Let me take you, for instance, at the beginning.
Of the process of thinking through some of these
things. The very last chapter of the book of
Isaiah. He is the prophet that was telling us
everything about Jesus the Messiah that was going
to come. We studied those prophecies at the end
of the year, last year. In the Christmas season.
Well he finishes his book. The very last chapter
which is chapter 66. With this. This is Jesus
and this is God speaking to people. And God says
something that is very significant for anyone
that is seeking God. God says, look, I created
everything, even you, so what do you have to
give me really nothing because I created everything.
But if you want to know what pleases me, let
me tell you what pleases me. And he says this.
These are the ones I look on with favor. Those
who are humble and contrite in spirit and who
tremble at my word. Two things that matter to
me, God says, are you humble? Are you teachable?
Or you think that you are the person with all
the answers and that you know better? And when
you encounter my word, do you take it seriously?
Or you disregard it? For God, it matters whether
we have a humble attitude and whether we engage
with his words seriously. That's why he says
this in this section. I love those who tremble
at my word, that take me seriously when I say
it, they hear it, and they take it to heart.
So God wants us to take his word seriously. But
one of the things that we discovered at the beginning
of the ministry of Jesus is that he found people
that were religious, but they were not taking
God's word seriously. And these religious leaders
that he encountered called the Pharisees. He
engaged with them one moment in conversation,
and he said to them, if you believe Moses, you
would believe me, for he wrote about me. The
problem here is that since you do not believe
what he wrote, how are you going to believe what
I say? These people were supposedly serving God,
but they were not believing the word that God
had given. Did you pay attention to what Jesus
said? Let me read it again. If you believe who?
Moses. You will believe me because he wrote about
me. What did he write? What did Moses write?
Do you know the answer to that? Well, he wrote
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The first five books of the Bible. That's called
the Pentateuch. And Jesus says, look, Moses wrote
these first five books. And if you believe what
he wrote, then you will believe me. Because he
wrote about me. The Bible says that Jesus is
a God who became a human like us to bring salvation
for us. That he is the creator of the world.
Well, who wrote about God creating the world?
Moses. In Genesis. Jesus says, Moses wrote about
me. If you would believe Moses, you would believe
me. But you don't believe me because you don't
believe Moses. And he points out to the reality
that some people may be wanting to follow God,
but the problem that is holding them back is
unbelief. They may have the word, but they don't
believe it. And that is the stage I was in. I
was in a stage of faith crisis. Do I believe
this or not? And as you start engaging with interpretation
of different things, there are so many opinions
about everything that you experience something
that I call paralysis by analysis. It's like,
well, I believe this. And you start researching.
It's like, what, there are like 10 views about
this? Which one is right? All these arguments.
It's like, paralyzed. I don't know what I know
anymore. And that place. Can lead people to saying,
I don't know and I don't care. But that's not
taking God's word seriously, is it? So I remember
that in that stage, I had to go through this
wrestling. And that wrestling is a healthy wrestling
because now you have to spend time understanding.
And you have to understand it. Because at the
core, what we are talking about is truth. And
Jesus said that truth was going to set us free.
Jesus is not interested in opinions or diversity.
Jesus is interested in truth. That's why when
he prays for us, his followers, from the very
beginning, There's a moment in which he prays
for the apostles and he says, I pray for them
that they will be one, that they will be united.
But in this section, he says this, I have given
them something. What did he give them? I have
given them your word. He uses the word logos
in Greek here to talk about the word, which means
the revelation of God. God, I have given them
your revelation. I have given them your word.
And the world has hated them, for they are not
of the world any more than I am of the world.
My prayer is not that you take them out of the
world, but that you protect them from the evil
one. They are not of the world, even as I am
not of it. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word
is truth. And this is what Jesus prays, and in
this prayer, he frames everything to this concept
of epistemology. It's an issue of truth. I don't
know if you've ever been feeling sick, but when
you feel sick, typically you go to the doctor.
Let me ask you something. Are you interested
in the doctor's opinion or are you interested
in truth? Yeah, I know you're interested in truth.
If you go to one doctor and he tells you one
thing and you go to a second doctor and she tells
you a different thing, now what are you going
to do? Which one are you going to choose? Most
likely you're going to get a third opinion to
see which one is accurate, right? If you go to
a third opinion, Is this person matching some
of the others? Because you want truth. You don't
want just opinion. And when we're talking about
believing in God, following Jesus, we're not
talking about religions as opinions. We're talking
about truth. And therefore, when we engage with
truth, we have to remember that truth is true
because it's factual. And it correlates with
reality. And one of the things that we find from
the very beginning of Christianity is not that
just Jesus framed following him as seeking truth
and believing in truth, but his followers, the
apostles, They wrote about these things and salvation
and the things that were going to happen in the
future and all of these things from a perspective
of conviction that this was true. And that's
why they were following. Let me give you an example.
The Apostle John, who wrote the Gospel of John,
and who also wrote 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, three
letters to Christians, and he wrote the book
of Revelation. So this was one of the apostles
that wrote several of the books that we have
in the Bible. When he begins the first letter
of John, he writes it like this. That which was
from the very beginning, from the very beginning
of history, there's something that we're telling
you about. And that is something that we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked at. And our hands have touched.
We are telling you about this person. And this
we proclaim concerning the word of life. This
was a title given to Jesus. What John is saying,
look, we are telling you about Jesus because
we have heard him. We have seen him. We have.
Touched him. What we are telling you is true.
We experienced it. We are not making it up. So
you can see that from the very beginning. The
people that taught us and wrote about these things.
They wrote from a place of saying this is fact.
That's why I'm teaching you. And that's why you
need to believe it. Because it's true. If you
don't believe it you will be deceived. Believing
something else that is not true. Well, how do
you know? Because I saw it, I touched it, I was
there. There was a man who did not believe in
Jesus, who did not believe that God existed.
He was just a professional with his wife, both
of them agnostics. And he was enjoying his career
as a lawyer, as a journalist, and one day his
wife, proclaimed that she had become a Christian.
What do you do when you are an agnostic and your
wife says, I'm a Christian now? Well, he did
everything that any loving husband would do.
I'm going to try to rescue you so that you will
not be brainwashed because you're in a cult or
something. You know, and we know the truth that
God doesn't exist and all that Christian stuff
is nonsense. It's myth. So he decided to start
researching and getting involved as a journalist,
as a lawyer, with all the techniques that he
had learned. His name is Lee Strobel. And at
the end of this journey, of this process, he
started discovering that the things... that he
thought were just myth, did not happen, this
Jesus thing was not true. All of that actually
was verifiable through history. There were records
in history. There was archaeological evidence.
There were all of these different things that
suddenly led him to believe that what the Bible
said about Jesus was true. And he became a follower
of Jesus just like his wife. And eventually he
wrote many books. One of the famous ones was
The Case for Christ. One of the latest ones that
he wrote is God Real. It's written to help teenagers
that are going through asking questions. They
want to know if this is really true or not. Or
I believe it's just because my parents told me.
An agnostic person From the U .S. Thinking that
none of these things really happen. And realizes
that actually, after all, they are true. And
because they are true, I must believe it. Let
me tell you the story of the Apostle Paul. Because
the Apostle Paul was not a follower of Jesus.
He persecuted Christians. But the reason why
he became a follower of Jesus, he says, is because
Jesus appeared to him. The resurrected Jesus
appeared to him. And that's what turned his life
around. He thought that Jesus was a fake. And
there's a moment, as he's teaching people about
Jesus, that he realizes there are some people
that are saying that Jesus did not resurrect.
That that's fairytale, that those things don't
happen. So as he's engaging in that conversation,
he says, okay. Just for the sake of argument,
let's say that Jesus really did not resurrect
and all of that is made up. If that's true, he
says these words. If there is no resurrection
of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching
is useless. And so is your faith. You are wasting
your time. If Jesus is not real. And if Jesus
did not resurrect. Then we are wasting our time.
And not only that. But let the world have pity
on us. Because we are the most deceived people
in the world. Believing a lie of something that
never happened. If only for this life we have
hope in Christ. We are of all the people must
to be pitied. But then he says, but the resurrection
did happen. And Jesus is alive because I saw
him. So I don't believe in the resurrection because
it sounds cool. I believe in it because it's
true. And because it's true, I believe it. During
the 1800s, there was a whole movement in the
Christian... colleges and academia and universities.
Because remember during the 1800s, the area of
Israel was not open for archaeological digs.
It was a political time of empires. Therefore,
during the 1800s, they didn't have any much archaeological
discoveries or things, information, data that
corroborated the Bible. So many people started
Thinking maybe that didn't happen. Maybe this
Jesus thing, the resurrection, angels, miracles.
We know that that doesn't happen. Miracles don't
happen. But the Bible is full of all this stuff.
So what started happening is that there was a
movement in theology called liberal theology.
It's called liberal theology not as an insult
to the people. Oh, you're a liberal. It's not
that. Liberal theology in those terms meant that
people that consider themselves Christians did
not believe that the Bible was historical. And
therefore, they thought the Bible was myth. They
still wanted to believe in it, but now they had
to reinterpret everything. Maybe it's metaphorical,
maybe symbolic. And from that way of thinking,
There was a whole movement that started reinterpreting
the Gospels. And there was a way of thinking
that Jesus was a real person, but then he became
Christ through the myths of religion. So this
phase from Jesus to Christ was a phrase used
much later by a group of academicians that were
liberal academicians, don't believe the Bible
was true. And they created something that is
called the Jesus Seminar. If you're in the U
.S., typically during Easter season or Christmas
season, places like PBS, Discovery Channel, and
all of these places are going to show one of
these videos. And the moment you see from Jesus
to Christ, you know, oh, those are those guys.
What they thought was Jesus was a real person.
But all of this is mixed with myth. So you have
to remove the myth in order to find the real
Jesus. And that was the academic way of thinking
in the late 1800s. And there was a guy at the
beginning of the 1900s, his last name was Morris,
who was an agnostic, an academician, but he was
fascinated by the life of Jesus. So he decided
that he was going to research in his academic
work the last seven years of the life of Jesus
because he wanted to prove something. And he
writes it later. Let me tell you his words, what
he said. He said, I wanted to strip it of its
overgrowth of primitive beliefs and dogmatic
suppositions. Like, I wanted to remove all the
mythology out of this Jesus so I could really
find the real Jesus. Because I wanted to see
this supremely great person as he really was.
He was approaching it from that perspective.
This cannot be true. Resurrection doesn't happen.
Angels, forget it. God becoming man. Jesus born
of a virgin. Come on, that's fairytale. We are
rational people here. We know those things don't
happen. So in the process of doing his research.
He became a Christian. He became a follower of
Jesus because the evidence that he found was
so overwhelming that he realized, wait, this
is not myth. This really happened. And that's
when he wrote this famous book, Who Moved the
Stone? And this is the book that he wrote to
share what had convinced him that the resurrection
actually had happened. And Paul says, yeah, it
did. That's why I believe it. Because it's true.
Not because it's nice. Let me tell you about
the life of the Apostle Peter. Because the Apostle
Peter was not a follower of Jesus at the beginning.
He was a fisherman. But then he became a follower
of Jesus. And his understanding of who Jesus
was grew with time until the time of the resurrection.
And he became one of the key leaders in Christianity.
He writes to Christians in 1 and 2 Peter. And
he starts telling them about salvation, about
who Jesus is, what it means to follow Jesus.
He tells them about the future, how the world
is going to be destroyed by fire. He talks about
all these different things. But just like John
and Paul, he also speaks about these things as
factual, as like, I'm telling you because it's
true. But there's a moment. in which he points
us out to Moses again, to origins, and to eschatology
all at once. And he says this, guys, you have
to remember that in the last times, there's going
to be many people that will stop believing the
word. And they deliberately will forget something.
What will these people forget? That long ago,
by God's word, the heavens came into being, and
the earth was formed out of water and by water.
Wait, wait a second. Are you talking about the
writings of Moses? What does the Bible say that
God created by speaking, and that he separated
the waters from the waters? What does that say?
Which book? Genesis. Which chapter? Peter is
saying, look, I want to tell you something that
Genesis 1 says. In the future, people won't believe
it. And not only that, then he says, by these
waters also the world of that time was deluged
and destroyed. Wait, what are you talking about?
Are you talking about the flood? Which book says
that? Genesis, the writings of Moses. They are
going to forget and stop believing that the world
of that time was destroyed by water. And by the
same word that destroyed that world by water,
the present heavens and earth are reserved for
fire being kept for the day of judgment and destruction
of the ungodly. The same word. It's telling you
that the past happened and the future is going
to happen. And it happened because it's true
and it's going to happen because it's true. But
people are going to stop believing it, Peter
says. Imagine, he wrote this at the very beginning
of Christianity. And when I read that, it's like,
wait, Peter, you are telling me that I need to
believe what Genesis says? Because, no offense.
Apostle Peter, but we live in a time of science.
You didn't. So you were more likely to believe
myths, but we know better today that those things
didn't happen. Or did they? There was a Chinese
scientist who studied science in China. and then
went to the U .S. to get his Ph .D. His author
name is Li Cheng. His actual real name is Bing
Cheng Feng. And he wrote a book called The Song
of a Wanderer. It was originally written in Chinese
and then translated into English. And it was
fascinating because as a Chinese scientist, he
was an atheist, and when he moves to the U .S.,
To do his Ph .D. He himself is an atheist scientist.
But the difference in the U .S. is that he starts
meeting all these Christians. And they start
befriending him. They start talking to him about
Jesus. They give him Bibles. He says, no, I don't
believe in those fairy tales. You know, all that
stuff. I'm a scientist. We know that Christians
believe in myths. It will be ridiculous for me.
As a highly educated scientist, to start believing
the Bible and becoming a Christian? Of course
not. So he spent years collecting the Bibles
that people would give him. And one day he started
attending a Bible study with his wife. And slowly
he started realizing, wait, I never knew that.
I never heard that. So he started engaging in
his research as an atheist scientist. And he
realized he had never read the Bible because
he assumed all of this was wrong. But he started
discovering that the history of science, most
of the original scientists were Christians. And
he couldn't understand why Christians would be
smart like that. How could a scientist be a Christian?
It didn't make any sense. So he writes, since
I claim to be a scientist and scoffed at Christianity,
it never dawned on me that the scientific method
itself practiced today was actually developed
by Christians. They believed that the one true
God created the universe and that it had order
and could be understood. And he realized that
many of the scientists that shaped his understanding
from past history, they themselves were Christians
and that's why they became scientists. He had
assumed that true science was atheist. So it
was through that journey that eventually, just
like the other guys, the evidence became compelling,
compelling, compelling, and he himself became
a Christian. And that's why he wrote the book,
The Song of a Wanderer, to summarize his research
as a good academician, you know, very systematically.
This is what I discovered and this is what convinced
me that Christianity was true. And then he shares
his story of how he came to believe in Christ.
Fascinating. There's another story that is even
more fascinating to me. And that's an Australian
academician as well, Dr. Ron Neller. He has a
PhD in fluvial geomorphology. If that sounds
like a mouthful, you never heard that title before,
I hadn't until I learned about him. He is a scientist
that specializes on studying how water affects
the ground. That's basically it. There's a whole
career for this. So he spent 30 years of his
life in this career as an agnostic. He was a
man that was taught to believe that the earth
was billions of years old, that everything happened
through slow erosion, and that God didn't exist,
and that Darwinian evolution was true. That was
his worldview as a scientist. So for 30 years
of his career in research, He had the privilege
of traveling the world. He was in Europe, he
was in Asia, he was in Australia, he was in different
places. So he got to experience the study of
the geological record and the effect of water
in all of these different countries during a
season in which the satellite technology was
being developed. So he was not only able to see
lots of places in the world, but he was able
to start seeing big sections from satellite imagery.
And through that, he started realizing that the
data that he was discovering did not match the
worldview that he had been taught. And he started
realizing that the data showed that there had
been a catastrophic worldwide event damaged by
water. And he started bringing up some of these
things that he was discovering and the incongruency
that this data was showing. In his academic context,
and his friends would say, okay, that's all fine,
but please don't go that route too much because
you're starting to sound like a Christian. And
then he read the Bible, and then he read that
the Bible said that there was a global flood
that had happened. And at that moment, he started
realizing that, wait, this matches the evidence
that I see. So he became a believer in the global
flood and in the historicity of Genesis, but
not a believer of Jesus. He was still an agnostic.
God might exist. And he says that the resistance
to follow Jesus was because he knew that going
the extra mile and now becoming a Christian meant
committing academic suicide. You cannot be a
well -respected scientist. in the academia and
be a Christian at the same time. So it was safe
to remain an agnostic. So one day with a friend
from university, they decided both, she was an
atheist, they decided that they needed to disprove
that Christianity was true by going to a church.
So they decided to visit the church that day
together to disprove Christianity. And at that
moment, they come out of that service as Christians
followers of Jesus. He says, I don't even remember
what the pastor was preaching that day, but I
had an encounter with the Holy Spirit that transformed
my life. And from that point on, not only I became
a Christian, my friend became a Christian, and
not only that, but she became my wife. And today
he works. now after his years of career for his
career, he works part of a ministry called Creation
Ministries. You can find their information in
creation .com. But it's a group of scientists
from lots of different fields that through scientific
research and evidence started pointing them to
the fact that what they read in Genesis was congruent
with reality. And every one of these scientists
have their own journey. But the journey is the
same. They had a worldview that was challenged
by the evidence. And the evidence corroborated
what the Bible said. And that led them to eventually
follow Jesus. Why? Because it is true. It was
a group of geologists that came together. These
were Christian geologists. So we need to let
people know about the data that is on the geological
record that shows the evidence that there was
a global flood, a catastrophic event that shaped
the landscape of the world. And they created
this documentary called It's Genesis History,
Mountains After the Flood. You can actually find
it in YouTube and watch it for free. The reason
why these things matter It's because in the search
of wrestling with things and engaging with the
Bible and taking it seriously, it's an invitation
of engaging with truth. And truth is not an issue
of opinion. Truth is about epistemology. It's
the study of what is really true. Is this true
or this is true? How do I know? Well, the way
we know is because truth Is congruent with reality.
And because the Bible is congruent with reality.
Because Jesus is congruent with reality. Then
we follow him because it's truth. There was an
author that wrote a whole book on this topic.
Total truth is the name of the book. Her name
is Nancy Percy. If you are someone that is. If
you consider yourself more like an intellectual,
someone that is more in the academic world, someone
that is into philosophy and concepts, history
of ideas, this book is a must. It's the best
book I've read. She does an amazing job of bringing
the development of thought. It's a book of, I
would call, like Christian philosophy, how the
thought of worldview has developed. And to the
point we are today and how Christians have to
wake up to the fact that Christianity is not
just an opinion about myths and potential religions
that are all the same. Christianity has always
been and remains a topic of truth. It's a worldview
that we believe in because it is true. There's
so much more to say. But this study will end
here. Because what I wanted to share with you
is this. In the spiritual journey of following
Jesus, it requires that we engage with truth.
That's the invitation of Jesus. And in that invitation,
you at some point will wrestle with things that
you don't understand. And that is okay. But in
my journey, what I have discovered through my
personal research, through the lessons of all
the people that I have learned from, is that
the Bible, I can trust it because it's true.
I may not understand everything. There may be
different interpretations about details here
and there, but the Bible is not a myth. It's
a record of history that you can trust. And you
can build your life upon. And the Bible says
that you and I are sinners. That God created
us. He loves us. Jesus became a human so that
he could pay for our sin. And give the way for
us to experience salvation and freedom and relationship
with God. And that to follow Jesus is the only
way of walking in truth. Because Jesus is the
truth. And therefore if you are seeking God.
If you are in a journey of wanting to understand
more. You are in the right place. Because here
we want to walk with you. Creating safe spaces
where you can engage with the wrestling. Because
what we care about is truth. Truth that will
set you free. If you are a child of Christian
parents. Where you have grown up. Learning about
the Bible and Jesus from birth. At some point
maybe. You will question things. Maybe you will
never question anything. But I'm here to tell
you as someone that went through that journey.
What you have received. Is truth. And you will
have to engage in your own journey. But don't.
Let go of the truth. You will meet people that
will make you think that to be a follower of
Jesus is to commit intellectual suicide. That
you cannot be truly an intelligent person and
be a follower of Jesus at the same time. And
believe in the Bible at the same time. They are
wrong. So here I am. telling you, encouraging
you, grow in your relationship with God. Make
the belief that you received your convictions.
And whatever that journey takes you to, and whatever
crisis you may experience, Jesus is with you
through it all. And if we can help you in any
way in that journey, we are here to walk with
you. Not from a place of superiority, but with
a place of humility. We know what it's like to
wrestle. So I'm going to invite you to stand
up with me. And I want to ask you, if you're
in a place where you perhaps are facing doubts
about God, about the Bible, about following Jesus,
pray to the Lord what this man told Jesus. I
believe, help my unbelief. Meet me in this place
of doubt Lord. And lead me into all truth. Because
I know you care about truth. And that's what
I want. Lord I pray in the name of our Lord Jesus.
That you will guide us. And protect us from the
attacks of the enemy. That you will also protect
us from deception. That you will protect us from
falsehood. But lead us into truth. I ask you
Lord for my friends. Who are in that place of
wrestling. Help them wrestle. Don't rush their
journey. Let them wrestle for as long as they
have to. Until that journey brings conviction.
Because it is conviction Lord. That will bring
the power for the future you have for them. And
for those of us. Who have children. Help us lead
them in a way that invites understanding. Give
us wisdom to know how to teach them your ways.
Thank you for your truth that has set us free.
We love you and we pray in the powerful name
of Jesus. Amen. If God is calling you to support
our ministries, you will find giving options
on our website. And remember to join us next
week. God bless you.