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. Would you join me? Lord.
You alone. Your kingdom. First. Your strength.
Your power. Your timing. Your plans. Your vision.
Your presence. You. It is you whom we need. So
as we're in your presence today, Lord, we're
asking you to encounter us here today. You know
where our hearts are. You know where we have
been. What we need is you. So as we open your
word today, as we study together, as we listen
to what you have to say, Lord, We need you and
you alone. Let it be your voice that speaks deep
into our souls. And use me, Lord, in your grace,
in your power, in your strength. In Jesus' name,
amen. Well, I want to welcome you to ECB if you
are visiting us for the first time. Pray that
this is an encouragement for you to be here.
If you happen to have questions about the ministry
here at ECB or life in Bangkok, if you just moved
here, we have the Connection Center downstairs.
As you leave downstairs, turn to the left and
you will find the Connection Center. People waiting
to meet with you and answer your questions. For
the rest of us, the ECB family, I just want to
give you an update on some important things.
This is the season where we open our classes.
Some of the classes get full very quickly. Some
are starting already today. Some are starting
next week. So this is the time to register for
the courses. You can do it through our app online
or just grab your phone and quickly scan the
QR code. But if you are a person who is not yet
a Christian but you have questions, you are seeking,
you want answers in a place that is not threatening,
then Alpha Course is for you. If you are a Christian
that has questions and you want answers because
you want to think intelligently about these different
things and you are already following Jesus, then
Crossroads is for you. If you are a follower
of Jesus but you lack peace because there's woundedness
that you carry, there's bitterness, there's this
sense that there's something that's just not
right, then Freedom in Christ is for you. And
if you are married and you want just to strengthen
your marriage, The marriage course is for you.
So wherever you are in your journey, we want
to come alongside to strengthen your walk with
God. And we pray that this season will be encouraging
and impactful for your life. So register for
these things. Also, we want to rejoice with our
families at ECB that have had the blessing of
welcoming new children into their families. We
will have family dedication in February. And
we already have some people that have registered
for it. But we want to give the opportunity one
more time today in case you want to register
to have a time of dedication for your child.
You can go online and you will find information
there to how to register and what is required
for these things. And we are going to be celebrating
baptisms in March. This is one of those services
that I love because we get to hear the stories
of our people, how God has encountered them and
transformed their lives. So if you would like
to be baptized in March, what you have to do
is you have to register now because the baptism
class is in February. So register for it. Go
to our website. All the information will be there.
But we look forward to celebrating your life
and this step of faith and obedience to Christ.
These are the things that are happening now in
this upcoming month. So we want to share all
of these things with you as we move forward in
this year. At the beginning of the year, we started
a series of spiritual lessons from our walk with
God. And the goal was to give the opportunity
to different people that have been walking with
the Lord to share an important lesson that they
learned so that we can learn from them. Next
week, we will have a friend from the U .S. that
has been a pastor there for many years. He's
now serving with an international organization,
and he happens to be here in Bangkok for a couple
of months. And he's going to be sharing with
us next week. But today, I'm going to be sharing
as a continuation of what I did last week. Last
week, I shared with you the lesson that truth
matters. About my faith crisis. That I had to
go through. And today I want to complete this
study. So that's always part two. Have you ever
experienced a faith crisis? It's not pretty.
It's very disorienting. And scary. Because you
do not know what's going to happen. You just
find yourself in that place. Where things are
not solid anymore. And you thought they were.
And what is it going to be? I had the privilege
of coming to know Christ when I was six years
old because my parents were already followers
of Jesus and they gave us a good example. In
fact, it was my father who led me to Christ.
And then when I was nine years old, I was in
a children's summer camp where I asked the Lord
that I wanted to serve him with my life. I did
not know in what or how, but I just had this
desire for God at a young age. When I was 18
years old, I went to Bible college to study Bible
so I could serve in ministry and teach the Bible
to people. But I did not know yet what kind of
ministry I was going to be involved in. The only
thing I knew after I finished my bachelor's degree
is that I wanted to study more. I wanted to study
theology. So that's when I went to study master's
in theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. I
was a young adult in my mid -20s at that time.
And that, from all places, is when I had my faith
crisis. Once I started realizing that the Bible
that I was reading since childhood, the stories
I was reading since childhood, all of these things
suddenly it's like, wait, the Bible was written
in Hebrew and Greek and all of these things and
there are different ways of translating a single
word or that. And there's textual criticism and
there's manuscripts and all of these different
things I had never even known about or learned
to question any of these things was the catalyst
for my faith. It was a crisis that led me to
have to understand the things that I had believed.
I inherited them in a good way, not in a bad
way. But the faith crisis made me solidify these
things. And it moved me from believing, having
beliefs, to not having convictions. But that
process was a scary process. Because you start
asking questions like, how do I know I can trust
the Bible? How do I know this is true? How do
I know that God exists? How do I know that Jesus
is real? And suddenly all of these different
things came to the surface. And in that space,
God met me and led me. And I want to share that
journey with you. Because if you are in a faith
crisis, For some, that is just part of the journey.
Some of you will never have one. That's great.
But if you are in that stage of your life, don't
worry. It's okay. The Lord is with you. And you
are in the right place at the right time because
we want to walk with you. Because one of the
things that we're discovering in this journey
is that it's not so much about what do I believe?
What do I really believe? That's the wrong question.
The question is, what is really truth? Because
you want to believe truth. And that's why last
week when we started the study, I showed you
some of these different things that God... frames
this whole concept from his perspective. And
let me just review from last week initially here
what God had told the people about what mattered
to him. Would you read this aloud as a review?
These are the ones I look on with favor, those
who are humble and contrite in spirit and who
tremble at my word. We learned last week that
God cares about what attitude we have about His
Word. He wants us to take His Word seriously.
That matters to Him. And the second thing we
learned is that when Jesus prays for us as His
followers, He says that His Word, His revelation
is going to shape us and sanctify us. And we
read this last week. Would you read it out loud
with me? Sanctify them by the truth. Your word
is truth. Jesus cared about truth. He said that
truth was going to set us free. He said, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. And then when
he prays for us, he says, God, I pray for them
so that they will be transformed by your truth.
The reason why a faith crisis matters, It's because
it's an opportunity to discern what is true.
Not what I believe or what works for me. You
move from that place of having beliefs to now
having to move to a place of having convictions.
And that place matters because if you move from
belief to deep conviction, what follows is deeper,
greater kingdom impact. Because what you believe
now is solid. And truth matters. It matters to
God. He wants us to take his word seriously because
his word is truth. So we take his word seriously
because it's true. So we take his truth seriously.
But there's a reason why that matters so much.
There's a time in the Old Testament in which
the nation of Israel got to the lowest point.
Spiritually. And God sends prophet Jeremiah.
To minister to them during that time. And God
who cared about his people. Caring for truth.
Now looks at them. And just the very thought.
That God is pronouncing these words. It's a very
emotional heavy moment. God says. Say to them
Jeremiah. This is the nation that has not obeyed
the Lord its God or responded to its correction.
Truth has perished. It has vanished from their
lips. When I look at my people, I don't see anyone
that cares about truth. They don't care about
it. They don't know it. They don't speak it.
And because of that attitude towards my truth,
is that they have now embraced all of these worldviews
of all of these religions. And now they have
engaged in things that instead of moving forward,
now they have moved backwards. And it saddens
me to see my people no longer caring about truth.
And before that, in that journey that the nation
has gone in that process of decay, as they are
abandoning truth slowly and embracing other worldviews
of their surrounding nations, God has sent prophet
Isaiah to confront another dimension of this
journey that they were in. When you abandon truth,
and it's no longer in your lips because you don't
understand it, you don't care about it, you don't
speak it, you don't guide anyone into truth,
then how do you discern right from wrong, good
from evil? What is good and what is bad? How
do you discern that if it's not based on truth?
If we are living truth aside and we are simply
functioning on a matter of opinions, How do you
know? And how do you live? And that's why God
confronts the nation through Isaiah. And he tells
Isaiah, tell this people, a people now where
truth doesn't matter, a place where truth has
perished, tell them this, woe to those who call
evil good, and good evil. Completely turned around.
Their sense of right and wrong. Completely turned
around. Upside down as we say. Who put darkness
for light. And light for darkness. Who put bitter
for sweet. And sweet for bitter. He's seeing
the people. That now they are abandoned in truth.
And he's seeing them make decisions for life
completely contrary to what he himself has designed
for them. And not only they are disobeying and
doing the opposite, but they're calling that
good and they're calling his way bad. And he
says, woe to those who are wise in their own
eyes and clever in their own sight, but have
abandoned me. For their own versions of truth.
What we realize is that truth matters. Because
what we believe to be true. Will affect the way
we live. And God wants us to experience life
abundantly. According to his design. And the
moment we do not believe that he is truth. and
that His way is the true way, we will abandon
it for something else, and our lives and our
decisions are not going to take us to the right
place. And we will look back at our lives with
regret because we were duped by deception. Lack
of truth is not an option for us followers of
Jesus. if we are really going to overcome the
crisis of faith. We have to engage and wrestle
through it because we need to follow it because
it's true. If it's not true, then walk away from
it. Because God cares for truth. And it is sad
to see what Isaiah mentioned. come to fruition
in so many cases. But one of the sad cases that
I got to hear was from this young lady, Chloe
Cole. She did not grow up in a religious home.
So she didn't have really a belief in God or
the Bible or things like that. Her parents thought,
we're not going to impose any religious view.
Your own spirituality is your business. We're
going to let you develop your own convictions.
And as she looks back, she says, I wish my parents
did not have that mindset because I needed truth.
I needed convictions, but I didn't have them.
So when I was 12 years old, as I was entering
puberty, I started feeling uncomfortable with
my changes and with my body. And as a typical
teenager, I was spending a lot of time in social
media. And that's when I started seeing the stories
of all these people, some of them my age or older,
that had similar feelings to what I was feeling.
And then I realized that they were teaching me
that actually the way I was feeling, the reason
for that was because I had the body of a girl,
but really I was a boy. I was meant to be born
a boy. And the only way that his feelings would
go away was that if I became physically a boy.
So she started embracing that ideology at age
12. Which led her to eventually perform all the
hormonal treatment and the removal of her breasts.
And she became... A boy. And she was not a Christian.
She did not believe in God, the Bible, none of
these things. But it was in that period of her
life, between 12 and 16, as she was going to
high school and living life like a boy, that
she realized this was a whole mistake. I'm not
a boy. I can never be a boy. I can just look
like one. But I was born a girl and I'm still
a girl trying to pretend to be a boy. There's
no such a thing as different genders. And she
started feeling conflicted more and more. And
she's going to high school. And she's learning
about the human body and all of these things.
She says the maternal instinct started. Coming
up in me like the desire in the future to have
a child, you know, through these classes that
she was going through. And she said, the moment
I realized I will never be able to breastfeed
a child. And she started feeling the regrets
of her decision. Realizing that what she needed
was someone to help her understand her feelings
rather than someone to take these feelings and
make her identity. But all of this stuff, it
was a little bit too late because the breasts
were gone. Their hormones were already there.
Her voice had already changed. But in that stage,
she realized that there were other people that
were questioning these things. So she decided
to detransition and go back to being a girl.
And it's in that season of her life that she
met other people that were talking about how
wrong this was. And that's the first time she
met Christians and she heard the gospel and she
became a follower of Jesus. After the transitioning.
And for the first time in her life. She started
realizing that God had created her with the gender
that he desired. And that gender and sex were
not two separate things. That if you were a male,
you were a boy. And that if you were a girl,
you were a female. And that that identity was
God given. A gift for her to embrace. Her life
started changing completely from that point on.
And she says, That confusion around my identity
and my purpose as a woman came from a lack of
faith and objective reality and morality. I didn't
have that. And because I didn't have that, how
do I define what is true? These were the psychologists
and the counselors and the doctors and the government
telling me I needed to do this, that this was
the solution. I needed that solid foundation
that Christ has now given me. I needed it then.
Upside down. She says after her experience, this
is wrong. They call it medicine, but it's actually
malpractice. They call it affirming, but in reality,
it's not affirming anything except for my own
deception. And now she's dedicating this stage
of her life to testify, to bring some awareness
of how children go through these things. And
she has even testified before Congress in the
U .S. and been invited to different countries
to speak about this reality because she is living
it. Even now, she still has the consequences
in her body. Of all the treatment that she went
through only a few years ago. Could it be. That
when we say God you are wrong. We are right.
We are actually the opposite. That we were wrong
and that he was right all along. Truth matters.
If you happen to learn. To be interested in learning
more about. This. field of study of gender dysphoria
and someone that is an expert on this topic that
has worked with children for many decades on
these things, get this book called Lost in Transnation.
This doctor wrote it because she was concerned
of cases like Chloe's life. She was seeing this
time and time and time again. And she wrote this
book for parents and for She says, that's what
I had in mind, to let them understand what this
whole thing is about and how this thing really
works. Very fascinating, well -written study.
Truth matters. Because the way we engage with
truth will determine the decisions we make for
life and the outcome for years to come. And when
God looked at his people in the Old Testament
and says, truth has perished, I do not longer
see it on their lips. Wouldn't it be heartbreaking
for God to look at us today and say, you don't
care for truth. I don't see it in your lips.
So my faith crisis turned out to be a faith crisis
about discerning truth. Is this really true or
not? And I discovered that this crisis of faith
was not just unique to me. In fact, last week
when I shared my study, there was a friend that
came and said, Pablo, the faith crisis that you
experienced in seminary, I also experienced it.
And I wish that someone would have told us, when
you start seminary studies, a master's in theology,
and dealing with textual criticism, all of these
things, this could happen to you. But if it happens,
know that it's normal. You know, it would have
been so helpful. That crisis of faith has happened
to other people, and one of them is Nancy Percy.
Nancy Percy grew up in a home that was Lutheran.
Scandinavian parents. So as she started growing
older, she started wanting to know, how do I
know this is true? How do I know the Bible is
true? How do I know Christianity is true? She
could never get a good answer. The closest answer
she said she got was this religious leader that
says, well, it works for me. And she said, that
doesn't fly. I mean, I'm looking for truth, you
know. It's like I want to know objectively, how
do I know this is true and not that? How the
Bible is true but not that other book? How Jesus
is true but not that other religion? How do I
know? She wanted to discern truth. But because
she couldn't find someone to intelligently engage
with her in that journey, she became an agnostic
and a moral relativist. What she discovered is
that there are these two competing worldviews.
And the worldview that she embraced is what she
called the materialistic worldview, also known
as Darwinian materialism or naturalism. And this
worldview is a prevalent worldview in Western
countries, also in academia across cultures.
And because she started meeting more people that
embraced this worldview from the academic world,
she started thinking that the biblical worldview
was wrong, was not true, and this other worldview
was. Until eventually, she met a group of Christians
that were apologists. They were trained in helping
people reason through epistemology, through discerning
what is true. And for the first time, she was
able to engage in intelligent conversations to
answer the questions that she had. And even though
she wrestled and she resisted, eventually Nancy
came to know Christ. She became a follower of
Jesus and was able to understand why the Bible
and the worldview of the Bible was true. And
today, she's a professor at a seminary in Houston
in the U .S. And she has written numerous books
that are very good. These worldviews that she's
talking about are very opposite. And we need
to take a moment to look into them. Because part
of the faith crisis of many people within the
church and outside is precisely because they
find themselves in this quandrum of, which one
is it? This is the way it works. The materialistic
worldview starts with the assumption that God
does not exist. There's no God. And therefore,
because we exist today, things began at some
point. But when and how? Well, from this perspective,
I want to tell you the way worldview is. There
was a point in history where, if you rewind,
Rewind, rewind, you get to the very, very beginning.
There was a point of singularity, energy at the
smallest possible level that suddenly exploded.
We don't know exactly how that works, but one
day science will explain it. And this thing exploded
and now matter began. And suddenly all these
gases and then all these material stuff started
going everywhere, including rocks. And suddenly
all of these rocks started hitting, explosions.
And with the heat of the friction, they started
melting. And with time, this melting of crashing
rocks became a round, big, round, melting rock.
And within that, suddenly a piece flew away from
that that became the moon. And now this big piece
of melting lava now. is this huge place that
we call Earth. But it took billions of years
for this heat to cool down and become solid.
And from that big bang, as life happened, we
do not know how, but between the gases and the
rocks and all these things, suddenly all these
minerals and things that started combining. Before
you know it, a bacteria was born. And this bacteria,
with time, with this 4 .5 billion years that
we know the earth is that old, eventually became
other forms of life and eventually became you
and I. We know that the Earth is 4 .5 billion
years old because if you calculate how long it
would have taken to this lava to cool down, including
factoring all the elements of the magnetic field
of the Earth that we know today, you come down
to about 4 .5 billion years. Therefore, the history
of the earth has been progressive. When you look
at geology and all of these things today, you
have to understand that things happened throughout
billions of years of small erosion. The idea
there was a global flood, all of that is just
myth. It's just one more of those myths of the
Mesopotamian cultures. Anybody that's intelligent
and well -educated like I am today knows that
that's just myth. And therefore, anything that
has to do with sexual identity, gender identity,
or marriage is just a social construct. So if
you feel a certain way, embrace that identity
because who am I to tell you you are wrong? I
mean, all of it is just a social construct. Because
ultimately, we are biological machines. There's
no soul and spirit. That's myth. We know today
that we are just biological machines and that
religion is just a human effort to try to explain
that which science already explains for us. There's
no God. There's no need for salvation. You die
and that's it. This materialistic worldview is
the worldview that permeates colleges, universities,
science departments. So if you are going to go
to college, doesn't matter where you're going
to go, most likely this is the worldview that
your professors are going to come from. This
is the worldview that Nancy discovered that led
her to become an agnostic. But the worldview
of the Bible is very different. The worldview
of the Bible starts with the assumption that
actually God exists. And that at the beginning,
There is God. God designed everything. And he
brought it into existence by his very word. And
God designed the universe as we know it. Life
as we know it. And everything was engineered
from the very beginning for life. The entire
ecosystems were engineered from the very beginning
for life. The entire systems of human or animal
life, plant life is so complex at the atomic
and cellular level that we know that it's so
complex. And the Bible says, yeah, it was engineered
from the beginning as a system that was all put
together from the very beginning. Therefore,
there's no need for long ages of time for life
to happen. Because we did not evolve from our
bacteria. And there was a time in which people
turned away from God and the level of corruption
became so deep that God judged that generation
of humans with a global flood and He promised
never to destroy the world again with water.
However, at the end of times, he's going to destroy
the world with fire and he's going to start a
new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
And humans were created from the very beginning
in God's image. Your great, great grandparents
were not apes. Your great, great, great, your
immediate... Your immediate ancestor is God himself
because God created humans in his image and his
likeness. And it is built in, each one of us,
your gender and your sex as one thing. So if
you are a boy, you are a male. And that is written
in your very cells. Every cell of your body is
a male cell. If you're a woman, every cell in
your body is a female cell. It's written in your
very code. And therefore, gender, sex, and marriage
are not social constructs, but they are the order
in which God designed the created world, and
that's how we are what we are today. And we are
not just biological machines. We are people who
are physical, but we're also spiritual. There's
a soul. And if you were to die and your soul
is separated from your body because of your sinfulness,
because of your rebellion against your creator,
you will not be able to be with God, but instead
you will have to be judged and be separated from
him. But he sent Jesus to solve that problem
so that you can be forgiven if you just ask for
his forgiveness so that you can be reconciled
to him so that you can be saved because Jesus
is the truth. And also he's the only way for
you to experience salvation and true life. This
is the biblical worldview. What Nancy discovered
is that they were so opposite that that was not
the shocking part. The shocking part was how
many people were trying to mix both worldviews.
And many Christians were trying to develop a
Christian story of creation and of the history
of the world that grabbed a little bit of that,
a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a
little bit of this. And truth slowly started
being replaced with opinions. And opinions led
some people to paralysis by analysis. I don't
really know what belief anymore. Because that
book tells me that. That book tells me that.
That book tells me that. Pastor Pablo tells me
that. I have no idea what to believe. So because
I do not know what to believe. Truth is no longer
in my lips. Because I do not know what is true.
And I have stopped caring about knowing. And
I'm going to simply live by the motto that says.
It doesn't matter what you believe. It only matters
how you live. So be a good person. Leave all
this stuff. For others to discuss. And in that
space of trying to live with mixed world views.
We have abandoned truth. And we start making
decisions. That do not reflect a heart of God.
There are scientists. Who write books about theology.
And there are theologians that write books about
science. And therefore, the mix becomes a mess.
It sells well, though, so it's profitable, but
confusing. And this is what Nancy discovered.
And she wrote a couple of books I mentioned last
week. Total Truth. But she also wrote this book,
Finding Truth and Love Thy Body. This book, Love
Thy Body, is a must read if you want to understand
the thinking behind how we approach these issues
of separation of gender and sex and the way we
see our bodies. She does an excellent job bringing
the Christian theology into it. Again, these
are academic books. If you love reading that
kind of more intellectual type of Christian thought,
These are great books for you to engage with.
What I discovered is that there were other people
like Nancy that were also going through a faith
crisis trying to discern, is this true or not?
And people like her that went through that journey
eventually turned around and said, yes, now I
understand. I believe it because it's true. And
I thank God. That he gifted people like her to
be able to write about things like that to help
the rest of us in that journey. But what I also
discovered is that this faith crisis was not
just a faith crisis on Christians that were trying
to figure out this was true. I found... That
there were people who did not believe in the
Bible, who did not believe in God or Jesus, who
had their faith in their own worldview. They
were agnostics and some of them atheists with
this materialistic worldview. And that's what
shaped them and that's what they believed. But
they themselves had a faith crisis because the
science that they started studying revealed that
the worldview that they had inherited was not
true. One of those cases is the cases of Dr.
Egnor, Michael Egnor. He was a neurosurgeon who
studied the brain. And as an agnostic person
with a materialistic worldview, you believe you're
a biological machine. Therefore, mind is simply
the product of the brain. If there's no brain,
there's no mind. Simple. But what he discovered
in his field was the opposite. He realized that
mind existed separated from the brain and that
we are a soul. So he wrote this book, The Immortal
Mind, to talk about the evidence that he found
as a scientist, the evidence for the soul. But
in his struggle, one of the things that you discover
from many of these people that come from that
background is that the peer pressure To even
mention some of these things because the moment
your science is indicating that perhaps this
worldview is wrong and that there is a God, you're
going to make lots of enemies and you may even
lose your job. So there's this reservation to
even try to publish the data because you do not
know it's a high risk. There was another scientist,
a PhD in chemistry from Australia. His name is
Stephen Crockett. Was studying chemistry from
all things. Also an agnostic. Same materialistic
world view. And he had a faith crisis. Because
from all things. When he started studying helium.
The guys that make you speak funny. Helium. Was
one of the first moments. In which he said. The
earth cannot be billions of years old. It's impossible.
It doesn't match the chemistry. And the more
he started studying chemistry, the more he started
realizing that his worldview was not true. And
he faith crisis, he resisted it because he said,
you have no idea. We scientists experience the
most fear pressure than any other field because
the moment you publish your findings insinuating
that there's no God, I mean that there's a God
or that there's a creator, you're going to lose
the grants. You're not going to be able to be
sponsored to do research. And if you don't research,
what do you do as a scientist? And that is why
a lot of what is written in the academia reflects
this materialistic worldview. Not because it's
true and the people that write less are mistaken.
It's because they're not invited into the conversation.
In fact, there's a documentary that was done
about this. It's not in my notes here. But if
you had a chance to watch it, go ahead. It's
on YouTube. It's available. But it's called Expelled,
No Intelligence Allowed. And it was produced
by a Jewish comedian where he interviewed all
these scientists. And he started saying, what
is the big problem with... Finding information
that points to a designer. Why this big rejection?
And what you realize is what this guy's experience
is true. There's a peer pressure to maintain
this because if this is not true, then the implications
are huge. From believing that no one plus nothing
equals everything to believing that someone Created
everything and we are accountable to him. The
implications are huge. But which one is true?
Ah. When we start asking that question, it leads
us to a whole different space. And that's why
these guys experienced that. And it was in that
journey from... agnosticism, materialistic worldview,
encountering truth through science, that they
were able to start discovering the Bible and
the narrative, the history of the Bible, and
they realized that matches the evidence that
I'm discovering in my field. We do have a soul.
And there was a global flood. And that's what
I see in my field. And the Bible says it. Then
it must be true. And from that point, These guys
became followers of Jesus. And this is just a
few of many that have gone through that journey.
Truth matters. And what God wants us, as followers
of Jesus, is that if we are going to experience
a faith crisis, we frame it from the perspective
of truth. And that we engage with it, and that
we learn to add knowledge to our faith. Because
if we acknowledge an understanding that will
result in many more things that we need in order
to serve God well. That's why the Apostle Paul
wrote to the Ephesians these words. He says,
guys, you know, we need to grow. Let's mature
a little. Let's add knowledge to our faith. Let's
become more mature followers of Jesus. And then
he says, When we grow in maturity, then we won't
be tossed and blown about by every wind of new
teaching. We will not be influenced when people
try to trick us with lies so clever they sound
like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth.
How? In love. The truth will be on our lips.
We will know it and we'll speak it. In love.
Growing in every way more and more like Christ.
Who is the head of his body. The church. God
cares about truth. That I understand it. That
I speak it. Because there are people that are
in darkness that need the light. So that they
can find the truth. And the truth has a name.
His name is Jesus. So what I discover in this
journey is that God wants me to know the truth.
He wants me to live the truth. And he wants me
to speak the truth in love. And if I'm able to
grow in that journey like that, then I'm in the
right direction. So a faith crisis is not the
problem. The problem is I stop caring for truth.
If you are in that journey, I'm here to encourage
you. Engage. Learn. Read. Watch. Talk. You're
in a place where we care about your journey.
There are no stupid questions in this context.
We are all growing in understanding because we
love Jesus and we want to encounter God. So after
sharing these things with you, Let me spend the
rest of the minutes of this study just giving
you helpful resources. Okay? So I'm going to
go like with the fire hose. Lots of resources
for you now. Okay? So be prepared. Take pictures.
Because if you have any of these questions, they're
going to help you. Okay? I'm going to rush through
it, but it's right there in the notes for you.
There are three questions that I had to basically
ask in this process of faith crisis. And it comes
to the point that how do I know it's true? Well,
because truth matches reality. Simple. Let me
put it this way. If I tell you, grab your umbrella
because it's raining outside, how do you know
that I'm telling you the truth? You will go outside
and it's raining. Oh, so he was telling me the
truth. Yeah, truth matches reality. Simple. It's
no more complicated than that. So if you're trying
to discern, how do I know this is true? Well,
then engage and see it doesn't match reality.
And there are three things. First, How do I know
the text is reliable, the Bible that I'm reading?
How do I know that it has not been altered and
that it's the same Bible that the apostles were
engaging with? The same books of the Old Testament
that Jesus read are the same ones I have. How
do I know the text is reliable? Here we go. Ready?
Okay. We have the largest collection of manuscripts,
Old Testament and New Testaments, ever. One of
the earliest. Copies of manuscripts that we have
is a copy of the book of John, chapter 18, 37,
38, where Jesus himself is talking about truth
from all topics. We have the largest collections
of Old Testament manuscripts called the Dead
Sea Scrolls. You can see them on display in Jerusalem
at the Museum in Jerusalem. They are the oldest
collections before Jesus' lifetime. And they
match exactly the Old Testament that we have
today. One of the earliest quotes of the Old
Testament is from the book of Numbers. It's a
scroll made out of silver that dates to the time
of Prophet Jeremiah. And it's the quote of that
blessing of Numbers. It's called the Keter Himon
Scrolls. We have... a collection of New Testament
manuscripts and a collection of codices. You
can see some of these in England and in other
museums as well. But one of the most fascinating,
I think it's in, if I recall, might be in the
museum in Jordan, is, do you remember the story
when Israel is leaving Egypt? And they are entering
the promised land and somebody calls this guy
called Balaam to curse them. And the guy can't.
He can only bless them. And they call him again
and curse them. And they pay him to curse them
and he can't. Remember that story? That's the
book of Numbers. Balaam, son of Beor. There's
a whole archaeological discovery. These tablets
that have the name. It says the book of Balaam,
son of Beor. Asir. Outside the Bible. And this
dates to the 8th century before Christ. I mean,
the evidence for the text to be real is so huge.
If you want to see some of the codices, you can
go to the British Library in England. But you
don't have to travel anywhere because today there's
an organization called the Center for the Study
of New Testament Manuscripts. And they have...
As they're mentioned, to be able to digitize
all the New Testament manuscripts, which means
that if you want to see if the textual evidence
matches your Bible, you can go online, go to
the website, click on the manuscript, and you
will see. It's unbelievable how much information
we have today. The Bible is the most well -attested
ancient document. that we have today from any
other book in history. Do I trust the text? Yes,
I do. There's a documentary called Fragments
of Truth. Go to YouTube, Fragments of Truth.
It's a very well done documentary that summarizes
everything that I just told you about the text
itself. Is the history accurate? Did these things
really happen? How do I know? Archaeology. There's
so much evidence today. And so many documentaries
that have been created. Timothy Mahagany, he
was a guy, a Christian guy, a filmmaker, that
started taking some of these tours. And he started
hearing from some of the tour guides and some
of these archaeologists saying, oh, the Exodus
never happened. Moses didn't exist. There's no
archaeological evidence for it. But that's okay.
You can still believe in that as metaphor. And
he says, no, no, if it didn't happen, then why
would I believe it? I need to know whether this
is true or not. So as a filmmaker, he did a series
of documentaries that are very well done. And
what he does is that he shows you what is the
actual archaeological evidence and what is the
interpretation from liberal to conservative circles
about this evidence. And then he tells the viewer,
you decide. Based on the evidence, who do you
think is right? And it's amazing the amount of
archaeological evidence that is about the Exodus.
If you want to learn more about that, you can
find these videos in RightNow Media. If you have
a RightNow Media account, you can see them for
free. There is an archaeologist based in Jordan.
And Joel Kramer is his name. He has a YouTube
channel. channel called Expedition Bible. He
takes you to all of these different places to
show you how the archaeology matches the Bible.
There's this couple, Sergio and Rhoda, that live
in Nazareth, the same town where Jesus grew up,
where people say, can anything good come from
Nazareth? You know, that place. And this couple
are Christians, and they live there, and they
have created this YouTube video where they show
you places from Israel and how they match the
biblical description. You can also find the series
of studies from Dave Stotz, who is the guy that
did Drive Through History series. He did Drive
Through the Bible and the Gospel series. He takes
you with his car driving to all of these different
places. If you are studying the book of Colossians,
he takes you to Colossae. And he shows you the
ruins and he tells you everything. The entire
New Testament he has done. You can see the archaeology,
the places, the names, the evidence right there.
Go to Amazon and you will get these videos downloaded
digitally. You can watch it from your phone when
you are bored. All of this is available. There's
a YouTube channel called Digging for Truth. And
every year they show the summary of the 10 most
important archaeological discoveries of the year.
So you can go and see them. It's available for
you to see. Is the history accurate? Yes, it
is. We have the evidence for it. The evidence
matches reality. Well, what about the science,
Pastor Paolo? Does the science, is it factual?
Because I've heard that people say the Bible
is not a book of science, so I should not read
it like that or expect it to be scientifically
accurate. It's like, of course the Bible is not
a book of science. I'm not going to look for
a chemistry formula in there. But it's historical.
And if it is historical, then the science should
match. And this is not me just saying it. Did
you know that three of the astronauts, including
one who walked in the moon, And one who has the
most hours from anyone circulating on the orbit
of the earth. These three astronauts that were
from NASA are Christians. And after they experienced
being there, especially after looking at the
earth from the moon, their conviction of saying,
wow, that matches exactly what the Bible says.
that God has the earth suspended in nothing.
How could we have known that? These three astronauts
believe in the Bible. And when they are asked
about how do you mix Bible and science, they
say, well, the Bible is not a book of science,
but it's scientifically accurate. And their experience
in space has done nothing but reinforce their
belief that the Bible is true because it matches
reality. There was an atheist guy who, a movie
producer, he produced a couple of horror movies.
He came to know Christ. He became a believer.
And when he realized that there was so much evidence
in the sciences about the designer and how it
matched what the Bible said, he was so excited,
but he was shocked that many Christians had no
idea about it. So as a filmmaker, he felt called
to create a film, a documentary that could summarize
all this information. Universe Design is the
name of the documentary. It was just published
last year, recently, 2025. You can go online.
You can see the video. You can download it in
Amazon, in a video player, digitally, if you
want to understand what is the science that corroborates
what God says about creation. And finally, there's
a group of scientists from different countries,
from lots of different fields. Remember the chemist
that I told you about at the beginning? People
that were agnostics, people, some of them were
Christians, they were scientists, and they started
discovering more and more in their fields that
the reality that they were seeing matched what
the Bible said, not what their other view they
had been taught. And it's a big organization
now of this ministry called Creation Ministries.
All these scientists, and they have also published
scientific peer review articles. And more at
the lay level articles in a magazine for people
that are interested in understanding the science
of these things. If you are a scientist and you
want to read serious scientific studies, they
have this level of writing as part of their ministry.
And you can go to creation .com and learn from
it. All of this stuff is available for us. You
don't have to go through a faith crisis blinded.
It's there. Engage with it. Go through the crisis
so that you come out of it more mature, more
solid, with deeper convictions. But whatever
you do, don't stop caring for truth. And don't
let truth abandon your lips because God cares
for it. May you find in ECB a place. Where you
find truth. Are you trusting in God's word? I
pray that my journey of faith. My faith crisis.
Will help you. In your own journey. To love the
Lord. To love the truth. To stand for it. But
I would like to ask you to read with me. These
final words. From Isaiah. The grass withers.
And the flowers fell. But the word of our God.
Endures forever. Lord. Thank you for your word.
For caring for us. You care deeply. Help us care
deeply too. And I ask you in Jesus name. That
if there's anyone here. That is going through
a faith crisis. You will encounter them. In that
place. With truth. And love and grace in Jesus'
name. Thank you for tuning in to the ECB Sermon
Podcast. Whether near or far, if you are looking
for community or are in need of prayer, we welcome
you to engage by sending us an email to office
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week. God bless you.