Good morning Crossing Church. How are you doing today?
It's so good here at 48th Street to see the place packed.
Always love. Seeing that welcome.
All of the other campuses that are joining with us, we have the
opportunity to be a family of Believers and I don't know if
you saw this or if you look around and like, you know, kind
of let yourself out of worship for a little bit and just kind
of look around you. And I don't know if it's that
way everywhere else but you know what, I see a lot at 48.
Sure, I see this. You guys are good at swaying.
You kind of got the sway down and and I think that's awesome
because there's something about worship.
That is very emotional, isn't it kind of hits you in a kind of a
deep level like the center of yourself and you can't help but
have a response to it like an emotional response and I think
that that is just so awesome. But you're not just an emotional
person, are you? I think some people think that,
you know, when it comes to Faith, you know, that's just
this thing, we feel, it's just this, you know, we kind of have
this Faith thing going on and I feel the presence of God and so
because I feel it, it's real. But you're not just an emotional
person. You're also an intellectual
person, you're a thinking person.
Right? And those two things need to
come together and I think that as a church, we do really well
when it comes to those emotional responses and getting in touch
with our faith feelings, but I think we have to have a ready
answer for the hope that is within us, we have to engage our
minds. God gave us our minds and he
didn't give them to us so that we would turn them off and
that's why we're in the series called if And what if is about
is, it's about understanding apologetically what the Bible
says. And what I mean by that is to
have a defense for what you believe that is, is not just an
emotional one, but an intellectual one to give you
solid reasons to know what you believe about God.
What you believe about the Bible, what you believe about
Jesus and about your place in this world.
And to understand that from a reasonable standpoint.
So just to review, Clayton started us off Easter weekend
with proof that Jesus was a real person who claimed to be God in
human form and fulfilled. All that was foretold about him
and paid for all of our sins when he died on the cross and
gave us Life by rising from the dead, our second week.
We were treated with a guest appearance by Ken Ham who helped
us? Understand that a person of
Faith does not require that person to be unscientific, or to
believe in fairy tales. And the only just briefly
touched on such a great amount of evidence that shows the
science that backs up all of that narrative in the Bible so
that you don't have to turn your brain off to understand that
it's inspired by God. The only reason we don't know
that is that when we grow up in school, the separation of
church, Church and state won't allow you to learn about
intelligent design one. Allow you to learn about God's
role in creation, And so what is supposed to be understood?
As a theory which actually is a much more of a fairytale than
you might think we're indoctrinated to believe that?
But the truth of God's word will bear that out.
Scientifically if you're exposed to that information last week, I
talked about how the Bible is, historically credible and
reliable. And by that, I mean that it was
written by those who say they wrote it and it was copied
carefully and correctly until now so that you can depend on
it, you are actually reading what they wrote.
And the understanding that that was actually inspired by God
that they moved as God directed them.
What I want to do today is kind of pull all that together.
And the kind of use a legal term, to put the burden of proof
on us. Can you prove can I prove Beyond
a reasonable doubt? That Jesus is actually who he
says he is and did what the Bible says he did.
Can I actually trust that what? I'm reading there is true so
that I would stake my whole life on it.
And I'll tell you that not only do I believe that, but I
actually think that you have to have a whole lot more faith to
believe in any other alternative than, to believe.
The Bible is true because all of the real evidence points there
The way I'm going to try to to do that today is by using a
theory of probability called. Occam's razor now.
What Occam's razor is? I know that's kind of that
sounds kind of highbrow, but what it is is this, it's this
philosophical idea that if there are multiple explanations for
just Oracle event, the simplest one is probably the true one.
Okay, lots of different explanations of what I'm going
to do is I'm going to give you every kind of explanation that I
can think of. And if you're if you have
another one, I'd like to hear it because I'm going to go through
all of them. And I'm going to show you that
it takes an incredible amount of Faith to believe in those.
And the simplest one is, in fact, the true one.
So here's the first one, okay? And and even though he didn't
dwell on it, Clayton talked about it on Easter weekend and
it's this that Jesus never really existed.
That he was a mythological character, like an avatar that
was created by these authors to kind of show us what a good life
looks like or maybe even to manipulate people.
Now, this one to me, has a lot of personal implications because
I remember when I went to college, I went to Indiana
University before I went to Bible College and it was my
freshman year and I was looking for a couple of easy credits.
You I mean, like because I knew that some of the classes I was
going to take, we're going to be hard and I was looking for an
easy one and in the in the course, curriculum, I could take
as an elective The Life of Christ in the synoptic gospels.
That's Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And I thought, oh yeah.
All that. By all that Sunday school time.
All that Church times about to pay off.
I'm going to get these credits. It's going to be easy.
And I went to that class in the very first day that I went to
that class the professor stood up and he said, I want you to
know that my point of view as we go through this class is that I
believe that Jesus Christ was not a historical figure.
That he was a mythological character.
So not really someone you can put your faith in just a good
just a good mythological example and I went and I deflate it
because I'm going man. I thought I was going to get
some easy credit here. And it didn't take long in that
class for me to realize. The best thing I could do is
Drop It. Because I just went adding, we
went at each other and and you know in college if you don't
regurgitate what the professor says it's going to get you into
trouble with your grades. So I didn't really want to stay
there but I can tell you a little bit of what I said kind
of in short form and that's this three historians wrote about
Jesus that were contemporary with Jesus.
They lived at nearly the same time Jesus did.
And the three historians that I'm going to talk to you about.
None of them believed that Jesus was who he said he was now, why
the world will historian right about a person that he didn't
believe actually existed at the time?
Doesn't make a lot of sense. Does it the first one was a man
named Josephus. He's probably the most famous of
the three and Josephus was a Jewish historian who was writing
under Emperor. Vespasian, who was the Roman
Emperor at the time, wanted him to write this.
He had written a book called Wars of the Jews.
He also wrote one called Antiquities of the Jews, and
this is in that book Antiquities of the Jews and it was written
at 94 ad. So, how close is that to Jesus?
I mean, not very far right? Like 60 years from the
resurrection of Jesus. And even though he wasn't a
Christian, he wrote about Jesus crucifixion about Pontius Pilate
about Jesus. Resurrection about John the
Baptist, that's a lot right there.
Jesus is half-brother James wrote about him and the death of
the Apostle James, a different James.
Well, that's a pretty good historical argument, right?
But he wasn't the only one, there was a second, one named
tacitus. Who was a Roman historian, not a
Christian, he wrote A History called annals in 116 ad and he
wrote about Jesus, his crucifixion, Pontius Pilate and
the life of early Christians. Even though he himself, was not
a Christian, a third historian by the name of Pliny did write
history. But what's more interesting
about? This guy is a personal letter
that he wrote the emperor. Er er at that time the emperor's
name was trajan and he wrote this in 112 ad trying to figure
out how to deal with the Christians in his area.
He was a governor of a Roman province in what is now turkey,
and here's a quote of what he wrote to trajan.
They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day
before. It was light, when they sang, an
alternate versus a him to Christ as to a God and themselves by a
solemn party to not, do any wicked.
Deeds never to commit any fraud theft or adultery to never
falsify their word or deny a trust when they should be called
upon deliver it up after, which it was their custom to separate.
8 and then reassemble to partake of food, but food of an or an
ordinary and innocent kind. So, when you have that kind of
historical provenance, it's pretty hard to say.
I don't really believe that Jesus was in historical person.
As a matter of fact, it takes a great deal of Faith to say, he
was not a historical person, an incredible amount of Faith, a
fairytale amount of faith. And if I run that through the
filter of Occam's razor, I'm going that's just not a good
explanation. Well, how about this one?
Jesus was a good teacher, just not the son of God.
Maybe that one because this is what modern Jewish culture
believes. Like people that some of us
might listen to like Ben Shapiro.
This is what he believes that Jesus was a good teacher.
And he'll say this, just not the Son of God.
Well, as c.s. Lewis puts it, that just doesn't
make any sense. And I'll tell you why, because
Jesus repeatedly claimed to be the Son of God and to do things
like the forgive sins, that only God can do.
Now if a person is pathologically lying to you all
the time about who he is, how in the world, can he be a good
teacher? He might be a teacher but he's
certainly not good. He would be instead called a
what a false teacher. So it just doesn't hold any
water to say that. Jesus was a good teacher kind of
throwing Christians a bone here. No, it really doesn't.
So I don't think that one holds water, so let's push that one
through Occam's. Razor and go.
That's really privileged really. Not a good option and you takes
an awful lot of faith to believe that.
Well, what if that opposite was true?
What if Jesus was a liar or just nuts?
Just delusional. Just a guy who just wanted to be
this other thing. Well, both of those are going to
be disproven by the resurrection, but let's not go
there yet because of Jesus was a liar.
Someone certainly would have been able to point it out
because he was under constant scrutiny and he was constantly
being questioned, but he never faulted, not even once and even
when it went to the extreme of going on trial.
Don't you think that a person who's a liar when he, when he's
on trial for his life? Wife would say, sorry, guys.
Made it all up. You know, I really didn't mean
this. You know, to the best of my
recollection would be like one of these Senate hearings or
something. You know.
I don't have a recollection of that now.
I think it would be more like that, but here he is on trial
and he's calmly saying exactly the same thing.
Well, then they turn him over to the Romans to beat him nearly to
death with the scourge. You think maybe that didn't
break the liar know, He just holds right onto it how about
when they're getting ready to put him on a cross, even while
the guy is dying being tortured on a cross, he's still
everything he was before calmly telling the truth about who he
is. Do you really want me to
believe? That he was lying.
Maybe, maybe it's not that. Maybe he's delusional, maybe
he's just nuts. The pressure, I want you to
think something the pressure that this man was under was
constant. He was, and that kind of
pressure, and all of that. All right, questioning would
have surely exposed a delusional person.
Modern-day cult leaders, always show their inconsistency.
And I believe that Jesus is suffering and death would have
certainly exposed the reality that he was not in his right
mind. If, in fact, he was not In his
right mind, I don't think that one Bears.
The smell test passes, the smell test either.
Well, how about this one other one, this is one that that
Clayton shared just for a short period on Easter and that is
that Jesus didn't really die. He just fainted Now that became
a popular theory in 1965 because there was a theologian named
Hugh. Schoenfeld that wrote a book in
1965 is a best seller was called the Passover plot.
And the Passover plot was all about this idea is called the
Swoon theory that Jesus fainted. And when he went after, they
took him off the cross and laid him in the Tomb he comes to And
then gets out of the Tomb and shows himself alive to
everybody. This one is the one that you
have to be absolutely Bonkers to believe it is.
It is the most ridiculous of all the options.
That's what you to think about this for a little bit.
Romans soldiers are experts at execution.
It's a matter of fact, the detail that was responsible for
Jesus execution. That's probably just what they
did. They were the execution detail.
So they knew how to kill people. As a matter of fact with
crucifixion, it really wasn't about killing someone.
It was about keeping them alive. As long as you could.
In the most Agony, you could. And they were always crucified
in a very public. Place to put fear into other
people who would defy the Roman government.
Jesus was crucified at a Crossroads.
Okay, so they knew what they were doing, and it wasn't just
his crucifixion. It was what they did after he
died. The Bible says that he gave up
his Spirit. He died.
And then they took a spear and put it up underneath his rib
cage into his vital organs. And the Bible says, and he
doesn't say it in this way, but that his blood had divided into
plasma and red cells, blood and water came out.
That means that it was a post-mortem wound.
He had already died and then they take him off the cross.
Now, do you think that Roman Executioner's would be really
polite when they would take a body off a cross?
Do you think would be like be careful when you pry out those
nails? I don't think they pry them out
at all. I think they just pulled him
off. And then they give them to
Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, right?
And and Joseph of Arimathea has the tomb and they take Jesus and
put him in the Tomb. The women didn't know this, but
they had prepared his body, they had, they had wrapped his body
and his face, and they had put the spices on his body, to keep
the smell down of decay. And then a stone was rolled in
front of the Tomb and those stones are on inclines because
people they don't want, they don't want people robbing tombs
and you can see them in Israel today they're on an incline.
Like in a trough a role in a trough and then there's like
this little indention at the bottom.
That locks that stone into place average Stone weighs about 4
tons. About 8,000 pounds.
Okay? So they put Jesus in the Tomb,
they wrap him up, they put the stone over, right?
They leave Roman Detachment of soldiers, come.
They put a seal on the tomb and then there's a Detachment of
soldiers to stand, watch over it.
Now, what schoenfeld wants you to believe is that after
enduring all that Jesus, endured he wakes up in the Tomb.
Takes the time in total darkness to fold his grave clothes.
Walks up to a 4 ton Stone, that's on the outside, not the
inside. And with his nail-pierced hands,
the palms of his hands somehow, he is able to roll a 4 ton Stone
Away by himself up, a hill, breaking a seal, and doing it.
So quietly, That the Detachment of soldiers outside that on pain
of death, had to have to guard this tomb, don't hear him.
And then on his nail pierced feet, he tiptoes away And then
goes to the upper room, couple of miles away and goes, hey
guys. What kind of Faith does it take
for you to believe that cockamamie story?
A lot. So, how about this?
Jesus died. Okay.
All right. But his body was stolen.
Now, that's a, that's another crazy.
Almost as crazy as the Passover plot.
Except for it needs to be mentioned because of what the
Bible says. In Matthew 28 So, you know, like
in our government the only thing worse than the crime is the
what? It's the cover-up.
Right, here we go. While the women were on their
way, some of the guards went into the city.
These are the guards that were standing watch over the tomb,
when the resurrection happens and some of them actually
fainted and some of them ran and it says, they reported to the
chief priests everything that had happened.
And when the chief priests met with the elders and devised a
plan, this is their plan. This is her cover up plan.
They gave the soldiers, a large sum of money.
It always begins with the money, right?
So they give them money and they telling them you are to say his
disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were
asleep, which is kind of interesting how you can testify
to, a particular fact, when you're asleep.
But that's what they were supposed to say.
Well, that's a dumb thing to do, if you're a guard because you
are summarily executed, if somebody is able to steal a body
that you're in charge of protecting, And then they say
this in verse 14, if this report gets to the governor, we will
satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.
So this isn't this is bribery, this is cover up.
This is all of that, right? So verse 15 says, the soldiers,
took the money and did as they were instructed.
And this story here it is, has been widely circulated among the
Jews to this very day as ridiculous as of an idea, is
that is of an option, is that is it was the one they decided to
go with. Think about the Apostle stealing
this body, these guys, the apostles are hiding they're
scared to death, they don't get boldness until later.
I mean there and you think that they're going to sneak up In
this Garden where Jesus is buried and somehow get past the
guards in a right in front somehow break.
The seal somehow roll a 4 ton Stone away, it makes a lot of
noise by the way, and chalk that stone.
So it doesn't roll back tiptoe into the tomb.
Take the time to fold the grave clothes, take Jesus body.
I don't know if they, you know, over the shoulder or what and
get past all of those other guys with Without being noticed.
You see, it's ridiculous. Okay, maybe there's I can only
think of one more, okay, one more option and that is that you
really can't trust the Bible and its account of the story.
Well, I think last week should have already kind of finished
that argument in your mind. But if you weren't here, the
Bible is the most reliable ancient document in the world.
There are over 24,000 handwritten copies of it, over
5,000 of them. In ancient, Greek.
And the closest competitor of an ancient document is Homer's
Iliad, and they're only 650 of it.
So there's just no comparison when it comes to historical
Providence of God's word. See the books of the New
Testament were written at the time, when many of the people
who were witnessing these things, we're still alive in
Jerusalem and there were hundreds of them.
So if you're writing something that's a complete fantasy,
anybody could have come up and said that's not true.
That didn't happen. It was nothing like that but you
don't read any of that. Historically.
So what are you left with? Now, I'm going to go over them
real quick, ready? Jesus never existed.
Okay. Jesus existed, but he was just a
good teacher. Okay.
Well, Jesus wasn't a good teacher but he was just a liar,
okay? Jesus wasn't a liar, but he was
just, you know delusional. Sorry, Jesus, never actually
died. He just fainted and people used
it. No, that doesn't work.
Jesus has died, but his body was stolen.
No, you really can't even trust the Bible on this one.
Sorry. What are you left with?
You are left with either trying to apply a ridiculous amount of
Faith to any one of those, that makes no sense whatsoever, or
following Occam's razor razor, which is the simplest
explanation is probably the truth.
And that is Jesus is exactly who he said he was just as simple as
that. And you think I'm done and I'm
not even close. Ready in Acts. 13, Luke is
writing about this. He says, after his suffering, he
presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs.
That he was alive. Here's a dozen of them very
quickly, everything that Jesus did and dying on the cross and
rising from the dead. He spoke about all of those
things, claim them before any of it happened, right?
Here's one. Here's another one.
The first Witnesses of the Resurrection were women, there
were six of them and if you're trying to prove something to the
local masses at the time you wouldn't use women because they
were not allowed to even testify in court.
And yet, God chose that and to me, when I read the scripture
account, I'm going that is also proof.
How about the conversion of Saul of Tarsus a guy who committed
his life to wiping out Christianity.
Christianity becomes the greatest proponent of
Christianity, how about the conversion of Jesus?
Half-brother James, who thought his brother was crazy until he
experienced the resurrection of his of his older brother, and
then became the writer that we know for The Book of James in
our new testament. What about the immediate change
in worship? Of something that had been held
onto for 1500 years from Saturday to Sunday from the
Sabbath to the Lord's day. You think you can move an entire
culture of people to change that overnight and yet they did?
How about the birth of the church?
All being a bunch of monotheistic juice.
You know all of the original Believers on the day of
Pentecost, they were all Jewish right?
And if you ever if you get to know a Jewish person, if they
follow their faith, Most of them will have what's called a
mezuzah outside their home on the doorpost of their home.
It's a little tin thing or maybe a ceramic and inside there's a
scroll it has the Shema of Israel hear o Israel.
The Lord Our God. The Lord is one.
And the reason that Jewish people don't like Christianity's
because they think we believe in three Gods, father, son, Holy
Spirit. We don't we believe in one God
that exists in three persons. How do you explain all of these
Jewish people saying, I'm going to throw away that view of
monotheism because I believe in Jesus all at once.
How about the fact that there was no, contrary evidence found,
even though people desperately looked for it, how about the
fact that it was proclaimed in Jerusalem, it began there, where
it actually happened, where people would have been easily
able to refute it if it didn't happen.
How do you explain a tomb being empty?
What about the transformation of the disciples from being so
fearful and hiding to being willing to go into martyrdom?
What about the immediate proclamation of this truth?
Only 50 days after his death on the day of Pentecost in
Jerusalem, And what about the fact that the disciples all
claim that they witness this empirically with their eyes,
they saw him, they heard him, they touched him.
There's a dozen I could go on, maybe that's enough.
Oh no, it's not beyond the simple.
Logic of all that we have. All of these prophecies
concerning Jesus from the Old Testament, that could not be
faked or manipulated the Hebrew Old Testaments called the Tanakh
it existed for hundreds and hundreds of years.
It was translated into Greek in Alexandria, Egypt into What's
called the Septuagint. And that was over 300 years.
Before Jesus was born pretty hard to change, documents that
existed, 300 years before you were born.
Right? And so, when we look at Old
Testament prophecy, what do we see a thousand years?
That's a long time, a thousand years before Jesus was born
King, David described this in Psalm 22, Psalm 23 is the most
famous song but he said this in Psalm 22.
Listen to verses 1 and 2. My God my God.
Why have you forsaken me? Wait a minute.
If I heard that, there's somebody else say that.
Why are you so far from saving me so far from My Cries of
Anguish? My God.
I cry out by day, but you do not answer by night.
I find no rest. Well, maybe King.
David was just having a bad day. Maybe there isn't anything
prophetic in that at all? Well, how about we go down to
verse 6, but I'm a worm and not a man scorned by everyone
despised by the people. All who see me mock me.
They hurl insults at me, shaking their heads, wait a minute, he's
the king for goodness sake. They don't do that to him.
He trusts in the Lord, they say, let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him since he Delights in him still
unconvinced verse 12, many bulls surround me, strong Bulls of
Bashan, encircle me roaring lions, that tear, their prey
open, their prey open, their mouths wide against me.
I am poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is turned to wax. It is melted within me.
My mouth is dried up like a potsherd.
It's a broken piece of pottery. My tongue sticks to the roof of
my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death.
Dogs around me. Me, a pack of villains and
circle me. Listen, they pierced my hands
and my feet. All my bones are on display,
people stare and gloat over me. They divided my clothes, among
them and cast. Lots for my garment, a thousand
years before Jesus was born. when that when death by
crucifixion didn't even hadn't even invented yet, Let's go 300
years into the future, 700 BC written by Isaiah chapter 53,
who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord
been revealed. He grew up before him as a
tender shoot like a root out of the dry ground.
He had no Beauty. Your majesty to attract us to
him nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind.
A man of suffering and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces.
He was despised and we held him in low esteem.
Surely took up our pain and bore our suffering.
Yet, we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and
Afflicted. Here it is again, 700 years.
Before Jesus is born, he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought us. Peace was upon him by his
wounds. We are healed.
We all like, sheep have gone astray.
Each of us has turned to his own way and the lord has laid on
him. The iniquity of us all that
sounds like the gospel to me and if you aren't it, if you're
going okay, well that's death. But where's life?
Where's the resurrection? Just go down to verse 10.
Yet. It was the Lord's will to crush
him and cause him to suffer. And though, the Lord makes his
life and offering for sin, he will see his offspring and
prolong his days and the will of the Lord will prosper in his
hand. After he has suffered, he will
see the light of life and be satisfied.
That's the resurrection by his knowledge.
My righteous servant will justify many and he will bear
their iniquities. Therefore, I will give him a
portion among the great, and he will divide this.
The spoils with the strong because he poured out his life
unto death and was numbered with the transgression transgressors
for. He bore the sins of many and
made intercession. Golly.
The odds of Jesus fulfilling 8 prophecies about hit of his
birth. Something he or his followers
couldn't control the mathematical probability of that
is 1 times 10 to the 28th power. That means one chance in 10 and
in 28, more zeros. I don't even know what the word
is for that number. I don't think you do either but
Jesus didn't fulfill 8 prophecies.
He fulfilled over 300 of them. So what is the problem?
It's certainly not the truth of Jesus.
You know what it is and so do I. It's the ramifications of that
truth because it will affect your life because if Jesus is
who he says he is Then I am who he says I am.
If Jesus is who he says he is, then I have a sin problem.
And I have an eternity problem, and I also have a will problem.
Now, my problems have a solution but there is an Incredible cost
associated with that solution. That solution was Jesus taking
my place in paying my debt. On the cross to set me free, his
blood covering my sin. That truth tells me that Jesus
knows exactly who I am. And he still loves me.
Loves me enough to solve my sin problem for me by taking my
place on the cross and paying for my sin.
He also solves my eternity problem.
He did that by rising from the dead because the power of Jesus
to rise from the dead isn't just a show us that he has power
over. His own death, is to show us
that he has power over death itself, which means he can give
you life. Not just himself that you can
trust him to give you life. But I also have a will problem.
You see his? It's not just my past, I don't
know about you. I'm not going to judge you but
I'll judge me. It's every day of my life.
And here's where it gets expensive for me.
Now while I cannot learn what Jesus did for me and I can only
receive it as a gift, I don't deserve it.
His expectation for me today and every day is to repent of my
sins and to turn and follow him. That means to abandon my will
and to surrender to his will. And I'm going to tell you
something that's hard to do. And most of the time, I don't
want to. I want my will to Prevail, not
his. So in a lot of human beings in
their brains, they're going to give me another look at that
list. Which one is the least
ridiculous? Because I would rather believe
that then to believe the truth, because if I believe the truth,
it's going to have a major impact on my life.
That maybe I don't want it to have.
Maybe I'd rather believe in something silly.
Then to surrender to what is obvious.
And that my friend is the real issue.
It's the real issue to all of us.
The question isn't whether it's true or not?
The question really isn't? Whether I can prove it or not.
The question is whether or not you can believe it.
And trust your life. To the life of Jesus who gave it
for you. We're moving to a time of
decision. I started the sermon this
morning by talking about a swing.
And feelings. And we all have I think it's
great that we have those feelings.
And I think, right now, we're in a time in a space in American
culture where we're all trying to get in touch with our
feelings, Feelings in many people's hearts Trump's truth.
Like I don't know that you know because now I live in a post
truth culture where that's my truth as opposed to your truth.
Like we can all have a different truth Like, truth isn't static.
And so for some of you when it comes to issues of Faith, you're
just fine because you have this emotional attachment to it and
you know, it's that Sway in the song and you're kind of going.
Yeah, it feels good to have a relation, I believe it, you
know. And maybe my mind will catch up
with my feelings but there's some of you may be many of you
that are here today that are the reverse That you're more, the
intellectual. Show me.
Prove it to me give me good reasons, my mind matters to me
and maybe I will let my feelings.
Move after I feel like I can stand firm on those facts.
That's what this series is about.
Because as an individual, you are not one or the other.
You're not an all feelings person and you're not an all
intellectual person you're both, aren't you?
Both of those that realities are woven together in your mind and
in your heart. That if I believe something is
true, it ought to impact how I feel about it.
And if I feel something is true, it ought to impact.
What I think about it. And I'm here to tell you today,
if you're here, and you do not have an intimate personal
relationship with Jesus Christ, you can stand on that, it's not
shifting sand. It's not a Pious platitude.
It's real and you can stand on it.
Let your mind go first and then let feelings follow it up.
If you're here today and I, you know, I hear people say this to
me like that they come to the crossing and they'll come up to
me later. I just had a person last week.
Do this come up to me and said I was crying.
I don't even know why, I'm not even sad because something's
happening inside me. That's not just me.
There's feelings happening, right?
You may be feeling that maybe your mind needs to catch up with
your feelings. I'm just saying.
Come to Christ. You can trust him, you can
believe him and you can believe in him.
There's going to be somebody right over there.
By that baptistery would love nothing more than to talk to you
about next steps, what it means to come into relationship with
Jesus, many of you here today and you say, well, you know, I
made that relationship. I, I walked into that
relationship, I accepted that invitation.
I've done that but Isn't it true?
That sometimes the lower story gets the best of you. and
sometimes you start wondering and you start questioning and
you start going his all of this real Do I really have something
to stand on here? And I think it's times like that
with all of our incredible intellect that we just come up
like a little child, And remember, be reminded.
Who he is? And how he sees you as a child
and loves you. To just relax for some people at
church right now. This is like the most difficult
time. It's like confrontational there
doesn't need to be confrontation In This Moment.
There just needs to be surrender.
And you know what? We can relax in that.
Because the one we surrender to doesn't mean us harm.
He loves us. To surrender to someone who
loves you enough to die for you. That's good surrender.
And that's what these steps are for for you to come up here and
just lay it down, whatever it is, just lay it down.
Let him have it. And walk away.
Lighter. To surrender to someone who
loves you enough to die for you. That's good surrender.
And that's what these steps are for for you to come up here and
just lay it down, whatever it is, just lay it down.
Let him have it. And walk away.
Lighter.