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Good morning. 
Happy Easter. 

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Welcome to Resurrection Church. 
My name is Daniel. 

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I'm the lead pastor here. 
The the people who built the 

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most powerful AI platforms in 
the world are by and large, not 

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Christians. 
Sam Altman, who's the CEO of 

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Open AI, the company behind 
ChatGPT, has actually written 

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about his belief that eventually
humanity will merge with AI. 

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It doesn't sound like he's 
talking about a new technology. 

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It sounds like he's talking 
about a new type of God. 

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One CEO of one of these 
companies actually talked about 

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creating God. 
Anthropics executives, the 

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company behind Claude, are all 
devout humanists. 

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Silicon Valley by and large is 
not trying to find God, they're 

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trying to build 1. 
And all of these founders have 

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secular world views and they've 
built AI platforms based on 

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their non Christian world views.
And that's why if you ask 

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certain types of questions, you 
get very political answers. 

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Why am I telling you this? 
Someone asked the leading AI 

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platform a really interesting 
question. 

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They asked it this If you are 
human and you heard the gospel 

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and you read the Bible from 
cover to cover, would you 

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convert to Christianity? 
No leading, no prompting, no 

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agenda, No Fear of death, no 
peer pressure, no Sunday school 

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background, no skin in the game.
A non Christian worldview. 

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Just consider the evidence. 
A system built by people trying 

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to replace God, trained on all 
of human knowledge. 

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Looked at the evidence and 
actually said yes I would 

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convert. 
Surprise surprise. 

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Now to be fair, it actually used
a lot more words than that. 

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It was a 1400 word response and 
it gave five major reasons that 

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it would convert to 
Christianity. 

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So I'm summarizing now. 
I know a couple of you probably 

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came into Easter Sunday today 
and you heard me say AI and 

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you've already checked out. 
Stay with me, because this isn't

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really about a computer. 
It's actually about what happens

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when something with zero reason 
to believe evaluates the same 

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evidence that perhaps you've 
been running from. 

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It's the gap between knowing and
kneeling. 

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You see, a machine concluded 
that it would convert, but it 

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can't convert because it has no 
will. 

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It has no capacity to surrender.
It can only conclude, and that's

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the gap between knowing 
something and surrendering. 

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And that's what we're going to 
talk about this morning. 

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If you get nothing else out of 
today, the big idea is the gap 

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between knowing and kneeling. 
Now, every Easter, I always want

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to answer the same question for 
you, particularly if maybe 

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you're new or foreign to 
Christianity. 

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And the question is this, was it
real? 

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It seems like an important 
question. 

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Yes. 
Was it real? 

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The apostle Paul thought this 
was an incredibly important the 

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question. 
He wrote about it in First 

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Corinthians 15. 
He says it this way. 

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He says, and if Christ has not 
been raised, then our preaching 

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is in vain and your faith is in 
vain. 

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We are even found to be 
misrepresenting God, because we 

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testified about God that He 
raised Christ, whom He did not 

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raise. 
If it is true that the dead are 

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not raised, because if the dead 
are not raised, not even Christ 

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has been raised, and if Christ 
has not been raised, your faith 

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is futile and you are still in 
your sin, then those also who 

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have fallen asleep in Christ 
have perished. 

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If in Christ we have hope in 
this life only, we are of all 

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people most to be pitied. 
What is He saying? 

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If Christ did not wake up from 
the dead, step out of that 

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grave, we should be pitied 
because our faith is useless. 

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And what I want you to see, and 
what Paul is saying, what the 

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Bible says, is that it's not 
asking you to take a blind leap 

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of faith in the dark. 
It says examine this. 

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And if it didn't happen, you 
walk away. 

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Because if you were to believe 
in something that was false, you

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would be the most pitied people 
on earth. 

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So did Jesus die on that cross 
and then get up and walk away on

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Sunday? 
Because if he did changes 

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everything. 
It's the question behind Easter,

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not how good will the food be. 
Are the bounce houses aired up? 

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Are we going to have fun today 
finding eggs in the backyard? 

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Those are not the most important
question. 

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The most important question, is 
this true? 

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Now here's what I want you to 
know before we we look at this 

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and before we go any further. 
The AI answer had five reasons 

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for its justification. 
But the interesting thing about 

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those five reasons is that 
they're not new reasons. 

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Men and women have wrestled with
them for generations. 

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Sceptics have tried to dismantle
them for over 2000 years. 

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Every serious person who has sat
down with this question of is it

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real? 
Believe it or not, has had to 

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reckon with the same 5 pressure 
points so so the AI didn't 

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discover anything, it just 
processed what was already there

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and came to the same place that 
serious thinkers have been 

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arriving at for centuries. 
The evidence isn't hiding, it's 

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been sitting in plain sight for 
over 2000 years. 

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The other thing I want you to 
see today is that these 

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arguments have faces because 
real people have struggled over 

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these questions, these five 
major things, and it has 

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converted them. 
Here are the five things #1 the 

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story of the Bible #2 the 
coherence of the Bible #3 the 

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evidence of the resurrection #4 
observed nature of humans, and 

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#5 the fruit of Christianity 
historically. 

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So today, for Easter, for just a
moment, let's take a look at 

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these things, the story of the 
Bible. 

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Have any of any of y'all ever 
actually read the Bible cover to

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cover? 
Anybody in here? 

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OK, if you've read the Bible 
cover to cover before, here's 

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you. 
You've probably already noticed 

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this. 
And if you haven't, I'm about to

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inform you. 
It's really messy. 

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There are. 
There's a lot of evil in there, 

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a lot of mistakes and fallen 
heroes and moral failures. 

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It's just riddled with them. 
It's full of rebellion. 

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This book is nobody's wish 
fulfillment. 

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You've probably heard before 
that religion is just a crutch, 

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but to be honest with you, 
anybody that was fabricating A 

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comforting religion would not 
write this book. 

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It tells you that your heart is 
deceitful above all else. 

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It tells you that the path to 
salvation is narrow and few find

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it. 
It tells you that if you're a 

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believer, you're probably going 
to suffer. 

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It tells you that the Son of God
himself sweated blood in the 

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garden, begging for a different 
way and didn't get one. 

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Nobody invents that because it's
not attractive. 

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In fact, when Jesus was 
explaining to his disciples what

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it would look like to follow him
and how difficult it would be, 

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they literally looked at one 
another and was like bro for 

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real not exactly like that. 
In in John 6 verse 60 he 

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explains what it looks like and 
and the disciples says. 

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When many of the disciples heard
it, they said this is a hard 

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saying, who can listen to it? 
That's 1st century Aramaic for 

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bro. 
For real. 

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No one invents the story. 
It's not tidy enough. 

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It's not sexy enough. 
It's not attractive enough. 

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It's not comforting. 
There's a man named CS Lewis. 

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He was an Oxford professor. 
He's one of the sharpest 

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literary minds in the 20th 
century. 

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He's a committed atheist. 
He described himself as the most

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reluctant convert in all of 
England. 

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He didn't walk into the faith, 
he was dragged into it. 

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He said he came to Christianity 
not because it felt good, but 

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because he kept running out of 
objections. 

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He spent years trying to punch 
holes in it, and he couldn't. 

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He didn't find Christianity 
comforting. 

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He found it unavoidable. 
If this book were invented to 

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make people feel better about 
themselves, Lewis would have 

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found it. 
He tried, and yet he converted, 

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wrote one of the most impactful 
books in all of Christianity. 

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The coherence of the Bible. 
You know, the Bible was written 

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across 1500 years, dozens of 
authors, 3 different languages, 

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multiple continents, and yet 
somehow there's one story arc 

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across the entire thing. 
You can't plan that. 

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The Passover lamb, the bronze 
serpent, these symbolics, 

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symbolic links hundreds of years
apart, all pointing in the same 

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direction. 
Isaiah 53, written 700 years 

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before the cross, somehow 
describing the crucifixion with 

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surgical precision. 
These aren't vague Nostradamus 

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like predictions. 
They're specific, falsifiable, 

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and they've been confirmed. 
Imagine someone describing that 

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the twin towers were going to be
destroyed by planes flying into 

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it. 
Except they prophesied that in 

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the 1300s Impossible. 
Impossible. 

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Listen to this little excerpt 
from Isaiah 53 about Jesus. 700 

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years before the cross. 
He was despised and rejected by 

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men. 
A man of sorrows, and acquainted

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with grief, and as one from whom
men hid their hide, their faces,

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He was despised, and we esteemed
Him not. 

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Surely He has borne our griefs 
and carried our sorrows, yet we 

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esteemed Him stricken, smitten 
by God, and afflicted. 

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But he was pierced for our 
transgressions, He was crushed 

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for our iniquities. 
Upon him was the chastisement 

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that brought us peace, and with 
His wounds we are healed. 

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All we, like sheep, have gone 
astray. 

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We have turned everyone to his 
own way, and the Lord has laid 

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on him the iniquity of us all. 
That's not a coincidence. 

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Jesus alone fulfills over 300 
prophecies. 

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There are 48 explicit prophecies
about Christ that we can match 

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detail for detail from hundreds 
of years before. 

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Those are impossible odds. 
They're so impossible that a man

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named Frank Morrison, who was an
English lawyer, a skeptic, A 

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rationalist, a man who loved 
science and admired Darwin, he 

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set out to write a short paper 
called Jesus the Last Phase. 

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His goal was to legally and 
historically disprove the 

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resurrection and specifically to
dismantle the prophetic claims 

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that he said they were too 
convenient to be real. 

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So he applied a lawyer's eye to 
the evidence, and he expected to

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close his case quickly. 
His investigation led him 

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somewhere he didn't expect. 
He scrapped the paper and 

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instead wrote a book called Who 
Moved the Stone? 

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One of the most compelling 
historical defenses of the 

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resurrection ever written. 
The man who went in to disprove 

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the prophecies came out 
defending the resurrection. 

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How about the resurrection that 
Paul says? 

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Everything hinges on the 
evidence for the resurrection. 

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The apostle Paul in First 
Corinthians 15 that we read 

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earlier said all of Christianity
stands or falls on the 

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resurrection. 
The creed that was developed for

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First Corinthians 15 that we see
when we read it, actually came 

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about about three to five years 
within the resurrection. 

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That means there were still 
people alive who could have 

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disproved it. 
There could have still been 

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contradictions and people who 
would have pushed back against 

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this if it were not real. 
The disciples who ultimately 

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died for this claim did not die 
for a belief. 

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They died for a claim about 
something they said they had 

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personally witnessed with their 
own eyes. 

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People will die for things they 
believe to be true, but nobody 

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dies to protect a lie they 
invented. 

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Listen to the apostle Paul 
explain this in First 

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Corinthians 15 verse 3. 
For I delivered to you as the 

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first importance what I also 
received, that Christ died for 

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our sins in accordance with the 
Scriptures, that he was buried, 

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that he was raised on the third 
day in accordance with the 

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Scriptures, and that he appeared
to Cephas. 

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That's Peter. 
Then to the 12. 

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Then he appeared to more than 
500 brothers at one time, most 

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of whom are still alive, though 
some have fallen asleep. 

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Then he appeared to James that 
was Jesus half brother who 

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didn't believe he was the son of
God when he was alive. 

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Somehow he believes now. 
Then to all the apostles and 

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last of all as to 1 untimely 
born, he appeared also to me. 

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What's Paul saying? 
You don't believe me? 

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Go check. 
There's 500 witnesses, go ask 

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them. 
Don't take my word for it. 

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Most of them are still alive. 
Go look at the evidence. 

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There's a man named Lee Strobel.
He was the legal affairs editor 

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at the Chicago Tribune. 
He was Yale Law trained, 

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committed atheist. 
And then his wife became 

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Christian and he did not take it
well. 

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So he launched A2 year 
investigation not to find God, 

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but to rescue his wife from what
he assumed was a cult. 

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He applied his journalistic and 
legal training to the 

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resurrection case. 
He interviewed historians, 

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scholars, archaeologists, 
medical experts. 

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He analyzed the evidence the 
same way he would build a legal 

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case. 
And he came to 1 conclusion. 

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It would take more faith to stay
an atheist than to believe. 

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And he wrote a book about it. 
It's called The Case for Christ.

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The man who went in to destroy 
the case for the resurrection 

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built the strongest version of 
it instead. 4th what we see 

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about human nature. 
I want to Why don't you take a 

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step back and think about this 
for just a minute. 

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Everything you you, you've seen 
in your life about human nature.

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You see, the Bible's description
of human nature is the most 

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accurate one on the table. 
And let me explain what that 

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means. 
And I want you to think about 

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what you know about humanity for
a minute. 

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We launch ships into the stars. 
We write symphonies. 

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We run into burning buildings to
rescue strangers. 

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We are capable of breathtaking 
love and sacrifice and 

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ingenuity. 
And in the same century we 

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invented the Holocaust and 
murdered millions. 

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We are simultaneously the most 
magnificent and the most 

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horrifying creature on the 
planet. 

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Only Christianity looks at both 
sides of what we actually 

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observe and says both of those 
things are true at the same 

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time. 
And here's why. 

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I am a glorious ruin made in the
image of God. 

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That's the glory. 
Fallen, broken, catastrophically

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selfish. 
That's the ruin. 

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And I cannot fix myself. 
That matches what we observe 

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about humans more precisely than
any other scientist or religion 

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has ever offered. 
Consider that the Bible would 

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say both of these things in 
Genesis 127. 

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So God created man in his own 
image. 

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In the image of God. 
He created him, male and female.

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He created them. 
Glorify beautiful Romans 323 For

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all have sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God, made in the

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image of the Creator, lost and 
cursed in rebellion to him. 

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Both are true. 
That's you and that's me, and 

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that's everyone in this room. 
Francis Collins was the director

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of the Human Genome Project, the
man who led the effort to map 

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and sequence human DNA. 
He's one of the most decorated 

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scientists in the world and a 
committed atheist, and he 

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decided at some point that 
intellectual honesty required 

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him to actually study the best 
arguments for the faith before 

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dismissing them. 
What broke him open wasn't 

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cosmology or biology. 
It was moral law. 

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This universal human sense, that
of right and wrong, that shows 

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up in every culture across every
century, defies evolutionary 

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explanation, and that points to 
something written into us from 

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outside of us. 
He later said that moral law was

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the strongest signpost of God he
ever encountered. 

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The man who mapped the human 
genome concluded that the most 

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remarkable thing he found wasn't
in our DNA at all, and he wrote 

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a book about it called The 
Language of God. 

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And 5th, The Fruit of 
Christianity. 

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Historically, maybe some of you 
are familiar with William 

286
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Wilberforce. 
He abolished slavery in England.

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He did so on Christian 
conviction against enormous 

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economic interest against the 
most powerful empire in the 

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world at the time. 
It was Christians that built the

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1st hospital system. 
Before Christianity, if you were

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sick and poor, you died alone. 
Christians ran toward plague 

292
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victims when everyone else ran 
in the other direction. 

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Universities like Yale, Harvard,
Oxford all started to train 

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ministers. 
The abolitionist movement, the 

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00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:55,600
civil rights movement, the 
Underground Railroad, driven by 

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people who believe that every 
human being bore the image of 

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God and therefore mattered. 
The greatest social movements in

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our history are from 
Christianity. 

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We should judge a tree by what 
it grows when people actually 

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follow it. 
It's actually a biblical concept

301
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that Jesus says in Matthew 7. 
He says you will recognize them 

302
00:20:21,520 --> 00:20:24,520
by their fruit. 
Are grapes gathered from thorn 

303
00:20:24,520 --> 00:20:28,720
bushes or figs from thistles. 
So every healthy tree bears good

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fruit, but the diseased tree 
bears bad fruit. 

305
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:34,240
A healthy tree cannot bear bad 
fruit, nor can a diseased tree 

306
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bear good fruit. 
This is what Christianity has 

307
00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:41,200
produced. 
Now some of you may rightly be 

308
00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:44,080
thinking, what about the 
atrocities? 

309
00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:46,400
What about the Crusades or the 
Inquisition? 

310
00:20:47,120 --> 00:20:51,240
I'm not dismissing that. 
But people acting against 

311
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Christ's teaching is not an 
indictment of Christ's teaching.

312
00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:58,560
Judge a tree by what grows when 
people actually follow it, not 

313
00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:02,640
when they betray it. 
The Crusades were Christians 

314
00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:04,400
acting against everything Jesus 
said. 

315
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:09,040
The hospitals, the abolitionist 
movement were Christians acting 

316
00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:12,960
according to it. 
It's a man named Peter Hitchens 

317
00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:16,440
burned his Bible at 15 years of 
age in the schoolyard, A 

318
00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:19,360
deliberate and ceremonial act of
rejection. 

319
00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:21,520
He became a Russian 
revolutionary. 

320
00:21:22,120 --> 00:21:25,320
He's the brother of Christopher 
Hitchens, probably the most 

321
00:21:25,440 --> 00:21:28,160
famous atheist of the last 
generation, the author of a book

322
00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:31,200
called God is Not Great. 
Two brothers, same upbringing, 

323
00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:35,240
same rebellion. 
Peter spent years as a foreign 

324
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correspondent inside the Soviet 
Union. 

325
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He watched from the inside what 
a civilization built without God

326
00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:45,840
produces. 
He watched the moral collapse. 

327
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:48,520
He watched the institutionalized
cruelty. 

328
00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:52,240
He watched the way a society 
behaves when there's no 

329
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:55,280
transcendent value anchoring 
human dignity. 

330
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And what he saw there didn't 
just change his politics, it 

331
00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:05,520
sent him home. 
The man who burned his Bible at 

332
00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:08,360
15 came back after watching what
the world looks like without 

333
00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:12,400
one. 
He wrote a book about it later 

334
00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:17,160
called The Rage Against God. 
How Atheism Led me to Faith. 

335
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We judge trees by their fruit. 5
unavoidable arguments and five 

336
00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:28,320
notable atheists with stories 
about wrestling with these same 

337
00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:32,080
things. 
Now, that's not to say there 

338
00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:35,360
aren't reasons to struggle. 
The problem of suffering is 

339
00:22:35,360 --> 00:22:38,000
real. 
The exclusivity claim of 

340
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:42,120
Christianity is hard. 
No worldview resolves every 

341
00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:45,160
difficulty. 
The question is whether 

342
00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:50,000
Christianity answers the most 
important ones like who am I, 

343
00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:55,520
what's wrong with me, and what's
been done about it more honestly

344
00:22:55,520 --> 00:23:01,800
than anything else. 
I think the biggest question of 

345
00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:03,400
the day is not whether or not 
it's real. 

346
00:23:03,400 --> 00:23:05,480
It has nothing to do with the 
evidence that I just gave you 

347
00:23:05,480 --> 00:23:08,360
because all of these men, these 
notable scholars who all 

348
00:23:08,360 --> 00:23:13,000
converted, I don't think that 
your problem is an evidence 

349
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:18,080
problem. 
Even the leading AI platform in 

350
00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:22,720
the world created by unbelievers
evaluated the evidence and 

351
00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:25,200
conclude concluded it would 
convert to following Jesus 

352
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:29,120
Christ, but it didn't convert. 
It can't. 

353
00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:33,080
It's not human. 
It can only conclude. 

354
00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:39,040
And you see a lot of you people 
here today or listening online, 

355
00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:41,880
I think you're in the same 
position. 

356
00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:47,840
You've heard the evidence, you 
might even believe it, but you 

357
00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:50,200
haven't moved, you haven't 
surrendered. 

358
00:23:51,120 --> 00:23:54,040
See, the Bible actually says 
that this is the real problem. 

359
00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:57,760
It's not a lack of evidence in 
Romans one. 

360
00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:01,760
The Bible states it this way. 
For the wrath of God is revealed

361
00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:04,600
from heaven against all 
ungodliness and unrighteousness 

362
00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:09,040
of men, who by their 
unrighteousness suppress the 

363
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:13,840
truth. 
For what can be known about God 

364
00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:17,200
is plain to them, because God 
has shown it to them. 

365
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:22,040
For His invisible attributes, 
namely His eternal power and His

366
00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:25,200
divine nature, have been clearly
perceived ever since the 

367
00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:28,920
creation of the world. 
What is he saying? 

368
00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:33,800
Look around at what has been 
created and know there is a God,

369
00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:39,440
because in the things that have 
been made we are without excuse.

370
00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:44,320
The problem isn't that people 
can't see it. 

371
00:24:44,360 --> 00:24:46,520
The problem is that people 
suppress it. 

372
00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:50,400
That's what the Bible says. 
It's not a knowledge problem, 

373
00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:56,200
it's a surrender problem. 
Here's what I will tell you 

374
00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:58,880
after years of doing this. 
Evidence can get you to the edge

375
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:02,360
of the water, but only the 
Spirit of God can make you jump 

376
00:25:02,360 --> 00:25:06,360
in. 
So we've been praying all 

377
00:25:06,360 --> 00:25:13,120
morning for you to jump in. 
I know because this is exactly 

378
00:25:13,120 --> 00:25:18,400
where I found myself in college.
I knew God was real, I just 

379
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:25,760
didn't want to surrender. 
I knew it so well that in the 

380
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:29,480
middle of my rebellion, drinking
and partying and chasing a 

381
00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:34,960
horrible lifestyle, I actually 
LED my boss to Christ on the 

382
00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:39,560
floor of a warehouse office one 
night after work drinking beer. 

383
00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:50,920
Yes, the Holy Spirit works on 
dirty warehouse floors just like

384
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:53,720
He works in dirty centers like 
me. 

385
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:59,600
I had not even surrendered, but 
I knew enough that God would use

386
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,320
me to reach someone else for 
Christ. 

387
00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:07,960
His name is Scott Desheno. 
He messaged me this week on 

388
00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:12,440
Facebook. 
He said, man, thank you so much.

389
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:14,720
I said, bro, I was a flaming 
wreck. 

390
00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:18,880
And you know what he said? 
So was I. 

391
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:32,600
But I'm not anymore. 
The most important question on 

392
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:36,120
Easter Sunday is not did it 
happen, it's what will you do 

393
00:26:36,120 --> 00:26:41,360
with the fact that it did? 
I still remember the day I 

394
00:26:41,360 --> 00:26:49,320
surrendered. 
Is today your day because I want

395
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:54,440
you to meet Him. 
Jesus died for your sin. 

396
00:26:54,520 --> 00:27:00,800
He walked out of a tomb. 
He is alive and he is offering 

397
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:04,280
you something that no one else 
can not self improvement. 

398
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:07,760
Not a moral upgrade, but a 
rescue. 

399
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:12,000
Every other religious system 
gives you a ladder to climb. 

400
00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:15,280
Only Christianity lowered the 
ladder to the floor. 

401
00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:24,600
So here's the invitation. 
Repent and believe not, not 

402
00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:29,840
perform and earn. 
Now there's another group of 

403
00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:34,120
people here today and, and, and 
online and you, you surrendered 

404
00:27:34,120 --> 00:27:39,120
your life to Jesus at some point
and then you messed up and you 

405
00:27:39,120 --> 00:27:43,920
failed and you ran away, just 
like we heard Peter do last 

406
00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:46,880
week. 
Peter failed Jesus 

407
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:50,440
spectacularly, denied him three 
times, and what did he do? 

408
00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:53,080
He he went back to fishing. 
He went back to his old life. 

409
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:55,000
He went back to what he knew 
before Jesus. 

410
00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:57,160
Jesus doesn't write him a a 
letter. 

411
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:01,400
I can't believe you Peter. 
What a jerk. 

412
00:28:03,360 --> 00:28:05,760
He didn't wait for Peter to 
clean himself up and come 

413
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:09,640
crawling back. 
He showed up at the beach that 

414
00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:11,280
Peter was at and he made him 
breakfast. 

415
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:14,440
He found him in his old life. 
Fire was already lit. 

416
00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:18,560
The fish were already laid out 
and those of you that know 

417
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:20,800
Christ and have run from Him, 
this is for you. 

418
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:24,720
Jesus is not waiting for you to 
find your way back. 

419
00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:30,560
He is already at the beach. 
So maybe today is the day for 

420
00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:33,320
you to turn back to your Savior 
who's sitting on the beach 

421
00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:36,080
waiting for you to realize that 
His invitation to you has never 

422
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:40,360
left because He loves you. 
Come back. 

423
00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:48,680
Before you leave the building 
today, make a choice to come 

424
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:52,120
back and tell somebody about it.
Come back. 

425
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:56,760
I'm going to give you an 
opportunity today, if that's 

426
00:28:56,760 --> 00:28:59,720
you, to make a declaration in 
your heart and publicly to turn 

427
00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:02,600
back to Christ, to rededicate 
your life to Him. 

428
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:08,240
I told you earlier that the big 
idea was the gap between knowing

429
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:10,200
and kneeling. 
And so there are a few of you in

430
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:13,040
here today and watching online 
who have never surrendered your 

431
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:14,920
life to Christ. 
You know all of the evidence. 

432
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:17,120
That's not the problem. 
The question is whether or not 

433
00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:22,440
you will kneel. 
So I want to offer you the 

434
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:25,720
chance to do that today, the 
same invitation that Christ 

435
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:31,480
extends to you. 
Will you all bow your heads and 

436
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:36,680
close your eyes for a brief 
moment if you are ready to 

437
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:40,520
surrender your life to Christ, 
not merely to intellectually 

438
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:46,280
acknowledge that He exists, but 
to give over your will and life 

439
00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:49,040
to the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords? 

440
00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:54,120
I want to give you that chance. 
Will you repeat this prayer 

441
00:29:54,120 --> 00:30:01,440
after me? 
Jesus, I know I'm a Sinner who 

442
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:06,600
can't save myself. 
I need you to save me. 

443
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:11,640
So I surrender everything to 
you. 

444
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:16,600
I repent and believe. 
Be my Lord. 

445
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:26,200
Please Jesus, if you've just 
made a decision to surrender 

446
00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:30,320
your life to Christ for the very
first time, will you be brave 

447
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:32,040
and raise your hand for me to 
see? 

448
00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:39,640
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
You could put your hands down. 

449
00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:46,080
Thank you. 
If today is a day that you know 

450
00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:49,080
you should turn back to Christ 
because he is chasing you 

451
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:53,800
relentlessly and you've been 
running, I've got good news and 

452
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:58,640
bad news. 
He's got long legs and He loves 

453
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:02,280
you. 
If today you would like to 

454
00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:05,840
rededicate your life to pursuing
Jesus King, will you raise your 

455
00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:09,880
hand for me to see? 
Thank you, thank you, thank you,

456
00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:17,440
thank you, thank you. 
You could put your hands down in

457
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:23,640
Jesus name, Amen. 
All right, real quick, if you 

458
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:28,400
just made a decision to 
surrender to Christ for the very

459
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:29,920
first time, welcome to the 
family. 

460
00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:42,000
If you have already signed up to
be baptized, I want you to get 

461
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:45,920
up and head toward that door 
with the very happy, beautiful 

462
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,040
people waving at you. 
There he is. 

463
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:56,240
If you have given your life to 
Christ and you have not been 

464
00:31:56,400 --> 00:32:01,720
baptized, this is the public 
profession of an inward 

465
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:03,440
decision. 
Even if that was just moments 

466
00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:07,960
ago and you want to be baptized.
We have towels and we have extra

467
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:13,200
clothes and the water is warm. 
It's oildale water, but it's 

468
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:17,880
still warm. 
All you need to do is get up and

469
00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:22,160
walk right over there. 
Will you stand with us? 

470
00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:31,360
If you just chose to surrender 
your life to Christ for the 

471
00:32:31,360 --> 00:32:32,800
first time, there are tables in 
the back. 

472
00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:35,200
It says I raised my hand. 
We would love to celebrate with 

473
00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:37,800
you and we start singing. 
I want you to go back there. 

474
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:40,920
We have a gift for you and we're
excited for you. 

475
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:44,840
If you just rededicated your 
life to the Lord, our prayer 

476
00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:47,400
team is going to be up here. 
We love praying with you for any

477
00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:49,320
reason you bring your prayer 
requests. 

478
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:52,360
We would love to pray over you. 
If you made a decision to 

479
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:54,920
rededicate your life, we'd love 
to pray over you as well and 

480
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:57,000
celebrate with you. 
You come as the Lord leads you. 

481
00:32:57,720 --> 00:32:58,960
I'm going to sing this song 
together.