WEBVTT 00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:09.439 This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God. 00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:14.320 For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProquay.org. 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:18.399 Well, good evening. 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:21.120 That was loud. 00:00:21.519 --> 00:00:22.480 Startled me. 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:23.519 What about you? 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:25.280 Well, I'm glad you're here. 00:00:25.839 --> 00:00:28.320 It's a a good night to be here. 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:30.640 I think you're going to be really glad you came. 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:35.439 I wanted to tell you a little bit about Mary Joe before she came up here. 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:42.640 I was just reminding her my first uh knowledge of her was on the cover of Christianity Today. 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:49.600 There were four or five sharp-looking women, and they were the called the unexpected defenders. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:54.159 So it was a whole incredible article about women apologists. 00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:59.679 And I got curious about her and looked and thought, holy cow, she lives in Houston. 00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:00.479 That's close. 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:02.079 I live close to Houston. 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:11.359 So was able to get in touch with her, and then she came and did our women's retreat, and it was an incredible time, and uh really honored to have her back. 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:20.400 She is actually a former atheist from the Pacific Northwest, and now she's a defender of Christianity in Texas. 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:22.799 So that's that's kind of a God thing. 00:01:24.959 --> 00:01:28.000 She's now an assistant professor at HBU. 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:29.439 She's also an author. 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:35.359 She's uh married and has a beautiful daughter we also got to meet, and we're really glad to have you tonight. 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:46.000 So come on up and okay. 00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:48.719 Well, they said I'd get an hour and a half. 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:50.560 That's a lot of time. 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:55.519 Um I will have some time at the end for questions. 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:59.280 And uh so if you if you're thinking of them and you want to write something down, that would be great. 00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:01.680 So you can uh ask me something there at the end. 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:06.480 I I did bring with me two things I want to mention because when I get to the end of my talk, I'll forget. 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:18.719 And that is um I have newsletter signups because I have a ministry called Confident Christianity, and every month I put out a little training in apologetics, and then you can see where I'm speaking, and you know, maybe if I'm speaking in Houston, you can come to that. 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:21.919 Or you can see some of the apologetics conferences that I'm a part of. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:25.759 And so if you want to come see somebody else, you can come see them. 00:02:25.919 --> 00:02:30.080 Um so anyway, um, Confident Christianity's newsletter sign-up looks like this. 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:36.719 And then I brought with me my HBU uh newsletter sign up as well as interest in the apologetics degree program. 00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:46.719 This sign-up sheet has to, if you if you put your name on here, you might without a check, that means, hey, I'm just interested in your newsletter, see what you guys are up to, what you apologists at HBU are doing. 00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:50.719 If you put the check, that means hey, I'm interested in that master's program. 00:02:51.039 --> 00:03:01.360 Because we have a master's of apologetics degree program that you could take either on campus with us or you can take fully online so you don't have to leave your home to do it. 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:03.439 So these will be up here. 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:05.919 I was told that I should put these up here. 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:11.360 So at the end of our time together, you can come and sign on these if you would like to do so. 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:12.719 All right. 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:26.400 Well, as Marcy said, I used to be an atheist, and uh I just spent some time, uh, one of the uh one of my friends who was an apologist, he just uh passed away, Nabil Kreshi, and we were a bunch of us apologists were at his funeral. 00:03:26.719 --> 00:03:33.360 Later on, I was talking to two guys who also used to be atheists, and we were describing what our kind of atheism looked like. 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:34.560 Well, what was your atheism? 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:35.439 What was yours? 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:39.520 And so mine was a little different in that I wasn't an angry atheist. 00:03:39.680 --> 00:03:47.520 You know, a lot of what we see on uh the news and social media is you see this sort of portrayal of hostility towards Christians. 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:56.879 You see uh, you know, a hostility in the sense that they'll say things like that Christians aren't intellectual or you know, faith is when you have a lack of evidence or reason. 00:03:56.960 --> 00:04:00.240 You'll hear things like that that sound very hostile towards Christianity. 00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:01.599 I was not one of those. 00:04:01.759 --> 00:04:05.280 I was not a hostile toward, I wasn't hostile towards people of faith. 00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:09.120 I just didn't grow up in church, nor did I have a church background. 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:11.039 I had no reason to believe in God. 00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:13.840 I had no reason to not believe in God, I just had nothing. 00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:16.160 Like I had no background in that. 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:22.959 So um I kind of, I mean, my exposure to religion was what I got on TV and in the movies. 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:35.519 So it was kind of, I thought religion was kind of weird, and it was maybe for people who um had maybe a fairly non-informed view, or or maybe that was for those people that needed it, but I didn't need that. 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:48.160 So I'm not gonna go into the whole details of how I became a Christian, but I did uh become a Christian when I went off to college, and uh that's sort of busting that statistic there, you know, isn't it? 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:51.759 We're worried about our kids going off to college and leaving the faith. 00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:54.800 And and I actually went off to college and became a Christian. 00:04:55.040 --> 00:05:03.439 I will tell you that I had a band director in high school who was a Christian, and he knew I was gonna go off to college to become a band director. 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:06.959 I taught uh band in the public schools for eight years. 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:11.040 And he, as I was graduating, he gave me a gift of a Bible. 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:13.439 And so when you go off to college, you're gonna have hard questions. 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:14.879 I hope you'll turn to this. 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:17.600 So that set me on the path towards Christianity. 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:22.319 I began reading the Bible and then became a Christian in college. 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:32.720 Now, ever since I've become a Christian, I've struggled with a certain area of faith that we're gonna talk about tonight, and that is demonstrating the truth of Christianity. 00:05:33.279 --> 00:05:38.959 And it's I've noticed this is not just a problem for me, demonstrating the reality of God or the truth of Christianity. 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:41.600 I've seen it's a problem within the church. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:49.839 In fact, this is such a problem in the church that it caused me to go through a time of doubt after becoming a Christian. 00:05:50.160 --> 00:06:01.199 Well, I saw what I what happened was I saw consistent patterns of behaviors uh in the church that were antithetical to the basic teachings of Christianity. 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:04.480 Let me just give you an example of a place to start here. 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:06.240 The Sermon on the Mount. 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:14.959 Jesus told us, love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you, you know, do good to those who don't do good to you. 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:24.959 But rather, what I was encountering on a regular basis in the church was a lot of gossip and pride and friendly fire within the body of Christ. 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:26.879 I don't know why we call that friendly. 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:34.399 It wasn't very friendly, but I guess that's the um military term, friendly fire within the body of Christ. 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:40.879 And I saw it from people in the pew to the children's workers, to the missionaries, to the pastors. 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:41.759 It was everybody. 00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:44.399 There was nobody that wasn't engaging in this. 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:50.000 And it's not that it was directed just at me, it was what I was observing within the body of Christ. 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:53.759 You know, it was people, how they treated one another within the church. 00:06:54.560 --> 00:07:06.079 These Christians couldn't even love those who were part of the body of Christ, let alone love an enemy, you know, or do good to somebody who wasn't doing good to them. 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:11.920 So this created in me a pattern of distrust. 00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:16.319 I began to distrust people in the church, my fellow Christians. 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:20.560 And that led to distrusting Christianity. 00:07:20.879 --> 00:07:24.240 It first started with questioning, do these people really believe it? 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:27.600 And then I started thinking, do I really believe it? 00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:30.399 What did I do back then when I became a Christian? 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:32.399 What was that experience? 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:41.519 Seemed like the people that I whom whom were surrounding me didn't seem to care much about demonstrating the truth of what they professed. 00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:47.680 But then, I don't know how I came to this, uh, but maybe it's just how I am. 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:55.600 But I just I began to reason that, well, okay, just because people don't live like something's true doesn't mean it's not true. 00:07:55.839 --> 00:07:58.399 Uh that doesn't disprove the truth of it. 00:07:58.560 --> 00:08:09.920 And I could, I was telling myself, I I remember every time I go into the hospital to visit a doctor, you know, this this is a hospital, and and they would certainly tell me that smoking will kill me. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:12.639 You know, it's absolutely unhealthy for me. 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:15.360 And yet, what do I always see when I go into the hospital? 00:08:15.519 --> 00:08:18.319 There's always doctors and nurses out there smoking, right? 00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:19.360 So always. 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:26.639 So I'm sitting there like, yeah, I mean, that doesn't disprove the medical truth about smoking, uh, being a killer. 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:37.360 So I'm sitting here thinking, you know, I could I could really argue that way and I could just leave it there, but really the scripture doesn't leave it there. 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:42.000 The scripture tells us that our lives should demonstrate the reality of God. 00:08:42.399 --> 00:08:47.840 Uh, the scripture tells us that we should be a testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ as Savior. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:53.440 Uh in fact, in John 17, we see Jesus in the garden praying. 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:57.360 And he's praying, this is right before he goes to his death, and he's praying for us. 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:02.879 He prays a lot of prayers, but one of them is for us, starting in verse uh 20 and going on. 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:04.559 And what is he praying there? 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:13.519 He's praying that we will all be one, like he and the Father are one, that we'll show each other such great love that the world will know that he's God's son. 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:20.159 This is what he's praying for us, that we we would be this great demonstration of the truth of who Jesus is. 00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:26.559 And they would see that by our unity, which is what I exactly what I wasn't seeing in the church. 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:29.759 So the scripture tells us that this is what's gonna happen. 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:36.639 We can cause people to stumble, we can cause doubt for people when we don't demonstrate the reality of God in our own lives. 00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:38.320 So tonight we're gonna cover this. 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:45.679 We're gonna cover that Christians can demonstrate the reality of God in their lives, and we'll look at three practices towards doing so. 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:55.919 Now, these obviously are not gonna be the only things that you can do, and it's not comprehensive, it's not gonna cover everything that there is, right, to demonstrate the reality of God. 00:09:56.080 --> 00:10:02.720 But it's gonna have that sort of apologetics bent to it since you are all here studying apologetics, which is so cool, by the way. 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:04.559 There's a lot of you doing this. 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:05.759 So I'm interested. 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:11.679 Now I'm interested, and I won't ask you for calling it out, but now I gotta find out what Neil's been teaching you. 00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:14.080 Like, what have you covered so far? 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:18.080 Uh he was really interested in this talk of mine, so I'm I'm interested to know what you've covered. 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:25.519 All right, so we're gonna look at three practices tonight for demonstrating the reality of God in our lives, and that's to examine, engage, and entrust. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:29.600 All right, so what are we examining? 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:32.240 Well, first we need to examine our beliefs. 00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:34.320 We have to examine our beliefs. 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:43.039 And since they gave me so much time, I'm I'm blowing out each of these little these points into three other little mini points, so I'll be giving you those as well. 00:10:43.279 --> 00:10:50.159 So um, we're gonna be looking at responsibility and questions and truth and this practice of examining our beliefs. 00:10:53.679 --> 00:10:54.240 All right. 00:10:54.879 --> 00:11:02.960 So a while ago on my I have a blog, Confident Christianity, and a while back uh an anonymous blogger said this to me. 00:11:03.200 --> 00:11:06.960 He said, You just believe in God because that's what you want to be true. 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:11.600 You will find arguments and evidence in order to support what you already presuppose about God. 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:18.639 If you would just spend the time to look into the arguments against God, you would come to realize he does not exist. 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:24.960 All right, so basically, this commenter is suggesting that I'm not honest with my beliefs. 00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:32.480 However, from what I've shared with you, a little bit about my background, that's exactly what I was doing when I went through a time of doubt. 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:42.559 I went through a time of raw introspection and I was looking for evidence to um honestly examine and evaluate my belief in God. 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:49.360 And I had, I realized when I was going through that time of doubt that I had to be willing to hear the arguments on the other side. 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:56.960 I had to be willing to give them a fair hearing and uh just to see if my beliefs have merit. 00:11:57.200 --> 00:12:10.799 So, in contrast to the gentleman's assumption, I had actually gone through a very painful time of peeling away presuppositions and straining to get beyond my own bias in an attempt to see the truth. 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:19.360 And I will tell you guys, um, I'm writing on this right now, but um, I had come to a point where I didn't like the Christians. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:30.159 The way that they were treating each other and how they were professing to have this great redemption and forgive, this beautiful thing, and yet I saw how they acted on a daily basis, and I thought, I don't like these people. 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:32.480 I don't actually want to be in church. 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:34.879 So maybe if it's not true, I can have an excuse. 00:12:35.039 --> 00:12:39.840 Like if I can find the arguments that tell me it's not true, I'll have an excuse to walk away. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.720 Um, and what I also didn't tell you was that my husband was a pastor at the time. 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:51.279 He was a worship and youth minister, so at least he wasn't the league guy. 00:12:51.600 --> 00:12:55.519 But uh anyway, so I sort of kept this all to myself. 00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:10.559 But I I was really going through a time where I was I was almost hoping that Christianity wasn't true, and I had to be, I had to give Christianity like I had to be careful of my bias against Christianity at that point and against Christians. 00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:18.480 So I really did struggle through looking at both sides to see um if the arguments were good on one side, better on one side or the other. 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:30.960 Now, this gentleman's assumption, though it's a bit presumptuous to put this on somebody's blog you don't even know, um, it's it's actually as I think about it, it's not without some merit. 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:33.759 Uh, there's a kernel of truth in here. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:48.000 You see, Christians, especially those who grew up in the church or in a culture of Christianity, may not have taken the time to really examine their own personal beliefs or discover the truthfulness of what they believe. 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:51.039 They may never have been challenged to do so. 00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:53.279 I didn't come out of a culture of Christianity. 00:13:53.440 --> 00:13:57.440 Portland is very, Portland, Oregon's very different from Houston, Texas. 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:01.120 I'm sure you realize that without me even going into detail. 00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:08.879 But uh, we don't have churches on every street corner, um, nor gas stations, nor Tex-Mex restaurants. 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:12.559 But uh, it's a very different culture. 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:21.679 And um yeah, it's just it's very different up there, and um, you don't come out of this culture of Christianity up there. 00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:28.159 So people up there tend to tend to know what it is, what what brought them into the faith, why do they believe this is true? 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:31.360 But when I came to the South, I saw that a lot of people didn't have that. 00:14:31.519 --> 00:14:36.799 They just grew up in church and they trusted the authorities that had been in their life to teach them the truth. 00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:48.080 So over the years I've encountered people who they've told me stories about um how Christian leaders in their lives wouldn't even answer difficult questions about the faith. 00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:53.759 Or they would say in response that the person asking the question just didn't have enough faith. 00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:58.480 Like their response to whatever difficult question would be, well, you need more faith. 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:07.919 And early in my ministry, I would get comments and questions from people in the church about the dangers of asking questions about belief. 00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:12.720 And so I began to wonder why are Christians avoiding this task? 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:17.360 You know, why should we be worried about seeking truth? 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:25.600 So let me share with you two reasons I discovered why Christians have a hard time with examining their beliefs, why they have a hard time with truth. 00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:30.240 The first reason is because truth is hard to find. 00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:31.840 It really is. 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:44.480 Francis Bacon, who was considered he's considered the father of the scientific method, he's also a believer in God, he talked about the what he called the idols of the mind, the idols of the mind. 00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:48.799 And he said, we have a hard time finding truth because of the kinds of things that we are. 00:15:49.759 --> 00:15:52.240 Because we're human, our biases get in the way. 00:15:52.399 --> 00:16:00.480 Our experiences influence us, our upbringing, our cultures influence us, and it guides what we'll look at and what we won't. 00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:07.360 Uh he said, even the very words that we use cause problems for finding truth because our words are ill-defined. 00:16:08.159 --> 00:16:17.600 And then he said, and then we get into uh systems of thought, into uh philosophies and theologies that keep us uh from considering. 00:16:17.679 --> 00:16:23.120 We don't consider for ourselves what we believe, we just accept things because they're popular dogmas. 00:16:23.519 --> 00:16:25.360 So truth is hard to find. 00:16:25.919 --> 00:16:30.000 That's one reason I think Christians haven't really spent the time examining their beliefs. 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:31.519 This is a tough endeavor. 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:36.480 The other reason I think we have trouble is it's a matter of the will. 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:42.480 Um, when we find truth, we're we're thrust into a choice of our will. 00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:46.879 The choice involves whether or not we're gonna follow the truth we found. 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:51.360 And that also is not easy to do. 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:55.919 I think it's one reason why many people have troubles with Christianity in general. 00:16:56.240 --> 00:16:57.039 As G.K. 00:16:57.200 --> 00:17:03.679 Chesterton said, the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:08.480 It has been found difficult and left untried. 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:18.000 But that blog commenter seemed to suggest that honesty can be achieved easily. 00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:20.400 You know, you just need to spend some time looking at the truth. 00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:21.759 Just spend some time. 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:24.720 But being honest with ourselves does not come easily. 00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:32.400 Um whether you're atheist, Christian, or whatever you believe, honesty with your deeply held convictions doesn't come easily. 00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:39.279 Admitting that we can be wrong is extremely difficult and many times painful. 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:50.799 And it will be difficult and painful, especially when it comes to your deeply held beliefs and convictions or deeply held beliefs on hot topics in our culture. 00:17:52.880 --> 00:18:01.200 You know, this leads me to think whenever I see or hear the new atheist movement slogan, this one they ran a few years back on buses, there's probably no God. 00:18:01.279 --> 00:18:03.519 Now stop worrying and enjoy your life. 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:08.640 I always want to answer these guys, yeah, it's just not that simplistic. 00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:10.400 Okay, it's just not that easy. 00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:14.480 This task of examining our own beliefs, we have to is hard. 00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:18.799 We have to get to the point of how do we get past our own biases? 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:21.039 How do we get really honest with ourselves? 00:18:22.079 --> 00:18:23.119 And that's tough. 00:18:23.359 --> 00:18:28.079 So I'll I'll give you three ways that we can look at examining our beliefs. 00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:36.960 First of the first way we need to towards getting towards honesty here with our beliefs is we need to take personal responsibility with what we believe. 00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:40.960 Take personal responsibility for our beliefs. 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:45.680 And this lines right up with the Apostle Paul. 00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:53.119 The Apostle Paul uh he he felt like we needed to grow up and become mature in our beliefs. 00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:57.519 And he his words show that we need responsibility for our views and beliefs. 00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:02.799 He admonishes us that to leave our childish thinking and to move on towards maturity. 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:08.559 That we move on from that initial experience of salvation on to a more mature Christian life. 00:19:08.880 --> 00:19:11.279 1 Corinthians 13, 11. 00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:13.599 When I was a child, I spoke like a child. 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:17.119 I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. 00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:21.039 When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:31.920 Ephesians 4, speaking to the church at Ephesus, he's just told them that they've been given all of these teachers and evangelists and the apostles, everything in the church. 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:33.119 What's the purpose? 00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:36.720 Uh it's for growing us up in our knowledge of God. 00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:55.119 And then he says this, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes, but rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head into Christ. 00:19:56.880 --> 00:20:13.759 Paul's commenting on the task that we all have before us to grow up in our beliefs, to examine our beliefs, to know what it is we believe, so we're not pushed around by anything that comes out of any pulpit across the world, or anything that comes out of the mouths of philosophers, right? 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:15.759 Or out of social media. 00:20:16.559 --> 00:20:18.799 We have to grow up in what we know. 00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:25.839 So taking personal responsibility, deciding it is time that I understand why it is that I believe. 00:20:26.079 --> 00:20:30.640 So responsibility, then we need to ask questions in examining our beliefs. 00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:39.200 I like to, when I do uh another talk called Conversational Apologetics, I like to tell believers you're not asking other people enough questions about their beliefs. 00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:41.279 You really need to ask other people questions. 00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:45.119 Well, in this talk, those questions become internal. 00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:48.640 Christians, you're not asking yourself enough questions. 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:52.559 You need to know what it is you believe and why you believe it. 00:20:53.279 --> 00:20:57.039 So we need to ask ourselves, why do I believe in God? 00:20:57.759 --> 00:21:00.079 What do I believe about God? 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:03.519 Uh let me let me focus on those two at the moment. 00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:05.359 Why do I believe in God? 00:21:05.599 --> 00:21:13.359 Uh if you're gonna talk to people about belief and you want to demonstrate the reality of God in your life, you have to have some reason for believing in that reality, right? 00:21:13.519 --> 00:21:15.519 For believing that that's true. 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:18.480 So we have to settle this for ourselves. 00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:22.799 For me, um, I have a two-part, I could give you a two-part testimony. 00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:26.960 One is the experience of God convicting me of my sin. 00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:31.279 That was a real experience that I had with God Himself, with the Holy Spirit drawing me to himself. 00:21:31.599 --> 00:21:40.240 That's my test, what we call my testimony when we talk as Christians, my life before Christ, you know, how he drew me to him, and then we'll talk maybe a little bit about my life after. 00:21:40.400 --> 00:21:45.200 So my testimony is I was convicted of my sin and drawn to Christ's salvation. 00:21:45.359 --> 00:21:46.799 But then I began to doubt. 00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:56.960 So the the next part of my testimony is I coupled that early experience with reasons to believe in God's existence based on what God's already given us. 00:21:57.119 --> 00:21:59.680 And I think this is pretty much your whole apologetic. 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:06.799 Course is that you're looking at reasons to believe in God's existence and also to believe in Jesus as the Savior. 00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:11.359 So then I started coupling my early testimony with arguments like the moral law. 00:22:11.519 --> 00:22:13.839 How do I know what is good and evil? 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:18.559 Because everybody has some kind of idea that there is good and evil. 00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:20.480 So where am I getting these ideas from? 00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:28.400 I coupled it with arguments from the evidence of the resurrection that the best explanation for the facts that we have is that Jesus rose from the dead. 00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:33.519 So I started coupling it with that, and now I have a two-part testimony on why I believe. 00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:37.519 So if somebody asks me, I might say, Well, I had a real experience with God. 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:41.440 Or I might say, Well, because I believe the moral law argument. 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:44.400 I believe we can't know good at all unless there is a God. 00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:45.839 So I have both. 00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:48.559 Then what do I believe? 00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:49.519 Now I got it. 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:53.519 Not only do I need to know why I believe, I need to know what I believe. 00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:55.599 And that's your doctrines. 00:22:55.759 --> 00:22:57.359 Do you know the Christian doctrines? 00:22:57.440 --> 00:23:01.039 Do you know the nature of God, the nature of man, the nature of Christ? 00:23:01.680 --> 00:23:05.039 Right there, those three things separate us out from pretty much everybody else. 00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:07.680 These are the kinds of things we need to know. 00:23:08.480 --> 00:23:12.400 In fact, there's a video on YouTube of Oprah Winfrey. 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:22.400 It's a, she's on a, I don't remember if it's her own talk show or if it was on the New Earth that she did, the religious service that she did, a religious study, whatever you want to call it. 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:26.000 And she actually was talking about somebody said, Well, you used to be a Christian. 00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:26.799 What happened? 00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:28.400 You know, why'd you leave Christianity? 00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:38.480 And she said, Well, I was in a great Baptist church and we were listening to a great Baptist preacher, and he he was giving this sermon on God's jealousy. 00:23:39.200 --> 00:23:43.680 So I was sitting there thinking, wait, God's jealous of us? 00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:46.400 No, that can't be God. 00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:49.680 Okay, hold your horses right there, right? 00:23:50.079 --> 00:23:53.359 I wanted to stop and reply, but it was just a video. 00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:58.240 So God doesn't have human jealousy Oprah, right? 00:23:58.400 --> 00:24:03.839 So as you're sitting there thinking, what, God's jealous of me, she's probably acquitting God's jealousy to something like she might feel. 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:05.519 Like, hey, I really like your watch. 00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:06.559 I'd like to have that. 00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:10.559 You know, I'm kind of jealous of your job, or I'm kind of jealous of your vacation or your family. 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:13.119 That is not God's jealousy, right? 00:24:13.200 --> 00:24:16.319 God holds all of his attributes perfectly and perfectly together. 00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:22.480 So while he's jealous, he's jealous for the perfect creation that he made, and he's perfectly loving and just and merciful. 00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:23.680 You have to put that all together. 00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:27.279 You can't just rip one out and say, What he's jealous of me. 00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:32.960 I find this to be the case with so many people who have said that they've left the Christian faith. 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:35.920 It's based on a misunderstanding of basic Christian doctrine. 00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:37.839 They don't know the God they left. 00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:41.119 They've got some different unorthodox view of God. 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:51.200 A lot of times I find myself saying, Well, uh, they'll say, I they'll come talking to me online or something like that, and they'll say, Hey, uh, I don't believe in a God who is, and then they'll list something. 00:24:51.359 --> 00:24:56.240 And I look at the list and I reply back, Well, I don't believe in that God either, so we're good. 00:24:56.720 --> 00:24:58.319 We can start from there. 00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:00.400 Why don't we start with who I actually believe? 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:02.559 We'll discuss that and you can let me know. 00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:05.440 But we need to know what we believe, right? 00:25:05.680 --> 00:25:08.480 I think this is causing a lot of problems for us in the Christian faith. 00:25:08.559 --> 00:25:15.359 And it's and it's one of the reasons I think people are willing to walk away so easily, because they don't know what they're walking away from. 00:25:15.839 --> 00:25:21.039 And then the last question we really need to focus on ourselves is how do I know what I believe about God? 00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:23.519 Where am I getting this from? 00:25:25.519 --> 00:25:30.000 I sound like I'm slamming preachers and I feel bad about that, but I'm not. 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:31.359 I'm not slamming them. 00:25:31.519 --> 00:25:37.920 I just, when somebody gets up here like myself or a preacher or whoever and they talk, you should check it out. 00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:41.119 You should see if it matches up with what the scriptures say. 00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:45.519 This is actually something that Paul credited the Bereans with in Acts 17. 00:25:45.599 --> 00:25:49.200 He said they're a more noble character because they aren't just taking anything anybody tells them. 00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:52.480 They go check it out for themselves and see if that's true. 00:25:52.720 --> 00:25:52.960 Right? 00:25:53.119 --> 00:25:54.559 That's we have to do this. 00:25:54.720 --> 00:26:00.640 This is part of um examining our own beliefs and demonstrating that we really believe this is true. 00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:02.000 How do you know that? 00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:03.839 Um, how do you trust the Bible? 00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:05.200 Why do you say the Bible is reliable? 00:26:05.359 --> 00:26:07.119 Have you looked at those arguments? 00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:10.720 Uh, if you believe it's reliable, well then how did you get that knowledge? 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:13.359 Was it because somebody told you, well, maybe they're trustworthy? 00:26:13.440 --> 00:26:16.319 And you could say, yeah, I got this on a trustworthy testimony. 00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:29.839 We can't discredit that totally, but remember that if somebody presses back on you and says, hey, but that's just your pastor, you know, you can you should be able to say, Oh, what yeah, but here's what, you know, here's what the Bible has. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:36.160 Here's our reliability issues, here's where we can say, we know the Bible's reliable, and here's what the scholars have been saying. 00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:41.200 Now, you probably don't have that on hand, but you should be willing to do that with somebody if they question. 00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:43.839 You know, why should I trust your one guy? 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:49.039 Well, you're not trusting my one guy, you're actually trusting thousands of years of scholarly work. 00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:52.880 Okay, so how do I know what I believe about God? 00:26:53.839 --> 00:26:56.400 That's important in examining our uh beliefs. 00:26:56.480 --> 00:26:59.920 And then truth is the last area. 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:02.240 We are called to be lovers of truth. 00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:05.440 That's actually what the Bible tells us to do. 00:27:05.599 --> 00:27:08.240 That we have to love it, delight in it. 00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:11.920 So, 1 Corinthians 13, 6. 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:19.599 I love 1 Corinthians 13, I've been using it, but we like to focus on the love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy, you know. 00:27:19.759 --> 00:27:29.759 We have all those nice ones, but you gotta keep going down to verse 6 where it says love does not delight in evil or rejoice with evil, but delights in the truth. 00:27:31.039 --> 00:27:34.720 Well, I can tell you most of the time, I don't delight in the truth. 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:35.839 Think about that. 00:27:35.920 --> 00:27:39.200 When you get in a fight with your spouse, do you delight in the truth? 00:27:39.599 --> 00:27:42.559 Especially when your spouse is pointing something out about you. 00:27:43.599 --> 00:27:44.000 Right? 00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:51.039 You tend to you tend to start rationalizing your behavior instead of accepting, well, maybe this is true about me. 00:27:51.200 --> 00:27:53.119 You know, maybe I need to look at that. 00:27:53.759 --> 00:27:58.720 We're not typically those who delight in the truth, and there it is, God telling us to delight in the truth. 00:27:58.799 --> 00:28:06.960 In fact, Jesus, when talking to Pilate, and and he's asking Jesus about his kingdom, Jesus actually says his people are those who are of the truth. 00:28:07.519 --> 00:28:10.000 They are those who hear his voice, the people of the truth. 00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:11.200 Hear my voice and obey. 00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:12.880 They obey him, right? 00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:15.599 That's a that's a big burden for us to bear. 00:28:15.759 --> 00:28:18.960 We have to be serious about being people of the truth. 00:28:19.440 --> 00:28:24.720 And that's the first area we need to delight in, the truth of is our own beliefs. 00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:28.319 Do we know what it is we believe and why we believe it? 00:28:29.279 --> 00:28:35.519 So if you've never been in a part of a study on essential Christian doctrines, I feel, I really feel like I'm preaching at the choir. 00:28:35.680 --> 00:28:37.440 You're in an apologetics class, right? 00:28:37.680 --> 00:28:43.440 So I mean, you're in here, you're studying how you know what you believe and how uh and why and what. 00:28:43.599 --> 00:28:48.480 But if you've never done doctrines, if you've never just straight up studied your doctrines, I would recommend that as well. 00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:49.759 That's really important. 00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:53.519 Um, couple of resources for you is uh A. 00:28:53.680 --> 00:28:53.759 W. 00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:54.640 Tozer. 00:28:55.039 --> 00:29:00.960 He wrote The Knowledge of the Holy, which is a small book that just walks through God's attributes. 00:29:01.279 --> 00:29:03.119 Uh really great book. 00:29:03.359 --> 00:29:04.319 Great place to start. 00:29:04.480 --> 00:29:05.440 Or Paul Little. 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:09.039 Paul Little wrote a book called Know What You Believe. 00:29:09.359 --> 00:29:11.599 He also wrote Know Why You Believe. 00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:14.559 So these are these are smaller works that you can get into. 00:29:14.720 --> 00:29:23.440 I I typically admonish my audiences that we, you know, just like we used to have encyclopedias in the home where you, you know, if your kid had a question, they could go to the encyclopedia. 00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:31.440 We should have theology books in our home, like a systematic theology book where we can reference it when we have a question. 00:29:31.680 --> 00:29:36.480 We have the uh we have a couple of them, but one of them is the Wayne Grudom book, and it's about like that big. 00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:45.839 It's not something you sit down and just read, unless you're taking a selfie for, you know, coffee, reading the systematic theology book, right? 00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:50.559 That's but other than that, we keep it in the house as a reference book. 00:29:50.720 --> 00:29:56.880 So when my daughter in high school would have questions from her friends who were atheists, you know, would ask, well, how can we say God's good? 00:29:56.960 --> 00:29:58.480 You know, look at all the evil in the world. 00:29:58.559 --> 00:30:02.960 There's a chapter on the goodness of God in the systematic theology book. 00:30:03.039 --> 00:30:06.319 You can go, look, has all the scriptures there for why we say it that. 00:30:06.559 --> 00:30:08.000 Okay, so this is an important thing. 00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:11.200 All right, and now that I've said that, I'll quote uh C.S. 00:30:11.359 --> 00:30:22.559 Lewis, who says, in mere Christianity, he says, if once you've accepted Christianity, then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day. 00:30:22.799 --> 00:30:26.400 He says we have to be continually reminded of what we believe. 00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:27.279 Why? 00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:33.759 Because neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. 00:30:34.079 --> 00:30:45.680 And then he starts, he questions, he says, if you I if you look at a hundred people who felt fall away or have fallen away from the faith, how many of them do you think would have been honestly reasoned out of it by argument? 00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:48.720 He says, Don't most people just simply fall away? 00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:49.920 And they do. 00:30:50.160 --> 00:30:51.359 That's what they do. 00:30:51.519 --> 00:30:52.880 They simply fall away. 00:30:52.960 --> 00:30:58.000 Or they haven't learned about God's jealousy inside of his other attributes. 00:30:59.920 --> 00:31:06.000 But I don't want us to get overwhelmed because it sounds very overwhelming from this standpoint and probably from yours as well. 00:31:06.079 --> 00:31:08.000 So let me recommend some places to go. 00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:11.759 If you haven't read The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel, that's a great book. 00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:13.519 Uh there's a movie out, right? 00:31:13.759 --> 00:31:16.160 If you haven't seen the movie, I'd highly recommend it. 00:31:16.240 --> 00:31:18.000 That is actually a very well-done movie. 00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:20.480 So, The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. 00:31:20.640 --> 00:31:24.079 This was the book that I went to when I was having doubt. 00:31:24.559 --> 00:31:26.799 It's actually the second book I went to. 00:31:27.279 --> 00:31:30.640 The first book I went to was Norm Geisler's Christian Apologetics. 00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:37.680 And I was trying to read that in the fall as a band director who was working 70-hour work weeks. 00:31:38.240 --> 00:31:44.400 And I got a little ways in there, and after I had to look up a whole bunch of words, I was like, all right, nobody got time for that. 00:31:44.640 --> 00:31:47.440 So I went to The Case for Christ. 00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:49.920 And that helped me start out. 00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:52.480 I would highly recommend something like that. 00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:59.359 Grab that book, discuss it with your friends, get a couple people reading it, meet up, discuss it with your friends, or just read it for yourself. 00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:04.720 And find what was the most impacting argument for God's existence to you. 00:32:05.279 --> 00:32:07.200 And marinate on that one. 00:32:07.359 --> 00:32:11.039 Find the scripture that goes with it and just think on that one. 00:32:11.839 --> 00:32:14.640