Is the Bible Legit?

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Father, we're asking that You'd send us out,

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that you would not keep us inside, locked in,

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stuck in our ways, stuck in our seats, comfortable where we are.

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But God, You'd push us out of the comfort zone

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into a place where we can transform

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the cities that you've called us to.

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In your name, God.

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I'm asking that you would give us Your courage

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and Your power and Your vision to go and to serve,

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to find the places of need

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and to fill them with the power of Your Spirit.

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That You would call each and every one of us to Your work,

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and that when called we would raise our hand,

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just like in Isaiah, and said, "Here I am, Lord,

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you can send me."

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That is our prayer, God.

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Go with us, go before us, and change our cities. Amen.

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- Yes. Let's go.

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Man, that video is just a perfect picture

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of who we are as a church.

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But I've got a question for you,

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and it's going to be rhetorical

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because that's the way this whole thing works.

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But is this: where do you go?

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Where do you go on a weekly basis? Right?

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If you were to open up the the history

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of your maps app on your phone, what would it say?

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Maybe you go to work, maybe you go to school,

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maybe you go to a friend's house

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or the grocery store or the bank or whatever.

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And how many of the places that you go this week

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are you going to have a chance to make a difference,

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to change a life?

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That is why we go. That's what Go Day is all about.

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May 17th our entire community around the globe

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is getting creative and showing some initiative

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to say, "God, just how can we make an impact

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right where we are in our neighborhood

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and our city and our hometown?"

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That's what we're all leaning into this spring.

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We'd love to have you join us.

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We've got people all over the globe

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doing all kinds of projects, and you might wonder,

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man, what is it for me?

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I don't know, you might be great with tools

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or you might bake a mean quiche.

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I don't know, you might have a nonprofit

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that you know of that needs help,

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or you might just have a neighbor down the street

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who needs some help.

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Whatever it is for you, man, be creative, step in

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and lean in and be a part of Go Day

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to make an impact right where you are.

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You can get all the details at crossroads.net.

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And if you're hearing this and you're like,

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"I know I want to do something,

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but I don't know what to do," hey, that's okay.

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We've got you. Just go ahead and sign up

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and one of our teammates will reach out,

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give you some ideas.

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We'll help you brainstorm and help you

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see your project through to completion to make an impact.

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Don't miss the chance because

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this is who we are as a community.

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Oh man, I hope whether you're like

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maybe new from Easter

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or you've been around for a decade or so,

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I hope you're realizing that Crossroads

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is a church that goes, that runs after people.

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And that Crossroads is a church that you can --

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That can literally go with you.

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It can go with you on vacation.

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It can go with you to school or work.

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It can go across time zones, across state lines.

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It can go all over the globe

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through the Crossroads Anywhere app,

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because we really are a church that isn't bound

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by any specific building or any specific city.

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We're all over and through the Crossroads Anywhere App

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we have opportunities to read the Bible together,

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to worship together, to learn and grow together,

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and even pray for each other.

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It's beautiful and I love it.

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Now that's who we are as a church.

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We'd love for you to jump in with us.

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Now we're asking some tough questions

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in this series that's called Legit.

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Like man, is the Bible legit?

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Is this whole faith thing relevant to our lives at all?

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Tough questions like these that I

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and so many of us have struggled with.

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And if you've ever wondered these things,

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I would say, "Hey, you're not weird,

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you're honest, and you're in the right spot."

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Now, these questions are ones that, yes,

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we might ask them with our minds,

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but we answer them with our head and our heart.

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And for thousands of years, I would say,

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actually forever followers of Jesus

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have used music to engage both their head

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and their heart with God.

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And that's the reason that actually Crossroads Music,

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these guys write and record songs.

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It's not because Spotify needs more music to stream.

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No, it's because you and I, we need more tools

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in our pocket to help connect us to God.

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That's what these songs are for.

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And Crossroads is actually releasing an album

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that actually has you on it, potentially.

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Crossroads Music is recording a live albumwith people

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from all over the Crossroads Anywhere community

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and all over coming into one place to record live music.

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It's wonderful and it's released today.

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You can check it out anywhere.

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Now, as we said, these songs are tools

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to help connect us to God,

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and we're going to use them right now to sing.

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So turn up the speakers, put in your AirPods,

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whatever it is, and use these songs

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to sing to and about God right now.

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- Yeah. Come on, hands up!

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- Keep singing of what God's done for us.

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- Man. It's so good being back here with you guys.

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If you've -- if you came back here from Easter last week,

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I was here, me and my family,

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we were just sitting over there.

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Hey, I just want to welcome you back. Thanks for coming.

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And I'm really, really glad that you're here.

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What I want you to know is that we are one church

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with eight different sites and people

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who watch online and all over the world.

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And what you might not know is that every week

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we sing the same songs at every location.

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And we do that intentionally because

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we want to move together in lockstep,

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going after the King and His heart.

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That's why we do it.

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And so right now, we're going to sing a song

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together as one church in one moment,

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going after the King.

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Whether you're in Columbus

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or whether you're in Dayton,

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whether you're in Lexington,

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whether you're partying on the east side of town,

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we're all together in this moment.

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One church going after the Lord.

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Is that okay? Can we do that today?

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Can we be one church and sing together?

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Let's do it. Welcome in, sites.

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I'm so glad that we're here in this moment together.

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Let's worship the Lord.

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- God, You're worth singing to.

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You're worth full worship.

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You're worth all that it takes,

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even if it leaves our voice jacked up at the end of it.

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God, You're worthy of all of our energy.

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Because You are good, You're faithful,

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and You've always been.

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So, God, we turn our attention to You

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and say the Lord of heaven and earth,

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You're faithful and we worship You.

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We give You praise for all You've done.

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It's by Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen.

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Come on. It's so good to be together.

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All one, one church, one heart.

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Hey, why don't you find somebody next to you,

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turn around, give 'em a high five.

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Tell 'em your name if you haven't met 'em,

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and then you can have a seat.

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- Hey. So glad you're joining us online.

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Hey. In a minute Chuck Mingo is with us.

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He's going to talk about honey

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and the word of God being sweet like honey.

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And so whatever you got at home, if you got a jar of honey,

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you got something chocolate, something sweet,

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you want to have that next to you, and here's Chuck.

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- All right. All right. My mic is on.

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I want to make sure my mic was on.

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Man, something about those songs just hit me.

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They just hit me. They do something for my spirit.

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Anybody else do something for your spirit?

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Just to sing, just to orient ourselves to God in that way.

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And I think some of it is I'm still on hangover from Easter.

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If you were here last week, did we not have a time?

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Did we not have a time?

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It was so awesome to celebrate the resurrection and Easter.

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So if you are back from that, I'm so glad you came back.

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So glad that you are connecting with us again.

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And you might be wondering, "Man, this church is wild.

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What is this thing, a honey stick?"

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We're going to do something with this a little bit later.

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If you're watching online,

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I want you to just grab anything sweet in your house?

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Anything, could be chocolate, anything sweet in your house.

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We're going to do something with this a little bit later

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because we're kicking off a new series.

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As you can see, we got new graphics,

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new series called Legit.

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And what we're doing in this series

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is asking the question, is it legit?

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Last week, Brian gave a powerful message

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about why you can believe in the historicity

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of the resurrection. What did he say?

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That Jesus literally, physically,

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not metaphorically, rose from the dead.

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And if you didn't get a chance to check that out,

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man, that's legit.

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And that's what we're talking about in this series.

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So we're going to look at a couple things.

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We're going to look at, hey, this Jesus.

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Is He legit? Is there historicity around Jesus?

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What about the Bible?

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That's what we're talking about today. Is it legit?

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Can you trust it as the inspired Word of God?

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And that's what we're leaning into today.

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Let me pray as we get started.

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God, thank You that You have chosen

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to reveal Yourself to us.

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Thank You that it is Your desire that

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we would come to know You

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and to trust You as legit and as true

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and as the most grounding and loving force,

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really the most grounding and loving being.

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You're more than a force

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that we could ever have relationship with.

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And so I pray that You would use this time today

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toward that end, that each of us,

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no matter where we are, maybe some of us are doubting,

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maybe some of us are skeptical,

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maybe some of us are all in.

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Wherever we are, God, would You move us closer to You today?

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Would You use this time to do that as You already have?

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And I pray this in Jesus's name. Amen. Amen.

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Well, I gotta tell you, I had a highlight

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happened to me just a couple of days ago.

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And I just got to give a shout out

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to our student ministry, to our high school

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and middle school and all the amazing things

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that are happening at all our sites.

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I was in Mason, and I got to spend time

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with the coolest group of high schoolers

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that I've been around in a while.

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I mean, it was so awesome.

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So if you're a mason influencer

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and I got to spend time with you, I'm talking to you.

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I am so grateful for the time we got to spend together.

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It was really, really awesome.

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And what we did, what we did is we just got together

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and dug deep into the Bible.

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And I'm telling you, these high schoolers

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had some of the best questions that anyone

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has asked me about faith in a really long time.

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And it was so cool to be with them.

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It was also cool because, you know,

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whenever you spend time with high schoolers,

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they make you seem more hip, right?

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Because they teach you some of their culture.

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So I'm going to throw some of this out to you today.

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They're going to laugh when they hear this.

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But you know, what they told me was like,

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"Man, if you say something, Chuck,

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we really relate to, we really resonate with,"

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they say, "We're just going to say bars."

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Bars, like you got bars, right?

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Some of you are like, "What do you mean soap bars?

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Like, what kind of bars are you talking about bars?"

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But if you know, you know. Right?

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Or ice in the veins, like ice in the veins.

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So I'm just going to tell you,

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I grew up in the black church.

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So if you want to give me some call and response today,

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if I say something that really resonates,

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you can just throw out bars.

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You can just say, "Chuck, that was bars."

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I'm with that. I'm with that. I'll take that.

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Or you could just literally you could stand up

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and be like, "Ice in the veins, bro. Ice in the veins."

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Like, I just want to give you freedom wherever you are,

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if you're at home, you're at another other site.

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I just want to give you freedom to do that today.

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But here's what was so powerful

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about that time with those students for me.

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I remember when I was in high school

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how important it was that I came to

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my own conclusion that I could trust the Bible,

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that I actually could find truth there.

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And I just think about this generation,

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think about it in some ways, these high schoolers,

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they're the smartest generation ever.

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They have all of this access to information.

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And yet, even though it's the smartest generation ever,

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they are asking about these timeless truths.

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Friends, how is it that we can live in a world

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with so much information,

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and yet the truth seems so hard to find?

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And that's why I think this question

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about can you trust the Bible, is the Bible legit

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is really, really important.

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We're going to look at words today

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that were written by the apostle Paul,

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and he wrote letters to early churches.

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But this one that we're looking at today

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is a personal letter that he wrote

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to a mentee of his named Timothy.

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And Paul kind of had a father son relationship with Timothy.

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And and what he wants Timothy to understand

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is what I think we need to understand,

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which is that the truth of God's Word,

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you can build your life on it. It's legit.

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You can anchor yourself to it.

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And Paul says that's important because

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of the challenges that were facing Timothy in his time.

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And I think those same challenges

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are facing us in our time.

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This is what it says in 2 Timothy 3,

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starting at verse one, Paul says:

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Bars, yes. Bars. Paul's got bars.

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Paul's definitely got bars.

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And here's what's interesting about that.

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Paul was not writing those words

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about people outside the church.

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He was writing that about people

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who are self-proclaimed to be Christian,

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people who proclaim to follow the Bible,

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people who proclaim to be with Jesus.

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Yes, certainly he's talking about the external culture,

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and we may think about it that way.

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But he was also talking about the challenge

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of being a Christian and anchoring yourself

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and living into the truth.

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And Paul was laying out some crises.

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And I think these are real crises that we still face today.

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I think the reason this question

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is the Bible legit is so important is because

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there's a crisis of credibility in our culture.

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There's a crisis of what can you trust?

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Who can you trust when it comes to what is true?

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There's a crisis of credibility.

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And because perhaps there's a crisis of credibility,

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and we look at outside sources and say,

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"I don't know if I trust that,

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I don't know if I trust that,

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I don't know if I trust that there's a crisis

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of self worship where we actually think,

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"Well, you know what? My truth must be the right truth.

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And you can have your truth, and I can have my truth,

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but my truth is my truth."

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And it's a crisis where we think actually

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we have the ability to be the adjudicators of truth.

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And because of that crisis, there's an even deeper crisis,

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which is a crisis of self-deception.

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Paul says people will be swollen with conceit.

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Another literal translation of that is

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people will be insanely arrogant.

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And I think those are real crises that we face.

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Bars. Yes, yes. Keep them coming, I love it, I love it.

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And here's why this is a crisis for us.

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Because there's a part of us

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that knows at the end of the day,

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I can't be the source of ultimate truth.

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Psychology taught us this in 1935 through something

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you may have heard of called Johari's window.

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Johari's window, this is an x y axis coming at you right here.

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And Johari's window is a model of self-concept.

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And basically, if you think about it,

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if you look up and to the left, there are things

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about us that are known to others and known to self.

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There are some things that I'm projecting right now

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that I know I'm projecting, I know are true of me,

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and you know are true of me.

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That's the arena. Like that's our public life.

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That's where we live.

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But look at these other things.

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There are things that you guys know about me

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that I don't know about myself.

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And those are blind spots and we all have blind spots.

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But how about this one in the bottom right?

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There are things about me that are not known to you,

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and they're also not known to me.

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It's unknown. It's hidden.

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So let me ask you this:

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How can I be the adjudicator of truth

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when I don't even know myself fully,

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and when I can't even recognize

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the things that are blind spots?

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Things you see about me that I don't even know about myself?

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So here's what I would say today,

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even though we're skeptical of truth,

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even though we want to be the adjudicators of truth,

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the truth is we can't be.

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We need a source of truth outside of ourselves.

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And here's the good news: God has chosen

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to reveal Himself as the ultimate source of truth.

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And He has chosen to also encapsulate that truth

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in a book called The Bible.

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And I want you to believe that today, that it is legit.

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This is what it says in Hebrews chapter one:

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So what this is saying is God would give

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these divine downloads to people that were prophets,

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and they would be speaking the words of God to the people.

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But God wasn't satisfied to just

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divine download through other humans.

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What does it go on to say?

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But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son.

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He said, "I want to embody Myself,

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live among you so you can see My character and know My heart."

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God chooses to reveal Himself

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and has been progressively revealing Himself to us

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until the ultimate revelation of Himself came,

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which was Jesus, His Son, of whom Jesus says this

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about the scriptures in John 5:39. He says:

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You search the scriptures because

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you think that in them you have eternal life,

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that it is about the rules.

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But Jesus says it is they that bear witness about me.

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And so what I would say to you is

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having confidence that the Bible

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is the very Word of God, that the Bible is legit,

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isn't just a nice to have in a crisis of credibility

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and a crisis of self-deception.

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It's a must have if you're going to have a life that works.

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And the beautiful thing is,

00:31:54

we do not have to check our brain at the door

00:31:57

when it comes to answering this question:

00:31:59

Is the Bible legit?

00:32:00

A couple of weeks ago, Kyle did a great message,

00:32:03

our Lead Pastor did a great message on

00:32:05

the Bible verses science.

00:32:07

Is science in conflict with the Bible?

00:32:08

And if you were here, you'll remember that

00:32:10

every time Kyle was kind of -- because he was,

00:32:12

he was getting into some deep scientific concepts.

00:32:14

And to kind of be a signal to us that

00:32:16

he was taking us into the deep scientific waters,

00:32:18

he would wear a tie, right?

00:32:20

And that was like when he was on --

00:32:21

When he had the tie on, he was going deep into science.

00:32:23

And then when he took the tie off,

00:32:25

he was kind of talking more personal.

00:32:26

So Kyle had his tie.

00:32:27

But I figured, you know, I needed my own symbol.

00:32:30

So I got my nerd glasses on. I got my nerd glasses on.

00:32:35

Because today I want to make an assertion,

00:32:38

I want to have an intellectual argument

00:32:40

that I want to defend.

00:32:41

And it is simply this: that the Bible

00:32:43

is a legit source of truth because

00:32:46

it's inspired and effective in pointing us to Jesus.

00:32:52

The Bible is inspired and effective

00:32:54

at pointing us to Jesus.

00:32:55

From our brothers and sisters who habla espanol,

00:32:58

La Biblia es inspirada y eficaz.

00:33:02

And so I want us to to wrestle with that.

00:33:05

Is that true? Is that legit?

00:33:07

I want to help you see that it is,

00:33:09

because after Paul tells Timothy

00:33:10

the kind of environment that he's going to be in

00:33:12

and all those crises that he's going to be in,

00:33:14

Paul uses these words in that same letter. He says:

00:33:16

All Scripture is breathed out by God

00:33:19

and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,

00:33:24

and for training in righteousness, that the man --

00:33:26

And again, he was writing this personal letter to a man,

00:33:28

but that's true for the woman of God.

00:33:30

That the man or woman of God may be complete,

00:33:33

equipped for every good work.

00:33:35

So I want to dig into those two words:

00:33:36

inspired and effective.

00:33:39

What does it mean to say that the Bible is inspired?

00:33:42

It means that the Bible is, as Paul said, God breathed.

00:33:48

That the Bible is the very words of God.

00:33:52

The Bible is the very words of God.

00:33:54

Even though the Bible is a collection of 66 books

00:33:58

written over a 1500 year period, over 40 generations,

00:34:04

with more than 40 different authors from every walk of life.

00:34:07

It was written on three continents:

00:34:09

Asia, Africa, and Europe.

00:34:11

And it was written in three languages:

00:34:12

Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.

00:34:15

So how can it be that this book is

00:34:18

a cohesive, breath of God, united voice of God,

00:34:22

even with all of those human variables?

00:34:24

I think there are three legitimate objections

00:34:28

that people raise to what I just said.

00:34:30

And I want to just walk through those objections

00:34:32

and hopefully give you confidence

00:34:35

on why you can believe what Paul says,

00:34:37

that this Bible is in fact the inspired Word of God.

00:34:40

I think the first objection is this.

00:34:41

People would say, well, the Bible was written

00:34:43

by flawed humans, so it can't be divine.

00:34:48

The Bible is written by flawed humans, right?

00:34:50

Humans are prone to error. They're prone to bias.

00:34:52

They're prone to their cultural limitations.

00:34:54

So any book written by humans can't be divine

00:34:57

because we're not divine.

00:34:59

And how do you deal with that?

00:35:01

Well, there's a lot of ways to answer that question,

00:35:04

but one of the things I think is important

00:35:05

for us to understand is how we actually

00:35:07

got this thing over the years.

00:35:10

How is it, how is it presented to us?

00:35:13

And to understand that, you need to understand

00:35:15

the role of people who were called scribes.

00:35:19

Scribes were people who dedicated their life

00:35:24

to translate, to literally transmitting

00:35:26

the truth of God's Word as accurately as humanly possible.

00:35:31

And this was a holy task.

00:35:33

In fact, you'll read in the New Testament it says

00:35:35

the scribes and the Pharisees. Right?

00:35:37

Like, they were considered part of a religious group,

00:35:40

the people who dedicated their lives to doing this.

00:35:42

Jesus had lots of interactions with the scribes.

00:35:45

Well, these scribes were also known as the counters.

00:35:48

And here's why. Let me tell you

00:35:49

the quality control process they had

00:35:52

when they were copying the inspired Word of God.

00:35:56

First thing they would do is this,

00:35:57

they would count the number of times

00:36:00

every Hebrew letter showed up in the entire Hebrew Bible.

00:36:04

Number of times for every letter.

00:36:06

And if that number didn't match the number of times

00:36:10

that letter showed up in the copy they were basing it on,

00:36:13

then they would rip the copy up. It wasn't worthy.

00:36:15

So they would first do that.

00:36:17

Think about the meticulous nature of that.

00:36:19

Then they would count each middle letter

00:36:22

of each word in each book to make sure that

00:36:26

it matched the middle letter of each word in each book

00:36:28

in the copy that they were replicating.

00:36:32

Just the level of detail. That wasn't it.

00:36:34

Then they would do this.

00:36:35

They would count -- They would find the middle letter

00:36:38

of the entire Hebrew Bible, and they would make sure

00:36:40

it matched the -- I'm sorry middle word,

00:36:42

and they would make sure it matched

00:36:44

the middle word of their copy.

00:36:45

So that's why they were called the counters.

00:36:47

Can you imagine the detail that went into this?

00:36:50

And that wasn't it. That wasn't it.

00:36:52

Every time in that process,

00:36:54

when they would write the name of God,

00:36:56

which they wouldn't use the vowels,

00:36:58

they would only put the consonants

00:37:00

because they felt like it was not --

00:37:02

The name of God was too holy for a human to speak.

00:37:04

Every time they would write those consonants in their copy,

00:37:08

they would stop what they were doing with a normal pen.

00:37:10

They would put that pen down.

00:37:11

They would do a ceremonial washing of their hands.

00:37:14

They would pick up a specific pen that they used

00:37:17

only to write those consonants of the name of God.

00:37:20

Then they would put that pen down,

00:37:21

and then they would begin to write again

00:37:23

and copy again with a normal pen.

00:37:26

So I just -- Yeah. Wow. Right?

00:37:27

I just want you to know, like, these aren't people

00:37:30

who were just like, "Ah, I think this is right."

00:37:33

There's a lot of confidence we have

00:37:35

in terms of how this was passed down.

00:37:37

In fact, they were so confident that

00:37:39

once they were done doing all of these checks,

00:37:42

they would destroy the copy that they used

00:37:44

because they were so confident that

00:37:45

what they then were producing

00:37:47

was exactly accurate to what they just had.

00:37:50

So for those who would say,

00:37:51

well, maybe the Bible was written by flawed humans.

00:37:54

Yeah, the humans were flawed, but there was

00:37:56

such an honoring of the gift that it is

00:37:59

to have divine revelation from God,

00:38:02

that these are some of the most accurate transcripts

00:38:04

you will find in antiquity, bar none.

00:38:07

Another, maybe another pushback would be,

00:38:10

well, doesn't the Bible have contradictions

00:38:13

and doesn't it have inconsistencies?

00:38:15

What about things we see in the Old Testament

00:38:17

and how that varies from things we see in the New Testament?

00:38:19

The Old Testament is the first 39 books of our Bible.

00:38:21

The New Testament is the last 27 books of our Bible.

00:38:23

What about those inconsistencies?

00:38:25

What about the inconsistencies we even see

00:38:27

within the stories of Jesus?

00:38:28

There are certain things captured

00:38:30

and some details are here, but they're not here.

00:38:32

Like, how are we to make sense of those?

00:38:34

And people will naturally point to those and say,

00:38:36

"Yeah, see, it's been lost.

00:38:38

Something's been lost in translation."

00:38:40

Well, I want to again give you another way to think about this.

00:38:43

Remember when you were a kid

00:38:44

and you would play that game, the telephone game?

00:38:47

Remember that, right?

00:38:49

Someone would would say something

00:38:51

and then they would, like, pass it down to the next person,

00:38:53

pass it down to the next person.

00:38:55

And by the time it got like five people down,

00:38:57

it wasn't even recognizable, right?

00:38:58

It's like, that's not what I said at all, right?

00:39:01

Well, I think we can think about the Bible that way.

00:39:03

We can think that the Bible was translated

00:39:06

like the telephone game, that it was just passed on

00:39:09

from one person to the next person.

00:39:10

And so by the time it got to that third person,

00:39:12

it was already jacked up.

00:39:13

And of course, if you take that

00:39:15

over the course of many years, man,

00:39:16

it's nothing like what the original was.

00:39:18

Well, that's not how the Bible was translated.

00:39:21

The way the Bible was translated is more like this.

00:39:24

It was passed on by many copies.

00:39:27

They didn't just have one scribe

00:39:29

doing all the meticulous details I told you.

00:39:31

There would be many of them, so you would have

00:39:33

a whole set of copies.

00:39:35

And so if I produced a document right now

00:39:38

and said, "Hey, here's 1000 copies of that document."

00:39:40

If you read through all those thousand copies

00:39:42

and they were accurate, you could feel pretty confident

00:39:44

that what you're looking at

00:39:46

is probably what was originated. Right?

00:39:49

And so this is another way that the Bible was preserved.

00:39:51

And here's what's interesting with this.

00:39:53

There was a discovery that happened in 1947

00:39:56

that completely took this to a whole other level.

00:40:00

In 1947, some shepherds in Qumran,

00:40:03

in a desert area in Israel,

00:40:05

were throwing stones and they hit a pot.

00:40:08

And then when they went in the cave

00:40:10

and figured out what that pot was,

00:40:11

it turned out that it was the Dead Sea Scrolls.

00:40:13

You may have heard of that.

00:40:14

You can look it up, the Dead Sea Scrolls.

00:40:16

And what the Dead Sea Scrolls was

00:40:18

is they had copies of the Bible

00:40:19

that went back to a certain date.

00:40:21

But the Dead Sea Scrolls took

00:40:23

that same portion of the Bible back a thousand more years.

00:40:27

So they were able to look at a copy

00:40:29

that was way, way, way, way down the line.

00:40:31

Way down if we were to look at that chart again,

00:40:34

the line from those copies that they had found.

00:40:36

And they looked at it, and what they found is

00:40:40

that copy from a thousand years earlier

00:40:43

and the copies that were most recent were 95% accurate.

00:40:48

95%. And in fact, the 5% that wasn't accurate,

00:40:52

was mostly spelling differences

00:40:54

because they didn't have conventional spellings,

00:40:56

so there were multiple ways to spell a word.

00:40:58

Spelling differences and some slips of the pen.

00:41:01

And so again, I just want you to know that

00:41:03

you can have confidence in the Bible.

00:41:06

Third thing some people would say,

00:41:08

but hasn't it been corrupted?

00:41:10

It hasn't been corrupted by powerful forces

00:41:12

that have changed the Bible to say what they wanted to say

00:41:15

and those kinds of things?

00:41:17

And again, I would just point you to

00:41:19

the manuscript evidence that we have about the Bible.

00:41:23

So we have more copies of the Bible

00:41:27

than we have of any other document in antiquity.

00:41:31

And so when people say like, well,

00:41:33

how do you know that the Bible is accurate?

00:41:34

How do you know these people actually lived?

00:41:36

Was there a real Jesus?

00:41:38

I would just -- I just want to run this by you.

00:41:40

So how many people believe Caesar was real?

00:41:43

Like, there was a Caesar. There was a Julius Caesar.

00:41:45

Right, beyond what you read in your Shakespeare book, right?

00:41:48

Well, we only have ten documents, ten manuscripts

00:41:53

from antiquity that are credited to Caesar.

00:41:55

We only have ten.

00:41:57

How about people -- who thinks Plato was a real person?

00:42:00

Like, yeah, Plato, philosopher.

00:42:02

Yeah. Me too, me too.

00:42:03

We only have seven manuscripts from Plato

00:42:07

that would indicate that it was of his writing

00:42:09

and about his story.

00:42:10

How about Aristotle? Yeah. Aristotle.

00:42:12

We onboard, Aristotle's a real person? 49.

00:42:15

How about this one?

00:42:16

This is one of my favorite ones to read in school.

00:42:18

How many people read the Iliad in high school?

00:42:20

I love that book. I just love the Odyssey and the Iliad.

00:42:23

I just love, I think they're so cool.

00:42:24

Well, when it comes to that, we actually have

00:42:26

a little bit more manuscripts.

00:42:28

We have 643 manuscripts of the Iliad,

00:42:30

so we're pretty confident that what we read today

00:42:32

in our English classes is what Homer wrote

00:42:35

all of those years ago.

00:42:37

Anybody want to take a guess on

00:42:38

how many manuscripts of the New Testament we have?

00:42:43

No, no guesses? 5600, 5600,

00:42:49

and those 5600 manuscripts are 99.5% accurate to each other.

00:42:57

So I just want -- Ice in the veins, that's right.

00:42:59

I just want you to know, like, this isn't --

00:43:00

You don't have to check your brain at the door

00:43:02

when it comes to trusting the Bible.

00:43:04

There is more that I could give you,

00:43:06

more than I have time for.

00:43:07

But let's just be clear, all of this is really

00:43:09

because the deeper question is this.

00:43:11

What we really want to know is,

00:43:12

can I trust this thing with my life?

00:43:16

Can I trust this Bible and bend my life to it?

00:43:19

That's really the question that we're asking.

00:43:22

Because if it's a work of man, why follow it?

00:43:25

That's a waste of time.

00:43:27

And to be clear, 2.6 billion people around the planet

00:43:31

would orient themselves to the Bible today.

00:43:33

That's a massive waste of time if it is a work of man.

00:43:37

But what if it's inspired by God?

00:43:40

If it's inspired by God, well,

00:43:41

then we're left with a deeper question.

00:43:43

I'm actually going to move forward a little bit

00:43:45

because I want to get to this.

00:43:46

I just would say I stand by my assertion

00:43:48

that the Bible is a legit source of truth

00:43:50

because it's inspired and it's effective.

00:43:54

Because here's the thing, I just gave you the head answer.

00:43:57

All I've talked about so far is just heady stuff, right?

00:43:59

Intellectual stuff. You can research it.

00:44:01

You can fact check me all of that.

00:44:02

Just please do. Please do.

00:44:03

I mean, if anything I say is like, I don't know.

00:44:05

Please, I'd love for you to fact check me.

00:44:07

Love it. Love it.

00:44:08

But here's the thing, when we ask that question

00:44:10

is the Bible legit, it's not only

00:44:11

an intellectual question, is it?

00:44:13

In fact, I don't think

00:44:15

it's primarily an intellectual question.

00:44:17

I think it's actually a heart question.

00:44:20

I think it's a trust question.

00:44:22

I think the question we're really asking is,

00:44:24

can I trust this God and His Words when it's hard to follow?

00:44:29

Can I trust this God and His Words

00:44:31

when it seems to put me out of step

00:44:33

with the cultural norms of the day?

00:44:36

Can I trust this Bible and these words

00:44:39

even though there have been people in my life

00:44:41

who've used these same words to harm me or abuse me?

00:44:46

And I think that's a very real question,

00:44:49

because the crisis of faith that I had as a teenager

00:44:53

was based on those questions.

00:44:55

I'm a kid who grew up in church.

00:44:57

I'm a kid who went to church

00:44:59

from when I was a little kid all the way through.

00:45:02

And I'm a kid that got teased in my neighborhood.

00:45:05

They called me Church boy. And I hated that.

00:45:08

I hated that because I just wanted to be a normal dude.

00:45:10

I didn't want to -- I didn't want

00:45:12

to be identified just as church boy.

00:45:13

But that's what they did.

00:45:15

I'm also a kid who, because I asked

00:45:17

honest questions as a teenager,

00:45:19

was publicly shamed in my church,

00:45:22

called out for being disrespectful.

00:45:25

And all kinds of things were hurled at me that were not true.

00:45:29

But I want to tell you about the kindness of God in my life

00:45:31

and why I'm so passionate about the Bible

00:45:34

being a legit source that you can trust.

00:45:36

I'm so glad that even with those experiences,

00:45:39

it did not cause me to run away from God.

00:45:42

It actually caused me to run toward God

00:45:45

and wrestle with this truth for myself.

00:45:48

And so I've been on a journey ever since that point

00:45:50

of saying, "Man, if I ever come across anything

00:45:52

that makes me think this isn't legit, man,

00:45:55

I'll give it up, I'll give it all up."

00:45:56

But all I can tell you is, of all the years

00:45:59

that I have bent my life to this book,

00:46:01

of all the years that I have been in relationship

00:46:03

with people who have bent their lives in this book,

00:46:05

all I can tell you is I have tasted and seen

00:46:07

and it is good. It's good.

00:46:10

It's been life giving to me.

00:46:12

It's it's not always been comfortable for me,

00:46:14

but it's been life giving for me.

00:46:15

And I think it will be for you.

00:46:16

It's why I'm so passionate that I get to share this with you.

00:46:19

The Bible is effective in pointing us to Jesus.

00:46:23

Jesus says this in John 6:63:

00:46:31

The words are spirit, breath of God and they are life.

00:46:38

I want you to think about this.

00:46:40

I've never been to the Grand Canyon.

00:46:41

How many people here have been to the Grand Canyon?

00:46:44

Yeah. Oh my gosh. I want to go someday.

00:46:47

Let's just -- I think we have some video of this. \

00:46:50

I just -- It is so beautiful.

00:46:53

And even though I haven't been there,

00:46:55

what I've heard from people who have is that

00:46:58

the Grand Canyon has the ability to rob you of speech.

00:47:04

That something about standing in that grandeur

00:47:08

causes you to just mouth agape with awe and wonder,

00:47:12

but you don't have words for it.

00:47:14

And here's what I want you to think about.

00:47:16

I want you to think about the God, and I believe

00:47:18

God made that, I believe God created that.

00:47:20

I believe that God is an artist

00:47:21

and that's part of His artwork.

00:47:24

And think about this, the God who is grand enough

00:47:28

to design and carve out a Grand Canyon,

00:47:31

the God who is grand enough to create

00:47:34

a universe with billions of stars,

00:47:36

the God who is grand enough to create an ocean

00:47:40

and the depths of the ocean and all of the beauty of the ocean,

00:47:43

that same grand God sees you and knows you

00:47:47

and loves you so much that He wanted

00:47:49

to reveal Himself and become like you,

00:47:52

and also give you His truth in this book,

00:47:54

so that you could have a relationship with Him.

00:47:57

That's the beauty of the Bible.

00:47:59

The beauty of the Bible is not only that

00:48:01

intellectually you can trust it as legit.

00:48:03

It's that it comes from a God who loves you.

00:48:07

Acts 17 Paul is talking to some pretty smart people

00:48:11

and he says this. He says:

00:48:41

I love this because what this says is God is seeking you.

00:48:45

God wants to be in relationship with you.

00:48:49

And one of the ways that He's done that

00:48:51

is by giving us this book.

00:48:53

I don't know if you know this or not,

00:48:55

but there's a project called Illuminations.

00:48:57

And the Illuminations project knows

00:49:00

and believes that the Bible is legit,

00:49:02

that it is life, that it's spirit and in life.

00:49:05

And there are lots of people groups on the earth

00:49:08

who don't have the Bible translated into their language.

00:49:11

And this group got together in 2012, and they did the math.

00:49:14

And they said if we go at the same pace that we're going,

00:49:17

it'll be another 100 years before

00:49:19

every people group known on the earth

00:49:21

has at least a New Testament translated into their language.

00:49:24

It'll be another 100 years before people

00:49:27

all around the world have the opportunity

00:49:29

to hear the message of Jesus.

00:49:32

And so they begin to collaborate.

00:49:34

And they created an opportunity whereby

00:49:36

by the year 2033, yes, eight years from now,

00:49:40

the Bible New Testament will be translated

00:49:42

into every language that is known on the planet.

00:49:46

Isn't that amazing?

00:49:48

Shaving something like a hundred years off of that process.

00:49:52

Why would they do that?

00:49:54

Why would they dedicate themselves to that?

00:49:56

Well, I would say it's because they are inspired

00:50:00

and God wants relationship with all His kids.

00:50:04

He doesn't just care about Western Americans.

00:50:06

He doesn't just care about people in South America,

00:50:09

North America.

00:50:10

God cares about every person who lives on this planet,

00:50:13

and he wants all of His kids back,

00:50:15

and He'll do whatever He needs to to reveal Himself

00:50:18

so we will know how much He loves us.

00:50:22

It's beautiful, and it's also the heart of God.

00:50:27

It's the heart of God.

00:50:28

C.S. Lewis said this:

00:50:41

The goal of the Bible is to make you smarter

00:50:43

when it comes to spiritual matters.

00:50:46

It's to reunite you with a loving father.

00:50:49

That's the goal of the Bible.

00:50:50

And the way that happens is through

00:50:52

a relationship with His Son Jesus.

00:50:56

This is one of the most precious books in my house,

00:51:00

has been for many years.

00:51:02

It's called the Jesus Storybook Bible.

00:51:04

We use this in Kids' Club.

00:51:06

And if you're a parent and you're looking for

00:51:08

a resource to help connect your kids to the truth of God,

00:51:11

I can't recommend this book enough.

00:51:14

And what this book says as its subtitle is

00:51:16

Every Story Whispers His Name.

00:51:19

And what it does is it takes every story in the Bible,

00:51:21

all the stories in the Old Testament,

00:51:23

every story in the New Testament

00:51:24

and it points to Jesus because that's what the Bible does.

00:51:29

And so I thought one of the things I'd like to do today

00:51:32

for you is actually read you a story from this book.

00:51:38

I want you to put yourself in the mindset

00:51:41

of maybe when you were a kid,

00:51:43

hopefully you had someone

00:51:45

who would read to you at night, tuck you in.

00:51:47

Some of us didn't have that.

00:51:49

And so maybe for some of us, this is a new experience.

00:51:53

But I pray that it's a tender experience.

00:51:55

I just want to read to you the introduction of this book.

00:51:57

I've read this many times

00:51:58

because I've read this to all my kids.

00:52:00

In fact, the pages are falling out of the book.

00:52:03

But I love these words, and I just want you

00:52:06

to take these words in about why God gave us the Bible.

00:52:10

It starts with the scripture Psalm 19:1-2.

00:52:13

It says the heavens are singing about how great God is

00:52:17

and the skies are shouting it out.

00:52:20

See what God has made day after day, night after night.

00:52:24

They are speaking to us.

00:52:26

And then the author says this: God wrote I love you.

00:52:29

He wrote it in the sky and on the earth and under the sea.

00:52:34

He wrote His message everywhere

00:52:36

because God created everything in His world

00:52:38

to reflect Him like a mirror,

00:52:40

to show us what He is like, to help us to know Him

00:52:44

and to make our hearts sing.

00:52:46

The way a kitten chases her tail.

00:52:49

The way red poppies grow wild.

00:52:51

The way a dolphin swims.

00:52:54

And God put it into words, too,

00:52:56

and wrote it in a book called The Bible.

00:52:59

Now, some people think the Bible is a book of rules

00:53:02

telling you what you should and shouldn't do.

00:53:05

The Bible certainly does have some rules in it.

00:53:07

They show you how life works best.

00:53:09

But the Bible isn't mainly about you

00:53:12

and what you should be doing.

00:53:13

It's about God and what He has done.

00:53:16

Other people think the Bible is a book of heroes

00:53:19

showing you people you should copy.

00:53:21

The Bible does have some heroes in it,

00:53:22

but as you'll soon find out,

00:53:24

most of the people in the Bible aren't heroes at all.

00:53:27

They make some big mistakes, sometimes on purpose.

00:53:31

They get afraid and run away.

00:53:33

At times they are downright mean.

00:53:35

No, the Bible isn't a book of rules or a book of heroes.

00:53:40

The Bible is most of all a story.

00:53:43

It's an adventure story about a young hero

00:53:46

who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure.

00:53:50

It's a love story about a brave prince

00:53:53

who leaves his palace, his throne, everything

00:53:56

to rescue the one he loves.

00:53:58

It's like the most wonderful of fairy tales

00:54:00

that has come true in real life.

00:54:02

You see, the best thing about this story is it's true.

00:54:07

There are lots of stories in the Bible,

00:54:08

but all the stories are telling one big story.

00:54:11

The story of how God loves His children

00:54:14

and comes to rescue them.

00:54:16

It takes the whole Bible to tell this story.

00:54:19

And at the center of the story, there is a baby.

00:54:22

Every story in the Bible whispers His name.

00:54:25

He is like the missing piece in a puzzle,

00:54:27

the piece that makes all other pieces fit together

00:54:30

and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.

00:54:33

And this is no ordinary baby.

00:54:35

This is the child upon whom everything would depend.

00:54:39

This is the child who would one day, but wait,

00:54:41

our story begins where all good stories start,

00:54:46

right at the very beginning.

00:54:50

And I love reading this to my kids,

00:54:52

because I want my kids to know that

00:54:54

the Bible is not only a rule book,

00:54:57

the Bible isn't just a devotional grab bag.

00:55:02

This is a love story.

00:55:04

And if we look at the Bible that way,

00:55:06

if we look at it as just a rule book

00:55:07

or devotional grab bag,

00:55:09

no wonder it might not be life giving for you.

00:55:11

But if you see that all the stories in the Bible,

00:55:14

every story is really telling one big story

00:55:16

and it's the story of what God would go to

00:55:19

and how much He loves you

00:55:21

to bring you back into relationship with Him.

00:55:22

Well, then the Bible takes on a whole new meaning.

00:55:25

And so, yes, I want you to have intellectual confidence

00:55:29

that you can trust the Bible to be legit.

00:55:31

But more than that, I want you to be spiritually open

00:55:34

to the invitation that the Bible has for all of us

00:55:37

to find God and be with God.

00:55:41

So here's my call to action for you.

00:55:43

Simply this, get into the Word of God.

00:55:47

Get into God's Word and get God's Word into your heart.

00:55:52

A couple years ago, Kyle gave a message

00:55:54

where he said eat the Bible. Eat the Bible.

00:55:57

And I want to encourage you to do that.

00:55:59

I encourage you to eat the Bible,

00:56:01

to see it as spiritual nourishment.

00:56:02

And you can do that any way that works for you.

00:56:04

For some of us, that's reading a paper Bible.

00:56:07

For others of us, it's reading a digital Bible.

00:56:09

For some of us, read the Storybook Bible.

00:56:12

For others of us, you can rap the Bible.

00:56:14

I can give you some great recommendations

00:56:15

if you want to listen to raps about the Bible.

00:56:17

It doesn't matter how you get it.

00:56:19

What matters is that you get it,

00:56:21

that you eat the Bible because it is

00:56:23

the spiritual nourishment that we all need.

00:56:27

In fact, in Ezekiel 33, God said this to Ezekiel.

00:56:30

He said, "Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll

00:56:34

that I give you and fill your stomach with it."

00:56:37

And he says, "Then I ate it,

00:56:38

and it was in my mouth and as sweet as honey."

00:56:43

I want you to go ahead and take out

00:56:44

that honey stick that you got when you came in.

00:56:48

If you're online, at home, whatever you have that's sweet,

00:56:51

go ahead and take that out.

00:56:54

And a way to make this work is by pick an end

00:56:58

and pinch it and take the rest of it,

00:57:00

and you're going to take it.

00:57:01

Make sure it's vertical,

00:57:03

make sure the other end is vertical,

00:57:04

and you're just going to put it in your mouth

00:57:06

right at the end, bite, pop it,

00:57:09

and that should open it up and go ahead and taste it.

00:57:14

I love honey, it's so sweet.

00:57:19

Mmm.

00:57:24

While you're enjoying the taste of that honey,

00:57:27

I want to tell you why we have these honey sticks.

00:57:30

It's because in Europe, Jewish families,

00:57:34

when their children turn 5 or 6,

00:57:37

it's the first time they're introducing them

00:57:40

to the books of the Torah, their Bible.

00:57:44

And what they do on that first day

00:57:46

when 5 or 6 year old kids sit down is

00:57:48

they have them at a table and they have

00:57:50

all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet laid out on that table.

00:57:53

And they smear all the letters with honey

00:57:58

so that the first thing that every Jewish child

00:58:01

in Europe tastes or thinks about when they read the Bible

00:58:07

is how sweet God's Word is.

00:58:11

You see, I told you, I -- all I can tell you is

00:58:14

if you lock me in a room away from

00:58:16

all the professional preaching stuff,

00:58:18

and you just said, "Chuck, tell me the truth.

00:58:20

What are you really believe about the Bible?

00:58:22

Nobody's here. You don't have to perform.

00:58:25

What do you really believe about the Bible?"

00:58:27

All I can tell you is this:

00:58:28

taste and see that the Lord is good.

00:58:33

All I can share with you is what David wrote

00:58:35

in Psalm 119:103 when he says,

00:58:37

"How sweet are Your Words to my taste,

00:58:40

sweeter than honey to my mouth!"

00:58:44

I've tasted and seen, and I can tell you

00:58:47

the Bible is legit because the God of the Bible is legit.

00:58:52

The Bible is true because the God of the Bible is true.

00:58:58

And the Bible is for you

00:59:00

because the God of the Bible is for you.

00:59:03

Just thinking about this weekend

00:59:05

and an oldie but goodie song came to mind.

00:59:09

It's probably been years

00:59:10

since we sung this song at Crossroads,

00:59:12

and this song predates Crossroads,

00:59:13

so some of you might know it

00:59:15

from another church or another context.

00:59:18

But the words are real simple.

00:59:20

It just calls the name of Jesus.

00:59:23

And then it says Your Words are like honey on my lips.

00:59:27

Your Spirit like water to my soul.

00:59:31

Your Word is a lamp unto my feet.

00:59:34

Jesus, I love You.

00:59:36

And so I just asked

00:59:38

if Eric would come out and sing this song.

00:59:40

Just sing it for us.

00:59:42

And you know, if you know it,

00:59:43

this is an oldie but goodie that you remember,

00:59:45

then yeah, you're probably going to want to sing along.

00:59:47

But hey, you don't have to sing it.

00:59:48

I just want you to to receive these words.

00:59:52

And more than that, I want you to leave here

00:59:53

hungry to taste more of the truth

00:59:56

that God has for you in the Bible.

01:02:32

- Amen. Yes. Thank you.

01:02:37

Hey, let's pray. God, I just pray that

01:02:40

we would taste and see.

01:02:43

Man, if we're new to the Bible,

01:02:44

we don't know where to start, God, just guide us.

01:02:50

The easy thing is just jump into the Crossroads App,

01:02:52

read along with all of us, including me.

01:02:54

It'd be great to just have you there.

01:02:56

God, whatever it is, whatever's going to bring us

01:02:58

to a place where we interact with the Bible

01:03:01

and it begins to do for us

01:03:02

what You promise it will do for us.

01:03:04

I just pray that we would say yes to that.

01:03:06

And I pray in this whole series, God,

01:03:08

that we would just be open to asking good questions

01:03:12

and believing, God, that You will answer.

01:03:14

You'll meet us.

01:03:15

You'll meet us in our questions.

01:03:16

You'll meet us in our skepticism.

01:03:18

You'll meet us in our doubt.

01:03:20

And you will meet us in our faith in You.

01:03:22

I pray this in Jesus's name. Amen. Amen.

01:03:28

- Hey, thank you so much for watching.

01:03:30

Man, I hope that something Chuck shared

01:03:32

resonated with you today

01:03:33

and that you understand the Bible,

01:03:35

maybe in a different light than you ever have before,

01:03:37

that the story of the Bible isn't rules

01:03:39

or obligations or even a chronology,

01:03:42

but it's the story of what God is doing

01:03:44

and what He wants to do in and through your life.

01:03:48

So God's always looking to connect us

01:03:49

more closely to Him and to other people.

01:03:52

That's what we're here for, to help you grow

01:03:54

and take your next step with God.

01:03:55

And I want you to know if you maybe

01:03:57

have been watching Crossroads for a while,

01:03:59

but you haven't taken that next step past

01:04:01

just watching something, past content

01:04:03

to being a part of the community.

01:04:05

I just want to give you one simple step,

01:04:07

one simple thing that you can do

01:04:09

to go to the next place with

01:04:11

your relationship with God and with Crossroads.

01:04:13

And that's just text "Anywhere" to 301301.

01:04:16

Literally just the word "Anywhere" to 301 301.

01:04:19

And then, like myself or my teammate Sam or Griff,

01:04:22

one of a very small group of us will reach out

01:04:24

and connect with you and see how we can

01:04:26

come alongside you and help you grow

01:04:27

in your connection to the church and to God.

01:04:29

That's what we're here for.

01:04:31

And just as a reminder, lots of great stuff happening.

01:04:33

You can keep up with all of it

01:04:35

in the Crossroads Anywhere app,

01:04:37

available on the iOS or Android store.

01:04:39

And lots of stuff happening around Crossroads.

01:04:42

All of it happens not because we have an endowment,

01:04:44

not because we have a corporate sponsor,

01:04:45

but just because there's normal, generous people

01:04:48

who say, "God, I trust you with what I have."

01:04:51

If you have questions around what Crossroads

01:04:52

believes about money, or you're just feeling

01:04:55

kind of a nudge to step in and become a giver,

01:04:57

you can do that at crossroads.net/give.

01:05:00

Thanks so much for watching. We'll see you next time.

Easter

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