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Red Rocks Church. How do you feel? You sound good. Hey, will you help me say hi to everybody? What's up? All the Denver locations. We love you so much. Austin, Texas. Brussels, Belgium. And men and women at our correctional facilities. You are family. We love you so much. And welcome to all of you joining us online. Thanks for joining us. High five, somebody. Have a seat. We like to say at the beginning of each service. What's up, brother? Love you, man. We like to say at the beginning of each service that we're just a bunch of messed up, imperfect people, but we love to get together like this church and pursue a perfect God. Amen. So no matter what you've been through, no matter what you're going through, no matter what has happened, no matter what you carry with you when you come in here today or. Or join us from whatever screen you're watching or listening to, and we just want you to know in this place, we're gonna do everything we can to make sure you know that you are loved and valk. Loved and valued and welcomed. Not welcomed. I'm not German. Loved and valued and welcomed and welcome home. Welcome to Red Rocks Church. You feel good? Glad to be in church. Lakewood campus, you glad to be in church? All right, we're listening from here. Arvada campus, you glad to be in church? All right, I'm sure we can hear these guys. Littleton, Park Meadows. Let me hear you, Littleton. Let them hear us. There we go. There we go. Well, welcome to our brand new teaching series called TikTok Theology. And I gotta tell you, the tagline. Ryan loves his taglines. Depth and discernment in an age of 30 second sound bites. That just sounds naughty, doesn't it? We're going to ask some huge questions in this teaching series and I'm so glad that you guys are with us. We're going to start asking questions in this series, like, why would we believe that there is a God? Why would we believe that if there is a God, he's the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Yahweh? Why would we believe that Jesus is the son of God? Do we actually believe that he's the only way to heaven? How could we ever believe that the Bible's actually written by God? Like, we're going to ask some big questions in this series and so I just want to challenge you right up top. This is one of those series you don't want to miss a week. So be here every week. Bring somebody with you. And we're going to get after it. Sound Good. I had to laugh when I came into the building today because I saw the graphic. Give me a wide shot. I saw the graphic, TikTok Theology. And as I was looking at the graphic, I saw my son over here on the side of the stage. And he goes, dad. And we were right by this graphic. And he goes, you figured out TikTok yet? I went, no, son, I haven't. Okay? The funny thing is about this title, I usually have something to say about what goes on around here, but every now and then I get told what we're doing, and they. That's not true. They suggested this title, and I just didn't want to sound so uncool that I didn't know what I was talking about. So I was like, yeah, totally. TikTok theology, bruh. The truth is, I don't even have TikTok on my phone. I don't even know how to access it. I have an account. The creative team tells me I couldn't log into it if I had to. I've been on TikTok once my entire life. It was this past summer. I went on there for recon because me and Doug were about to. As, you know, as loving pastors do for their flock, me and Doug were gonna make a TikTok dance video for the church this summer. And so I went on TikTok to, you know, try to figure out, like, what is this stuff all about? And I had the creative team cue up that TikTok dance video that Doug and I made. But I didn't know, like, should we do that? Is that appropriate in a setting like this? Like, you guys want to see that? I don't want to cause anyone to stumble. You know what I'm saying? A lot of talent you're going to see. You sure you want this? All right. All right. Roll that video right over left. Pow. Yeah. Just got to get in your body. That's where the rhythm is in the hips. Okay, guys, what do we got set up here? It's TikTok dance. Kids are loving it. Okay, but you're not kids. TikTok dances can be a real time waster for pastors trying to become influencers. My heart rate's out. I know. We nailed it. Okay, Doug, you missed a meeting. Very important one had to do this. I'm sure they'll understand. They didn't understand. The self awareness is low. Can I see your IDs? Do you have your IDs on you? Let me just check that real quick. All right? Yeah. Too old for TikTok oh, even older. So no, let's just try it really quick. I'm gonna make you so proud. I'm already proud. I need you now more than any. Would you put my heart back together? I searched the world to my header Just to find out your ways better I don't know if I doubled or singled. Nailed it. Now, we talked about this, guys. Yeah. Hey. Not supposed to be doing this. Wasted a whole day. But it's, it's, I think it's what the people want. Nobody wants this. Are you lightheaded? I'm so lightheaded. Sam and Jill are going to be so proud. So proud. You can't possibly believe that. That's how much we love you. So, so, so I, I, I used TikTok once and, and I was trying to do some recon so we could learn that amazing dance. And I don't know if any of you are familiar with TikTok. I'm sure a whole bunch of you are like, I'm addicted. And a whole bunch of you are like, couldn't put it on my phone if I had to. I opened it and all of a sudden I don't know how this, how the algorithms work. The first video I see is like this grown man calling his best friend late at night just to tell him good night. And they were filming it and I started dying laughing. I mean, it was just these big old dudes just calling his buddy like, hey, what's up? Sup, bro? Ah, just chilling. You good? Good man. What do you need? Oh, man, I just calling to tell you good night. And dude, just watching their friends freak out. I was laughing so hard, I couldn't stop watching it. And I kept watching and watching and watching. All of a sudden I blinked and I was like, I just lost an hour and a half. Like, what happened? I was like in a trance and I threw my phone, like, get behind me, Satan. And I deleted it and I have not opened it since. True story. However, this series is not about TikTok, it's about theology. The problem is church we've got right now, multiple generations are getting a lot of their theology from places like TikTok. In 30 second sound bites, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, podcasts, you name it. Now, it doesn't have to be social media. It could be someone in your family, someone at work, someone at school, friend, family member, someone who just doesn't want to live their life according to God's word. And they would love to give you a 30 second sound bite on why they think you shouldn't trust God, trust Jesus, trust all of the Bible. But what we know is you don't have to spend much time on social media these days before someone will try and tell you what they believe and what they think you should believe. And when we started the church, we used to, I used to, when we would do series like this, I used to remember saying, like, man, this is so important for all of us. But, like, I so want our students to grab onto this stuff. And I, and I remember saying to the church years ago, because one of these days they're gonna grow up and they're gonna leave for college. This was my experience. They're gonna leave for college and they might get in a class where a professor who looks and sounds way smarter than them goes, know you, you can't trust the Bible. And then their theology gets rocked. But now we don't have to wait till our kids go to college. They can just pick up the phone. And so it's not about TikTok, it's not about social media, it's about theology. But we want to make sure church that we're not getting our theology from a phone. We're getting our theology from the word of God. And so today I want to start with a big question. So get, get out your phone, your notepad, whatever you do, you're going to want to take notes. I want to talk today about this question. Can we really believe that the Bible is from God? And you may know this, you may not, but according to God's word, we're actually supposed to know why we believe what we believe. In fact, 1st Peter 3 says this. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect. Well, that last phrase right there would change how a lot of us do social media, wouldn't it? But do it with gentleness and respect. But we're supposed to be able to give a reason for what we believe and why we believe. And so hopefully in this series, we'll take you closer to that. And if you're visiting, look, we say this all the time. We're not perfect. We don't have all the answers. We don't. We don't have enough energy to pretend that we are. But we're going to try really, really hard to answer some tough questions. And what I hope this does is it lights something on fire inside of you that goes, man, I want to go find out why I believe. I want to get in the Bible for myself, I want to study for myself. I want God to speak to me. And my hope is that this whole thing will just raise all of our faith. Deal? Can we believe the Bible is from God? Maybe you know this again, maybe you don't, but it claims to be. It says of itself that it's all from God. Second Timothy 3 says this. All scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training and righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. That verse says that. This right here, God says, I can equip you and teach you and train you and get you prepared for every single thing I have planned for your life, every single aspect of your calling I can give you if you'll spend time in my word. And he says every single bit of it is from God. It starts out with all Scripture. Psalm 119:86 says all your commands are trustworthy, not just the ones we like, not just the ones we agree with, not just the ones that don't make us mad, not just the ones that we feel like, oh, that's logically possible. That makes sense in my opinion. He says all scripture is straight from God to us. So today, if you're taking notes, I want to do, I want to talk about this. Why I believe in the Bible. I'm going to give you three reasons why I believe in the Bible. So I've spent the last three days putting together. I had this seven point message and I ran it all by my wife and it was, you know, that the Bible is historically accurate and scientifically accurate and it predicts the future and it's been copied with extreme care. And I had all this stuff and my wife, who by the way, babe, happy Valentine's Day, you know, happy Valentine's Day, I love you with all my heart. She looked at me really, really kind and went, I don't think most people want to hear about any of that or something to that effect. And I ran it by a few other people and sure enough, a whole lot of people don't. But I know some of you do and we are going to get into some of that in this series. But today I thought, you know what? I'm going to try more than that to speak from my heart. I did a lot of soul searching after that and said, why do I believe in the Bible? Because the truth is all those things I just rattled off are absolutely true about the Bible. But I learned about those things after I put my faith in the Bible. They just Helped build my faith, maybe after that. And they were nice to find out about. So I started thinking, like, why do I believe in the Bible? If you're taking notes, here it is. Number one. I believe in the Bible because Jesus rose from the dead. Now, I know some of you were typing that in and you just went, what? What's that got to do with. I'll get to it. I believe in the Bible because Jesus rose from the dead. I'm just going to scratch the surface on this. We're going to go much deeper very soon on this exact topic. So I don't want to take away the thunder from that week, but I just want to scratch the surface on this. What I'm about to read to you. This is if you have your Bible, you can flip to it first Corinthians, chapter 15. We're going to start in the very first verse. Whether or not you believe that the Bible is from God, what we know historically is that this is an actual ancient document. It's a historical document. We have over 25,000 archaeological findings, physical pieces of evidence substantiating the accuracy and authenticity of the New Testament that we're reading today. We know that this is a historical document. Whether or not you want to say it's inspired by God, I hope you find that to be the case at some point. But whether you do or not, we know this is a historical document. So here's what he says. Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. So he says, what I'm about to remind you of, we've already been talking about. He said, by this Gospel, you're saved if you hold firmly to the word I preach to you. Otherwise, you believed in vain. For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the 12. After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me also. Someone asked me the other day, they're like, why do you drink so much water while you talk? You diabetic or something? And I went, no, I'm not diabetic, bro. My medicine has a side effect, and it's dry mouth. He's like, well, you should tell the church. I think a lot of people are worried. So, anyways, I'm fine. I take medicine. Side effect is dry mouth for most people. Not a big deal when you do this for a living. Real pain in the rear. So I drink about half a gallon of water while I talk. Okay, good. Okay, so what we just read, this is. Picture it. This is Paul gathering everybody. He's putting this in a letter, right? He's putting this in a letter to the church at Corinth. He says, hey, guys, we already been talking about this. You guys saw it. You guys were there. You guys heard about it. Jesus came back from the dead. I know it's crazy, but. But. But you were there, and you were there, and he was there, and she was there, and they were there, and I saw both of you there. And he appeared to us and him and her and 500 other people around town. You can go ask them. And it had so much. The event itself, the event of the resurrection of Jesus had so much eyewitness testimony that it couldn't be refuted. And this document ends up being passed around all the early churches in areas where people could have known whether or not it actually happened because they or someone they love could have actually been there to dispute, prove it, and it couldn't be disproven. It's the kind of eyewitness testimony that would stand up in any honest courtroom in this world. It couldn't be refuted then, can't be refuted now. I'm telling you, he is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and he came back from the grave. And I love that God did it this way because I'm. You know, I'm one of those people that I can get. I can hear something on social media and I can get all like, oh, no, am I. Did I believe the wrong thing? And am I screwing everything up? And what I love that I can always go back to. Christianity is just different. Every other major world religion is started by someone who says, I heard from God or I heard from an angel. Trust me, Christianity is different. It's based on an event that happened in history that had so much eyewitness testimony that it couldn't be refuted. That's what we have. We have Jesus coming back from the grave. Okay? And so you go. You go, well, maybe you go, great, whatever. I can't wait for you to get into that a little bit more later. But what's that have to do with whether or not I can trust The Bible's from God. I'm so glad you asked, Connie. Thanks for asking. No one asks, you know, thanks for asking. Let me quote a Pastor Andy Stanley. He said this. My high school science teacher once told me that much of Genesis is false. But since my high school science teacher did not prove he was God by rising from the dead, I'm going to believe Jesus instead. That's what it has to do with it. Because I can go to TikTok and I can go to Instagram and I can watch all kinds of podcasts and I can listen to all kinds of people's opinions that'll tell me that I can't trust that the Bible's from God. I. But since Jesus came up out of the grave and since he says the Bible's from God, I think I'll trust him instead. I don't think I'll get my theology from TikTok. You see what I'm saying? Did he. Did Jesus actually say that? And I'm going to show you. See, I believe in the Bible because Jesus did listen to what he says. Luke 24:27. Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets. Let me slow down. Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Jesus is now gathering people and he's going look at the entire Hebrew Bible, what we now call our Old Testament. He says, let me show you how every single part of it was pointing to me. And then he says this. He said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. Now this is cool. So everybody listening. We wouldn't know this unless we look into it. Everybody listening to Jesus at that point, they knew exactly what he was claiming. Because in Jesus's day, the way they would refer to the Old Testament, what they called the Hebrew Bible, what we now call the Old Testament, they would refer to it in three sections. There was the Law, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. There was the law of Moses. There was the prophets. And then there was this third category they called the writings, or the Psalms because it's a huge letter of different writings. But Psalms was the largest book in that category of writings. So when Jesus says, I'm talking to you about the law, the prophets and the Psalms, everybody listening knew right then he's referring to the entire Hebrew Bible right here in this one statement. Jesus says, make no Mistake about it. Let everybody else say what they want. I believe in the Bible. I believe in all of it. He said the law, the prophets, and the Psalms. In fact, I read this this week. Jesus referred to or alluded to the Old Testament over a hundred and or one hundred eighty, right? About one hundred eighty or slightly over times. That's how much he believed in the Bible. Jesus and his best friends who ended up writing a lot of the New Testament, they referred to the Old Testament of our Bible over 295 times. That's how much he believed that it was real. That's how much he believed it was trusted. Trustworthy. See, Jesus, what I love is Jesus trusted the Bible's history. Have you ever heard somebody. And again, it won't take you long on social media to find somebody who will tell you you can trust parts of the Bible, but you can't trust all of it. Come on, bro, have you seen some of those stories? You're telling me that dude survived a worldwide flood in a little rickety boat and got all the animals on it? You're telling me that dude survived in a fish for three days underwater? Come on, man. That. Randy Moss, you right there. Come on, man. So many people would love to discount the Bible or tell you that you can't trust it because there's things in there that don't make logical sense to us, right? I want you to know this church, Jesus believed these things happened. Jesus believed in the Bible, Adam and Eve. If you look this one up yourself for time, I won't read this 1. Matthew 19, 4, 5. Go look that one up for yourself. You'll see Jesus referring to Adam and Eve. He believed that it happened. I've heard pastors say, you know, man, you can't trust that stuff. You know, all big religions have creation stories and it's very probable and. And that's fine, but I'm just telling you, Jesus talks about it like he believes it. He didn't say, I know everybody else is going to have a creation story. No, he said, let me tell you about what happened with Adam and Eve. He believed in it. Noah in the flood, Matthew 24, 37, 39. I'm going to say it again because I don't think we have time to read it. It's not that important. But you read it. What was it? Matthew 24, 37 to 39. You want to read it? All right, we'll read it. We got time. I heard Lauren say yes, as it was in the days of Noah. So it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. And they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of man. Jesus believed that God had the ability to build a pretty good boat. Jesus believed in the history of the Bible. Jesus believed in Jonah and the whale. I've debated this for the last three days in my mind. You guys want to hear a dad joke? It's really stupid and I blame my pastor. I got it from him. But okay, so there's a little girl in school and she writes a paper for class and she takes it to her teacher and it's a history assignment. And she writes a paper on Jonah and the whale. And the teacher, who was just a, you know, atheist, was very public about being an atheist, did not believe in God, did not believe in the Bible, said, well, that's an interesting choice of subject matter. You just chose, young lady. And she goes, well, you know, I believe it happened. And she goes, well, how do you know? And the little girl goes, well when I get to heaven, I'll ask Jonah myself. And the teacher goes, what if he's not in heaven? What if he's in hell? And the little girl goes, well, then you can ask him. That's Pastor Chris Hodges fault. That's right. I went on record. That's Pastor Chris's fault. Matthew 12:40. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And I understand that a lot of times we do look at stuff in the Bible and we go, that part just doesn't make sense to me logically. Like why would God do that? That doesn't make sense. And that doesn't make sense. And that doesn't seem like it could happen. And that sounds too crazy. Understand this church. If the first verse on the first page of this thing is trustworthy, everything else it says is trustworthy, every other miracle is possible. And let's just read it. The first verse on the first page. Well, it's not really the first page, but you know what I mean. Genesis 1:1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's it. If he can do that, what can't he do? If he can speak and create oceans and speak and create mountains and speak and create atmospheres, you don't think he could build a boat. You don't think he can let a guy live underwater for three days. I'm reading this book right now and I highly recommend it. It's called I Don't have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. Great book. I read a funny comment in it this week. One of the authors said, there's two authors, I don't remember which one said it. One of the authors was talking about that and he said, he said it's interesting that people look at, you know, Jonah and the whale story and go, you know, oh, that could never happen. Yet with our limited intelligence as humans, right, we build amazing boats and we can. We build vessels where people can live underwater for months. But we don't think that all wise, all knowing, all powerful, omniscient God, creator of the universe, can't do that. I bet he could build a boat and house somebody underwater for three days if he wants to. So if the first verse of the Bible is right, every other miracle is possible. Church Jesus believed in the history of the Bible. Jesus used the Bible as a sword. Jesus wasn't one of those guys who went, yeah, I think it's just got good principles. I don't. You can't really trust all of it. A lot of that can't happen. But it's good principles, good principles to live by, good stories. Jesus believed in Ephesians 6, where it says, put on the full armor of God. And it says, you wield your Bible like the sword of the spirit that it is. And every time the enemy comes at you, when there's flaming arrows coming at you, you put on your shield of faith and you grab your sword of the spirit and you go to war for yourself. You go to war for your family. Anytime Satan tries to kill, steal or destroy, you use that Bible as a sword. That's what we see Jesus doing. Matthew, chapter four. He just got baptized and he goes out into the wilderness. He's gonna fast for 40 days. A lot of us just fasted like sugar for 21 days and thought it was the end of the world. You know what I'm saying? He's gonna fast all food for 40 days. Here's what happens. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. We know that the tempter came to him and said, if you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Watch Jesus. Jesus answered, sorry, bro, I got a sword. It is written, man shall not live on Bread alone. But on every word that comes from the mouth of God, Jesus uses his word as a weapon. Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you're the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down, for it is written. Tries to twist the Bible. He will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone. And Jesus said, it is written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. I got a sword again. The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I'll give you. He said, if you bow down and worship me. And Jesus said, away from me, Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. And the devil left him and the angels came and attended to him. Jesus didn't think it was a bunch of cute stories and good principles. He thought the Bible was exactly what God said it was. The sword of the story spirit. I trust the Bible because Jesus trusted the Bible. He said this for truly, I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. I trust the Bible because Jesus rose from the dead to prove he was God. And then I trust the Bible because the guy who rose from the dead and proved to be God said, I trust the Bible. I trust it because Jesus trusts it. And I've heard too many people on too many social media platforms talking about, I'm just a Jesus girl. I'm just a Jesus guy. I don't really trust all of it. You can't really trust all of it because that doesn't work in today's world. But I'll just take Jesus. I believe in him. I'm just love. I just take. I'm a Jesus guy. Well, Jesus was the Jesus guy. And he said he believed that every single word of the Bible was from God. He said it was all from God. Jesus believed in it. If we're going to be Jesus men and Jesus women, we need to believe what Jesus believed. So Red Rocks Church, we believe in Jesus, therefore we believe in what he believed in. Jesus believed in the Bible, and so do we. Somebody make some noise if you're with me. I believe in the Bible because it changed my life and that if I could only have one point for the whole talk, that would be it. I believe in the Bible because it's changed my life. Even learning that Jesus believed in the Bible for me came way after I started believing in the Bible because it started changing my life. I was almost 25 years old and I got brought into a room like this. And, you know, if this is your church, you've heard my story a bunch. But I was a mess and didn't know if I wanted to live anymore. Was a drug addict at the time. And someone stood on a stage like this and they read a verse. They read this verse. It says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And I remember sitting in a seat like a bunch of you are right now, thinking, I don't know, man. Like, I got a bad past. I've been a bad person. I've wronged a lot of people, hurt a lot of people. You know what? Someone like me. But I remember thinking, if that's true, if anyone who calls on him, well, then I want that. And I raised my hand that day and it changed my life. I've never been the same. I walked out of that. That building feeling like a thousand pounds had been taken off my shoulders. I couldn't explain it. I just had felt the presence of God. I started trusting in the word of God almost instantly because the first time I tried to put it into action, I could feel. Feel it working. I could feel it being right. After I gave my life to God, I went back to where I was living in LA and made it a few weeks before I had my one and only relapse with drugs. And after I did, someone called me the next day and I told him all about it. I told him everything. I said, I'm disgusted with myself. I did everything I promised God I'd never do again. And this person shared this with me. Flee the evil desires. This is second Timothy 2. 22. Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. This person said, I think this is for you. And I felt like when I read that verse, I felt like God started speaking to me because the Bible says it's alive and it's active. It's not just a book of stories. God says, you open it up, I'll speak to you about your life. It's alive and active today. And when I read this verse, I knew it. He said, look, you got a lot of desires that are causing you a lot of problems. You need to stop trying to stand next to him and follow God. You need to flee some of these things. And you need to go get around some people who are pursuing righteousness. And so I did. I did the craziest thing I could think of. I. I packed up and I left Los angeles. It was 70 and sunny every day. And I went to Rockford, Illinois. I lived there eight years, saw the sun twice. But what I didn't know is God wasn't just trying to take me on a road trip. He was changing everything. He was going to introduce me to my wife. He was going to change my career. He wasn't just changing my state. He was changing everything, My future, everything. I didn't know. But as I saw it unfold, just made me more and more realize how much I trust the Bible because it's just changed my life. I. I felt called. I felt called at one point to be an intern at the church. And it wasn't like an easy thing to do. I'd already, I already had a college degree. Most of the interns at the church, you know, they were like, at a high school. I'm like, I already finished college. I've already, like, had a real job for a couple years. Like, I've been out in the world. Why would I. Why would I go back to making next to nothing to be an intern at a church? And I couldn't kick it. And I just felt like God was calling me to give a year of my life to just, just serve his church and his people and let him do something in me that I didn't expect. And as I was thinking about sharing this with you today, it reminded me, church, some of you know this, some of you may not. I'm so proud of the intern program that we have here at Red Rocks Church. We have some men and women that are serving God with everything they got. They've sacrificed a lot to do it. Those of you that are interns, I'm so thankful, thankful for you. And I just want to tell you, church, if you know somebody or you yourself feel called, like, I think a year of my life being dedicated to God, serving him and his church could do me a lot of good. If you think that's for you, you can. If you're in a building, you can tap the plate on the chair in front of you. And that'll be one of the things that'll show up on your phone, is an opportunity to get information on our internship here at the church. We're starting to take applications now for next year. And I'm telling you, it can change your life. But I was scared to Death to be an intern. Because I always just felt like the more and more I got around church people, the more and more I thought, I just don't think I have what it takes. I don't think I'm built for this man. I still have. I got bad thoughts I wouldn't want people to know about. I still have bad desires I wouldn't want people to know about. I don't feel worthy. I don't feel like God would want me. And I sat in a service, and somebody read Luke 15. And then I went and sat in the same auditorium by myself the next morning and just read Luke 15. And I'll never forget that morning when I just read this story about this kid who'd messed up his whole life, disappointed his family, disappointed his father, both parents, everything wasted money, made mistakes, hurt people along the way, and all of a sudden realized, I think I need the Father. And as I was reading it, I was like, I know how he feels. When he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have food to spare? And here I'm starving to death. I'll just set out and I'll go back to my dad and I'll tell him, I've sinned against heaven and against you, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. That's how I felt. And I read this story about how this kid starts his journey home. And on the way home, he's practicing the speech. He's practicing telling his dad, I'm not worthy. I'll just work for you. I'm not worthy to be your son. And he gets to the edge of the driveway. Watch this. But while he was a long way off, the father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. And he ran to his son and he threw his arms around him and he kissed him. And the son said, father, I've sinned. I'm not worthy. And dad says, get the ring, get the rope, get the stake, get the sandals. We're throwing a party. He said, my son was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. And I pictured God, like, meeting me outside the building and just hugging me and saying, you're welcome here. That's why every talk, I start with, you're loved and you're valued and you're welcomed. Because I always want you to know that that's not just a message from a church to you. It's a message from God to you. You're loved and you're welcomed and you're valued. And he wants you. And then I was really insecure, found a girl at the church that wanted to go out with me and really wanted a girlfriend because I was insecure. And I was praying, and then I read this, and I felt like God spoke to me in a prayer and in this verse. And he said, you will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I'll be found by you. And when he did, I felt like God was saying, you can go start dating right now, but it'll divide your heart. I felt like God was saying, son, I got a lot of reconstructive surgery that needs to be done on your heart. And I want to have. I want to have all of it for just a minute. Let me have all of it. And so I didn't date yet. Put off dating. I didn't know that by doing that, I would later meet the woman of my dreams in a small group. I didn't know that. But I do know that that weekend I was really lonely. And I sat by myself on a Friday night. I still remember the couch I was sitting on, and I read the whole book of Revelations by myself. I was like, well, I hope you're happy, God. I'm single and confused now, so. And I could just. Story after story after story. Like. Six years ago, I was having a whole bunch of anxiety, and I couldn't. Couldn't function and didn't know if I wanted to function anymore. And I read this one morning, Psalm 9. I'll give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart. This was David when he was having a really, really rough time. He said, I'll give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart. I'll tell of your wonderful deeds. I'll be glad and rejoice in you. I'll sing the praises of your name, and my enemies have to turn back. And I read that that morning, and I felt like God said to me, you can worship through really hard times. Think about it, Church. How many times have I encouraged you to worship through hard times? In the last six years, about a million. It's because that's what God said to me one morning. And it so changed my life. I keep hoping he'll say it to you. This last week, last one, I promised this last week. I was sort of feeling sorry for myself for having Parkinson's and just having a rough morning. And I read Psalm 42, and David was having a rough morning. He said, my tears have been my food day and night. He goes on to talk about how he's pouring out his soul and all this stuff. Then he says, why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will praise him, my Savior and my God. And God reminded me this week, Sean, your hope is in me. It's not in a job, it's not in a paycheck, it's not in a bank account, it's not in a house. And it's not in your health. It's in me. And I started to worship again. I'm just telling you, church, like, I believe that this is from God because of the way it's changed my life. And Jesus. Jesus says this in John 8 to the Jews who believed in him. Jesus said, if you hold on, if you'll hold to my teaching, you're really my disciples. And then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. That word know is the Greek word gnosco. It means to know, especially through personal experience. Jesus says, if you'll hold on to this, you'll get to know me. You'll experience me for yourself. And your argument about whether or not you believe in the Bible. Nobody will be able to argue away your experience. And you'll know I'm who I said I am. You'll know I can do what I said I can do. And there's nothing I can't get you through if you hold on. I found probably wondering, what's this? I don't know if you are or not. Whatever. I found this Bible, literally, as I was walking out of my room today to come here to church, and I saw it sitting on our nightstand. And, like, look at this thing. It's amazing. That's gold on those pages. I don't even know how they do that. And my name's in gold. And it was on a big shelf in our bedroom, and it was set up, like, with some books and some candles and I don't even know. I've. No kidding. I was walking out of my room today and I saw it, and I was like, how long has that been sitting there? Like, it just has become decoration. You know what I mean? You have people that are good at that, they just use some books and a candle and a leaning a. And all of a sudden it's cool. You know what I mean? And so it's literally been this thing. I don't think I. I don't know who gave it to me. Baby, if you did, I love it. I just haven't got to it yet. Yet. There's not a wrinkle in a page. In fact, when I opened this thing, like, the pages were sticking together. I don't know if it's ever been opened. And. And here's what I. Here's what I realized as I was. As I was walking out of my room and I saw it on the. On that shelf. That Bible right there says the exact same thing. This Bible right here does exactly. That Bible right there has never brought me one day of peace. It's never brought me one day of joy. Never brought me one day of victory because I haven't gotten into it. But this one, just, like, falling apart. See, I've been holding on to this one for dear life. This one's brought me some peace. This one's brought me some joy. This one's brought me some strength, because I've been holding on to this thing for dear life for a long time. And I'm telling you, Church, if you will get in your word and you will give him a chance, he will speak to you. He will lead you, he will guide you. He will change you. He will strengthen you. He will comfort you. He will empower you. He will equip you. He will get you through. And here's his promise. I don't know what you're going through right now. Everybody stand up, if you don't mind. I don't know what you're going through right now. I know what some of you are going through because I. I've cried with you in the last week, but I don't know what all you're going through right now. Maybe for you, you just need some answers about what's next in. In. In a career or in life or in school or maybe your prayers are for somebody else right now, but maybe you're somebody that you or someone you love is like, in it. Like. Life has been difficult and for some, real difficult lately. Hold on to this. When you pass through the waters, I'll be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. That's our promise, Church. We gotta start holding on to his word. I believe the Bible is from God. I believe it because Jesus came back to life. I believe it because Jesus believed it. And I believe it because it's changed my life. And my prayer is that it would change yours too. Let's pray. God, I thank you for your word. I thank you that you love us, that you see us, that you care about us, that you have a plan for us. And God, I pray that those of us who need strength right now, we would receive your strength. And those of us who need comfort, we would receive your comfort. And those of us who need guidance, we would receive your guidance. Those of us who need training, that we would receive training. Those of us who need to be corrected, God, correct us. Help us to live by your word, by your will, so we can experience your plans with everybody's head bowed and eyes closed. I just want to ask two questions. The first one is this. You or someone you love is going through something difficult right now, and you just say, man, I just need God. I need God to get involved. I need his miraculous power. I need his strength. We need him to get involved in ways. We need him to do things in our situation that we can't take care of on our own. If that's you right now, raise your hand. I'm just gonna pray for you. Yeah, I'm with you. I know some close friends that are with you right now. Yeah. Second question is this. I've been talking about how we can trust God's word, but you just know something's been happening in your heart. God's been trying to say something to you because you might not be able to explain it, but you can feel it. Like you just know. I think God's. That's God trying to get your attention. That's the creator of the universe, lovingly saying, son, daughter, come home, come home. I'll welcome you, I'll love you, I'll value you. But I'll also forgive you of your sins and change your life and make you a brand new creation, give you my holy spirit and put you on a path on your way to heaven forever. And you go, today's my day. I want that. I need to say yes to Jesus. If that's you, raise your hand. I say yes to Jesus today. I want my sins forgiven. I say yes to Jesus. Keep them up. I want my sins forgiven. I want his spirit. I need his strength. I want to make sure I'm on my way to heaven. If that's you, keep them up, raise them high. I say yes to Jesus. Thank you, God. I thank you for the decisions that are being made right now, the life changing, eternal decisions that are being made. I thank you that heaven is being made more crowded right this moment. I thank you, God, for every single person under the sound of my voice right now. And I pray that you would be with them in miraculous ways. I pray that you would help them with physical health issues in miraculous ways. Mental health issues in miraculous ways. Those dealing with loss, I pray that you would intervene in miraculous ways. Bring peace and strength and grace and mercy in ways that even surprise them. God, we need you. We rely on you. We love you. And now, God, it is our honor to praise you in Jesus name. And everybody said, amen. Church, let's worship. I love you, Jesus.