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Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000018S
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00:01 - For a very long time, human beings have been trying
00:03 to figure out their nature of existence, 00:05 because we want to know exactly who or what we are. 00:09 Why are we here? 00:11 You see if we could just figure out 00:12 the nature of the universe, maybe it'll give some clue 00:16 as to who we are or what we're supposed to be. 00:19 And if it happened to be religiously inclined, 00:22 of course, you also have to factor in the existence of God. 00:26 That's today's episode of Authentic. 00:29 [soft music] 00:50 Human beings have been trying to boil down 00:52 the nature of our existence and the nature of the universe 00:55 for thousands of years. 00:57 And I find it curious that so many of the clay tablets 00:59 we dig out of the earth, 01:01 talk about questions regarding the meaning of life. 01:06 I mean, some of these tablets 01:07 they talk about things like census data of royal bookkeeping 01:11 or some Kings triumph in war, 01:14 but the one thing that keeps on popping up 01:16 over and over and over again, 01:19 is the question of meaning, 01:20 who in the world are we? 01:23 Why was I born into this universe? 01:26 Am I really just a biological machine? 01:29 Some kind of accident of Physics and Biology? 01:32 Or is the reason that you and I are here? 01:35 And is there anybody out there, 01:37 I mean, somewhere out there in the universe 01:38 who knows that we're here or for that matter, 01:41 cares that we're here? 01:44 And how do you know for sure that your existence 01:46 is even real? 01:47 How do I know that my daily experience 01:49 is not just a figment of my imagination? 01:52 An illusion created by the chemistry of my brain? 01:56 How do I know that all of this, 01:58 you and me right now, it's not just a dream? 02:03 Maybe things like love or passion or hate or inspiration 02:07 are nothing but an illusion. 02:09 I mean, how do I know, 02:10 that I'm not just a biological experiment 02:13 somewhere out there in the universe, 02:14 just a brain sitting on a tray 02:17 with a 15-year-old high school kid, 02:19 prodding it with a scalpel because I'm his science project 02:23 and he's accidentally creating every experience 02:26 I think I'm having. 02:28 Of course that's not the way they talked about it 02:31 in these ancient clay tablets, 02:33 like this one from the Ruins of Nineveh, 02:37 but the questions are exactly the same. 02:39 We've been struggling with the same things 02:42 ever since we learned the art of writing. 02:44 Our ancient ancestors seriously probed, 02:47 just about every corner of human experience, 02:49 looking for answers. 02:51 Last night, some of these tablets say, I had a crazy dream. 02:54 What did that mean? 02:55 And why is it that all life on this planet 02:58 seems to rely on the sun? 03:00 And what exactly would make my life meaningful and great? 03:04 I mean maybe if I go conquer all my neighboring countries 03:07 and make them worship me, then my life will mean something. 03:13 I mean, if we get right to the root of it, 03:15 everybody's been looking for the very same thing. 03:17 We're looking for the reason we're here. 03:20 That's the question that motivates almost everything we do, 03:25 because somehow we're not very happy 03:27 with the idea that we just happen to be here, 03:29 but it doesn't really mean anything. 03:32 And if you think about it, 03:34 the fact that we asked that question at all, 03:36 is really pretty significant. 03:38 Because if you were just a biological machine, 03:40 some random accident, a leftover from the Big Bang, 03:44 then why in the world would you have an impulse 03:46 to go out there looking for meaning? 03:48 I mean, think about this. 03:50 Does your laptop care about the meaning of its existence? 03:54 It does a lot of artificial thinking all day long. 03:57 It does calculations faster than your brain can. 04:00 It takes care of spreadsheets and communications, 04:03 and these days that computer can even run your house. 04:07 But you know that your laptop isn't sitting there 04:10 on the kitchen table wondering where it came from, 04:13 why it exists and what its purpose is. 04:16 Because that would be weird. 04:19 Consciousness and self-awareness, don't just happen. 04:24 And if your computer does appear to care, 04:27 I mean, if Siri or Alexa asks you 04:29 the occasional meaningful questions, 04:31 you would know immediately, 04:32 that somebody had programmed it to seem that way. 04:35 Because it doesn't happen all by itself. 04:39 So let's consider this possibility. 04:42 Let's consider the possibility 04:44 that somebody did put us here on purpose. 04:47 And that same somebody, programmed us 04:50 to ask these kinds of questions 04:52 because there's something we're supposed to discover, 04:56 something we're supposed to learn. 05:00 If you read the book of Ecclesiastes, 05:03 an ancient book of Jewish wisdom, 05:05 and found in the Old Testament, 05:08 you'll find this statement 05:09 that looks well, a little simplistic at first 05:11 but the longer you think about it, 05:14 the more profound it becomes. 05:16 And you find this statement on the heels of an ancient poem 05:19 that actually became a number one hit 05:21 for The Byrds back in 1965, you might remember it. 05:24 "To everything." 05:25 I won't sing, 05:26 "To everything, 05:27 "Turn, turn, turn 05:28 "There is a season, 05:29 "And a time to every purpose under heaven." 05:31 Yeah, that comes from Ecclesiastes. 05:33 They got it from chapter three. 05:35 And it only goes to prove, 05:36 that the questions that haunt the human race today 05:39 are the very same questions we were asking, 05:42 well, 3000 years ago. 05:45 Now you'll notice those ancient lyrics assume, 05:48 there's got to be a purpose for our existence. 05:51 So maybe let's just do a little bit of reading theater 05:54 for a couple of minutes. 05:56 And let me read you of this ancient poetry. 05:58 This is from Ecclesiastes chapter three, 06:01 beginning in verse one. 06:03 "To everything, there is a season, 06:05 "A time for every purpose under heaven 06:07 "A time to be born and a time to die, 06:10 "A time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted 06:13 "A time to kill and a time to heal 06:16 "A time to break down and a time to build up 06:19 "A time to weep and a time to laugh. 06:21 "A time to mourn and a time to dance 06:23 "A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones 06:27 "A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing 06:31 "A time to gain and a time to lose 06:33 "A time to keep and a time to throw away 06:36 "A time to tear and a time to sow 06:39 "A time to keep silence and a time to speak 06:42 "A time to love and a time to hate 06:44 "A time of war and a time of peace." 06:48 That has got to be one of the most foundational poems 06:51 in the history of human writing. 06:53 And when you reading this, it just kind of feels right. 06:57 So let me ask you why. 07:00 Why do we assume there's a purpose and a time for anything? 07:03 Why is it that we can't seem to let go of that idea? 07:08 You start to find the answer in the next few words 07:12 and this is the part of this ancient passage 07:14 that unfortunately never made it 07:16 to the top 10 charts back in 1965. 07:19 I'm going to continue in verse nine, and you never know. 07:22 Maybe we'll spend the rest of this show, 07:23 unpacking what we're about to read, 07:25 because, well, it's just that profound. 07:29 And I promise, this is gonna give you enough to think about 07:31 until the next time we meet. 07:33 So here we go, with what I think, 07:35 is the most important part of this passage. 07:38 And I want you to notice the assumptions 07:40 buried in this text. 07:41 Verse nine. 07:43 "What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 07:47 "I have seen the God-given task 07:49 "with which the sons of men are to be occupied." 07:53 So there you have it again. 07:54 It's the biggest question in the world. 07:56 Every day you get out of bed and you go through the motions. 08:00 You go to work, you go to school, 08:01 you go out looking for a job, you plan a day of retirement. 08:05 But whatever you do, you feel driven to do something. 08:10 For some reason, you and I are painfully aware 08:12 of how short this life is. 08:15 In a way that dogs and cats probably aren't. 08:18 I mean, animals don't seem to struggle 08:21 with the idea of mortality, 08:22 but you and I live under the assumption 08:25 that time is a limited gift. 08:26 This is something you can't afford to waste. 08:30 And the older you get, 08:31 the more you realize that one single lifetime 08:34 is just a tiny blip on the radar of eternity. 08:37 A period of time so short that it almost seems well cruel. 08:44 We have to spend most of our lives just surviving, 08:47 which makes some people wonder 08:49 why we put in all this effort. 08:51 I mean, if life is just sleeping and eating, 08:54 and breathing and reproducing, what's the point? 08:58 Everything you create, 09:00 and every child you bring into this existence 09:02 is just gonna occupy a world 09:03 where you one day will no longer exist. 09:07 And for a lot of people, that seems kind of futile. 09:12 But then of course, you have to ask yourself 09:14 why this would even bother you, 09:16 because if you and I were just biological computers, 09:19 we would simply get to the end of our usefulness 09:21 and we would power down and never even think about. 09:25 But for some reason, all of this really bothers us. 09:28 We live, we suffer, we die. 09:30 And for some reason, all of that seems really, really wrong. 09:35 I mean, I can't even imagine how many billions of words 09:38 the human race has written on this very subject. 09:41 The idea that life seems short and cruel and pointless. 09:45 But at the same time we cling to life. 09:48 And it seems far too short. 09:51 Look, I've got to take a quick break 09:52 but I'll be right back after this. 09:56 - [Male Announcer] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues, 10:01 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 10:05 If you've ever read Daniel to Revelation 10:07 and come away scratching your head, you're not alone. 10:10 Our free Focus on Prophecy guides are designed to help you 10:14 unlock the mysteries of the Bible 10:16 and deepen your understanding of God's plan for you 10:19 and our world. 10:20 Study online, or request them by mail. 10:22 And start bringing prophecy into focus today. 10:26 - There's just something about this existence 10:28 that doesn't make sense, not rationally. 10:31 And that really bothers us. 10:34 It's like this broken tooth 10:36 at the back of your mouth 10:37 and your tongue just can't leave it alone. 10:39 You have to keep going back and exploring the question 10:42 of our existence over and over. 10:45 It reminds me of a famous passage 10:47 from Thomas Hobbes "Leviathan". 10:49 And I don't know if you had to read this book in college 10:51 but I did. 10:52 And at one point he says 10:53 one of the most heartbreaking things in the world, 10:55 and I guess the reason it's heartbreaking 10:58 is because we know it's true. 11:00 And he speaking about living through war. 11:02 That awful moment when the human race 11:04 manages to strip all of human life of meaning. 11:07 Here's what he says, 11:08 "In such a condition" that's war, 11:10 "there is no place for industry 11:12 "because the fruit thereof is uncertain, 11:14 "and consequently no culture of the earth, 11:17 "no navigation or use of the commodities 11:19 "that may be imported by sea, 11:21 "no commodious building, 11:23 "no instruments of moving and removing such things 11:25 "as require much force, 11:27 "no knowledge of the face of the earth, 11:28 "no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, 11:31 "and which is worst of all, 11:33 "continual fear and danger of violent death". 11:36 And here it comes. 11:37 Here's the troubling part, 11:38 "and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, 11:43 "brutish, and short". 11:45 Now I don't happen to like that perspective, 11:47 but I have to admit there's some truth to this. 11:50 For most people life really can be lonely, nasty, 11:53 brutal and short. 11:54 And that bothers me, but why? 11:57 I mean, if the universe is just too thin clause, 12:00 survival of the fittest, 12:01 then what Thomas Hobbes is describing 12:03 is exactly the way things are supposed to be. 12:06 And it shouldn't bother me because that's just the nature 12:09 of an indifferent universe. 12:10 I mean, sure. 12:11 I want to avoid pain, everybody does. 12:14 Because it's well, unpleasant 12:16 but beyond the avoidance of pain why should I care? 12:20 And why do I seem to be programmed to resist my own death? 12:23 Why does something as hard as life 12:25 seem to have so much, well, value? 12:29 Now if you've never read the book of Ecclesiastes, 12:31 I'm going to encourage you, even if you're not religious 12:33 to give this book a chance, 12:35 because well there are some really profound thoughts in here 12:38 that have stood the test of time. 12:39 Listen to this starting with in verse 11. 12:41 "He," and that's God, 12:42 "has made everything beautiful in its time." 12:44 Now I think I might want to spend a whole program 12:47 one of these days talking about what beauty actually is, 12:50 but here comes the important part, listen. 12:54 "also he has put eternity in their hearts 12:55 "except that no one can find out the work that God does 12:58 "from beginning to end." 13:01 That is one of the most deceptively simple things 13:04 I've ever read because in seven words, 13:07 the author points to the one thing that keeps us 13:09 from believing that life has no meaning. 13:11 He says God has put eternity in our hearts. 13:18 You know, a few years ago, a good friend of mine 13:19 who I think I'll invite on the show at some point, 13:22 he suddenly called me and urged me to go to a website 13:24 because they had posted the details of a notable funeral 13:27 that had just taken place. 13:30 It was a Memorial service for Douglas Adams, 13:32 the author of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". 13:35 And of course Douglas Adams 13:37 was what we would call a nihilist, 13:39 a person who believes that our existence 13:41 doesn't mean anything. 13:43 And in his book, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" 13:46 he imagines this race of aliens who destroy our planet 13:49 to make way for a galactic freeway, 13:51 like you and I are just an inconvenient ant pile 13:54 on a construction site. 13:56 So from the aliens perspective, the human race, 13:59 all of our achievements, all of our history, 14:02 all of our philosophy, it means nothing. 14:04 You could just wipe it out without any consequence. 14:07 It's kind of like what happens 14:09 in HG Wells War of the Worlds, 14:11 where to our horror, we discovered that 14:13 the Martians are here to harvest us for food. 14:17 It's horrific because somewhere deep in the human psyche, 14:20 we have this instinct to believe 14:22 that we are more important than that. 14:25 So in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" 14:28 the author pretends that our earth 14:30 was nothing but an experiment, a supercomputer 14:32 designed by another supercomputer, 14:34 and its purpose was to ponder the meaning of life. 14:37 And it was supposed to calculate the answer to and I quote, 14:41 "the ultimate question of life, 14:42 "the universe, and everything". 14:45 So this computer works on that problem 14:47 for seven and a half million years, 14:49 and then it finally spits out the answer. 14:52 The answer, 42. 14:55 Now of course, 42 doesn't mean anything. 14:59 And what Douglas Adams is trying to tell us is that 15:01 the search for meaning is pointless. 15:04 But then he himself dies like we all do. 15:06 And a number of very prominent people 15:08 mostly with the same mindset, they come to the funeral 15:11 and that's when it suddenly happens. 15:13 Richard Dawkins, one of the most notorious atheist 15:16 in the world gives a eulogy. 15:19 And I want you to listen to what he said 15:21 because it confirms what the book of Ecclesiastes says. 15:24 God has put eternity in our hearts. 15:27 He mentions an interview he once had with Douglas Adams 15:30 and he asks his friend the question, 15:32 what is it about science 15:34 that really gets your blood running? 15:36 And here's the answer that Douglas Adams gave. 15:39 I don't want you to miss this. 15:41 He said, 15:42 "The world is a thing of utter inordinate, 15:44 "complexity and richness and strangeness 15:47 "that is absolutely awesome. 15:49 "I mean, the idea that such complexity can arise 15:52 "not only out of such simplicity, 15:54 "but probably absolutely out of nothing 15:56 "is the most fabulous, extraordinary idea. 15:59 "And once you get some kind of inkling 16:01 "of how that might've happened, it's just wonderful. 16:04 "And the opportunity to spend 70 or 80 years of your life 16:09 "in such a universe is time well spent 16:12 "as far as I'm concerned." 16:15 Now, I don't know about you, 16:17 but that does not sound like a man who believes in nothing. 16:21 I mean, no matter how hard he fights it, 16:23 there is still this idea 16:24 that you and I are supposed to mean something, 16:26 that we're here for a reason. 16:28 And there is a right way and a wrong way 16:30 to spend this one short lifetime. 16:34 So that's what Douglas Adams said. 16:37 Now, let me read you what Richard Dawkins said 16:39 at the funeral, because sometimes the words we speak 16:41 and the thoughts we have, when we're by the grave 16:44 are some of the clearest thoughts we'll ever have. 16:47 Here's what he said. 16:49 "It has been our privilege to know a man 16:51 "whose capacity to make the best of a full lifespan 16:54 "was as great as was his charm and his humor 16:56 "and his sheer intelligence. 16:58 "If ever a man understood what a magnificent place 17:01 "the world is, it was Douglas. 17:02 "And if ever a man left at a better place for his existence, 17:05 "it was Douglas. 17:07 "It would have been nice if he'd given us 17:09 "the full 70 or 80 years. 17:11 "But by God, we got our money's worth from the 49". 17:16 Now don't miss this. 17:18 Richard Dawkins, a man who says there is no God, 17:20 no plan for the universe, just had the nerve to tell us 17:25 that Douglas Adams lived life well. 17:27 That he used his time wisely. 17:30 And then he says that the world was somehow cheated 17:33 when this man died at 49, 17:35 and he didn't get a normal lifespan. 17:38 In other words, he's saying what happened isn't fair. 17:43 So why would that matter? 17:45 I mean, if this is perfectly mechanical universe, 17:48 Douglas Adams was a weaker machine 17:50 who suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack and he was 49. 17:54 That's just a numerical fact. 17:55 And we shouldn't have any emotions about that. 17:58 But there's some kind of driving force 18:00 buried deep inside us that says, 18:02 no, there's something wrong with death. 18:05 This man should have lived longer. 18:07 And all of us lost something the day he died. 18:11 So why would we think like that? 18:15 Why would we think there was anything fair 18:17 or unfair about life? 18:19 And apparently on another occasion, 18:21 Richard Dawkins even talked about how exciting it was 18:24 that Douglas Adams was going to decompose. 18:26 And his body would become nutrients 18:28 to feed the plants and trees. 18:30 And so in that way, he kind of gets to keep on living. 18:34 Now, I didn't hear those words for myself. 18:35 So maybe he didn't actually say it, but I will say this, 18:40 when it comes to death, we all start to think that way. 18:43 Because every time somebody dies, 18:45 something inside of a screams, this is wrong. 18:48 It's not supposed to be like this. 18:51 So where in the world does that come from? 18:54 I'll pick up on that thought right after this break. 19:01 - [Male Announcer] Are you searching for answers 19:03 to life's toughest questions, 19:04 like where is God when we suffer? 19:06 Can I find a real happiness? 19:08 Or is there any hope for our chaotic world? 19:11 The Discover Bible guides will help you 19:13 find the answers you're looking for. 19:15 Visit us at BibleStudies.com 19:18 or give us a call at 888-456-7933 19:23 for your free Discover Bible guides. 19:26 Study online on our secure website 19:29 or have the free guides mailed right to your home. 19:31 There is never a cost or obligation. 19:34 The Discover Bible guides are our free gift to you. 19:37 Find answers and guides like, 19:39 Does My Life Really Matter to God? 19:41 And A Second Chance at Life. 19:43 You'll find answers to the things that matter most to you 19:45 in each of the 26, Discover Bible guides. 19:48 Visit BibleStudies.com and begin your journey today 19:52 to discover answers, 19:53 to life's deepest questions. 20:01 - Well, we're back from the break, 20:03 and the director tells me it's been driving him nuts 20:05 that I left the tablet laying on the table this way. 20:07 But I got to tell you, I don't fix things like this. 20:10 So Joel, get in here and fix the tablet, man. 20:13 Fix the tablet. 20:14 This is quality television. 20:16 Come on, man. 20:17 What did you, you failed the Syrian school? 20:19 Good help folks. 20:22 Hard to find. 20:23 Unless you give to keep authentic on the air. 20:25 We're never gonna get decent help. 20:27 Backtrack to our subject. 20:29 About 3000 years ago, a wise Jewish King, 20:32 tried to tell us that God put eternity in our hearts. 20:37 There's a reason that life feels unjust. 20:40 There's a reason that it bothers us 20:41 when it feels meaningless, 20:43 because this is not the way it's supposed to be. 20:46 Life is not without meaning. 20:49 And it only seems that way, 20:50 because something has gone horribly wrong. 20:54 Listen, your logic might tell you 20:56 that death is inevitable. 20:57 It's just a part of the circle of life. 21:00 We all put in a few years, and then we buy the farm 21:03 just like every other living thing. 21:05 But every time you lose a person, 21:08 someone you love, to the ravages of death, 21:11 every fiber of your being begins to protest. 21:15 Think about how it feels to stand by the grave 21:18 of a friend or a family member. 21:21 Where did those emotions come from? 21:23 Why do you hate the idea of death so much? 21:26 I mean, logic told you the moment was going to come. 21:29 It was guaranteed. 21:31 So why in the world do we have so much trouble 21:33 accepting that? 21:35 And when it comes time to face your own death, 21:38 well, for some reason, that bothers you too. 21:41 Maybe even more than losing somebody else. 21:44 So what is the point of life? 21:47 Acquiring skills, improving your mind, 21:49 only to have it all disappear the moment you die. 21:52 There are billions of people who have already been buried 21:55 and everything they are, everything they believed, 21:58 everything they learned, it's just gone. 22:02 It seems wrong. 22:06 Then if you listen carefully to the narrative 22:08 of human existence that you find 22:09 in the average high school textbook, 22:12 it really starts to get depressing. 22:14 What we're told is that the universe 22:15 is some 14 billion years old, 22:18 and that human life conscious existence 22:21 only began to emerge in fairly recent history. 22:24 And if the universe plays out 22:26 the way that Math seems to suggest, 22:28 life is going to disappear in the relatively near future. 22:32 And so our whole existence, everything we are 22:35 is only going to be a very brief interlude 22:38 on a very long timeline, 22:41 in an otherwise empty and meaningless universe. 22:45 And that might be what the Math tells us . 22:48 But somewhere deep inside our hearts, 22:51 it's telling us that can't be the truth. 22:54 Look, I'm convinced there's a reason, 22:57 we all seem to be trying to figure out who we are 23:00 and what we're doing here. 23:01 And that's because somebody put you here on purpose 23:05 and he wants you to ask these kinds of questions. 23:08 There's a reason you want to know. 23:10 And there's a reason you were born with a, well, 23:13 fuzzy memory of a better time and a better place. 23:17 It's because you were born with eternity in your heart. 23:22 So what does that mean? 23:24 Well, if there is a purpose to life 23:26 and you are not some miserable accident, 23:28 and somebody out there thinks 23:29 that your existence means something. 23:32 Well, then maybe there really is such a thing 23:34 as an authentic human life. 23:36 A right way to do this. 23:39 And I know it's no longer popular to suggest 23:41 that there might be a right way and a wrong way to live. 23:44 What we're told is, well, we can just create our own reality 23:47 our own sets of truths, and then live by those truths 23:51 to the best of our ability. 23:53 In other words they're saying, the only right way to live, 23:56 is whatever you happen to think the right way to live is, 23:59 because there's no meaning out there apart from that. 24:03 But you know, as much as we try 24:05 to convince ourselves of that, 24:07 something tells us that can't be true. 24:10 Because we all recognize the wrong way to live, 24:13 whenever we see it. 24:14 I mean think about somebody who wastes 24:16 this one, precious lifetime. 24:18 They never go to work. 24:20 They never try to accomplish anything. 24:21 They never invest in themselves. 24:23 They just sit on the couch playing X-Box 24:25 and drinking beer day after day. 24:28 All of us look at that and we say what a waste, 24:32 because we realize what a precious gift life is. 24:35 And there's not enough of it, 24:36 to spend the bulk of it, doing nothing. 24:39 Everybody can see when somebody is doing it wrong. 24:42 And if that's true, 24:44 then maybe there is a way to do it right. 24:47 I'll come back right after this. 24:51 - [Female Announce] Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 24:53 we're committed to creating top quality programming 24:55 for the whole family. 24:56 Like our audio adventure series, Discovery Mountain. 25:00 Discovery Mountain is a Bible-based program for kids 25:02 of all ages and backgrounds. 25:04 Your family will enjoy the faith building stories 25:07 from this small mountain Summer camp and town, 25:10 with 24 seasonal episodes every year, 25:13 and fresh content every week. 25:15 There's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 25:22 - To everything, there is a season. 25:24 A time for every purpose under heaven. 25:27 A time to be born and at a time to die. 25:30 A time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted. 25:33 A time to kill and a time to heal. 25:36 A time to break down, and a time to build up. 25:39 A time to weep and a time to laugh. 25:42 There's a reason that this seems so very timeless. 25:45 It feels right. 25:47 There really does seem to be a time for things 25:49 and a time when it's not time for those things. 25:52 There's a rhythm to life, 25:55 an implied purpose. 25:58 You know, maybe something that seems like 26:01 a number one hit from 1965, 26:03 might be worth looking at one more time. 26:07 Because The Byrds were asking the same question 26:09 the human race has always been exploring. 26:12 To everything there is a season. 26:14 And if that's true, 26:16 I kind of want to know what my season is. 26:19 Why am I here? 26:20 And am I here right now for a particular moment 26:24 in this universe's history? 26:27 How long will my season in this place last? 26:30 And at the end of the road, 26:31 when I finally cross life's finish line, 26:34 will I know, will I have any way of knowing 26:37 that I did life the right way? 26:40 The way that I was expected to? 26:43 So here's what I want you to do. 26:45 I want you to think about that one thought 26:47 until the next time you and I get together and talk again. 26:51 Now, if you can't go that long, 26:53 just go to voiceofprophecy.com 26:55 and I've got a world of resources there for you. 26:58 We've got some of the best Bible study resources 27:01 in the entire world. 27:02 And if you click on the study tab, this is it, 27:05 voiceofprophecy.com, click on the study tab 27:08 and you'll find the resources I'm talking about, 27:10 and easily, there is enough there to keep you busy 27:14 until we can meet again right here next week. 27:17 What I really want you to do is to start digging 27:20 and then keep digging and digging and digging 27:25 until you and I find the answers 27:26 that give us some peace of mind. 27:28 I mean, think about it. 27:30 Are you really here by accident? 27:33 Is the universe an accident? 27:35 Does none of this mean anything? 27:37 That's what the Math might tell you. 27:39 That's what the scientists might tell you, 27:42 but something deep in your heart, 27:44 the eternity planted in your heart tells you 27:47 it's got to be more than that. 27:51 It can't just be an accident. 27:53 Ask yourself why does the question even bother you? 27:59 My name is Shawn Boonstra. 28:00 Thanks for joining me this week. 28:02 Until next time, this has been Authentic. 28:06 [upbeat music] |
Revised 2021-06-09