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Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000035S
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00:00 - There's a really old teaching
00:01 floating around in this world 00:03 that suggests that someone has been hiding 00:06 the most powerful secret in the universe from you. 00:09 And today, countless people swear that this is true. 00:12 If you just know this secret, 00:14 you can actually bend the whole universe in your direction. 00:18 On today's show, I'm gonna show you why they're dead wrong. 00:22 [dramatic music] 00:43 My pagan ancestors used to look up at the night sky 00:46 and find some kind of meaning up there. 00:50 My generation today tends to look at the stars 00:53 and just think of them in terms of pure physics, 00:55 massive furnaces driven by the process 00:58 of stellar nucleosynthesis. 01:00 But my pagan ancestors, they saw something different. 01:04 They noticed the rhythms of the universe, 01:06 how heavenly bodies moved in a procession. 01:09 So regular, you could use them as an astronomical calendar 01:13 to mark the precise time of year. 01:16 When certain stars appeared just above the horizon, 01:18 it was time to plant. 01:20 And when other stars took their place, 01:22 it was time for something else. 01:24 But then, my ancestors also developed this idea 01:27 that somehow our lives corresponded 01:29 to what was happening up there in the heavens. 01:32 An idea that still persists today in the world of astrology. 01:35 They said, if you were born at a certain time of year 01:38 under the sign of a certain constellation, 01:41 it said something about your personality 01:43 and your proclivities. 01:44 If one of the planets was moving 01:46 through a particular constellation, 01:48 it was considered a message, a sign of the times. 01:52 Now to us, that all seems kind of childish 01:55 as if our ancestors were unthinking simpletons 01:58 who needed to make up silly stories 02:00 to explain the natural world. 02:01 I mean, how else would you explain the fact 02:04 that most people way back when worshiped the Sun, 02:07 I mean, at some point in history. 02:09 Except for the fact that they didn't really 02:12 do those kinds of things. 02:13 I know they had Sun gods and there were temples to the Sun, 02:17 but what they were actually doing 02:19 was not quite as simple as we make it sound. 02:22 The ancient pagans didn't really think of the Sun, 02:25 the Moon and the planets, 02:26 and the stars as celestial deities. 02:28 They thought of the more like special portals 02:31 to the spirit world that existed out there 02:34 just beyond the grasp of our physical senses. 02:37 These people believed that in the beginning 02:39 the universe wasn't a physical material place at all. 02:42 It just happened to become physical 02:44 through an unfortunate series of events. 02:46 And in the process, it trapped the likes of you and me 02:49 in these physical bodies. 02:52 This is why you find some of the pagan philosophers 02:54 suggesting that death is probably a good thing, 02:57 because it's going to release you 02:59 from this painful physical existence we have right now, 03:02 and just return you to the universe, 03:04 to your original state as a spirit being. 03:08 In the beginning, these people said the entire universe 03:11 was nothing but spirit. 03:12 And the only thing that really existed out there 03:15 was the mind of God. 03:17 But then that mind of God started 03:19 to congeal into a fine mist. 03:21 And then that mist became particles. 03:23 And eventually we got the material universe 03:25 as you find it today. 03:27 But then they said, that the entire point 03:30 of our human existence now is to find 03:32 our way back out of this physical existence 03:34 to return to the great mind of God 03:37 or one of the more famous metaphors they used 03:39 was to compare this mind of God, to a fire. 03:43 And all of us, they said were sparks 03:44 that kind of leaped out of the fireplace 03:46 into a state of being that wasn't supposed to happen. 03:50 In some accounts, the reason the world happens 03:52 to be a really tough place to live is because 03:55 some lesser being actually did the work 03:58 of creating this physical world, and he botched it. 04:01 The pure mind of God, these pagans said 04:03 would never create this place. 04:06 And so, the Sun, the Moon and the stars were like windows 04:10 that allowed you to communicate 04:11 with the great mind of the universe. 04:13 They were a go between. 04:15 They didn't actually think of these things 04:17 as sentient beings. 04:18 Now, that isn't going to be the way 04:21 you're gonna find the story being taught 04:22 in the pages of everyday pagan mythology, 04:25 but in many of the ancient elite mystery schools, 04:28 which were only open to a handful of enlightened people, 04:32 that's actually what they taught. 04:34 And part of that way of thinking 04:36 created a system of correspondence 04:38 where the objects in the sky were said to correspond 04:41 to the various activities that happen here on Earth. 04:44 And you could learn about the nature of reality 04:47 in the workings of the world, 04:48 by studying those movements in the heavens. 04:51 Furthermore, some of these ancient pagans also said 04:54 that the various heavenly bodies they were studying, 04:57 actually, corresponded to the various parts 04:59 of our human bodies. 05:01 So for example, the planet Venus 05:04 was sent to govern your kidneys, 05:05 and it was also the planet of desire. 05:08 Mars was the planet of war, 05:10 which governed your marshal passions and the red blood, 05:12 that courses through your veins and so on. 05:15 There was a heavenly correspondence 05:17 for almost everything that happened here on Earth. 05:21 And while I know there are people who will dispute this 05:24 underneath this system of belief, 05:26 there was an assumption that the universe 05:28 revolves around us, around the human race. 05:31 We thought we were the center of existence, 05:34 the whole point of the universe. 05:36 And even though there was a higher mind out there somewhere, 05:39 they taught were part of that higher mind, 05:41 and we're destined to return to our former status. 05:44 I'm convinced this is one of the reasons 05:47 that people like Copernicus and Galileo 05:49 met with such resistance when they suggested 05:52 that the Earth was not the center of the universe. 05:56 I mean, there's no doubt, no doubt at all, 05:59 they also attracted the wrath of the official church 06:02 when they spoke about Heliocentrism. 06:04 I mean, that's the story we all learned. 06:06 And they got heat from the church 06:08 because they were challenging 06:09 a number of theological conventions 06:11 that the medieval church absolutely relied on. 06:15 But personally, I'm not convinced the Catholic Church 06:18 was the only group that didn't like what they were hearing. 06:21 Any system of belief that establishes us, the human race, 06:25 as the central point of the universe 06:27 would be very troubled to hear 06:29 that maybe we didn't actually occupy 06:31 center stage, physically speaking. 06:35 I mean, I can only imagine what kinds of mental anguish 06:38 they would have to go through if they had also at that time 06:41 become aware that our solar system 06:42 isn't even at the center of our galaxy, 06:45 but it's way out on the edge. 06:49 Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about 06:50 from a relatively recent and somewhat popular teacher 06:54 of this ancient pagan way of thinking. 06:57 Manly P. Hall was a well-known practitioner of the occult 07:01 back in the 20th century, not that long ago. 07:04 And most of his writings borrowed heavily 07:07 from the alchemists of the middle ages 07:10 and the ancient pagans who gave the alchemists their ideas. 07:13 Here's what Manly P. Hall said as he wrote about 07:17 the significance of the human body. 07:19 He says, "The mysteries of every nation taught 07:23 that the laws, elements, and powers of the universe, 07:26 were epitomized in the human constitution; 07:29 that everything which existed outside of man 07:32 had its analogue within man." 07:35 He continues a little further on, he says, 07:37 "...the early philosophers turn their attention 07:40 from the inconceivable Divinity to man himself; 07:43 within the narrow confines of whose nature they found 07:46 manifested all the mysteries of the external spheres. 07:51 As the natural outgrowth of this practice 07:53 there was fabricated a secret theological system in which 07:56 God was considered as the Grand Man and, conversely, 08:00 man as the little god. 08:03 Continuing this analogy, the universe was regarded as a man, 08:06 and, conversely, man as a miniature universe." 08:10 Now, Mr. Hall certainly put his own twist 08:13 on all these ancient secret teachings, 08:15 just like other fairly recent esoteric teachers 08:18 like Madame Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy. 08:22 But the basic ideas are all there. 08:25 And they really do stretch all the way back 08:27 to very ancient times. 08:29 In fact, a lot of these ideas come from Ancient Egypt 08:33 and famous Greek thinkers like Pythagoras and Plato 08:36 borrowed very heavily from the Egyptians, and they admit it. 08:42 This kind of thinking still puts us 08:44 at the center of the universe, 08:46 even though it does acknowledge 08:48 some kind of higher power, a supreme being, 08:52 but it teaches we are the universe and the universe is us. 08:56 We are God, and God is us. 08:59 It's a system of belief that does not correspond 09:02 to the teachings of the Bible. 09:04 Even though you will find elements of this, 09:07 that have crept into Christian thinking over the centuries, 09:10 thanks to the way that Christians were so heavily influenced 09:14 by the convergence of pagan and biblical beliefs 09:17 in the ancient city of Alexandria. 09:20 And in recent years, I've noticed more and more and more 09:24 of this kind of thinking, 09:26 making a bit of a comeback right here in the modern west. 09:29 So, don't go away. I'm gonna come right back 09:32 and show you what I mean, 09:33 and why I think, the Christian scriptures 09:36 are a bit of an antidote for some really messed up thinking. 09:43 - [Narrator 1] Life can throw a lot at us. 09:45 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 09:48 but that's where the Bible comes in. 09:51 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 09:54 Here at The Voice of Prophecy, 09:55 we've created the Discover Bible Guides 09:58 to be your guide to the Bible. 09:59 They're designed to be simple, easy to use 10:02 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions 10:05 and they're absolutely free. 10:07 So jump online now, or give us a call 10:09 and start your journey of discovery. 10:12 - Back in 2006, there were suddenly a new book 10:15 in the self-help section of most bookstores 10:17 and it was selling like hotcakes. 10:20 It was the same year that "The DaVinci Code" came out 10:24 and it made the New York Times bestseller list. 10:26 And oddly enough, both of these books 10:29 were kind of pushing the same, 10:31 well, I'll just call it nonsense. 10:34 "The DaVinci Code" was a work of fiction, 10:36 even though some people didn't really realize that. 10:39 And even though it was fiction, it was still trying to, 10:42 well, push off this subtle idea. 10:45 It was trying to convince people 10:47 that this ancient pagan way of thinking 10:49 that we've been talking about 10:50 is the real secret teaching of Christianity. 10:54 Dan Brown suggests that the Western church, 10:57 after Constantine, perverted the real scriptures 10:59 and twisted them into what is now modern Christian thinking. 11:04 And again, let me just say that, 11:05 I'm glad they were honest enough 11:07 to mark this book as fiction 11:09 because that's what it is. 11:10 Now, the other book that was selling really well that year 11:14 was Rhonda Byrne's, "The Secret", 11:16 which was also made into a movie. 11:19 And I'm sure it was also made 11:20 into a big pile of cash for Rhonda Byrne. 11:23 This book preaches something called, The Law of Attraction. 11:26 And the basic idea behind this 11:28 is the notion that the universe somehow answers to you. 11:32 All you really need to do, she says, 11:34 is, basically, tell the universe what you want, 11:36 focus your thoughts on it, 11:38 and then it will happen. 11:39 Let me give you a taste of this from the very first chapter 11:42 where she summarizes what her secret is. 11:45 Here's what she writes, 11:47 "Thoughts are magnetic and thoughts have a frequency. 11:50 As you think, those thoughts are sent out into the Universe, 11:53 and they magnetically attract all like things 11:56 that are on the same frequency. 11:57 Everything sent out returns to the source. 12:00 And that source is You." 12:02 She continues, 12:03 "You are a human transmission tower, 12:06 and you are more powerful than any 12:07 television tower created on Earth. 12:10 You are the most powerful transmission tower 12:12 in the Universe. 12:13 Your transmission creates your life 12:15 and it creates the world. 12:17 The frequency you transmit reaches beyond cities, 12:20 beyond countries, beyond the world. 12:21 It reverberates throughout the entire Universe. 12:24 And you are transmitting that frequency with your thoughts!" 12:29 So, in other words, you are essentially 12:31 creating your own reality with your thoughts. 12:34 And she openly admits that 12:35 she got this idea from the ancient pagans 12:37 who more or less taught the same thing, 12:40 or at least they did in the higher echelons 12:42 of the pagan mystery schools. 12:44 And again, this is a way of thinking that puts 12:46 human beings at the very center of the universe. 12:51 Let me read you just one more snippet from this book, 12:53 because it really demonstrates what I'm getting at. 12:56 This comes from the chapter that promises 12:58 to teach you what you supposedly really are. 13:01 It's a chapter called, The secret to you. 13:03 She says, "Some of the greatest teachers and avatars 13:06 described the Universe in the same way as Dr. Hagelin, 13:09 by saying that all that exists is the One Universal Mind, 13:13 And there is nowhere that the One Mind is not. 13:16 it exists in everything. 13:18 The One Mind is all intelligence, 13:20 all wisdom and all perfection, 13:22 and it is everything and everywhere at the same time. 13:25 If everything is the One Universal Mind, 13:27 and the whole of it exists everywhere, 13:29 then it is all in You!" 13:32 Well, I'll give Ms Byrne this, she's absolutely right 13:36 that a lot of teachers have said 13:37 this stuff over the centuries, 13:39 but that's because this way of thinking 13:41 dates all the way back 13:42 to the earliest pagan cultures on the planet. 13:45 They believed that you are God and God is you. 13:48 You are the universe and the universe is you. 13:51 All of us are made out of divine energy 13:53 and that means that we can become 13:54 masters of our own destiny. 13:56 So yes, I will concede, 13:59 it's a very old way of thinking. 14:00 But I will not concede that it's true, 14:03 because it isn't. 14:06 And yet Ms. Byrne also insists that this way of thinking 14:09 is taught in the pages of the Bible and it is not. 14:13 She says, and I quote, 14:15 "The Creative Process used in The Secret, 14:18 which was taken from the New Testament in the Bible, 14:21 is an easy guideline for you to create what you want..." 14:25 No, no it's not. 14:27 This is not the teaching of the New Testament, 14:30 not even close. 14:31 It is the teaching of Ancient Egypt. 14:33 It is the teaching of Ancient Greece, 14:36 but it is not the way the scriptures 14:38 talk about the universe. 14:39 The way the Bible describes it, 14:42 you and I are not the center of attention. 14:45 We are not the center of the universe. 14:47 And we are certainly not the same as God. 14:50 In fact, in the opening pages of the book of Genesis, 14:53 we find a serpent suggesting something remarkably similar 14:58 to the teachings of "The Secret". 15:00 I'll show you what I mean. 15:01 This is Genesis Chapter Three, beginning in verse one, 15:05 it says, "Now the serpent was more cunning 15:08 than any beast of the field, 15:10 which the LORD God had made. 15:12 And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, 15:14 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?' 15:17 And the woman said to the serpent, 15:19 'We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 15:21 but of the fruit of the tree 15:22 which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 15:25 'You shall not eat it nor shall you touch it, lest you die.' 15:31 Then the serpent said to the woman, 15:32 'You will not surely die. 15:34 For God knows that in the day you eat of it 15:36 your eyes will be open and you will be like God, 15:39 knowing good and evil.'" 15:42 What the Bible talks about is a deadly lie 15:45 that the human race, tragically, bought. 15:47 A suggestion that you and I can be like God. 15:49 Now to be sure, the Bible does say 15:52 that we were made in the image of God. 15:54 So there is a tiny degree of similarity 15:56 because you and I were supposed to reflect 15:59 the one who made us, 16:01 but the serpent's lie goes a lot further than that. 16:04 It suggests that we can actually become like God, 16:07 knowing the things that only God can know. 16:10 And wouldn't you know it, 16:12 all these ancient mystery cults said the very same thing. 16:15 They said, you are part of the universe, 16:17 a part of the divine mind of God. 16:19 And you can transcend this humble physical existence 16:23 and return to your rightful, exalted sphere 16:25 out there in the spiritual realm. 16:28 You, they said are the point of the universe. 16:31 And because you are part of the divine mind, 16:34 you can actually bend the universe in your direction. 16:39 if only you knew how. 16:41 That was precisely what the alchemists 16:44 of the middle ages were actually trying to do. 16:46 I know, in school, we learned 16:47 that they were trying to turn lead into gold 16:50 and there is some evidence 16:52 that some of them were doing that. 16:54 And we even have some legends to suggest 16:56 maybe some of them appeared to have been successful. 16:59 But, alchemy was not so much about magically producing gold 17:04 as it was about proving that our human minds 17:07 could actually control the universe. 17:09 Remember, these people believeD 17:12 that all of us were originally part of the divine mind. 17:15 So, if that's true they said you could use that mind, 17:19 that you're part of, to bend the universe in your direction. 17:23 And a transmutation from lead into gold 17:26 was symbolic of that. 17:28 It would prove that it's possible. 17:31 You know, when "The Secret" 17:32 first hit bookshelves back in 2006, 17:35 a lot of people were talking about that book 17:37 like it was brand new information. 17:40 But as Rhonda Byrne herself admits, 17:42 this is some of the oldest information on the planet. 17:45 And there is no way, no way it can be reconciled 17:49 with the teachings of the Bible. 17:51 It might be Egyptian thinking. 17:52 It might be Greek thinking. 17:53 It might be Persian thinking. 17:55 But it certainly is not biblical thinking. 18:00 Writing to the Christians who lived in the city of Rome, 18:02 the Apostle Paul describes the root of the problem 18:05 that gave birth to this ancient pagan way of thinking. 18:09 He says that way back in the distant past, we quote, 18:13 "...exchanged the truth of God for the lie, 18:16 and worshiped and served the creature 18:19 rather than the Creator." 18:21 What we did was mentally move 18:23 the center of the universe away from the Creator, 18:26 and we moved it on top of ourselves. 18:29 And in just a few minutes, I'll come back and show you 18:31 why that's such a huge problem. 18:34 I'll be back after this. 18:38 - [Narrator 2] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statutes. 18:42 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 18:46 If you've ever read, "Daniel, A Revelation", 18:49 and come away scratching your head, you're not alone. 18:52 Our free Focus On Prophecy guides 18:54 are designed to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 18:57 and deepen your understanding 18:58 of God's plan for you and our world. 19:01 Study online or request them by mail 19:03 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 19:07 - Little while ago, I came across 19:09 a relatively recent book by Robert Lanza, 19:12 it's called, "Biocentrism". 19:14 And in here, he takes a more scientific approach 19:17 to some of the same kinds of ideas. 19:19 It's not exactly the same, 19:20 but the same kinds of ideas 19:22 that the ancient pagans were teaching. 19:24 Now, this book is easily, 19:26 far more scientific than Rhonda Byrne. 19:28 And there's a lot of really interesting stuff in here. 19:31 And at one point he suggests that maybe in some ways, 19:34 those ancient pagans had it right. 19:36 And he does this by making an appeal 19:38 to the strange world of quantum physics, 19:40 which, admittedly, is really hard to wrap your mind around 19:44 because the physical laws of the subatomic world 19:47 appear to be different 19:48 from the larger, physical world around us. 19:51 Up here at our level, we use the science of physics 19:53 to make reliable predictions, 19:56 which helps us do things like engineer a bridge, 19:59 or calculate the path of a projectile. 20:02 These are the physical laws that allowed us 20:04 to escape gravity and start the age of space exploration. 20:09 But then down in the subatomic world, 20:11 the same kind of predictability, 20:13 it's really hard to come by. 20:15 In fact, what we're discovering is that 20:17 subatomic particles actually change their behavior 20:22 when you observe them. 20:23 Before you observe them, particles behave like waves, 20:27 but when you measure them, 20:28 when you pay attention to what they're doing, 20:30 the wave function suddenly collapses 20:32 and they behave more like particles 20:34 that exist in a specific time and place. 20:37 So, what Robert Lanza does is suggest 20:40 that our consciousness might actually be creating 20:44 the world around us. 20:45 To his way of thinking, 20:47 that would explain why a photon does one thing 20:50 when you don't measure it, 20:51 but it does something completely different when you do. 20:54 I mean, how in the world would a particle 20:57 know that you're watching? 20:59 Here's the way he addresses the problem. 21:02 "If most of the primary questions of the universe 21:05 have traditionally been tackled by physicists 21:07 attempting to create grand unified theories- 21:10 exciting and glamorous as they are- 21:13 such theories remain and evasion, 21:15 if not a reversal of the central mystery of knowledge; 21:19 that the laws of the world somehow 21:21 produced the observer in the first place! 21:24 And this is one of the central themes of biocentrism 21:27 and this book: that the animal observer 21:30 creates reality and not the other way around." 21:34 Now, I wanna be fair to Dr. Lanza 21:35 and not make a caricature out of this book, 21:37 because it is an honest attempt 21:40 to understand human consciousness. 21:42 And it is based on real science. 21:44 And it's not fair to lump his far more serious book 21:48 in with a book like "The Secret", 21:51 but in a way it's the same kind of thinking. 21:53 It suggests that we are the center of the universe 21:56 and he openly admits, 21:57 even though he's not quite willing to acknowledge 21:59 the Creator, God of the Bible, 22:01 that belief in a God of some kind does answer questions 22:05 about the phenomenon of consciousness 22:08 that modern science just can't explore. 22:12 But again, it's this idea that the universe exists for us. 22:14 And it doesn't. 22:16 I mean, it might've been created for our benefit, 22:18 but we are not the point of the universe. 22:20 This is where all these ancient pagan theories 22:22 about the nature of existence contradict the Bible. 22:26 This is why at the most fundamental level 22:28 Paganism and Christianity can never agree. 22:32 Let me give you an example of what the Bible 22:33 teaches from something I was reading just the other day. 22:36 This is Psalm 96, which is dedicated to the Creator. 22:40 I only wish we had time to read the whole thing, 22:41 but maybe I'll just pick it up in verse 10, 22:44 where it says, "Say among the nations, 22:46 'The LORD reigns; The world also is firmly established. 22:50 it shall not be moved; 22:51 He shall judge the peoples righteously.' 22:53 Let the heavens rejoice 22:55 and let the Earth be glad; 22:56 Let the sea roar, and all its fullness; 22:58 Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. 23:01 Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice 23:04 before the LORD." 23:05 Now it's poetic language because, obviously, 23:07 trees don't actually sing. 23:09 But what it's telling us is that creation 23:11 is here for the sake of the Creator. 23:13 It was supposed to reflect His glory, 23:15 but you and I have tried to make the universe 23:17 a reflection of us. 23:19 And we've attempted to remake this planet in our own image. 23:23 You and I are a tiny speck on a much bigger creation. 23:26 A spec that has gone completely off base. 23:30 Instead of letting our lives also reflect 23:32 the glory of the Creator, 23:33 like the rest of the universe, 23:35 we have insisted that the universe should project our glory. 23:39 And what we've done is ruin our potential for happiness, 23:42 because you will never be able 23:43 to satisfy the desires of a self-centered heart. 23:47 And that's because you and I were never made 23:49 to serve our own egos. 23:52 You know, in that regard, I guess the pagans had it right. 23:55 You and I really have fallen 23:56 from a much higher plane of existence, 23:59 but it's not because we were once gods 24:01 it's because we were once a perfect reflection 24:03 of the beauty of God 24:04 and we destroyed that by making ourselves the central point. 24:08 I'll be right back. 24:12 [upbeat music] 24:14 - [Narrator 3] Are you searching for answers 24:15 to life's toughest questions? 24:17 Like, where is God when we suffer? 24:19 Can I find a real happiness? 24:21 Or is there any hope for our chaotic world? 24:24 The Discover Bible guides will help you 24:25 find the answers you're looking for. 24:28 Visit us at BibleStudies.com 24:30 or give us a call at [888] 456-7933 24:36 for your free Discover Bible guides. 24:38 Study online on our secure website, 24:41 or have the free guides mailed right to your home. 24:44 There is never a cost or obligation. 24:46 The Discover Bible guides are our free gift to you. 24:49 Find answers and guides like, 24:51 "Does My Life Really Matter to God?", 24:53 and "A Second Chance at Life". 24:55 You'll find answers to the things that matter most to you 24:58 in each of the 26 Discover Bible guides. 25:00 Visit BibleStudies.com and begin your journey today 25:04 to discover answers to life's deepest questions. 25:12 - At the end of the Bible, there's this remarkable scene 25:15 where God sends a final message to our broken planet. 25:18 And he offers to restore us to our original state. 25:21 Here's what it says, 25:23 "Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, 25:26 having the everlasting gospel 25:27 to preach to those who dwell on the Earth- 25:29 to every nation, tribe, tongue and people- 25:32 saying with a loud voice, 25:33 'Fear God and give glory to Him, 25:36 for the hour of His judgment has come; 25:38 and worship Him who made heaven and Earth, 25:41 the sea and springs of water." 25:44 It's a final appeal to worship the one who made. 25:47 It's an appeal to return to what we were supposed to be. 25:50 Part of a perfect universe, 25:52 where all of creation was a song to the Creator. 25:56 And in the final act of God's mercy to this world, 25:59 He does not absorb us into the great mind of the universe, 26:02 the way the pagans believed, 26:04 but He actually becomes one of us. 26:06 And before the story is finished, 26:07 this God in human flesh moves 26:09 right here to this world with us. 26:11 Revelation 21 says, 26:13 "And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, 26:16 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, 26:19 and He will dwell with them, 26:20 and they shall be His people. 26:22 God Himself will be with them and be their God.'" 26:26 I mean, listen, there are people out there 26:28 telling you that you are the point of the universe. 26:30 You're not. 26:31 That doesn't mean you're not important 26:33 or that God doesn't value you or notice you 26:35 because, obviously, He does. 26:37 I mean, remember what Jesus taught in Matthew Chapter Six, 26:39 he said, "Therefore I say to you, 26:41 do not worry your life, 26:43 what you will eat or what you will drink; 26:46 nor about your body, 26:47 what you will put on, is not life more than food 26:50 and the body more than clothing? 26:52 Look at the birds of the air, 26:54 for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; 26:56 yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 26:58 Are you not of more value than they?" 27:01 And the answer to that, of course, is yes, 27:03 you are important. 27:05 And the only way you're gonna find peace of mind 27:07 and an authentic human life 27:10 is to put the center of the universe back where it belongs. 27:13 This universe doesn't exist for your sake, 27:16 but oddly enough, the one who made it, 27:18 the Creator, He does exist for your sake. 27:20 He gives everything He has to make sure 27:23 that you can be a part of His universe 27:25 and stay there forever. 27:27 The universe does bend in God's direction 27:29 and He offers to share that with you. 27:32 The Bible teaches that the universe really does sing, 27:35 but it doesn't sing to you. 27:37 It does invite you to join the song. 27:39 And when you do, you're gonna find out that a loving God 27:42 really does bend in your direction. 27:45 I'm Shawn Boonstra. 27:47 Thanks for joining me. 27:48 This has been authentic. 27:50 [dramatic music] |
Revised 2022-01-10