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Series Code: PME
Program Code: PME230909S
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00:13 >> Hi, I'm Shane Anderson, and I'm the new lead pastor here 00:17 at Pioneer Memorial Church. I'm delighted to take up 00:20 the work left by Pastor Dwight Nelson 00:22 at this pulpit. 00:23 He ended his tenure here this past summer. Pastor Dwight had an incredible 00:28 40-year journey here. His ministry touched the lives of thousands around the globe, 00:33 including my own. I can remember as a young seminarian coming here 00:38 to Pioneer and being blessed by his spirit-filled sermons. And it is an honor for me to now 00:43 take up that mantle. Though mine is a different face, I can assure you that 00:48 the same passion for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with all who are willing to hear 00:53 will continue at Pioneer. 00:57 To make sure you stay connected to the work we're doing here 00:59 at Pioneer Media, please visit pmchurch.org/media, 01:04 and follow the links to subscribe to our social media 01:06 channels. Thank you for your continued 01:09 prayers and financial support. 01:15 [ Piano music plays ] 01:19 [ Violin music plays ] 07:22 >> Our scripture reading for today is found in 07:24 Isaiah 30:19-21. "People of Zion 07:28 who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. 07:31 How gracious he will be when you cry for help. 07:34 As soon as he hears, he will answer you. 07:37 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, 07:41 your teachers will be hidden no more. With your own eyes, 07:45 you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, 07:49 your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, 'This is the way. 07:52 Walk in it.'" Please join us in standing for our next song. 07:59 [ Piano music plays ] 14:14 >> Amen. Amen, hallelujah. 14:20 >> Good morning, Pioneer. >> All: Good morning. >> How is everyone 14:24 doing this morning? >> We're good. >> Great. 14:27 >> That's the part where no one ever really knows exactly. Should they say truly 14:30 what it is? I hope you're doing well. I'm glad that you're here. 14:34 I want to say a special welcome to those of you that came because I put a card 14:38 on your door. I hope that you're able to to be here if you -- 14:42 if you like what I'm about to say in the next few minutes and you would like to have 14:45 an extra invitation card for part two, which would be two weeks 14:49 from now, two Sabbaths from now, we have some extra cards sitting here on the front pew. 14:53 You're welcome to come and get one and to pass it along to a friend. 14:58 I also want to let you know that in the last three Sabbaths 15:01 of October, I'm going to be doing a series 15:04 called "How to Stay Married Forever and Like it." 15:08 [ Laughter ] So I hope that you can be 15:11 here for that. The series is truly for 15:14 a very broad spectrum of people. Those that are looking at some 15:17 point to get married, you will benefit greatly 15:19 from coming to that, those three parts. 15:21 If you are currently married, you will benefit. 15:24 And if you're not married, but you need advice 15:26 to tell people who are. 15:28 [ Laughter ] You, too, can be blessed by coming to this. 15:31 That will be the last three Sabbaths of October. We're going to have 15:34 an invitation card that we'll pass out to you as well. And this is a series that -- 15:40 If you're a year round part of our campus here, you may be wondering, 15:44 are there special times in the year when I can invite my next-door neighbor 15:48 who lives off campus or maybe in another town or whatnot? By all means. 15:52 This is a great series. This is something that will be accessible for everyone, truly, 15:56 regardless of whether they have a faith background or not. So I just want to put that 16:00 on your radar. Last three Sabbaths of October. Hope that you will be able 16:04 to join us at that time. Now, today. Question for you. 16:12 Show of hands. How many of you would like to know 16:16 God's will for your life? Okay, those of you that are home, maybe we can't see 16:22 our congregation fully here. Almost every hand went up to the surprise of absolutely no one. 16:31 We are, after all, sitting in church having a worship service. 16:34 One would suspect that this would be a place where there would be people that 16:36 would want to know what God's will is for their life. However, it is my contention 16:43 that even outside of these four walls, there are many other people 16:47 that would also like to know God's will for their lives. You know, I think even if you 16:53 went to like any major city in the United States, let's say that you went down to Chicago 16:58 on a sunny Sunday afternoon and you asked a random crowd of people at a street corner 17:03 waiting for the light to change, "Would you like to know God's will for your life?" 17:07 I'm going to guess that most of their hands would go up if for no other reason 17:10 than sheer curiosity. Sure. What would he want for me? Okay. 17:14 In legislative assemblies in this country, local city councils, 17:20 even at the US Senate, the House and the Senate, they have prayer 17:24 prior to many of their sessions. How come? Well, I think there's 17:29 still a general consensus that if there is a will of God for our country, 17:34 even if the US citizen isn't necessarily wanting it for their life, 17:36 they sure would like to have the leaders of the country know so they could do the right thing 17:41 and multiply that. By a multitude of, boy, the list is long -- auto races, 17:49 football games, civic events of all kinds, Social protests, 17:53 social gatherings, weddings, funerals, you name it. We will offer a word of prayer. 17:59 How come? Because even in our ever secularizing society, 18:04 there are still large numbers of people that wonder if there is a God 18:07 and if there is a God, he probably has a will. And it sure would be nice 18:11 if there is a God and he has a will if that will was in our favor. 18:18 In fact, even the devil himself wants to know God's will. Not so that he can keep it, 18:26 but so that he can orchestrate effective plans against it. It seems to me to be 18:32 an indisputable fact. There are so very many people that want to know God's will. 18:43 So why is it then that so many people seem to have such great difficulties, 18:48 not just in following God's will, but in even finding it out 18:52 in the first place? Let me put an even finer point on this. 18:58 I think -- And you're going to have a hard time dissuading me 19:01 from this opinion -- I think that one of the greatest 19:05 needs of the world today is to know God's will and to have the courage 19:08 and strength to carry it out. >> Amen. >> Thank you, sister. 19:13 We agree on this. It's lonely, isn't it? Here. It's just -- 19:17 It's just the two of us. Right? I'm going to give you one other opportunity. Okay. 19:21 So this is your cue. One of the greatest needs of the world today 19:24 is to know God's will and to have the courage and strength to carry it out. 19:28 >> All: Amen. >> Yes. Amen and amen. Every problem that the world 19:33 has could be solved if God's will were done. There is no obstacle, 19:38 there's no issue, there's no contentious situation in the world, 19:42 on the battlefield, at the kitchen table that cannot be made better 19:46 by following the will of God. So this morning and in this very brief series, 19:55 my prayer is that we will be able to pull back the curtain on God's will. 19:59 How it can be known, how it can be found by anyone who is willing, 20:02 listen carefully, to fulfill some basic conditions. You say, Wait a second. 20:09 You mean -- you mean God's just not going to, like, give it to me? 20:14 You know, sometimes. Sometimes he does. Sometimes God just kind of 20:19 poof appears. And a surprised, onlooking crowd is there, 20:23 wide-eyed, and God reveals his will. Do you know why that makes 20:28 such a good story? Is because it almost never happens. 20:34 Because God knows something about human nature. If he just pops up 20:38 and tells us things, very little actual life change takes place. 20:46 You look at the children of Israel, look at the times when those great -- these great 20:50 miracles were taking place. It was also some of the times of greatest apostasy 20:54 in Israel's history because those punctelia, these -- these interruptions 20:58 where God just "Poof! Here it is." There's something 21:02 about how we are wired. It just doesn't tend to stick. So instead of just telling us 21:07 what his will for us is, God says, "Come with me on a journey, 21:11 take my hand, fulfill these basic conditions, and I will not only reveal 21:17 my will for you, but you will be transformed on the journey." 21:22 >> Amen. >> So with that in mind. How can we know 21:29 God's will for our lives? The best way that I know of. The number one way 21:40 that God uses today to give us a knowledge of his will can be found through a story. 21:49 So when I was about 17 years old, it was summertime. I was in Oklahoma 21:55 at Oklahoma Conference Camp Meeting. It was as it usually is during 21:59 that time of year, it was quite hot. I was milling about with 22:02 my friends on a Friday afternoon. Now we were out at the entrance 22:07 to Wewoka Woods, which is the conference campground there, beautiful place. 22:11 And on the on the little highway, the country highway that runs 22:14 past the entrance there, in those days, there was hardly any traffic. 22:17 I mean, you could stand on the road and, you know, 10, 15 minutes might go by 22:21 before somebody else would drive by. Just not much traffic. 22:24 So we're standing there at the road, at the entrance, and we are standing around 22:30 two motorcycles. One belonged to my friend Jay, and the other one belonged 22:34 to my friend Wyatt. Jay had a Yamaha, Yamaha 550, if I remember right, 22:38 and Wyatt had a Suzuki 750. And Wyatt looks at me and he says, "Hey, Shane. 22:47 Would you like to take my motorcycle for a ride?" Now freeze frame 22:55 for just a moment. This is the 1980s. I am dressed for success. 23:00 I have on deck shoes, no socks. I have short shorts. I have a T-shirt 23:06 that used to have sides to it. But in those days we cut the sleeves out, 23:09 and that's how we wore them, right? Furthermore, Oklahoma had 23:13 no helmet laws in those days. Maybe they still don't. I don't know. 23:16 But you did have to have safety glasses. And I was pre-equipped. 23:20 [ Laughter ] I also had extensive motorcycle experience. 23:26 I had ridden a motorcycle two times prior to this, a little Honda 50 and then 23:33 a Hodaka Pabatco 125 Enduro. And I don't know what Hodaka or Pabatco means, 23:38 but I think it means "really slow but runs all day long." 23:40 Okay. Very underpowered. I had crashed both motorcycles. 23:47 The Little Honda 50, I ran into a tree. The 125, 23:50 I ran into my dad's car. Okay. So I was 23:53 feeling pretty confident when Wyatt says to me, "Hey, Shane, would you like 23:57 to ride my motorcycle?" I forgot something, too. Wyatt's motorcycle had been 24:02 set up for drag racing. And in a testosterone-laden moment of insight 24:11 into the proper thing to do at that moment, I said, "Sure." 24:17 [ Laughter ] I walked over, I got on the bike, 24:19 you know, got the kickstand up, and then I sat there and... I couldn't quite remember 24:25 what to do next. So I said to Wyatt, I said, "Hey, you know, 24:28 it's been a little while. Could you kind of refresh me? Just going to show me around you 24:31 a little bit?" " Yeah, sure. Alright. So, like, you know, clutch here. 24:35 It's, you know, one down, five up." And I went, "Okay, got it, 24:38 got it, got it." So I start the motorcycle. And I put the clutch in, 24:45 and I put it in first. And give it a little gas, let out the clutch smoothly 24:49 pull away. And I mean, you -- Those of you that have ridden 24:54 high-performance motorcycles, you know very quickly. That there are 25:00 some horses down there. [ Laughter ] And I thought, 25:03 "Okay, let's see what it's got." [ Vocalizes engine revving ] [ Vocalizes speed accelerating ] 25:14 Over the hills in Oklahoma. Out there, there's rolling hills in that highway. 25:18 Up through the gears -- 85, 90, 95, 100, 105, 110, at about 115 miles an hour -- 25:26 115, there was still more left, right. Even though it was geared short. 25:31 I thought to myself, "This seems fast enough." [ Laughter ] 25:36 I have sufficiently mounted the ladder of masculine success. I can tell my friends. 25:42 "How fast did you go?" "115." That sounded respectable to me. So I decided my ride was done. 25:51 And I sat up. At 115 miles an hour. And yeah, what you're thinking 26:01 of happened right away. Instantly. Just like that. Like this, right. 26:06 I'm hanging on by my fingers, alright? And I had intended to slow down. 26:10 Well, what's over here? This is the throttle. I am now leaning back, 26:14 trying to keep myself. And we're going faster, right? "Oh!" 26:18 Okay. And I have no clue what to do, right? 26:22 And I try to pull myself forward in there. And I suddenly realized I 26:28 don't know where the brakes are. Wyatt had not filled me in on the location 26:34 of that particular control. Now, I'd ridden a lot of bicycles, 26:37 and I knew that if you squeezed on the handle up here, I was pretty sure 26:40 that was the front brake. But even in my diluted state, I realized that was 26:43 a poor choice at this point to slam on the front brakes. Right. 26:46 So I didn't do that. Well, what to do? Well, I am a passenger 26:50 as I'm trying to let off the throttle. So my body 26:52 is kind of twisting like this. And what had been a very good motorcycle 26:56 became a very bad sailboat. Okay. So my body is twisted, 26:59 and it's starting to blow me over to the side of the road. And I'm getting closer and 27:04 closer and closer to the edge. I can still see the side of that road like it happened yesterday. 27:10 It is emblazoned in my brain. The white line, you know, about that wide. 27:14 There's about 12 inches of asphalt on the other side of that. 27:17 And then it dropped off 10 to 20 feet down. It was shale. 27:21 The roadbed had been built on shale. Now, if you don't know 27:24 what shale is, shale, it's relatively brittle. They used to use it 27:28 for fill quite a bit. And when it -- when they break it up to put it in fill, 27:32 the edges are quite sharp. If you fall, if you just fall down 27:35 while you're walking on a shale, you can cut yourself. And that's what I saw. 27:39 I mean, it's just, this is 3D 4K right here in my mind. And it went on. 27:44 as far as I could see at that moment, this is where I was about to go. 27:54 Now I would love to tell you That a a fit of riding prowess came over me, and I shifted 28:02 my weight like an expert. And I hunkered back down and I pulled that thing to a stop. 28:06 That's not what happened. What happened instead is that I got closer and closer 28:09 to that line. I got right up to the white line, 28:12 and then I think probably an angel said, "Oh man, again," 28:15 and pushed me back over the other direction. [ Laughter ] 28:19 Because I didn't know what -- I didn't know how to shut -- I didn't know how to do anything 28:22 at this point. I'm just -- I'm just along for the ride 28:24 and the bike slowly begins to move away from the edge. Blessedly, I came to a hill 28:31 and it was long enough that I rolled to a stop, at which point I felt confident 28:36 in putting the front brake on. So I did. And as my heart rate comes down, 28:40 I tippy toe the bike around facing the other direction. Right. Okay. 28:45 And I very calmly drive back looking, "Where is that brake? 28:49 Where is the brake for the back wheel?" And I found it. I found it. 28:55 I come over the last rise, I come there, I pull up right to where my friends are all 28:59 standing around there. Turn the bike off. Wyatt says to me, 29:03 "So how was it?" [ Laughter ] And I said, 29:10 "It was great! That was fantastic. Thanks for letting me ride 29:15 your bike." I never told Wyatt what happened that day 29:22 until about 25 years later. I was at Oklahoma camp meeting as a guest speaker, 29:29 and I told that story. His mother was sitting in the congregation. 29:34 She pulls out her phone and she said, "What did you do to this 29:36 young man? You almost got him killed." Right? He calls me and he said, 29:39 "What did you do with my bike?" So that was all. [ Laughter ] 29:44 Be sure that your motorcycle sins will find you out. Right. 29:51 Now, I can laugh about this now. We can laugh about this now. In retrospect, 29:57 that was a pretty serious thing. >> Yes. That could have ended very, 30:02 very poorly. And I think to myself, you know, 30:07 what would have helped me, in that little story, that little scenario. 30:14 Well, first off, number one, parents, if you have a child of 17 30:18 that has a motorcycle, destroy the keys and sell the bike immediately. 30:22 That's your first step. Okay. The temptation is too strong. Okay. So it's too young, right? 30:29 Secondly, I think what would have helped me at 17 year old rider was one of these. 30:42 You say? What's that? Well, it's an owner's manual. You say, "Wait a second. 30:49 Owner's manual for a motorcycle. That would have helped you?" Yeah, I think it probably would. 30:52 And you might be thinking, "But Pastor Shane, motorcycle owner's manuals 30:55 aren't designed for wild-eyed thrill seekers like you." 31:00 To which I would say, [ Chuckles ] "Are you kidding? 31:03 The only reason they make these is because of wild-eyed thrill seekers like me." 31:08 Their attorneys said, "You need to make a book." Okay? And they do. 31:12 You see, if I had read this book beforehand, I might have read 31:16 things like this -- Before riding your motorcycle, Take the time to familiarize 31:20 yourself with its controls. Okay. I might have read things like this -- 31:25 Always wear appropriate protective gear when riding your motorcycle. 31:30 Never ride beyond your skills. Adjust your speed to conditions. And I might have read this, 31:35 as well. Don't ride this motorcycle if you've only ridden 31:39 a motorcycle twice before and crashed both times. [ Laughter ] 31:42 Okay. Alright. I made that last one up. But the spirit of that 31:46 was certainly there. I think the point is clear. If you want to learn 31:51 how to ride, read the manufacturer's instructions. 31:59 >> Amen. >> Do I even need to draw the parallel? 32:05 [ Chuckles ] If you want to learn how to, "ride" in this life, 32:12 or just to put it in terms of our discussion this morning, if you want to learn how to live 32:18 this life, then read the manufacturer's instructions. >> Amen. 32:25 >> This book, The Bible, this is the owner's manual. This is 32:32 the manufacturer's instructions. The one who made you wrote this. The one who knows how best 32:39 life works is the one who gave the material for this to be written. 32:43 It's inspired by his spirit. The manufacturer has not left you to ride on your own. 32:48 He has instead compiled a very helpful manual, if we will only read it. 32:53 Now, this is not just my claim. The Bible actually makes some very clear claims about this, 32:57 and I'd like you to read some things with me here. I'm gonna put it on the screen. 33:00 This is Psalm 119, verse 105. Let's read it together. "Your word is a lamp unto my 33:06 feet and a light unto my path." You know, so much of life is dark, is it not? 33:12 We can often feel like you're walking in a dark hallway with no light at the end. 33:16 God's word is a strobe light. It's a spotlight that lights up the night. 33:20 It tells us how life works best. Psalm 119:111. Let's read this together. 33:26 "I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You." 33:32 At the risk of stating the obvious, sin is the world's top problem. 33:37 Separation from God. Sin, that's what this sin is. We've been separated from God. 33:41 If we will study the owner's manual, we can find out how to fix that. 33:46 We can be reunited with God. Psalm 119, verse 89. Let's read this together. 33:52 "Your word, O Lord, is eternal. It stands firm in the heavens." Now, isn't it interesting? 33:58 He puts it in the heavens. You know, these days, even the best of human laws 34:02 can be changed. God's word is not that way. And so the psalmist here 34:09 pictures it as being in heaven out of the reach of humanity. You can do whatever you want 34:15 to do, but you cannot change God's Word. His will stands eternal, 34:19 something you can count on. How about this? Jesus said this, 34:23 Matthew 4:4, let's read this together. "Jesus answered, 34:26 'It is written -- Man does not live on bread alone, 34:31 but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" You know, most of us eat 34:36 three meals a day. Some more, but that's another sermon. Okay? 34:40 [ Laughter ] We would not miss those things. 34:42 And if we miss eating for too long, what happens? 34:47 Yeah, I mean, just to cut to the chase, we will die. 34:50 That's how important physical food is to us. 34:53 Why is it that we make an exception for spiritual food? 34:56 Jesus here opens up, makes the truth 34:59 very, very clear. Jesus says, just as we eat 35:02 regular food, this is your food on a table, bread, etcetera, 35:05 We need to be eating the owner's manual. 35:08 The Word of God, The Bible. Because this is how we live. 35:12 Spiritual life cannot exist unless we are spending time in this book. 35:18 People who don't spend time in this book but claim to be followers of Jesus Christ 35:22 are dangerous. They are dangerous. Because without the anchor, 35:31 they're left to every whim that humans are subject to. And let me read something 35:37 for you here. Famous text, 2 Timothy 3:14, Paul says, "But as for you, 35:44 continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, 35:47 because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy, you have known 35:52 the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith 35:57 in Jesus Christ." So the word not only makes us generally wise, 36:01 it certainly does that. It not only teaches us how to be -- to be ethical, 36:05 to be kind, to be just, to be merciful, to be loving. It can actually give us 36:08 the understanding necessary to know Jesus Christ, to have eternal life. 36:13 If there's a greater need than that, I don't know about it. 36:16 This book can make us that kind of a person, someone who is not lost 36:20 but is saved. It continues, Verse 16 -- "All Scripture 36:23 is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, 36:27 and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped 36:31 for every good work." Are you stuck in a rut? Are there good things 36:36 that you wish you could do but for some reason it's just not working out? 36:39 Are there sins that are holding you back? Are there habits 36:42 that you would love to break but haven't been able to? This book can make you wise 36:46 unto salvation. God can use this to unlock the secrets to overcoming temptation 36:51 and becoming the person God has always dreamed you could be. You can be thoroughly equipped. 36:58 Not because I say so, but because God says so. >> Amen. 37:05 Now, having said all of that. 37:11 I also know that some of you are a step or two ahead. And some of you may be feeling 37:20 like, "I have a question. Pastor Shane, you've just talked about the Bible 37:26 and how important it is and the claims that it makes for itself. But aren't there other 37:32 claims about other books. They say that those books are also holy books, 37:42 that they are also of divine origin. That they also ought to be 37:46 the guide for a person's life. What makes you think, Pastor Shane, that this book 37:51 somehow is better than those?" I think that's an excellent question. 37:59 And I think too often Christians kind of brush that off. Like, you know, 38:03 "Aren't we past that? We're already into this." Praise the Lord 38:06 if you're "past those things." But the fact of the matter is, is that there are 38:09 a lot of skeptics in the world and they have some very good questions. 38:12 This is one of them. "Why should I take the Bible more seriously than 38:16 any of the host of other supposedly divine books out there?" 38:20 Let me do the best that I can in the short amount of time that I have left 38:24 to give you some good answers. Actually, let me give you seven good pieces of evidence, 38:29 good reasons, I think, as to why the Bible is different from the rest. 38:35 Take a look here. The Bible is different, reason number one -- 38:41 The manuscript evidence. And the manuscript evidence, you say, "What's that about?" 38:45 Well, you know, back in the day when Paul was writing the New Testament, sadly, 38:49 there were no Apple products available to him. This is one of the great 38:54 hamperings of the early -- of the early world. Right? So instead, they would use, 38:58 you know, stereotypical picture quill pens, some sort of stylus, right? 39:01 That they would dip in ink and they would put it on a manuscript of some sort, 39:04 papyrus, etcetera. They would write that down. Here's the thing. 39:10 We don't have any of the originals for the New Testament 39:14 or the old, for that matter. And some people have said, "Well, what do you mean? 39:18 you don't have any of the original documents from the Bible? 39:21 Well, how do you know then that what it says now is what they actually wrote back then?" 39:26 Ah, very good question. And the reason is that -- The reason why we know that 39:29 this is still what they wrote is because of the manuscript evidence. 39:32 Follow me carefully here. You're familiar with Homer. Not Simpson. 39:39 [ Laughter ] Okay. This is Homer who wrote "The Iliad," among other things. 39:43 Okay. You maybe studied that in your literature classes, etcetera. 39:46 Homer wrote "The Iliad" in about 800 BC. We have, as usual, no original 39:51 manuscript from that time, but we do have about 1,800 -- How many did I say? 39:58 >> All: 1,800. >> Okay, we want to make sure we're clear on that. 40:01 1,800 full or partial manuscripts, copies of the original, okay, 40:07 that are available to us today, about 1,800 of those. This is the most manuscripts 40:12 by far available for almost any ancient document. And I say almost 40:17 any ancient document. You'll see why. At 1,800 there, 40:21 most ancient manuscripts, even some titles that you and I would readily recognize, 40:25 they have less than 20. None of them are originals. They're just copies. 40:28 And we've got fragments or full manuscripts. They're about 20 copies or so. 40:32 And get this, the earliest manuscript of Homer's "Iliad" that we have today, 40:36 the earliest copy, is from 400 BC. That means there's 400 years 40:42 between when Homer wrote it and the copy. The oldest copy 40:47 that we have today, 400 years. That's a lot of time. And, yet, no one doubts today 40:54 that what we have now in "The Iliad" was what was written by Homer 40:58 in about 800 BC, and that what we have today is, essentially, what Homer intended 41:02 for us to read. 1,800 manuscripts. Compare that 41:10 to just the New Testament. The New Testament. It was written between 50 ad 41:16 or so and about 90, 9-0 or 92 AD That's when Revelation we think was written. 41:21 So about the span of 40 years or so. Again, we have none 41:24 of the originals. There are no originals in existence today. 41:26 However, there are more than, get this, 24,000 -- 41:31 What number did I say? >> All: 24,000. >> Homer's got 1,800. 41:37 The New Testament alone has 24,000. And that's 41:39 a conservative estimate. Depending on how you count, Some scholars will double that. 41:43 24,000, conservative number, full or partial manuscripts available to us today. 41:48 The earliest copy that we have is from about AD 130, 1-3-0. It is only a matter of decades 41:55 from when the originals were written. And here's the thing. 41:59 Some people say, "Well, all those manuscripts, 24,000 plus. 42:02 Ah, who cares? They're all different. They all say different things." 42:08 You know, there are some differences in the manuscripts. In fact, 42:12 if you have a Bible like mine, if you look at the apparatus, the footnotes 42:15 that are down there at the bottom of most pages, it will tell you 42:17 if there's a variation or something like that. Generally speaking, 42:21 the variations are minor ones. Sometimes they're just purely grammar. 42:24 It has nothing to do with the substance of the text. How much of it agrees, though? 42:29 How much of the substance is in agreement? Well, it's interesting. 42:32 How do you rate agreement amongst manuscripts? A few years back, two scholars, 42:37 Geisler and Nix, decided that they would look at those 24,000 plus manuscripts, 42:41 and they came back that they estimate the level of agreement amongst those manuscripts 42:46 to be 99.5%. 99.5. Ladies and gentlemen, 42:57 there is literally no comparison between the New Testament and any other ancient document, 43:01 period. There is no comparison. This is why, when skeptics 43:05 seek to come at the Bible from a manuscript perspective, they quickly bail 43:09 out of the endeavor because it just doesn't hold scholarly weight. 43:13 Too many people have -- There's too many manuscripts, and they've seen the level 43:16 of unanimity that is here and the incredible mountain, the number of them, 43:20 the sheer size of the number of manuscripts, it is breathtaking. The conclusion is inescapable. 43:26 What we have today was written by the Bible authors who claim to have written them 43:31 when they claim to have wrote it and says today what they wrote originally. 43:39 Would you say? Amen, sister. >> Amen. >> Because nobody else did. 43:42 Alright. So. Yes, Yes. Thank you. I appreciate that. It is a monumental mountain 43:47 of evidence in favor. What was written then is what we have now. 43:52 Nothing else even comes close. Second line of evidence -- Archeology. 43:57 I wish I had more time to unpack this one. Every year, archeologists, 44:01 these are people that are digging around in the sand in various places 44:03 and coming up with all kinds of incredible artifacts. Every year, more and more 44:07 discoveries from Palestine, North Africa, and the Middle East. 44:10 They continue to be brought to light to validate the stories and events 44:14 depicted in Scripture. You know, anyone who claims that the Bible 44:17 is nothing more than mythology would benefit from visiting a biblical history museum. 44:24 We have one just within a few hundred yards of right where we're sitting right now. 44:27 There's the Siegfried H. Horn Museum, and it has artifacts 44:30 that help to validate that the Bible is true. When I was in Israel 44:34 back in 2017, I spent ten days there, and it was a privilege for me 44:37 to be able to go to the Israel Museum as well as other archeological sites. 44:41 It is astonishing. People who say this stuff is just made up, 44:46 frankly, they don't know of what they speak because the evidence is there solid. 44:51 You can see it, right, standing there in front of you. Number three -- 44:57 eyewitness accounts. You know, the Bible is written largely by eyewitnesses, 45:01 not entirely, but where it is not written by an eyewitness, it is generally written 45:06 by an author who talked to eyewitnesses. You know, if -- Let's say 45:11 that you were speeding through Berrien Springs, I'm sure this would never happen. 45:14 Okay. So this is purely hypothetical. Let's say that you're speeding 45:16 through Berrien Springs. You get pulled over, you get a ticket. 45:19 You don't think you should have to pay that much money for simply speeding. 45:22 And so you go to court and the judge says, "Do you have any witnesses 45:26 to corroborate your side of the case?" And you say, "Well, yes, I do." 45:29 And you call your friend and the friend goes up there and the judge says, 45:31 "Well, tell me, what did you see?" And the friend says, 45:34 "Well, actually, I wasn't there. I didn't see anything. But you see, my aunt works 45:39 at the library just down the road there in Niles. And she heard it from a friend 45:44 of hers who read something in the paper. And her cousin told my friend 45:48 who told me." [ Laughter ] And the judge says, "Guilty." 45:53 And you pay twice a fine for contempt of court. Alright. 45:56 Because that kind of testimony doesn't hold any water. But if you bring somebody in, 46:04 say, who is sitting next to you in the car. And they tell the judge, 46:08 "You know what, Judge? I was sitting there and actually they were doing 46:12 under the speed limit. I looked over when the lights came on, 46:15 and they were doing under. They were doing 44 instead of 54 in that." 46:19 "Oh, really?" Now, I don't know what the judges are like around here, 46:22 but I can guarantee you they're going to take that kind of witness much more seriously 46:27 because they were there. They saw it. God's owner's manual 46:34 for the human race had people that saw firsthand what God was doing. 46:40 This is not rumor. This is not gossip. This is not the telephone game 46:43 where by the time you get to the end, you have no semblance 46:45 of what was started with. These people saw what God did. >> Amen. 46:50 >> That's powerful testimony. Number four -- straightforward writing style. 46:56 Very briefly on this. If you've ever read ancient mythology, 47:00 you know that they can get pretty flowery and ornate and pretty bizarre pretty quickly. 47:04 Extravagant claims of what people did or did not do. There's something 47:08 called the apocrypha. That's a group of books that in some 47:11 small corners of Christianity, they're allowed in the Bible. Most of Christianity 47:15 does not have them. And the reason for that is because in some of those, 47:18 for instance, Jesus as a boy is basically doing parlor 47:21 tricks for his buds, turning things into animals and whatnot. 47:25 That's not how things happened. And instead of choosing this kind of super hero, 47:31 extravagant language, the Bible just tells the story, warts and all. 47:36 You notice the stories about the disciples? They're hardly superheroes. 47:40 All of the difficulties and challenges and mistakes. It's all there on display 47:44 because God wants us simply to know what happened. Straightforward writing style. 47:49 To me, it's a powerful piece of evidence that the Bible is true. >> Yes. 47:54 >> Number five -- Incredible unity. And we're starting to leave 47:58 Planet Earth here. I don't know if you're noticing this now. 48:00 We're getting into the heavenly regions here. This is powerful stuff, 48:04 incredible unity. You know, the Bible has actually 66 books, right? 48:07 I mean, if you look at the table of contents, it's got 66 different sections, 48:10 66 books written over a period of 1,500 years. That's a long time. 48:15 It's written by more than 40 authors who had occupations that ranged 48:19 from doctors and kings and statesmen to shepherds and tent makers and fishermen. 48:23 Yes, there were clergy as well. And yet, despite this impressive diversity of time and place 48:29 and career, etcetera, the message of the Bible is incredibly unified. 48:34 It's almost like it was inspired by an Author, Capital "A", that lived through all 1,500 48:41 years of its production. No other so-called holy book comes even close. 48:48 Because from beginning to end The Bible tells the story of a savior. 48:51 >> Yes. >> His coming. >> Yes. 48:53 >> His arrival. >> Yes. >> And his soon return. 48:55 >> Yes, Amen. >> The thread of unity is remarkable. 48:58 No one can do that. No human being can do that. But God can. 49:05 Number six -- Fulfilled prophecy. No document comes 49:11 even remotely close to the Bible in this category. Have you ever gone through 49:14 the grocery line and you know, these the gossip rags that are there, 49:18 your "National Enquirer," etcetera? Sometimes they 49:20 will feature prophecies. Have you ever seen that, you know, asteroid will hit 49:24 earth and such and such a time. Right. Okay. You know, Nostradamus 49:27 says thus and so. you know, if -- if I got a dollar 49:31 for every time those predictions in those tabloids were wrong, I would take you all out 49:36 to choose your restaurant. We can all go and get croissants somewhere. 49:40 Okay. They are wrong so much. >> Yes. 49:46 >> But not the Bible. The Bible bats a thousand. There is not a single 49:53 unconditional prophecy that the Bible has made that should 49:56 have been fulfilled by now that has not been fulfilled. Every last one of them 50:00 has like clockwork. You know, let me just give you two examples. 50:05 Isaiah 44-45, it talks about a guy by the name of Cyrus. said that Cyrus 50:09 is going to come. He's kind of this messianic type figure, is going to save 50:12 his people, talked about where this would take place, even give some details about 50:16 gates and whatnot like this. All of this 150 years before it actually happened. 50:23 150 years, names him by name. Daniel Chapter 9 -- 70 Weeks prophecy 50:31 goes into this great detail of what the coming Messiah, the Anointed one, 50:34 was going to do. The region that he would do it, the people that he would do it 50:37 with, confirming this covenant, with many, then being cut off, etcetera. 50:40 There's an immense amount of detail. The odds of all of those 50:44 details being fulfilled in one human being are just, they're off the charts. 50:48 They're astronomical. And, yet, 400 years later, it all came to pass, 50:55 just as the prophecy had said. 400 hundred years. I can't tell you what's going 50:59 to happen four minutes from now. But God can see into the future limitlessly. 51:04 >> Yes. >> And He puts it in His word. None of the Bible's prophecies 51:09 have ever failed. Not one. There is no other book 51:12 that comes even close to that record. And number seven, 51:17 the final piece of evidence -- changed lives. You know, if there were only 51:23 the preceding six lines of evidence, that would be impressive enough. 51:27 But this seventh one to me is the icing on the cake. This is the clincher, because 51:31 the fact of the matter is, is that not just a few dozen or a few hundred 51:36 or a few thousand people, millions of people have had their lives transformed 51:41 by God working through the words of this book. The alcoholic stops drinking. 51:48 The person who beats his wife and children stops doing that. The person who was selfish 51:53 becomes generous. The unfaithful husband becomes a faithful husband. 51:57 The person who was lost becomes found because of God Working through the words 52:03 of this book. Ladies and gentlemen, there is nothing like the Bible. 52:10 There is no other supposedly divine book that even comes remotely close. 52:16 Because that's the way God intended it to be. It's his word. 52:20 He wrote it down. He gives it to us as his gift. And to me, the conclusion for 52:26 a reasonable person, after seeing this type of evidence and studying 52:30 things out for themselves, a reasonable person cannot help but conclude -- 52:34 this is indeed the Word of God. It can be trusted. 52:47 You know, it is true that the Bible does not 52:49 specifically address every single facet 52:52 in minute detail of our lives. If you're looking for the right 52:56 person to marry, you probably will not open the pages and say, 52:59 "Please ask Nellie out on a date." 53:01 Okay. It's probably not going to say that. Right? 53:04 And two weeks from now, in part two of this series, 53:08 we are going to explore in depth how to find God's will in those 53:11 kinds of situations where the specifics 53:14 are not directly addressed. 53:16 How do you still find out God's will for those situations? We're going to talk about that. 53:20 Come back in two weeks, and we'll look at that in part two. 53:22 But suffice it for now to say that the Bible does give principles 53:29 for dealing quite literally with every situation facing humanity on the planet today. 53:35 No exceptions. There are principles there for everything. 53:38 Economic uncertainty, issues of sexuality, war and oppression, 53:42 health issues, politics, racism, and whatever difficulties 53:45 a person may have in their life, The Bible has principles that address them. 53:50 God has not left himself without a witness on this planet. And I hope. 53:57 I hope. I hope that by now some of you are saying 54:02 something like this -- "Okay. Okay. Pastor Shane. I get it. I get it. 54:06 The Bible is a good book. I need to get into it here. How Pastor Shane can I do it? 54:12 How do I find the answers that I'm looking for in the Bible? What technique can I use? 54:17 How do I do it?" This is an excellent question. And after nearly 30 years 54:24 of doing ministry with people with varying desires to get into the book, 54:28 I have the absolute best answer to that question -- How do I find the answers that 54:35 I'm looking for in the Bible? The answer is... 54:42 [ Laughter ] [ Applause ] Read it. 54:46 Read the book. You say, "W-W-W-Wait a second. What do you mean?" 54:50 Well, okay, let me put a finer point on it. 54:57 >> [ Congregants murmur ] >> Read it at least as much as you consume other media. 55:02 You say, "Well, preacher, you've gone from preaching to meddling. Now, I'm not sure about that." 55:06 Okay, ladies and gentlemen. Biblical illiteracy is a huge problem in the church today. 55:14 It's a real problem. We have gotten so used to getting our information 55:20 through 30-second sound bites or impossibly compressed news stories. 55:24 We've gotten so used to this that the idea of actually sitting down on a regular basis 55:28 with an actual book and studying it no longer appeals to us. 55:32 We are like wild-eyed, thrill-seeking motorcyclists hurtling down the highway 55:37 with little to no knowledge of what God would actually have us do, 55:40 not realizing just how close to spiritual disaster we actually are. 55:45 So I plead with you. Read the manufacturer's instructions. 55:52 You know, there's entire classes in books that you can read about for techniques, 55:56 about how to study the Bible. And please read those things. By all means, 55:59 take those classes. They're very valuable. We need those things. 56:02 And... And... The Bible 56:05 is written in such a way that there are portions of it a child can understand. 56:09 There's something in here for everybody. It's a big book. 56:12 Read it. Be brutal with your schedule. Make time. 56:17 God is longing to speak with you. He longs for the transformation 56:21 that he sees. But maybe you're not yet there. He longs for you to read. 56:25 Read the owner's manual. Read this book. The greatest story ever told 56:32 lies within its pages. And the greatest life you could ever live 56:38 is found there as well. 56:42 >> Amen. Amen. [ Applause ] 56:52 >> I'm Shane Anderson, the lead pastor here 56:55 at Pioneer Memorial Church. At Pioneer Media, we have been 56:58 blessed by the financial support that comes from our viewers 57:02 like you that enable us to continue this ministry. 57:06 We've made a conscious decision not to continually appeal to you 57:09 for that support. However, keeping this ministry 57:12 going takes money to support our staff and technology needs. 57:16 If God has blessed you and you would like to further 57:19 the work of this ministry, we invite you to partner 57:22 with us. You can donate on our website -- 57:25 pmchurch.org. Then click "giving" at the top, 57:29 then select "media ministry." Or call the number 877-HIS-WILL. 57:36 Again, that number is 877 -- the two words, "HIS WILL." 57:41 My prayer is that the God who has blessed you will 57:44 continue to pour into your life the gifts of his joy 57:47 and his hope. Thank you. 57:50 And I'm looking forward to seeing you right here 57:52 again next time. 58:00 ♪♪ ♪♪ 58:18 ♪♪ |
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