Participants: Lonnie Melashenko
Series Code: VOPS
Program Code: VOPS000007
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00:31 Have you ever experienced a heartbreak
00:35 or a loss that you were convinced 00:37 simply could never be fixed 00:39 and you said to yourself, this is it, 00:42 I'm just going to have to endure, 00:45 to live with this hurt forever? 00:48 When the war in Iraq was in its early stages, 00:52 perhaps you remember, 00:53 when the very first reports of American deaths 00:55 began to hit us in our national soul. 00:58 I remember watching the night 00:59 that a man looked into CNN's TV cameras 01:02 and he was talking with tears in his eyes to the president. 01:05 His world was destroyed, 01:07 his name was Michael Walters Bay 01:09 and his 29-year-old son Kendall 01:11 has just been killed in the conflict. 01:14 Kendall was married, he had a 10-year-old boy 01:18 and now this grieving grandpa looked into the camera 01:21 and he said, "Mr. President, that chair he sat 01:26 in at Thanksgiving will be empty forever." 01:32 And at a time like that, 01:34 people who say they have a Christian faith 01:36 have to really dig deep and ask ourselves this. 01:41 Does Christianity have an answer 01:43 for this heartbroken grandfather? 01:46 I mean, we say we serve a wonderful God. 01:48 But is he also a mighty God, 01:51 a mighty enough God and creative enough God, 01:56 to fill that empty chair some day soon 01:59 and make Thanksgiving Day a time of joy again? 02:03 I mean, I think about that grandpa 02:05 and I think about that 10-year-old son Kenneth 02:08 who doesn't have a dad anymore. 02:11 You know, the very first verse in the Word of God 02:14 has some incredibly good news for the Walters Bay family. 02:18 You say it with me. 02:19 I'm sure you know it, don't you? 02:20 Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning 02:23 God created the heavens and the earth." 02:28 Well, you probably already knew that verse by heart, 02:30 but Genesis 1:1 happened a long, long time ago. 02:35 You're wondering well, how does this help 02:37 a little fourth-grader Kenneth right now in 2003 02:41 who doesn't have a dad anymore to assist him with his homework 02:45 or to help them learn how to catch a football? 02:49 We did a Voice of Prophecy radio series a few years back 02:51 and we got such a blessing 02:53 from a terrific Christian bestseller, 02:55 "How Now Shall We Live?" 02:57 by former Watergate prisoner Chuck Colson 03:01 and his writing partner Nancy Pearcey. 03:04 Well, Colson tells a simple story 03:06 about a dad and a daughter. 03:08 They were going to Disney World. 03:10 How many of you have been down the I 95 here in Columbia 03:14 and seen Mickey Mouse? 03:15 Yes. 03:16 Well, this dad, his name was Dave Mulholland. 03:20 And he was there with a purpose in mind 03:22 and it wasn't to ride the dumbbell flying elephant. 03:26 He was concerned about his 15-year-old daughter Katie. 03:30 See, she was a high school student 03:31 just starting to kind of, you know, stretch her wings, 03:35 seemed like she was starting 03:36 to fly off in all the wrong directions. 03:39 Dave and his wife had found pot in her purse one day 03:44 and that was a big crisis. 03:46 She and her friends were getting 03:47 into some things that they shouldn't. 03:50 But the most serious thing of all 03:51 was that she was kind of just drifting away from God. 03:55 She didn't think Christianity was relevant anymore. 03:58 Her friends kind of shrugged off 04:00 religion as kind of useless and stupid. 04:02 Her science classes in school made it plain that 04:06 well, the Bible was just 04:07 a potpourri of fables and urban legends. 04:10 In fact, the way 04:11 that Chuck Colson puts it in his book, 04:14 he says these Christian parents felt they were losing her 04:19 to a secular world smugly satisfied with itself 04:23 and deeply hostile to their own world. 04:26 So Dave was kind of hoping 04:29 that by going down to Disney World, 04:32 in between all of the exhibits, all the rides, 04:34 maybe they just have a little chance 04:36 to do some serious father-daughter talking about, 04:39 you know, the big things. 04:42 Oh, but then, disaster. 04:44 They went to an incredible exhibit 04:46 and Disney does it the best. 04:49 It was called the Living Seas and there with all the sights 04:53 and digital Dolby surround sound 04:55 the way only Disney geniuses can do them, 04:58 the narrator came on in the darkness 05:00 with his resonant voice of authority 05:02 something like this. 05:04 Imagine a place 05:05 sometime in the endless reaches of the universe 05:08 on the other side of a galaxy 05:10 of a hundred thousand million suns. 05:12 In this tiny corner of the universe deep 05:15 within the cluster of slowly forming planets 05:19 is a small sphere of just the right size. 05:22 A sphere just the right distance from its Mother star 05:27 and then this Bill Nye the Science Guy 05:30 hit his daughter and himself, the dad, with a punch line. 05:35 A spark of light expanded into a thunderous, 05:38 crashing flood of stars exploded and galaxies formed. 05:42 In other words, a big bang! 05:46 A universe just jumping into existence all by itself. 05:50 No God, no creator, 05:52 no divine heart of love making a world in six days, 05:56 just a one in a trillion evolutionary luck 06:01 and now Dave Mulholland was really sure he was sunk 06:06 but he took his daughter outside 06:08 and he bought her an ice cream cone 06:10 and they sat down on a park bench 06:11 and he tried to cut through 06:14 what they'd just heard and try to figure it out. 06:17 Katie, I'm sure you're asking, 06:20 is there a God out there who can do all the things 06:22 the Bible says he can do or did we just slowly find our way 06:26 here tonight to Columbia, South Carolina, 06:29 all by ourselves by millions of years 06:31 of upward evolutionary migration? 06:36 And what this dad on that Disney World bench 06:39 tried gently to explain to his girl 06:42 was an immutable law of the universe 06:46 that everything that is designed 06:50 has a designer. 06:53 That's it. 06:56 I mean, if you're driving along Interstate 90 06:58 with your family on a vacation up there in South Dakota 07:03 and you suddenly look up and you see the heads 07:05 of all four US presidents carved out in the granite, 07:09 no one with a brain says to their family, oh, look kids. 07:13 Look what the wind and the rain and the snow 07:15 and the eons of time and the erosion 07:17 of drip, drip, drip caused to show up. 07:19 Why there's Washington and there's Lincoln 07:21 and there's Jefferson and even Roosevelt 07:23 all by blind luck. 07:25 No, you don't say that. 07:27 You know that an architect named John G. Borglum 07:31 came by with a pretty big rock hammer 07:33 and a designer's vision. 07:37 You know, a good 200 years ago, 07:40 English theologian William Paley, 07:42 he posed it this way, 07:45 "If you're walking along a beach 07:47 and suddenly you bend over 07:50 and you pick up a beautiful watch 07:52 ticking away and keeping good time, 07:54 you don't say to yourself, amazing 07:56 what the waves and the pounding surf 07:58 will fling together if you just let enough centuries go by. 08:01 Wow, a really nice Rolex. Thank you very much, currents. 08:06 Thank you, tides. 08:07 You know, I think I'll just keep this. 08:09 No. 08:11 If you're smart, you'll take out your Bible 08:14 right there on the beach 08:16 and you'll read from Isaiah 40:26. 08:19 "Lift up your eyes on high, 08:22 and see who created these things, 08:24 who brings out their host by number. 08:27 He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might 08:31 and the strength of all His power, not one is missing. 08:35 Amen. 08:38 Ladies and gentlemen, 08:39 what an increasing number of scientists 08:42 are now conceding is kind of a brand new field of study. 08:47 It's called ID. 08:48 Anybody know what that means? Intelligent Design. 08:54 But that's even more true is this dad Disney World 08:57 talks to Katie about the fact that he is her dad. 09:00 I mean, folks, having a child you talk about design. 09:06 Starting off with just two tiny cells 09:10 and then for nine months, those cells multiply and divide 09:13 turning into all the right clusters of more cells, 09:18 organs, blood, lungs, heart, brain, skin, 09:21 entire systems and then Dave Mulholland 09:24 is right there in the delivery room 09:25 and his wife and he are Lamaze breathing like crazy, 09:27 you know, hyperventilating, pushing, counting down 09:30 to the big moment and then all at once, 09:34 you see this little life emerge. 09:38 It has a face, little scrunched up face 09:41 with two eyes, a nose, two ears 09:44 and a very noisy little mouth and vocal cords. 09:47 And daddy says to himself, 09:50 this is a designed miracle. 09:54 Amen. 09:55 This child is fearfully, wonderfully made, 09:59 marvelous are the works of God as Psalm 139:14 says. 10:03 In fact, Dave said to his daughter 10:07 as they sat there eating their Disney World ice cream bars, 10:11 he said, "Katie, precious Katie, 10:15 everything I know about the universe 10:17 including my incredibly beautiful daughter 10:20 indicates to me that somebody designed it, created it." 10:27 Now this ID concept, this intelligent design, 10:31 by the way, is something now that many branches of science 10:35 are conceding now and even using. 10:39 Some of you who may be into the attorneys or legal field, 10:43 how about forensic science? 10:46 You know, when police find a body 10:48 like they did just recently there 10:50 in the West, Lacy Peterson. 10:53 Their first question is, "Was this death the result 10:57 of natural causes or foul play?" 11:01 In other words, an intentional act 11:03 by an intelligent being. 11:06 So pathologists perform a battery 11:08 of fairly straightforward tests to get an answer. 11:12 Those of you who watch "Law and Order: CI", 11:15 which I understand, I guess, stands for Criminal Intent. 11:20 Well, you see this Detective Goran 11:23 who looks into the carpeting for some sort of little clues, 11:27 or he sees a little thread of this 11:28 or a bit of fluff over there 11:30 and, you know, he's looking for exactly 11:32 what the title says, intent. 11:35 Some person behind the evidence. 11:39 So, friend, do we buy this pillar of the faith 11:43 that God is our creator? 11:48 Not too far from where I live 11:50 is a Christian researcher by the name of George Barna. 11:54 He reminds us of this truth. 11:57 He says, "Without a biblical worldview, 12:01 all the great teaching goes in one ear 12:04 and right out the other." 12:06 There's no intellectual pegs in the mind of the individual 12:09 to hang these truths on 12:11 that we're talking about from night to night. 12:12 They just pass right on through, they don't stick, 12:15 they don't make a difference. 12:17 And then Chuck Colson goes on to suggest 12:19 that any worldview is only as good 12:21 as an answer to three basic questions. 12:24 Question one, where did we come from and who are we? 12:30 Well, the Bible answers 12:31 that question with the word creation. 12:35 Genesis 1:1. And who are we? 12:37 We're the sons and we're the daughters of God. 12:41 Well, question number two, 12:43 what has gone wrong with our world? 12:46 Well, the Bible's answer to that is the fall, 12:50 a serpent in the garden, Satan, sin, death. 12:56 Question number three, what can we do to fix it? 13:01 There our answer is nothing. We can't do anything. 13:08 But Christianity's answer is Calvary, Jesus loving us, 13:14 dying for us, coming soon to rescue us. 13:17 And, friend, we either take the Bible's worldview 13:20 or we have to settle for something as a big word 13:23 the theologians call existentialism, 13:26 which basically says, well, life is absurd, 13:30 it's meaningless and that the individual self 13:35 must create our own meaning by our own choices. 13:39 Or we can pick another big theological term 13:41 called post-modernism, 13:43 which thinks, well, there are no eternal truths, 13:47 no overarching realities except 13:50 what you and your friends decide is right for you 13:52 on May 3, 2003 in the year of nobody. 14:00 Recently the NABT, 14:03 that's the National Association of Biology Teachers 14:06 announced that, and I am quoting, 14:08 "All life is the outcome of an unsupervised 14:13 impersonable, unpredictable and natural process." 14:20 Does that give you confidence tonight? 14:23 Well, friend, I find it interesting 14:26 that even the world's best scientists 14:28 are conceding something. 14:31 It's called another technical term, the Anthropic principle. 14:36 Jim McClintock, Jim Mayor I should say, 14:39 my colleague at seminary. 14:41 Sam Base in the Herald here tonight. 14:43 He'll remember from Greek 14:45 where that word Anthropic comes from. 14:49 But we get a few stats about this Anthropic principle, 14:52 we'll get back to that in a minute, Jim. 14:53 From Pastor Bill Hybels 14:55 of the Willow Creek Church in Illinois. 14:57 Now he and Mark Middleburg wrote this book entitled, 15:00 "Becoming a Contagious Christian" 15:02 and he gets some help 15:04 from the men and women in the lab coats 15:06 who tell us these fantastic fascinating statistics. 15:10 For instance, if you were to raise or lower 15:15 the universe's rate of expansion 15:17 by just one part per million, there would be no life. 15:22 In fact, I've read that the force of gravity 15:26 has to not only be right 15:28 but right to within one part in 10 to the 60th power. 15:34 That's a lot of zeros. 15:37 If the average distance between the stars 15:40 were any greater, there'd be no planets, 15:43 any smaller, there could be 15:45 no planetary orbits necessary for life. 15:50 Here's one for you, if you were to just jigger slightly, 15:53 please don't do this at home 15:55 but if you were to try to jigger the carbon 15:57 to oxygen ratios on planet Earth, 15:59 there'd be no one here to breathe 16:01 and we couldn't meet again tomorrow night. 16:04 If you were to tilt earth's axis just slightly, 16:07 one direction, we'd all freeze to death. 16:11 You go the other way even one degree 16:14 and we'd instantly burn up. 16:18 Now a few years ago, Jeannie and I 16:19 and Phil Draper were on a mission trip 16:23 with some of our Voice of Prophecy team, 16:24 we went to the Philippines, 16:26 I honestly thought someone had tipped the earth 16:28 toward the sun a few degrees, or at least our hotel room. 16:32 And the same day 16:33 the air conditioning our van broke down. 16:36 But friend, listen, this planet was designed by a loving God 16:41 who wanted you and me to be here tonight. 16:44 Amen. 16:46 Do you know that we are absolutely 16:48 the perfect distance from the Sun? 16:51 93 million miles. 16:52 You learn that in the fourth grade. 16:55 Any closer, that wouldn't be good, 16:57 any farther away and it wouldn't just be a cold winter, 17:00 it'd be all winter as in deep freeze for the human race. 17:05 Oh, and what about this thing they call DNA? 17:09 You talk about design, 17:11 all of the scientists and genome researchers know it 17:15 but let me make it even more personal for you. 17:18 You know, folks, someone must've gone 17:22 to an awful lot of effort to make things just right 17:26 so that you and I could be here and enjoy life. 17:29 Folks, listen, modern science points to the fact 17:32 that we must really matter to God. 17:37 By the way, did you know 17:38 that the origin of the word Anthropic, 17:42 Jim, it comes from a Greek word called what? 17:44 Anthropos. Anthropos. 17:47 I haven't been to the seminary for a good many years 17:49 so most of these linguistic tidbits 17:50 I do have to get out my great big fat Greek dictionary 17:54 but the word anthropos is one of the first words 17:56 I ever learned in Greek. 17:57 It actually means human being. 18:01 And that's it, this Anthropic principle 18:03 that scientists talk about simply reiterates 18:07 that God cares about human beings 18:10 and has built this world just for our survival. 18:16 Oh, here's an important PS for us to prayerfully consider. 18:20 The Bible earnestly invites us to worship God 18:25 precisely because he is our creator. 18:28 Did you know that? 18:30 In fact, right in the heart of the Book of Revelation, 18:33 which is God's last day message for this generation, 18:36 that mighty first angel 18:37 of Chapter 14 has this invitation, 18:40 "Fear or respect God and give Him glory 18:44 because the hour of his judgment has come. 18:47 Worship Him, notice, who made the heavens, 18:50 the earth, the sea and the springs of water." 18:54 Back in Chapter 4, 18:56 we find a mind boggling scene in heaven, 18:59 where all the holy beings who have never sinned 19:02 worship him constantly and they say this 19:04 in verse 11 of Chapter 4, "You are worthy, oh Lord, 19:08 God, to receive glory and honor and power." 19:11 And why? 19:13 "For you have created all things and by your will 19:16 they were created and have their being." 19:20 You know, I'll let you in on a tiny secret. 19:24 In this same book I just mentioned 19:25 that Colson wrote, Colson quotes from a physicist. 19:32 Any physicists out here tonight? 19:34 This physicist you know, his name is Heinz Pagels, 19:38 he authored a report entitled, "A Cozy Cosmology" 19:43 and it appeared in the Sciences Magazine. 19:47 You know what this physicist suggests? 19:50 He says this, and this is not 19:52 a religious person or a religious magazine. 19:55 He says, "If our universe appears 19:58 to be tailor-made for life, 20:01 the most straightforward conclusion 20:03 is that it was tailor-made, 20:05 designed, created by a transcendent God." 20:10 And then this physicist quietly confesses that, 20:13 you know, in their hearts many scientists know it 20:17 but they kind of find that conclusion unattractive 20:21 and so they twist their own logic into pretzels 20:24 coming up with things like a theory of multiple universes 20:27 to get around the problem. 20:29 In Pagels' own words, and I'm quoting it again, 20:32 "It is the closest that some atheists can get to God." 20:37 In other words, "Atheists are squirming 20:40 every which way to avoid the obvious." 20:45 Some of you scientists might recognize this name, 20:47 the well-known astronomer, Sir Fred Hoyle. 20:50 He once calculated that the odds of life 20:53 just showing up, just sparking itself into existence 20:58 would be the same as lining up 21:01 many, many, many blind people, in fact, here we go again, 21:04 10 to the 50th power this time. 21:07 Now that's a lot of people out there in a row. 21:10 All blind and then giving 21:12 each of them a scrambled up Rubik's Cube 21:16 and having all gazillion of them 21:18 solve it at exactly the same moment. 21:23 So you tell me, would you like to put your faith 21:27 in those visually challenged people with the Rubik's Cubes 21:31 or maybe with a billion monkeys on a billion word processors 21:35 trying to randomly pound out a Webster's dictionary? 21:39 Or would you like to trust 21:43 what it says in my hymn number 88, 21:45 in my church's official hymnal where it says, 21:48 "I sing the mighty power of God that makes the mountains rise, 21:54 that spreads the flowing seas abroad 21:57 and built the lofty skies." 21:58 You tell me. 22:02 In his book, "Believe in miracles 22:05 But Trust in Jesus," 22:06 Pastor Adrian Rogers, I've heard him speak. 22:09 He tells about a student who came up to him one time 22:12 and he said, Pastor Rogers, I've got a question. 22:15 Pastor Rogers, do you believe 22:16 that there's life on other worlds? 22:19 I don't know what you folks think about that, 22:21 although the Bible doesn't specifically seem to say 22:24 but Pastor Rogers gave him an answer 22:26 and he said, "Well, young man, no, 22:28 I don't think there is life on other worlds." 22:30 "What?" The kid said. 22:32 "You think all the life 22:34 there is in the universe is right here on earth?" 22:38 "Uh-huh." 22:39 And the kid just shook his head, he said, "No way. 22:42 No way. I mean, how can that be?" 22:44 And he launched into a great big sermon to Pastor Rogers 22:46 about how there are just so many trillions of planets 22:49 and stars and galaxies and milky ways, 22:51 all spinning light years with 20 zeros after them. 22:56 I mean, you talk about ID, 22:58 you talk about intelligent design. 22:59 And this kid, well, he gave Pastor Rogers 23:02 quite a little Genesis 1 sermon. 23:04 And then he said to Pastor Rogers, 23:06 "You mean to tell me, 23:07 you think God went to all that trouble 23:11 and then just put life on one tiny little world?" 23:16 And Pastor Rogers said to him, "What trouble?" 23:23 Don't you just love that answer? 23:26 "What trouble?" 23:28 Listen, the Bible tells us that when it comes to creation, 23:33 God does great things 23:36 but they're not hard things, not for Him. 23:40 Jeremiah 32:17 tells us 23:43 that God isn't overextending Himself when he creates. 23:47 "Ah, sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens 23:51 and the earth by your great power, 23:53 your great power and outstretched arm. 23:56 Nothing is too hard for you." Amen. 24:00 And let's put up on the note board 24:03 for you scientists here tonight 24:05 the first law of thermodynamics. 24:09 Remember what that is? The conservation of matter? 24:12 Actually, folks, it works in favor of the power of God. 24:17 Chuck Colson again, I'm quoting, 24:19 "Matter cannot just pop into existence or create itself." 24:24 Oh, but friend, matter can pop into existence 24:28 when God clears his throat and says, 24:32 "Let there be a world." Amen. 24:37 There's a real cute little Reader's Digest story, 24:40 my wife buys those and I hardly have time to read them 24:42 but there is a story about-- a great little story about 24:45 all the great scientists of the earth 24:47 with their gene-splicing lasers now. 24:50 They looked up the sky 24:51 one day and they said, "You know what, God? 24:54 God, we really don't need you anymore. 24:57 You say you're the creator of life. 24:59 Well, now we've caught up. 25:01 You make people, we can do it too." 25:05 And they went ahead in the Readers Digest 25:07 and challenged God to a man-making competition 25:11 to be televised on ESPN. 25:13 And, you know, God didn't get angry. 25:15 You know, when we have questions 25:17 or even when we challenge Him, 25:19 He patiently demonstrates His power and His plan. 25:23 So God said to the men in their lab coats down there, 25:26 "All right, let's do it. 25:29 I'll make a man out of dirt again and you do the same." 25:35 Oh, so the DNA experts 25:37 they immediately rolled up their sleeves 25:38 and got down on their knees 25:40 and began scooping up some soil 25:42 for their test tubes and their petri dishes 25:44 and God gently but firmly said to them, 25:46 "Just a minute, boys, not so fast. 25:50 Rule number one, you get your own dirt." 26:02 Well, that's a fun story. 26:06 But maybe you'll say, wait a minute, 26:10 what about the mutation of species 26:12 over great spans of time? 26:14 I mean, isn't that an argument for evolution? 26:19 But as I read some of the scientific journals 26:21 and maybe you have too, 26:23 maybe you've discovered that most mutations 26:27 are like typos in a report or bugs in a computer program. 26:31 They don't make things slowly better, 26:33 instead you have a downward spiral 26:36 into mistakes and nonsense. 26:39 In fact, that's the second law of thermodynamics 26:42 that our universe is slowly wearing down, disintegrating. 26:47 It's not spiraling upward into higher levels of complexity. 26:51 And Colson writes in his book, 26:53 "The same is true of errors in the genetic code. 26:58 Most mutations are harmful, often lethal to the organism. 27:03 So that if mutations were to accumulate, 27:06 the result will be more likely 27:08 to be devolution than evolution." 27:12 Would you like that? 27:15 Luther Burbank, the great genetic researcher, 27:18 he coined an expression or law called, 27:21 here we go to science again, The Reversion to the Average. 27:26 Reversion to the Average. 27:29 Most organisms he reports, stay true to type, 27:32 they don't stray from the blueprint, 27:35 variations tend to be very, very minor. 27:38 In other words, most monkeys seem to stay monkeys. 27:45 I remember last year, 27:46 we Californians have a couple of baseball teams there 27:49 when the San Francisco Giants Barry Bonds 27:52 started off last year's baseball season 27:55 with two home runs in the first game 27:57 and two in the second game. 27:58 Wow, I mean, extrapolating off of that, 28:02 in a 162 game season you could figure 28:04 that Barry Bonds could hit 324 dingers a year. 28:10 But, no, he just came up at the end of the season 28:13 with 46 just like about always. 28:17 Little pops of excitement happen here and there 28:21 but when all is said and done, 28:22 the reversion to the average always happens. 28:26 My friend David Smith back there in California 28:29 was a big Los Angeles Dodger fan. 28:32 Count on it, when you get to October, 28:33 most Dodgers are going to be batting about 223 28:37 and the team is in third place, every year without fail. 28:42 You fans out there in Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, 28:45 you know about the same thing too. 28:47 You see, it's the same 28:48 in the scientific world around us too. 28:52 Now one scientific arena of real challenge 28:57 comes with things like "carbon-dating" 29:00 and the half-life of radioactive material, 29:04 the perchloric halos and so forth. 29:07 Or the layers of the Grand Canyon 29:08 where a scientist will say, 29:10 "Well, according to this timeline, 29:12 if you extrapolate mathematically, 29:15 the world is X number of millions of years old." 29:20 And listen, I'll be the first to confess 29:21 that I don't have all of the answers. 29:24 And that it does take an expression of faith 29:28 to trust in God's word 29:30 over the theories of the geology labs. 29:35 There's a wonderful Christian writer 29:36 we often quote on our broadcast, C.S. Lewis. 29:40 Well, C.S. Lewis once had a dialogue with a friend 29:43 and he said to him, "Okay, look, 29:47 if you put sixpence into a drawer today 29:52 and then you put sixpence into a drawer tomorrow, 29:55 that same drawer and then the day after that, 29:58 you look inside, what are you going to find?" 30:03 One shilling, right? 30:05 And his friend picked up on the point, "Yes," he said, 30:08 unless someone else has gotten in there 30:11 and tampered with the drawer. 30:12 And boom, C.S. Lewis nailed the lesson home. 30:16 "It's the same in science," he said. 30:18 The laws work in a certain way 30:21 unless there is interference or upheaval 30:25 or let's say for instance, 30:28 a flood that devastates the planet 30:31 and throws the numbers off. 30:34 That's just something to think about, isn't it? 30:38 I want to tell you tonight that I believe this book. 30:43 Amen. 30:45 Do you know, ladies and gentlemen, 30:46 that even Charles Darwin himself said, 30:50 you can either believe in my theories, 30:52 in Darwinism or you can believe this book. 30:57 But he said the two ideas are mutually exclusive, 31:01 you can't mix them up, 31:02 you can't blend them, they do not coexist. 31:08 I said last night, 31:09 Jeannie and I were out walking yesterday and today, 31:13 saw some little box turtles out in the woods here, gorgeous. 31:18 If you're out on a walk and you see a turtle 31:21 up on a fence post what do you know? 31:25 Somebody came along, right? 31:28 That turtle did not get up there by himself. 31:32 And, you know, I see the evidence 31:36 in this sin scarred beautiful world 31:40 that we live in and I say, you know, 31:41 somebody came here, somebody passed through. 31:46 A powerful God did all of this. 31:49 In fact, even the animals in our backyard 31:51 and buzzing around our hummingbird feeders 31:54 are a vibrant testimony to the creative power of somebody 31:57 who came through here, made all of these species, 32:00 birds that can migrate and return 32:02 to San Juan Capistrano the same day every single year, 32:07 whales and salmon that traverse the great depths, 32:10 honeybees that build honeycombs 32:12 that are a marvel to science and design. 32:17 You know, the next time Eddie Murphy plays 32:19 that Dr. Dolittle character who can talk to the animals, 32:23 I wish he'd ask some of them 32:24 how they do these amazing God-inspired things. 32:29 But we already know the answer, don't we, Dr. Dolittle? 32:32 Because the testimony is right here in front of us 32:35 in the Book of Job, Chapter 12, 32:38 "But ask the animals and they will teach you, 32:42 or the birds of the air and they will tell you 32:44 or speak to the earth and it will teach you, 32:48 or let the fish of the sea inform you. 32:50 Which of all these does not know 32:53 that the Lord has done this?" 32:55 Amen. 32:57 But now let's take another step further, 33:00 if you can see the Bible version of events 33:03 and say, all right, God did make the universe, 33:08 then we still have to know what does it mean to us? 33:15 God made a world where our brave young men and women 33:18 could get blown up and killed by other men and women. 33:21 Does God care about that? 33:24 I want you to remember 33:26 that God creates because he does care. 33:31 Clear back in the 26 verse of Genesis Chapter 1, 33:35 God said, "Let us make man 33:38 in our image after our likeness." 33:42 You see, God made us for fellowship. 33:45 He made us because He loves us and is interested in us. 33:50 Way back there in the tumult of the Old Testament 33:52 where there weren't computer guided 33:54 JDAM smart bombs and Apache helicopters 33:57 but still a lot of warfare and bloodshed 33:59 and empty seats at Thanksgiving dinner table, 34:02 King David wrote in Psalm 100:3, 34:06 "Know that the Lord is God. 34:09 It is He who made us, and we are His, 34:12 we are His people, the sheep of His pasture." 34:17 Again, that's why, ladies and gentlemen, 34:20 we actually owe him our worship 34:25 whether we choose to be wise enough to do it or not. 34:29 So if you do believe that God loves us 34:31 as it says in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world," 34:34 and again, in 1 John chapter 4:8, "God is love." 34:38 And Jeremiah 31:3, "Yes, I have loved you 34:41 with an everlasting love." 34:44 But I think you need to accept 34:46 that His love and His creative power 34:48 and His creative interest in you are all absolutes. 34:55 One thing I hope with all of my being 34:57 to put before you in this series of meetings 34:59 is how eternal and how real God's love is for you 35:03 at this very moment in time. 35:05 And that if you enter into a relationship with Jesus 35:08 as your creator and your redeemer, 35:12 then you can feel safe and secure 35:14 and you can feel protected in that relationship. 35:17 Friend, if you get saved tonight, 35:20 if you accept Jesus as the Lord who made you and loves you, 35:25 then you can know that you have it, 35:29 you can know that salvation is yours. 35:31 John 5:24 is one of my favorite verses in all of the Bible, 35:34 I hope to put it up on the screen here, 35:36 it has Jesus saying this to his friends, 35:39 says it to me, Lonnie, says it to Jim, 35:42 says it my wife Jeannie, to Connie 35:43 and the rest of our team here. 35:45 He said, "Friend, I tell you the truth, 35:48 whoever hears my word and believes Him 35:51 who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. 35:58 He has crossed over from death to life." 36:04 And the Bible doctrine of creation 36:06 also makes it clear, doubly clear 36:10 that a God with that much love 36:13 and that much power just will not let you go. 36:17 You're His, you can know that you're His, 36:21 you can know that your salvation is safe with Him. 36:24 Notice this in Romans 8:38, "I am convinced, 36:29 " Paul writes, "that neither death nor life, 36:32 neither angels nor demons, 36:33 neither the present nor the future nor any powers, 36:37 neither height nor depth nor anything else 36:39 in all creation will be able to separate us 36:42 from the love God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 36:49 And what does that have to do with our grieving father 36:52 whose son was lost there in the dust, 36:54 in the blood of Iraq? 36:57 Simply this, the creative power of God 37:02 is enough to bring young Kendall Waters Bay 37:06 back to life again. 37:09 That chair at the great banquet table 37:12 doesn't have to be empty for all eternity 37:15 because the same creator who brought those cells 37:18 together the first time can easily do it again. 37:23 There's a wrenching, wrenching story in the Los Angeles Times 37:26 written by Nora Zamichow about how these young, 37:29 young men of ours and young women over in the military, 37:34 they had to make wills 37:36 before they headed out over to the war theater. 37:39 You know, there's something obscene 37:40 really about a 19-year-old soldier making out a will. 37:45 Writing down well, who's going to get my boom box 37:49 and my dirt bike and my Playstation. 37:52 I mean, these are just kids. 37:55 They weren't giving away Wall Street portfolios 37:57 and luxury yachts and Lenox china. 38:00 In fact, some of the soldiers joked that, 38:02 well, Uncle Sam paid them so little 38:05 there was hardly anything to give away. 38:07 But those jokes were hiding 38:09 the pounding pulses of those young marines, 38:12 the tears of their brides and sadly already 38:17 some of those wills are having to be put into effect now. 38:22 But, friend, God promises 38:24 to make it right one of these days, doesn't He? 38:26 Amen. 38:27 Isaiah 26:19, it says, 38:31 "But your dead will live, their bodies will rise. 38:36 You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy." 38:43 I, from time to time have subscribed 38:46 to Newsweek magazine and Anna Quindlen 38:48 is a wonderful columnist in Newsweek. 38:51 Anna Quindlen describes a bad Monday 38:53 that she had with her daughter a little while back. 38:56 You see, first of all, on that day 38:58 they went to a funeral. 39:01 Well, that was bad but then a cell phone call 39:05 had them rushing to the hospital 39:06 where another friend was in the valley 39:08 of the shadow of death. 39:10 And right after that it was a trifecta of tears 39:12 because their cat was poisoned. 39:15 So they were speeding to the vet's to deal with that. 39:19 Well, finally it was bedtime. 39:22 What a day. 39:24 And Anna, the good mom that she is, 39:26 she tucked her little girl and she put her into bed, 39:28 she said to her very, very quietly, "Well, honey, 39:32 this was a tough, tough day. 39:36 But, sweetheart, look at it this way, 39:38 we'll never go through a day like this again. 39:43 That was Sept 10, 2001, Monday. 39:49 September '10 and the Quindlen family 39:52 lives in New York City. 39:54 The very next morning we all know 39:57 how death invaded our world like never before 40:00 and in Miss Quindlen's words, the day America's mind reeled, 40:04 its spine stiffened and its heart broke. 40:10 Some of you here tonight 40:13 or watching at our various downlink sites, 40:16 you might have had a loved one in those twin towers 40:20 or in the pentagon or in one of those four planes. 40:24 When the hijackers' plane 40:26 sliced into that World Trade Center, 40:28 someone you loved was just suddenly gone, 40:32 in one fiery moment, gone, wasn't anything left, 40:36 no traces, no DNA, no cells and no record. 40:40 I mean, we all read 40:41 how those firefighters truly New York's finest, 40:44 they started to write their names 40:46 and their social security numbers 40:47 on their own forearms 40:48 just in case someone later 40:50 had to hunt through rubble for their remains. 40:54 But here your loved one is simply gone, 40:57 nothing is left for God to work with, 41:00 how can He clone them or recreate them? 41:04 Well, friend, let not your heart be troubled. 41:11 Does God need a lab? Does God need DNA? 41:16 Did He make Adam out of DNA? 41:18 Or can He just speak the word and have the person you love 41:22 and miss so much instantly come back to life? 41:26 Maybe they were lost at sea, 41:28 maybe they've been resting in a casket 41:30 for many years now. 41:32 Friend, that's not a problem for God 41:34 because He's a creator God who loves to create 41:38 and recreate life for those who love and worship Him. 41:42 I want you to say this great Isaiah promise 41:44 of creative power with me 41:46 as we close tonight from Isaiah 65:17-18. 41:49 Everyone, "Behold, I will create 41:53 new heavens and a new earth. 41:55 The former things will not be remembered 41:58 nor will they come to mind. 42:00 But be glad and rejoice forever 42:03 in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem 42:07 to be a delight and its people a joy." 42:11 Amen. 42:12 And for all of you who have a tombstone 42:14 in your life right now, 42:16 what beautiful words these are in Isaiah 65:19, 42:20 "I will rejoice over Jerusalem in take delight in my people. 42:25 The sound of weeping and of crying 42:29 will be heard in it no more." 42:31 Amen. 42:32 Friend, this is the first in a three-part series, 42:35 don't miss next week. 42:36 God has a plan, God's in control 42:38 and before we close tonight, 42:40 this good word, in the end we know who wins. 42:46 Did you know the creator knows you by name, friend? 42:50 Long before you were born, He had a plan for your life 42:54 and that your being here tonight 42:56 is a continuation of that divine plan. 42:58 Listen carefully to the words of Joey's song 43:01 and take comfort that He had you on his mind. 43:10 He had me on His mind 43:14 Long before creation was begun 43:21 He had me on His mind 43:25 Long before a bird had ever sung 43:31 And long before the earth was formed 43:36 Long before the sky and sea 43:42 Before the world was born 43:46 He thought of me, of me 43:55 He even knew my name 43:59 Long before I ever learned to breathe 44:06 He had me on His mind 44:10 He was thinking of me constantly 44:17 And long before I ever knew 44:22 The plan that God designed 44:28 He thought of me, 44:32 He had me on His mind 44:43 Amen. Shall we pray? 44:46 Mighty God and friendly savior, 44:49 we're so thankful tonight 44:50 that your creative power demonstrates your saving power 44:54 and also your keeping power. 44:56 Father, we praise you tonight for the Christians' worldview 45:01 that You lovingly made us 45:02 and are even now redeeming and restoring us 45:05 and soon You're going to rescue us 45:07 and make this world all brand new. 45:10 Help us to place our trust in you 45:12 and also give our undying worship to the God 45:16 who knows each of his children by name. 45:20 I want to take your response card just now. 45:24 Would you look through those various options for you tonight 45:29 by way of a prayer and a personal commitment? 45:32 Row captains, just pass those down. 45:34 Take a card out and a pencil if you need it. 45:36 I want to go over this briefly with you. 45:38 I want you to check one of those three responses 45:41 while we're still in an attitude of prayer. 45:43 Pass those right down. 45:44 Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, 45:45 and all the downlink locations 45:47 who should be receiving one now. 45:49 Look at the first one. 45:51 This is what it's trying to say tonight, listen carefully. 45:54 I believe God not only has a plan for creation 45:58 but for my salvation that not only comes by grace 46:01 through faith in Jesus Christ. 46:05 Check that, I hope everyone can do that. 46:07 Secondly, I open my heart to Jesus' love right now. 46:11 Thank you for creating me and redeeming me, 46:13 I give you my life right now. 46:16 Put a check there beside number two. 46:18 There may be some tonight 46:19 that like to check number three, 46:21 I would like additional reading material 46:23 to help me learn more about Jesus. 46:26 Put a check in that and then as that basket comes by, 46:30 place it there as Joey continues. 46:34 He even knew your name 46:38 Long before you ever learned to breathe 46:45 He had you on His mind 46:49 He was thinking of you constantly 46:55 And long before you ever knew 47:01 The plan that God designed 47:06 He thought of you, 47:10 He had you on His mind 47:26 And so, Father, bless us 47:27 as we close our meeting tonight. 47:30 Thank you that we can worship a God who cares, 47:35 who has designed us and who is in control. 47:42 I want you to remember, tomorrow night's subject, 47:44 "Created for Something Better." It's part two in the series. 47:51 Tonight, Sunday night 47:53 and then our next meeting on Wednesday night. 47:56 Be sure you get them all three together, 47:58 brand new, beautiful. 48:00 What's next? 48:02 Revelation speaks, Voice of prophecy speaks. 48:05 Thank you for coming. 48:06 Tomorrow night, "Created for Something Better." 48:09 Don't forget, our hospitality location tonight, 48:13 all of the downlink sites as well as here. 48:15 If you have questions or you particularly 48:17 would like to meet some of our staff, 48:18 our musicians, myself, 48:21 come on over underneath the great big indicator 48:23 or on your downlink locations 48:25 where your host has told you to meet. 48:28 Good night, God bless you. |
Revised 2014-12-17