Can You Really Trust the Bible?

Hey, we're Todd and Julie Mullins, Senior Pastors here at Christ Fellowship Church, and we're so glad that you're tuning in for service today. Yeah, Christ Fellowship is one church that meets in lots of different locations, including right here with you. Yeah, and our prayer for you today is that you would sense God's love for you. See, I don't personally know all that you're going through today and what you're up against, but God does. And He hears your prayers, and He knows your name, and He's right here for you today as you call out to Him. Yeah, thanks again for joining with us today. We love you, and we're praying for you. He gave it all so that we could experience life and life to the full. God is more in store than you have in mind, and I believe so much more that it's going to blow your mind. Praise the Lord. Well, this is us, church. Welcome home. Come on, this is the day the Lord has made. He is here today. Come on, let's clap our hands. Let's rejoice. Let's enter His presence with thanksgiving. Oh, yes, I will. Always faithful today. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Oh, my soul, sing. Come on, sing His name. I have everything I need. The joy of the Lord.

The joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, yes. The joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, my soul, bless His name. All that is within me sing. The joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is my strength. ♪ Let it rain ♪ ♪ Oh let it rise up like a river ♪ ♪ And overflow with Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ And let it pour out with no limit ♪ ♪ Overflowing Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Let it rain like a river ♪ ♪ Overflowing Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ And let it pour out with no limit ♪ ♪ Overflowing Holy Spirit ♪ Come on church, let us be moved in our worship today. Oh make a joyful sound, yeah. Yes. Come on in our escape to Thanksgiving. ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Oh my soul bless His name ♪ ♪ All that is within me say ♪ ♪ Oh my soul bless His name ♪ ♪ All that is within me say ♪ ♪ Oh my soul bless His name ♪ ♪ All that is within me say ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪

It is my strength. Come on, welcome home Christ Fellowship. Hey, if you're new with us today, maybe you're visiting, someone brought you in, I want you to know you are not an outsider. This is your invitation today to sing and join this church as we make much of God. I was reminded of Psalm 16 at the very end, Psalm 16 verse 11, David makes this revelation. He says, father, you actually lead me in paths of life. He said, in your presence, there's fullness of joy. He says, at your right hand, everything that I need, everything that I need, meaning what the world has to offer fades away in light of your presence. Oh, he was so fixed on his presence. This is your invitation church. When we come in here on a Sunday, or if you're joining us online, if you make this place a place of worship, not about what you sing, but what you surrender today, the promise is his, that his presence is with you and he holds everything that we need, amen church. Come on, what a day, what a service. As the East Coast rises up and we join the rest of the world giving God praise. Come on, let me pray for us. Father, we thank you for this day. We have surrendered this moment as the church, as your church, as your bride,

we have surrendered this moment to give you honor, praise. We say have your way and do what you wanna do in Jesus' mighty name, amen. Come on, increase your expectation today. We call on the name of Jesus. Come on, if you lift up, you sing. He declares that I'm in the mighty name of Jesus. I pray, calling on the power of heaven. I proclaim, everywhere preformed against me. We must pray in the mighty name of Jesus. Oh, I draw a burning boundary line. The enemy has no right to come near my family. ♪ I will sing forever unto God's name ♪ ♪ No matter the circumstance ♪ ♪ The cross has sealed my destiny ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus I pray ♪ ♪ Calling on the power of heaven I proclaim ♪ ♪ Every weapon formed against me in my strength ♪ ♪ I pray in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, I sing your name in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Yes, I know all the power of fear and darkness ♪ ♪ It must go, every kill, every victory ♪ ♪ Yes, I hope in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ And I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ When the end of me comes near ♪ ♪ On the doorframe of my life ♪ ♪ Is a blind holy faith arise ♪ ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ There's an army of angels here ♪ ♪ I'm protected on all sides by the blood of Jesus Christ ♪

♪ I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ When the end of me comes near ♪ ♪ On the doorframe of my life ♪ ♪ Is the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ There's an army of angels here ♪ ♪ I'm protected on all sides by the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray ♪ ♪ Calling on the power of heaven, I proclaim ♪ ♪ Every weapon formed against me, it must break ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, yes I know ♪ ♪ Of the power of fear and darkness, it must go ♪ ♪ It must go, every key to every victory, yes I know ♪ ♪ It's in the mighty name of Jesus, oh it's in the name ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, yes I pray ♪ ♪ Calling on the power of heaven, I proclaim ♪ ♪ Every weapon formed against me, it must break ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray ♪ ♪ Every weapon formed against me, it must break ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, yes I know ♪ ♪ Jesus, in the mighty name, there is no other name ♪ ♪ By which we are saved, in the mighty name, oh Jesus ♪ ♪ We hold your name, in the mighty name, it's freedom in the name ♪ ♪ Here in this land, in the mighty name of Jesus, oh Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, oh Jesus, oh Jesus ♪ ♪ There's so much power in your name, you're a mighty God, yes ♪ ♪ I have this hope, as an anchor for my soul ♪ ♪ Through every storm, I will hold to you ♪ ♪ With endless love ♪

♪ All my fears went away ♪ ♪ In everything ♪ ♪ I will trust in You ♪ Amen, amen, there is hope in His name. ♪ Yes, there is hope in the promise of the cross ♪ ♪ You gave everything to save the world, You love ♪ ♪ And this hope is an anchor for my soul ♪ ♪ Our God will stand unshakable this year ♪ Oh, the King of Kings. Come on. ♪ Unshakable, yes, there is hope in the promise of the cross ♪ ♪ You gave everything to save the world, You love ♪ ♪ And this hope is an anchor for my soul ♪ ♪ Our God will stand unshakable this year ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, yes ♪ Who is like our God? Who has the words of eternal life? Come on, salvation is here today. ♪ Yes, your name is higher, your name is greater ♪ ♪ All my hope is in you, your Word, your Word, your Word ♪ ♪ I'm failing your promise, come on, let your praise ♪ ♪ And your worship pour out over His name today ♪ ♪ Yes, your name is higher, your name is greater ♪ ♪ All my hope is in you, your Word, your Word, your Word ♪ ♪ Your Word, I'm failing your promise, I'm shaking ♪ ♪ And all my hope is in you, yeah ♪ ♪ Oh, it is in you, oh, it is in you, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ There's no one like you, no one like you, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, let the church sing with faith today ♪

♪ Your name, your name, your name, your name is higher ♪ ♪ Your name is greater, and all my hope is in you, yeah ♪ ♪ Your Word, it's unfailing, your promise, I'm shaking ♪ ♪ And all my hope is in you, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Your name is higher, your name is greater ♪ ♪ And all my hope is in you, yeah ♪ ♪ Your Word, unfailing, your promise, I'm shaking ♪ ♪ I'm shaking, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ To you, to you, to you, to you, to you, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ Come on, there's no one like our God. There's nobody like Him. There's no name like Him. like the name of Jesus there's no name that we can put our trust and our hope and our faith and we can build our life on his name and he's worthy of all of the praise and all of the honor and all of the glory come on church can we give Jesus praise today for who he is man I love it you know Steven we've been we've been singing that song a long time together like 15 years together and I just every time we sing that bridge your name is higher your word unfailing he's unshakable God that's who he is our faith should come alive today our faith should be lifted up today as the people of God sing those words will never change as we continue in worship today I want to invite you to grab your seats and continue by taking communion together as you came in today you were handed a communion cup and maybe you're watching with us online I want to encourage you to take a second to grab something to celebrate this moment with us as well but if you didn't receive that cup on your way and I want to encourage you to lift your hand and our team will make their way around right now to make sure you get that but Jesus instituted communion 2,000 years ago he himself brought his disciples to this table and Christians have been coming back to the table every moment of life since to celebrate the sacrifice that Jesus made we were commanded to do this and remember it's commanded to come back

to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made I want to encourage you to take a moment just to reflect on the act of surrender that Jesus made 2,000 years ago and then we'll celebrate together in just a moment I'm living proof, of all the mercy of God can do If you knew me then, you'd believe me now You turned my whole world upside down He took the old and he made new Oh yes he did, that's what the mercy of God can do Now I'm alive to tell the story How I've overcome His goodness and mercy And the power of the blood I'm so glad that my freedom Wasn't based on what I've done But his goodness and mercy And the power of the blood It's 2,000 years of history millions of Christians participating today even in this very moment the church keeps coming back to this table because this table keeps pointing us back to Jesus one of the earliest Christian writers Justin Marder described the way that we gather for communion like this he said we do not receive these elements as common bread and common drink but as Jesus Christ our Savior communion has never been ordinary it has always been a sacred and holy act of worship shared by believers together a few centuries later the theologian Augustine would say that we recognize in the bread what hung on the cross and in the cup what flowed from his side for the Apostle Paul says we being many are one bread and one body this table we do not come to Jesus alone we come as a body of many believers made one by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ over the next 1,500 years church leaders and faithful witnesses like Thomas Aquinas Martin Luther John Wesley and Mother Teresa carried on this tradition in our own era the 20th century evangelist Billy Graham would

say the Lord's Supper points us to this great truth thank God for his love and thank him most for Christ's sacrifice for you this is what we do now as one body we thank God for his love we remember Jesus the sacrifice and we are renewed as we draw near to him together he brought his disciples to an upper room and he grabbed an ordinary piece of bread and this is my body which is gonna be broken for you. I want to encourage you to take that wafer and hold it in your hand. The truth is what we've known for 2,000 years is true today is that Jesus was broken so that we could be made whole. His brokenness leads to our freedom and to our healing and to our hope. I want to encourage you to reflect on the sacrifice of Jesus and when you're ready you can take the bread. He then took an ordinary cup. This is my blood which is gonna be poured out for you. It was a new covenant, a new relationship, a new standard of living. We had been chasing heaven for all of history but now Jesus he came running after us. He gave everything. What flowed from his side was healing, forgiveness of sins. Today no matter what you've done, no matter where you've come from, no matter where you've been, because of what Jesus did you have a hope and a future. I want to encourage you to think about what he's done for us. When you're ready you can take the cup. Jesus we are grateful today God for what you did but not only 2,000 years ago but what you are doing right now because your blood and your body they are powerful. They are still moving. Your blood is still speaking. Your blood is still working. Your blood is still offering mercy to us today no matter what we face, no matter where we've been, no matter what we've done. So today we don't honor what happened we honor what is happening now that you are still moving and breathing in your church today. Come on church I think the only response is for us to stand to our feet, to lift our hands high and to begin to give praise to God saying that now I'm alive to tell the story of what he's done. By the mercy of God. What's the cost?

Before me. Now I stand Your carry. Now I've been made free. By the mercies of God. What's the great man for me when I still lay weary? Now I stand by the mercy of God. Now I'm alive and tell the story how I've overcome His goodness and mercy and the power of the blood. I'm so glad that my freedom wasn't based on what I've done. His goodness and mercy and the power of the blood. Oh His goodness and mercy and the

power of the blood. Oh His goodness and mercy and the power of the blood. Come on! Aren't you grateful today? Aren't you thankful for the mercy? Aren't you thankful for the mercy of God? Where would we be today without His mercy and His kindness and His goodness? Come on, give God praise one more time. Yeah, you can be seated. I want to welcome everybody joining us today at all of our Christ Fellowship locations. Everybody joining us online today, we love you. Big shout out to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces joining with us every Sunday. I also want to give a special shout out to BOCA, our BOCA family. Last Sunday we were down in BOCA at the building that we are converting, this old Macy's department furniture store that we're converting into a place of worship and that is that we had a prayer time, worship time. I'm so proud of Pastors Rob and Megan.

and then what they're doing to build the team down there, the students that showed up to lead us in prayer and worship. Let me tell you, my faith was encouraged after I got done last Sunday. I'm like, Boca's got a chance because Jesus is showing up in Boca down there. So excited about that. Keep praying for us as we get that building open at the end of this year in Jesus' name. Well, we are in our series called Reconstructing Faith. And this is all about knowing what you believe, why you believe it, and why it's important. Because what we do know is that we don't know everything that life is gonna throw at us, right? So the question is, what happens in those moments when life gets crazy? What stabilizes you when you go through suffering or a storm? What actually is gonna hold you together when life feels like it's falling apart? You need a foundation that is strong. You don't need something trendy. You need something sturdy. You need something that's gonna sustain you and stabilize you. Last week, Julie kicked off the series. And if you missed the message last Sunday, let me encourage you to go on YouTube or the Christ Fellowship app and watch it

because it will help set the stage for everything that we're digging into this month. And we need what we're digging into this month. We talked about how Christians, so many Christians are deconstructing their faith. Something happens in their life. They question God. God doesn't come through the way they thought he would. Or oftentimes, it's God's people that hurt somebody. And then what they do is they push back from everything that they believe and they begin deconstructing their faith. And our working definition of deconstruction is this right here. Deconstruction is the process of reexamining our beliefs, practices, and assumptions that you've inherited about God, Scripture, the church, and Christianity. Now, in itself, deconstruction isn't bad. The process of reexamining your beliefs and why you believe it and your assumptions that you've inherited. Deconstruction doesn't have to damage your faith. It doesn't have to destroy your faith. It can actually strengthen your faith. The problem is when people deconstruct their faith but they don't reconstruct their faith and they end up with their faith looking like a pile of Jenga blocks like we had last Sunday all over the floor, right? So you may be here today

and you may not be deconstructing your faith but you know somebody who is, somebody who has a family member, a friend, and God loves them so much that he put you in their pathway that you're gonna help them process some of the real questions about God and life that they've got. So this series is gonna help you help them. And the truth is all of us go through times when we question our faith. Something happens, God doesn't answer our prayers the way we hoped he would or want him to, and we are gonna have a time where our faith might get shaken. This is why this series is gonna help your foundation be strong for those times. Now as a part of our study, we've been looking at the Apostles' Creed. And the Apostles' Creed is this set of beliefs that have defined our Christian faith for centuries. The creed doesn't tell us everything that Christians believe, but everything that we believe is built off of this creed. And this creed was actually formed to help new believers, the early church, form their faith and to keep the church unified on the essential beliefs of our faith. And like we did last week, I wanna invite you to stand at all of our locations as we read the creed together.

Hopefully you've been reading it this week, but we're gonna read it together. It's on the screens for you. Let's read it. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of a Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. On the third day, He rose again in accordance with the scriptures. He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy universal church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting, amen. Amen, amen. You can be seated. Amen. The words that you just declared over your life have echoed through the centuries from the Christians. Before people had Bibles, they had this creed. Before people had Bible apps or. Bible studies they could go to. They had this creed. And while we heard that it was not written by the apostles, it was written on everything that the apostles wrote

in the word of God. So if these statements from this creed are foundational to our faith, and if every one of these statements is rooted in the word of God, then we have to ask ourselves a deeper question. Is the word of God trustworthy? Can you trust the word of God to be true? Because the creed didn't create truth. The truth comes from the word of God. The creed just simply summarizes the truth from the word of God. Every phrase that we just read, every declaration, every belief flows from God's word. So we have to know is God's word trustworthy? Because think about it. The only way that you know that Jesus is the son of God is because it comes from the word. The only way you know that he was born of a virgin, that he lived a sinless life, that he died on the cross for our sins, that he rose again to conquer hell in the grave is because the word of God proclaims that. The only reason that you know about salvation and mercy and forgiveness of sins and heaven and the Holy Spirit is because it all comes from the scripture. So before we can stand on the creed, we have to answer a more foundational question. Can we stand on the word of God? Can we build our life on this truth?

And this is important for us because I want you to hear this. Christianity is not blind faith. God does not ask you to check your brain at the door to follow him. Biblical faith is not wishful thinking or emotional hype. Our faith, our faith is rooted in historical events, fulfilled prophecy, preserved manuscripts, eyewitness testimony, like it's all there. In fact, one of the eyewitnesses, Peter, in 1 Peter 1, he said, we did not base our message on clever myths that we made up. Rather, we witnessed his majesty with our own eyes. And now if you know the stories of what are in the Bible, if they were making it up, they wouldn't have included all their failures. They would have erased a few things. They would have changed some stuff, but it's all in there. Like they weren't, they didn't edit it. It was all there. They witnessed it, which tells us that Christianity is not just spiritually meaningful, it's intellectually credible. What we're gonna talk about today is that it's not just, oh, my spirit is encouraged or I feel, no, it is, yes, and it is intellectually credible for us. The word of God has stood the test of time. It has endured scrutiny and persecution from governments. It has endured criticism from skeptics and philosophers. And think about it, empires have risen and fallen.

Critics have come and gone, yet the Bible remains the most influential, preserved, life-changing book in the history of humanity. And here's why this is so important for us, because if the Bible is true, then God has spoken. If the Bible is true, then Jesus is exactly who he says he came to be. Now, if this book isn't God's word, then we can disregard it and go home, right? I mean, if this is, we can live how we wanna live, do what we wanna do, do whatever y'all wanna do, but if this book is the authoritative, Holy Spirit-inspired word of God, then that has some major ramifications on how you live your life. So let's look at it in a couple different areas. The first thing I wanna look at is what does the Bible, assuming the Bible is true for a moment, what does the Bible say about the Bible? I'm glad you asked. The first thing is Isaiah 40, verse eight. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but, say it with me out loud wherever you are, the word of God stands forever. This word is gonna last. Things are gonna come and things are gonna go, but the truth of God, his word stands forever. Psalm 119 says, all your words are true. All your laws are right. They last, what?

Forever. That means they're good for us today. They didn't expire when the year turned over to something. Oh, it's modern day. We don't need to acknowledge the laws of, no, no, no. They last forever. Second Timothy 3.16 says, all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training for righteousness, so that you and me, the servant of God, may be thoroughly equipped for. Every good work, every purpose that God has put on your life, this Bible is gonna help you be equipped for that. That scripture says this. God breathed, it's inspired by God, it's useful for teaching, rebuking, and correcting. We don't like that one so much. Like, rebuking, I like the teaching part. Give me the verses that encourage me, Todd. But when he gets up in my business and tries to correct me and the way I live my life, yeah, it's useful for that. He goes on to say it's useful for righteousness. That word righteousness means in right relationship with God, so this word is actually gonna help you know how to be and how to stay in right relationship with God. Only grace brings you into right relationship with God, but the word is gonna teach you how to live

in right relationship with God and how to keep that relationship with God strong. See, because when Jesus is the Lord of your life, there are some things in your life that he's gonna wanna change. There's gonna be some attitudes, some actions, some things, desires that the world says is okay, but God says, no, that's sin. That's sin, don't go down that path. And the only reason God tells you not to go down that path is because he knows what's down that path. Right, he knows, he sees things that you and I can't see. He knows some things that you and I don't know and he wants you to, he knows there's paths that lead to life and there's paths that lead to bondage. And he doesn't want you to live your life in bondage, so he's saying, hey, here's the path for life. Avoid that path, go down this path, right? Think about it like God doesn't, he talks in the Bible about not getting drunk, not allowing alcohol to control your, any substance to control your life. It's not because he's trying to ruin your Friday night. He doesn't want you to ruin your life. I could read many verses, Proverbs 20, wine produces mockers, alcohol leads to brawls. Those led astray by drink cannot be wise. You're wise, so don't be led astray. The reason that God talks about keeping your mind

and your body sexually pure for marriage isn't because God is anti-sex. He's pro-sex, he created sex, he said it was good, right? In the blessing, in the confines of marriage. He doesn't want you to be in captivity to pornography. So he says, keep your heart pure from that. Don't wander, don't go down that pathway because it's gonna bind you up. Don't just do what you want because you're gonna carry that with you into your marriage relationship. He wants you to walk in freedom. The reason in his word that he talks about don't allow possessions and the love of money to capture your heart is because he knows that if your possessions possess you, they will imprison you. See, God's boundaries are a blessing. They're like, they're guardrails so you can live life. They're not prison walls, no. They're a blessing in our life. So this God breathe word of God is to help you find the life that you've been created to live. And by the way, do you know that this isn't one book? This is actually a collection of 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament, all tied together, written by 40 different authors, all tied together with one thing that God passionately loves you. And he's pursuing a relationship with you

through his son, Jesus Christ. This is not a science book, although it contains elements in here that science has actually proved to be accurate, that science did not know until God showed them. This is not a book about how to get rich and be happy, although the Bible says that when you follow God, he will richly bless those who follow him and honor him. Yeah, yeah. This book is not gonna answer every question that you have, every mystery of the universe. Like, are UFOs real? Like, what are those things? Are those demons? Are they fallen angels? I don't know, I'm not sure. Well, there's a verse here or there that might help you understand and have some insight, but that's not the purpose of this book. The purpose of this book is God's love letter to you, to know how to know him and walk with him through Jesus Christ and follow him and find, it's personal to you. So that's what the Bible says about the Bible. What do people, what do others say about the Bible? I'm glad you asked. This guy named Nelson Glick was one of the most respected Jewish archeologists in the 20th century, and he said, it may be stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever controverted

or refuted a biblical reference, ever, ever. There's never been anything that they found that would ever refute one thing in the Bible. In fact, there were things in the Bible that archeologists didn't know that were even there. They say, well, the Bible talks about this city and it wasn't until hundreds of years later that they found the remains. to that city and they were like, oh, it's exactly where the Bible told us it would be. Sir Isaac Newton, maybe you've heard of this guy. Mathematician, physician, law of motion, gravity, like, because you're sitting down, you actually have been infected by this guy. He says, there are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatsoever. Profane, that word just means secular. So he was convinced that out of all the secular writings that were out there, the manuscripts, and I could geek out on you, and I did this whole study this week again about all the manuscripts, there's more manuscripts proving the truth of the word of God than any other historical document combined. When you take all the others and combine them, it doesn't even match up to what the word of God says. Guy named, you probably haven't heard of this guy, Robert Jostrow. He was a prominent astronomer and physicist. In fact, he was very instrumental in the US space program.

He was an agnostic. He did not believe in God. He actually believed the universe was just matter and energy floating around. And he said this, he said in interviews, he said, I'm in a hopeless bind because his intellect rebelled against the idea of a creator, but his reason could not accept the immense complexity of the cosmos and the human life happened to be by pure chance. He says, I couldn't even match the two up because it's so obvious that there had to be a creator. He wrote a book in 1978 entitled God and the Astronomers. And he argued that modern astronomical account of the universe, it mirrored the biblical narrative. He observed that both the scientific data, get this, scientific data and the book of Genesis described the world both beginning suddenly and sharply at a precise moment in time. Big bang theory. God said it, bang, it happened, okay. He goes on to say he believed astronomers were inadvertently uncovering, look at this, evidence for a universe that began abruptly through an act of creation. So I want you to understand something. You've got agnostics, scientists, Jewish archeologists all saying this book is real. That's what people are, that's what they're saying about it.

So that's what people say. What does prophecy say about the word of God? What can we learn about the word of God from prophecy? Now prophecy by definition is a message that's inspired by God and communicated through a human vessel, a person, to reveal God's truth, God's heart, God's will, or God's purposes to his people. The book of the word of God is filled with prophecy. Prophecy, it tells us what is to come. It tells us what God wants. It tells us what's gonna happen. Did you know that in the Bible, there are approximately 2,500 prophecies? 2,000 of those prophecies have already been fulfilled and another 500 of those prophecies are yet to be fulfilled in the last days and the return of Christ. Second Peter chapter one verse 10 says this, verse 20 says this, no prophecy of scripture comes from a prophet's own interpretation because no prophecy ever came by the will of man. Instead, men spoke from God as they were, look at that, carried along by the Holy Spirit. In fact, that's how the whole Bible was written. The authors were carried along. Theologians say that word carried along, the word picture is when a big ship raises its sails up in the air

and the wind gets in the sails and pushes the boat where it's supposed to go. That's how the word of God was written and the Bible is filled with very specific prophecies, very specific. Do you know that, let's just focus on Jesus for a moment. The prophet Isaiah gave very specific prophecies about the coming Messiah hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus would be born. He said specifically he would be born in a little town called Bethlehem. Bethlehem, that was like off the map. Why would the Messiah of the world be born in Bethlehem? That'd be like saying he's gonna be born in a popcah Florida or something like that, you know what I'm saying? Like why, no, why? But he was born in Bethlehem, that he would be born of a virgin, that he would have to travel down to Egypt, that he would ride on the back of a donkey into all of these prophecies, very specific about Jesus. The Bible is filled with all of these specific events in the beginning that directly connect to ending events and the only way they could connect from the ending event to the beginning event is that they actually, this was a prophecy about what was to come.

There are things that are ending events that are directly tied to things that would have had to happen thousands of years earlier. The only way that could happen in the word of God is that there would be one author that could actually, like if you were writing a novel, the author could go in and change something at the beginning. to match the ending or make this happen in the ending because he wanted this to happen in the beginning. And if you saw something like that, you would go, man, that's pretty amazing, right? Let me give you a visual picture of what this looks like. Okay, this is a graph where they have taken and visually connected all of the prophecies in the Old Testament with the revelation of it happening in the New Testament. Words that were spoken here in this part of the Bible that actually come about sometimes in the Old Testament and then later in the New Testament. There are 63,779 of these arches that connect in the Bible where something was spoken very, these aren't like random, these are specific. This is Bethlehem, Bethlehem. Donkey, donkey. No broken bones, no broken bones. All very specific, it reveals. So across the bottom of this graph, you have the books of the Bibles. Can you see this?

This would be Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and then across all the way to Revelation. The lines going down actually point to the number of chapters and verses in that book. So do you see this one right here that goes all the way down? Can you see that one? Any guess on what that is? Which Psalm, Ropam, which Psalm? Boca, right, Psalm 119. Right there, they got the most verses in the Bible, right? It happens to just be in the middle as well, which is interesting. And every one of these lines connects to a real time and a real place. Something was spoken, and then in a real time and a real place, it's revealed, it's happened. Now, if somebody could create this, if somebody could write this and make this happen, you would go, this is remarkable that one author could actually create something as complex as this. But what's even more remarkable is it was written by 40 different authors from all different walks of life. Prophets, prophets and peasants and shepherds and kings across 1,500 years on three different continents, Asia, Africa, Europe, in three different languages, Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and all of it ties together seamlessly, perfectly to tell us one beautiful story of God's redemptive plan for humanity and for me.

And this is remarkable. By the way, if you want this graph, we've got this graph for you, right? You can actually tap the disc in the seat back in front of you on our app. This graph is here, plus some of the prophecies. It would be too many to have 63,000 written down there, but I included about 20 or 30 in there for you to look and see just where the connections happen. In the Old Testament, it said here, and in the New Testament, it said there. Let me just give you, let me give you a few of them. He will be betrayed by a friend. That's in Psalm 41, and then in Matthew 26, he was betrayed by Judas. He will be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, Zechariah 11. The money that he is betrayed with will be used to buy a potter's field, very specific. Zechariah 11, and in Matthew 27, that's exactly what Judas did. He went out and bought a potter's field. He will be accused by false witnesses, Psalm 35. He will be silent before his accusers. He will be mocked and ridiculed and rejected, Isaiah 53. His hands and feet will be pierced, Psalm 22. His bones will be left unbroken, Psalm 34. So that's just, I just read off eight, eight. Eight prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. A mathematician by the name of Peter Stoner said this. The chance that any man might have fulfilled

all eight prophecies is one, is 10 to the 17th power. That would be, this is the chance that this is accurate. That would be one in, and then he lists out that number with all those zeros, which is actually, I looked it up, 100 quadrillion. It's a real number. Says we can take 10 to the 17th silver dollars and lay them face down in the state of Texas. I actually went yesterday into my coin collection from when I was a kid, and I pulled out a silver dollar. You probably, some of you have never seen a silver dollar, but these were things back in the day. He said if you took that many silver dollars, 100 quadrillion silver dollars, it would cover the state of Texas two feet deep. Not the city of Dallas, not just the city of Houston, the whole state of Texas, covered two feet deep. And then if you mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, blindfold a man and tell him he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up on his first try the one marked silver dollar. What chance would he have of getting that right? The same chance that the prophets would have had if writing eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, provided they wrote them in their own wisdom, which they did not. And Jesus did not fulfill simply eight prophecies. Do you know that Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies of himself?

It is remarkable. And not only did he fulfill prophecy, he actually prophesied. And everything that he spoke came true, which means every word that he has spoken will come true. So that is the introduction to my sermon today. I promise my message isn't as long, but I had to get you to go, oh, okay. So what we're talking about, Todd, is real. It really happened. Yes. See, the question isn't, is the Bible interesting? The question isn't, is it inspiring? The question isn't, does it have some good advice for our lives? Much bigger than that. And it's much more personal than that. If it's true, what are you gonna do? If this is true, what are you gonna do? Now, if this book is just a bunch of ancient stories, if Jesus isn't who he claimed to be, let's go get brunch or something. Let's just, we're done here, right? But if the Bible is true, if Jesus really is the son of God and he fulfilled all those prophecies that he fulfilled, if the word of God is the inspired word of God, right? If history and archeology and fulfilled prophecy and eyewitness testimony all speak to its credibility, then my friend, we are at a moment of decision. Because you cannot encounter truth

and it not force you to make a decision. You can ignore an opinion, you can debate a preference, you can discuss a trend and go, I don't like that trend, but when you encounter truth, you've got to decide what are you gonna do with truth? See, throughout history, people have not so much rejected Christianity because of its credibility. I could spend the next three hours stacking all the, it's not about credibility, it's about authority. They don't want somebody telling them what's right and wrong. But the truth is, if Jesus is Lord, that means I am not. If Jesus is king, that means you don't get to sit on the throne of your own life and make your own decisions. No, if God is who he says he is, if God was before time began, if he knows the beginning from the end, then guess who gets to decide what is right and what is wrong from my life? What is true and what is false, what is good and what is evil? Not me, we don't vote on it, we don't parade it around, we don't justify it, man, we look to the word of God. Because what happens, let me ask you a question, what happens when God's word confronts your preferences? What happens when God's word confronts your lifestyle? What happens when God's word confronts your, we don't change God's word to fit our life. We allow God to change our life to fit the word. We don't judge the word, I like that, I don't like that,

no, we let the word judge us, right? We don't edit the word, I'm just gonna ignore that, no, we let the word edit us, change us, make us look more like Jesus. So the question isn't do you agree with God, the question is will you submit to God? Because you know that he is the creator of life and he knows best how you're gonna get the most out of life. So I got three challenges for you today. The first challenge is make God's word your final authority. Make this word your final authority, not your occasional authority, not your Sunday morning authority, not when it's convenient and it lines up with what you think and what you feel. No, it is the final authority of my life because God knows what's best for my life. The second challenge I've got for us is that we gotta stop picking the parts we prefer. This is not some holy buffet line. I'll have a big old helping of mercy and grace, oh, the mercy of God, woo, yeah, we sang about that, give me some of that and I'm gonna avoid the self-denial and the self-control and the obedience part. I'm just gonna kind of, just a little bit of that, just a little, no, no, no. It's amazing how we, how easy it is, we love the promises of God, but we avoid some of the commands of God. For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord.

Plans to prosper, oh, I love that. God's working all things together. gather from my bed, but when it starts to challenge us, cause us to change our lifestyle and our choices. Can I tell you, the same Bible that comforts you challenges you. The same word that encourages us convicts us. And every conviction is actually an invitation to freedom and to life. Every challenge is actually a call up to where God has called us to live. He doesn't want us, he loves you too much to let you stay the way you are. He loves you just the way you are, thank God. Nothing that you have to do to earn his love, but he loves you too much to let you stay there. He's gonna say, let's change that attitude. Let's work on that forgiveness. Let's work on that purity. Let's work on that anger over here. Let's work on your mouth. Cause it's a little, he's gonna work on things because his goal is to make you more like Jesus. So let him do his work in you. Embrace it, don't resist it. Third challenge, don't just believe the truth. Live the truth, don't just believe it. The creed that we've been reading was never meant to be just a statement of beliefs that we recite. It was actually meant to be something that we live.

In fact, the early church lived and died for this creed. Jesus didn't say, you will hear the truth and the truth will set you free. He didn't say, you'll come in on Sunday mornings and sing about the truth and the truth will set you free. He said, you will what? Know the truth and the truth will set you free. Know, that word know biblically means to be intimately connected to, to embrace, that it transforms you, that you live it. So here's my question. If Jesus is who he says he is, and if the Bible is what it says it is, God's living word to you personally, here's the question. What needs to change in your life? What area have you maybe been resisting God? What sin or issue have you been kind of justifying or rationalizing? Because everybody does it and it's pretty normal. It's not a big deal. God has spoken, our response needs to be surrender. If God has said it, then we say, God, help me to live it. Because I know that your word brings life and freedom and direction and peace to my life. I wanna pray two prayers today. The first prayer I wanna pray is actually lead you in a time of reflection. What area in your life do you need to surrender to God today because God has spoken? The second prayer I wanna pray are for those of you that

since Jesus is who he says he is, he fulfilled all those prophecies and more. And he said, I'm the only way that you get to God. Some of you have never truly turned your life over to Jesus. That's the prayer you need to pray today. Or some of you maybe you have, but you know you've been living your own life and it's time to recommit to him today. The second prayer today is gonna be for you. Would you bow your heads with me as we pray? Father, we thank you for your word that teaches us what is true and helps us to know where we need to align our hearts and our lives so that we can live the life you've created us for. So in a moment of silence, right where you are, just ask the Holy Spirit what in my life needs to change so that I can live the life you've called me to live. What area have you spoken already in your word? Could be in sexuality, could be in finances, it could be in attitudes, in unforgiveness. What is it that you need to surrender? As we continue to pray with every head bowed, if you're here today and you would say, Todd, the second prayer I know is for me, I've got to get my relationship with God right. I'm gonna pray this prayer. And if you would say, Todd, please include me in this prayer, then right where you're seated, would you just lift a hand up in the air and hold it up high

across all of our locations, hold them up high. You want everything that God has for you today. You're saying, God, I surrender my life to you today. If you're online watching, hold your hand up high. And we're gonna pray this prayer out loud. And those of you with your hands up, you pray it a little bit louder. You pray this, say, dear Lord Jesus, come into my life and be the Lord over my life. I surrender to you today. Make me a new person from the inside out, and I will follow you for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Come on, let's thank God today for everybody who made that decision for Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.