I Am Not Religious : The Bridge That God Built (Full Experience)

being the family, like the local church. And every Sunday, FC Kids offers fun, faith-filled environments where your kids can learn about God in ways they'll love. And for all the students, The Mix meets every Wednesday night to help your son or daughter grow in their faith, discover their purpose, and build strong friendships that center around Christ. And on May 6th, we are hosting the biggest paint war in Dallas, Fort Worth. So come and join us for Color Clash as all of our locations are coming together at our Grapevine campus for an epic night of community, worship, and the ultimate color battle. We've also got special guest Dylan Mandel, who's battled cancer four times and has such a powerful story of God's faithfulness. And then right around the corner is summer camp at Elaso Ranch. There is no better place for a child or student to spend a week of their summer, or for an adult or young adult to come and serve and be a part of changing someone's life. I'm here to tell you, spots are filling up fast. So register today. We want you to experience the thrill that is Elaso Ranch. If you're a high school senior or young adult thinking about what your next step is, we'd love to tell you more about FCU,

a four-year fully accredited degree in an environment that will grow you spiritually, whether you choose ministry or the marketplace. Whether it's a degree in business, psychology, or biblical studies, FCU is waiting for you. So apply today. To stay in the know, follow us on social media, and make sure you check out Pastor Ed's C3 Leadership Podcast, where new episodes drop every week to help you take your leadership and life to the next level. Don't do life alone. To find out more and get connected, you can visit our website, fellowshipchurch.com, or take your phone out and tap the C back in front of you. You can also download the Fellowship Church app, which is filled with incredible resources like daily devotionals, messages, and other resources to fuel your faith. We're so glad you're here. So now let's get ready for today's experience. For God loved the world so much that he gave his only son, so that whoever believed in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Amen. Good morning, Fellowship Church. Will you stand on your feet today as we worship together? Come on, who's thankful that because of Jesus, we get to walk in freedom and in life?

If you're thankful for that, come on, will you sing this out? Will you lift up your voice and give a praise today? Put your hands up. ♪ Praise like this ♪ ♪ Some will say it's foolishness ♪ ♪ But I say it's worth the risk ♪ ♪ I can't forget what Jesus did ♪ ♪ No, I'm not ashamed to praise like this ♪ ♪ Where are those chains that once held me? ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ My sin is gone, how can it be? ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ And look at what the Lord has said ♪ ♪ I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ I'll sing, I'll dance, cause I believe ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, thank God I'm free ♪ ♪ I found a family never quits ♪ ♪ A world that loves as good as this ♪ ♪ And I don't care what anyone says ♪ ♪ I'll never be ashamed to praise like this ♪ ♪ Where are those chains that once held me? ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ My sin is gone, how can it be? ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ And look at what the Lord has done ♪ ♪ I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ I'll sing, I'll dance, cause I believe ♪ ♪ You desire me, I'm free, I'm free, thank God I'm free ♪ ♪ You took the cross and You broke Your body ♪

♪ You shed Your blood, now the sinner can't see ♪ ♪ My debt is paid and my record is clean ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it, so You did it for me ♪ ♪ You took the cross and You broke Your body ♪ ♪ You shed Your blood, now the sinner can't see ♪ ♪ My debt is paid and my record is clean ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it, so You did it for me ♪ ♪ You took the cross and You broke Your body ♪ ♪ You shed Your blood, now the sinner can't see ♪ ♪ My debt is paid and my record is clean ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it, so You did it for me ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it, so You did it for me ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it, so You did it for me ♪ ♪ Where are those chains that once held me? ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ My sin is gone, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ I'll sing, I'll dance cause I believe, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ Look what the Lord has done, only I can do it, only I can do it ♪ ♪ And look at what the Lord has done, I'm never going back, never going back ♪ ♪ And look at what the Lord has done, I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ We're never going back. God's too good, Jesus, thank you for the freedom and the life that we've found in you. It's our prayer today that anybody that's caught up in shame, caught up in addiction, caught up in emptiness and hopelessness, that we receive your invitation to step into freedom and life. Let's sing this together. ♪ Everything changed, it's getting harder to recognize the person I was before I encountered Christ ♪ ♪ I don't walk like I used to and I don't talk like I used to, why? I've been washed from the inside, I've been washed from the inside ♪ Sing it out.

♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, I know it wasn't blood, it could have only been the blood ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, I know it wasn't blood, it could have only been the blood, it could have only been your blood ♪ Jesus laid his life down and took it up again so that we may have life. ♪ And I cannot explain, but nothing's more real than this, in the presence of God and what my heart experienced ♪ ♪ When my shame hit the wayside and my sin met the most high, I was washed from the inside, I was washed from the inside ♪ Sing it. ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, I know it wasn't blood, it could have only been the blood, it could have only been your blood ♪ Come on, if it's changed you, lift your voice and sing to Him this morning. Just thank Him. Thank Him. Come on. Oh, yeah. Come on. Come on. Come on, if you're grateful, lift this up, sing it out. ♪ It's only by the blood ♪ ♪ It's never been about deserving or earning ♪ ♪ It's a gift that's freely given, let me tell you ♪ ♪ It's only by the blood ♪ ♪ Does anybody wanna be holy and righteous ♪ ♪ Purified and spotless, let me tell you, it's Him ♪ ♪ It's only by the blood, does anybody wanna be worthy ♪ ♪ Forgiven and justified in living, let me tell you ♪ ♪ It's only by the blood, sing hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, I know it was a play ♪ ♪ Could've only been the play, hallelujah, sing hallelujah ♪ ♪ Sing hallelujah, I know it was a play ♪ ♪ Could've only been the play, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ I know it was a play, could've only been the play ♪ ♪ Sing hallelujah, I know it was a play ♪

♪ Could've only been the play, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ I know it was a play, could've only been the play ♪ ♪ Could've only been the play, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ Is anybody grateful for the love and the power of Jesus at work in your life? I know that I'm so thankful. You know, everybody longs to be loved, and God loved us so much that he sent Jesus to live a perfect life, to die sacrificially for us, and then to rise again, proving that he was who he was. And he offers this as a gift, not something that we deserve, not something that we can earn, but a gift that we can receive. And as you look around people, you will see people who have joy on their faces. And it's not because their lives are perfect, it's because they have experienced the grace and the love that comes from being in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. So we're glad that you're here. If you're new to Fellowship Church, or maybe you have not yet placed your faith in Jesus, or maybe you have, but you're struggling today, our prayer is that you will be reminded today that God loves you, and that there are people here who wanna love and support you, that you are not alone. So church, will you show your encouragement to every person that's here this morning? You may be seated.

Well, I wanna welcome you to Fellowship Church My name is Tian Moon. I'm a part of our team here, and on behalf of Pastor Ed and Lisa Young, I wanna welcome those who are joining us online, and especially those who are joining us here for the very first time. We are so glad that you're here. Church, will you help me welcome our first-time guests? We are so glad that you're here. And you know, this is not just a place that you come to. This is a family, and so we wanna help you get connected here. So we have a really practical way for you to do that. In the seat back in front of you is this blue card. This is the time. Just reach out and pull that out, grab a pen. This is a great time to go ahead and fill that out. In fact, if you've been coming to Fellowship for a while, but so far what you've done is to sit in one of these seats, we wanna invite you to get connected here. And so you can grab one of these cards too. And in just a moment, you can drop it in the offering plate after you have filled it out. And we wanna have an opportunity to reach out to you, connect you to our connect groups, to support and recovery groups. We have Bible study classes for married and singles. We even have a parenting seminar

that's starting this Wednesday called the Winning Family Seminar. It's for those who want to raise children someday, or maybe those who are raising children. It's Wednesday at seven o'clock. I don't know if you've experienced this, but the struggle is real. But the struggle is worth it, and we're not alone. And so we invite you to come and be a part of this on Wednesday night. Along with The Mix and with FC Kids, we have something for everybody in the family. So you can fill out this card, and we will connect you to this and so many other things that are coming. Now, you may be thinking, Well, I'd really like to talk to somebody today. Well, we can do that. We have our newcomer's lunch that's going to be happening immediately after this service in our Source Cafe. So as soon as you exit, you can head right over there. We'll provide you with lunch. If your kids are in FC Kids, let them stay there a little bit longer. We'll take care of them. And we will just tell you more about what's available here. We'd love to connect with you. You know, we're gonna continue our time of worship, and one of the ways that we worship is through a time of generosity.

This is a time when we bring the first of what we have been given back to God. And there's so many of you who faithfully invest in the kingdom of God here, and we are grateful for you. If you were here last Sunday, you saw so many people crossing this bridge as a symbol of their decision to put their faith in Jesus Christ. These kinds of opportunities are available because of your faithfulness. And for those of you who are investing in our Anchor Project, we are so grateful for you because you are investing in the next generation as we build this new student center. We're breaking ground this summer, so it's coming. And we're grateful for your faithfulness in continuing to give as well. So thank you for investing in what God's doing here. I'm gonna invite our host to come forward so we can bring our offering. And again, if you have that blue Connect card, just drop that in when the bag passes. And while they do that, we're gonna continue to prepare for our worship experience. I wanna share two more things that are happening in the next 10 days. The first is our Sisterhood Conference, Sincerely Yours. I feel like we've been talking about this forever, but it's finally here. So now is the time.

If you haven't registered, be sure and register. It's gonna be hosted by Lisa Young. We're welcoming Sadie Robertson-Huff. It's for women sixth grade and above. It's gonna be an incredible morning this coming Saturday. And it's a time of encouragement, of refreshing, but there's also merch and gifts and food. So we're gonna have a lot of fun together. So plan to come and bring people with you. Invite someone in your life who needs encouragement. Invite them to come because it really is gonna be worth that investment of your time together. There's nothing like getting the ladies together. So it's gonna be awesome. And then three days later, we're hosting the Turning Point Faith Forward Pastor Summit right here at Fellowship Church. They're gonna be pastors coming from all over the country. And we're gonna be talking about how do we stand from on the gospel and how do we eradicate wokeism from the pulpit. It is gonna be such an encouraging, bold conference. And because you are a part of Fellowship Church, you have the opportunity to attend this conference for free. So you can simply, this is a great, I mean, it's right here in our own backyard. So you can tap the seat back in front of you, or you can go to fellowshipchurch.com to register for Sisterhood or for the Turning Point Conference.

It's going to be an incredible next couple of weeks. And we're so excited for what God continues to do day in and day out. So let's pray as we prepare to continue to worship. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you that you work through the big things, but you also work in the everyday little things. So I ask, Father, that you would help us to open our heart to what it is that you have for us today. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you that you work through the big things, but you also work in the everyday little things. So I ask, Father, that you would help us to open our heart to what it is that you have for us today. In Jesus' name, amen. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you that you work through the big things, but you also work in the everyday little things. So I ask, Father, that you would help us to open our heart to what it is that you have for us today. In Jesus' name, amen. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you that you work through the big things, but you also work in the everyday little things. What a God, what a God. Why won't you stand and worship with us today? I thought you'd show up. ♪ I thought you'd show up for perfection ♪

♪ But what kind of God looks for the lost ♪ ♪ They say it's over for a sinner ♪ ♪ But you say, no, it's not, no, it's not ♪ ♪ But you say, no, it's not, no, it's not ♪ ♪ What a God, what a God ♪ What a God, what a God What a God, what a God We thank you Jesus What a God, what a God What a God, what a God What kind of king leads his throne For a cross to redeem and save us What kind of God restores the lost And calls the prodigals home Come on, let's sing this together If the highest place I reached is at your feet Then I've done it all If the best thing that I've seen is your glory Then I've seen it all Your love has changed my life Forever satisfied God You are my everything If the highest place I reached is at your feet Then I've done it all If the best thing that I've seen is your glory Then I've seen it all Your love has changed my life Forever satisfied God You are my everything If one word is the only thing you speak

Then I've heard it all If I feel your heart and never see your hand Then I still have it all Your treasure of this life Could ever satisfy God You are my everything You are my everything God, you are my everything What a God, what a God What a God, what a God What a God you are What a God, what a God What a God, what a God Come on in adoration and surrender to the King Every voice we sing If the highest place I reached is at your feet Then I've done it all If the best thing that I've seen is your glory Then I've seen it all Your love has changed my life Forever satisfied God You are my everything If one word is the only thing you speak Then I've heard it all If I feel your heart and never see your hand Then I still have it all Your treasure of this life Could ever satisfy God You are my everything God, you are my everything

God, you are my everything Jesus, you are everything You're worthy of it all Praise all the honor and all the glory We love you, Lord You may be seated You know, Lisa and I were at a hamburger restaurant this past summer and it's one of these restaurants where they had all these picnic tables outside and Lisa goes, honey, look at this guy and we saw a guy across the way and he was walking around and he had a T-Rex tail of toilet paper I mean, 30 feet behind him tucked into his belt just walking around I mean, 30 feet behind him tucked into his belt just walking around and I started laughing I kind of did the face palm thing and then I thought, surely someone's got to walk up to him and say, bro, listen you've got a T-Rex tail, you know, of toilet paper and someone did and I was happy that that happened but that's embarrassing, you know a wardrobe malfunction. I think it's true when you think about the world religions

that a lot of world religions are walking around with a T-Rex tail. They're walking around with about 30 feet of toilet paper and no one has said anything. No one has said, hey, you have a wardrobe malfunction. Here at Fellowship, we've been doing that over the last several weeks. Jesus said these words in Matthew 22, 39. Love your neighbor as yourself. If we truly are gonna love each other the way we should, we need to understand one another. So to understand one another, we need to go, all right, is that what you believe? Interesting. Is that your faith system? That's fascinating. As believers, the more we know about other world religions, the more we can converse and connect and get to know one another. And I believe we have an opportunity to share with them the difference that Christianity makes. Because we've been saying here, Christianity is unique compared to all of the other world religions. It really, really is. And today, we're going to do a flyover. We're just gonna kind of look at three major world religions. I'm not gonna get too specific. If you wanna get specific, there are great books to read.

The best book is the book I recommended last week by Lee Strobel called The Case for Christ. Lee talks about some of these world religions there and you can study and find other resources and another resource that I love, he's a close friend of mine, is Cliff Keneckley. And we're gonna be hearing from Cliff in this message, believe it or not, about some of these issues. Because no one has talked to more people about world religions than Cliff Keneckley. Millions of people around the world. It's exciting, though, to discuss these issues, these things, because a lot of people say, like I told you, a guy told me on a flight the other day, hey man, all religions are kind of the same. I mean, all religions are basically different bridges that lead to one destination. And I responded by saying, hey, I understand where you're coming from, but, I said, that's not really accurate. I said, the more you study, the more you're gonna realize, whoa, Christianity is different. Here's the difference. The major difference in world religions and other faith systems. They are a colossal construction project where man has tried to build a bridge from his side all the way to God's side. That is religion. Man attempting to build a bridge from his side

to man's side, by being good, by being philosophical, and so forth. Christianity is different. God took responsibility upon himself. He saw the gap caused by our sin. He saw the delta. God took responsibility upon himself. He sent Jesus Christ, and it took 33 years, because Jesus was 33 years when he ascended into the heavenlies, and Jesus was born, and he lived this righteous life. That's the bridge deck. He died on the cross for our sins. Then, three days later, he rose again. So, in essence, the ribbon-cutting ceremony took place Easter Sunday, 2,000 years ago, because the bridge was complete. Jesus said, the project is finished. Let's talk about some of these world religions right quick. One of them is Hinduism, Hinduism. We have a lot of Hindus in our world, 1.2 billion Hindus. Hinduism is as cultural as it is religious. Hinduism is one of the oldest religions, specifically 1,400 B.C. It's highly complex. Isn't it funny how we like things that are complex? Have you noticed that? Ask someone a question. Oh, man, it's just complex.

Wow, I really like that. That sermon, it was just so complex. No, I don't want things complex. I want things understandable. So it's easy to keep the complex complex, but it's another thing to make the complex simple and understandable. So Hinduism is highly, highly complex. One sect has over 330 million gods, 330 million gods. And one of the difficulties that a Christian has in sharing with a Hindu is oftentimes Hindus will go, yeah, Jesus, I'll add him to the mix. That's great, man, I'm down with that. And it's, Hinduism to really understand it is like trying to tackle Patrick Mahomes. You can't, I mean, it isn't Mahomes unique. It kind of does this, kind of this. You can't tackle him. You can't tackle him. Hinduism is basically a cocktail of folklore, mythology, and gods of fertility. That's what it is. It's all jumbled up into that. But basically, you've got the big four in Hinduism, and you want to remember these, okay? Number one, Brahma. Brahma, or Brahman, Brahma is the impersonal force, the absolute one. You'll hear them talk a lot about that. Also, karma.

Karma is the law of reaping and sowing. So number one, Brahma, number two, karma. And number three, Atman. Atman is kind of like the soul, sort of. And the soul transmigrates into higher life forms in Hinduism. So basically, you start out as a bug, and hopefully, if you have good karma, you'll become a billionaire. Then, samsara is the cycle of reincarnation. Think about your washing machine. Think about loads and loads of dirty laundry you put in the washing machine. The washing machine, poom, poom, poom, poom, poom, poom, just goes round and round and round. If you, as a good Hindu, have enough good karma, and you put that in the spin cycle of reincarnation, hopefully, you'll spin out and enter nirvana, or moksha, which is total and complete detachment. Isn't that interesting? Now, there's some good elements here. I'm not here to hate on Hindus, or to bash the Buddhists, or to malign the Mormons, no, no, no, no. We're talking about their religion. We're not attacking someone personally. So, if you think that's our vibe, it's totally not the deal. I am saying, though, that Hinduism is a very small bridge. I mean, if you try to compare a bridge for ants, some of you got that. Yeah.

Now, that was funny. A lot of people did not get that joke. You just Google that when you get home. A bridge for ants, or maybe a bridge for people that don't read good, is that it? Okay, so anyway, this is like the bridge of Hinduism compared to the bridge God's built. I mean, that's the kind of scale that we're talking about. Does it have some good elements, some good stuff? Yeah, it does, but if you think about Hinduism, it basically brings together good, evil, justice, and injustice. So, it's very sexy for the relativist, you know, the A-listers, you know, those cool people, because there's no sin, there's no real issues, there's no really immorality. You just, you know, I'm a Hindu, I'm a Hindu. And many Hindus don't even really know what they believe, and we're seeing, though, a lot of Hindus come to Christ. So, the overarching illustration of Hinduism would be the Peloton. Anybody have a Peloton? I do. Peloton is a stationary bicycle, basically, on peptides, and you ride it, and you ride it, and you ride it, and you burn all this energy, and all this effort, but you don't really get anywhere. That's Hinduism, that's Hinduism. Now, let's move on the map northeast, and let's talk about Buddhism.

Go to Japan, China, and Korea. Let's talk about Buddhism. Buddhism is basically a dial-down form of Hinduism. And a lot of people in our culture are Buddhists, not anywhere near the number of Hindus. I think there's about 500 million Buddhists worldwide. This religion started in 525 B.C. There was a gentleman named Siddhartha Guantanamo. Don't you love that name? And Siddhartha was a Hindu. He grew up in a very strict Hindu household. And one day he thought, you know what, I'm gonna bolt from Hinduism. And he left. And he decided to become an ascetic monk. He found himself one day meditating under a Bodhi tree. And when he emerged 40 days later, he said, I am Buddha, the enlightened one. So he came up with this system, and we would call it, obviously we call it today Buddhism. Four noble truths. Number one, here we go. This is if you wanna be a Buddhist. Suffering is universal. Now I'm not sure it's taken me 40 days and 40 nights to figure that one out, but wow, it's enlightening. Suffering is universal. I mean, I'm not making fun, I just, this is like, are you kidding me?

Number two, craving is the root cause of suffering. Number three, the cure for suffering is to eliminate craving. Number four, you follow the Eightfold Path, and hopefully you become detached and you erase desire. When you think about Buddhism, think about a giant eraser. You're just erasing desire. I admire Siddhartha's desire to help the poor and the suffering. I admire that, and we should admire that, but it takes desire to help the poor. It takes desire to live the life. It takes desire to be the right kind of husband, the right kind of wife. It takes desire, so to eradicate desire, you see, it's just paradoxical. It's, again, like trying to tackle Patrick Mahomes. Hinduism, Buddhism. Let's jump to another one, and this is always controversial when I talk about this topic, and I'm gonna talk about Mormonism. Yesterday morning, I got up, I was doing some studying, and Lisa made me this omelet. She delivered it to me in my study, it was great. It doesn't happen every day. I'm not trying to put any pressure on any wives here.

I'm just saying, I'm just gonna tell you what happened yesterday. So I'm eating this, and I'm studying, and I've taken a deep dive in all of these religions. Again, I don't wanna get you all mixed up and messed up with all the complexities and the nuances. I'm just trying to give you kind of a vibe. I've talked about the Peloton. I've talked about the Eraser. The Peloton is Hinduism. You know, spin cycle of success. Hopefully, you know, if you have enough good karma, you'll get thrown out of that into moksha. So that's the word picture. The word picture for Buddhism is this giant eraser. We erase desire, which is odd, because we are people of desire. Desires are divine. They're given to us by God. So I want you to get those word pictures and think about when you're talking to people from another faith system, you understand kind of where they're coming from. Well, Mormonism, I call it the maze of Mormonism, is a unique faith system. If you talk about Microsoft, if you talk about Apple, if you talk about Nike, you would go, oh, yeah, those are some of the best. I mean, those companies have some of the best marketing ever.

Well, they pale in comparison to the Mormon Church. The Mormon Church has hired some of the best marketers in the universe, and they have positioned themselves. died in a long Christianity. Mormons are not Christians. The religion is not a Christian religion. So I'm eating my omelet yesterday, and I'm thinking, I'm gonna call Cliff, my man Cliff Keneckley, and I'm just gonna talk to him about some of these things, because again, he's talked to squillions of people, one-on-one, about world religions, and so I had Lisa, after she made this omelet, to record this conversation. Do you mind if I show you this? It's from my house. It's a little invasive, but you don't care, do you? Here's my conversation with Cliff yesterday. Why is it important, Cliff, to know about the various faith systems? As a Christian, I'm talking to Christians now, why should we know about these things? Because to love someone means to listen to them. One of the most active forms of love is listening, and if I'm talking to a Muslim, I better listen carefully to understand what they believe and why they believe it, and then I'd better be able to communicate what I believe about Jesus and why I believe it,

what's the evidence that Christ is true, and then I'm praying that God will use, by His Holy Spirit, that new information from my Muslim friend, to draw them to Christ. Jesus is not just a good prophet, as Muhammad taught. Jesus is more than a good prophet. He's God in human form. That's why we worship Him, and a Muslim cannot worship Him, because a Muslim just worships Allah and views Jesus simply as a good prophet. But unfortunately, the evidence is, Christ claimed to be more than a prophet, claiming to be the eternal, preexistent God in human form. So He's either a quack, a madman, maybe He's just another man who was deluded, or He is who He claimed to be, God in human form. But He's not the middle ground that Muhammad chose, which is Jesus the good prophet. By His clear claim to be God in human form, He's either a blasphemer, out of touch with reality, or He's who He claimed to be. And I think the resurrection of Christ clearly points to the fact, He was not a quack. He was not out of touch with reality. He was amazingly in touch with reality. He is reliable. Cliff, talk to me about the maze of Mormonism, because like you, I have great friends who are Mormons, respect them, they're amazing people,

but Mormonism is not Christianity. Every Mormon friend I have is a very nice person. Every Mormon I've ever met is a very nice, kind, loving person. But Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, I am convinced, were deeply, gravely mistaken when they talked about Jesus not being the unique Son of God, the idea that we all are going, we Mormon men who follow Mormonism are gonna have a planet of our own, and we're basically gonna become gods. Yes. No, that's polytheism, and Jesus and the whole Bible teach monotheism, that there's only one God, not many gods. Exactly. Secondly, Mormonism teaches that Jesus and Lucifer once were brothers. Well, if that's true, it means Jesus had a beginning. But the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is the eternal God. He's not a created being. Obviously, also at one point, Brigham Young and Joseph Smith supported polygamy. Now, I know that polygamy is in the Bible, and obviously David and Solomon were polygamists, but that does not mean that the Bible is teaching us that polygamy is good. You go right back to Genesis 2, 24, and it's one man and one woman. That's right.

It's not many. So I'm convinced that polygamy is not what the Bible teaches. Brilliant. Cliff, how do you, okay, over the years in speaking about world religions and faith systems like I have, not anywhere near to the degree that you have, it's been interesting because a lot of times people really do a pushback, even though I say people matter to God. I love Muslims. I love Mormons. But let me just talk about the religion. How do you negotiate that, Cliff? And have you had, I'm sure you've had people get angry at you as well. Tolerance does not mean there is no such thing as truth. Tolerance does not mean we agree on everything. Tolerance means in spite of the fact that we disagree, I still respect you and I still love you as a fellow human being, created in the image of God. So I think often it comes down to a misdefinition of tolerance, which is we all believe the same thing. No, that is disrespectful. An atheist and I do not believe the same thing. A Buddhist and I do not believe the same thing, and a Muslim and I do not believe the same thing. And it's highly disrespectful to say, oh no, we really do believe the same thing,

so let's be tolerant. It's not tolerance. If you and I agree, I don't have to tolerate you. It's when you and I disagree that I have to tolerate. and I would argue that tolerance is respecting someone in spite of the fact that you disagree. Cliff, I'm gonna end this conversation with a question you probably never had lobbed at you. You've had millions of questions from millions of people, especially college students. Here's the question. What is your most favorite thing about shark fishing? Being with Ed and Lacey. Ah, I know! Okay, no, no, how about what did it feel like when you hooked up to that big lemon shark? I don't think you wanna hear about my feelings, brother. Yeah, well, I knew you were struggling when you said, brother, this thing is not giving up. That's right, that was one persistent dude. But Cliff, next time, the sharks get bigger and bigger. Oh, glory. Oh, lord have mercy. Oh, what a great guy, great friend. I love Cliff and Sharon connectly. So again, hope you're tracking with us. Hinduism is a Peloton religion, a washing machine religion, spin cycle religion of reincarnation. You start as a bug, maybe they'll spit you out.

I don't know, it's just the way it is. Maybe they'll spit you out, I don't know, as a 20-something influencer, who knows? Then you have the big eraser. That's Buddhism, erasing, eradicating desire. Mormonism, and I'm not saying this to make light of Mormonism, it reads like a celestial, spiritual Star Wars book. It's out there. Mormonism uses terms, and they're taught to do so, that seem to be copacetic to those of us who are Christians. It's like, oh, salvation, yes. Grace, oh yeah. Forgiveness, yes. The Bible is an authoritative book, yes. But stop them and say, define those terms. Because the terms mean something totally different to a Mormon than they do to those of us who are in Christ. When you study Mormonism, you gotta study and talk about the founder. Hinduism has no real founder. Buddhism's founder is Siddhartha Guantanamo. The founder of Mormonism is a very troubled man named Joseph Smith. He was highly confused. He was from New York, and one day, he walked out into the woods. He was like 14 years old. As he was walking through the woods,

he claims that God and Jesus appeared to him and told him that all churches, every church is an abomination, and he was the guy to restore the church. So that's how it began. Then you have this angel Moroni appearing to him. He found some golden tablets, and through some mysterious Mormon sunglasses, he used the sunglasses to read the gold tablets, which ended up becoming the Book of Mormon, which Joseph Smith said is a lost, it's a chronicle of the lost civilization recording of Christ's post-resurrection appearances here in the Americas. There's not one shred of archeological evidence that substantiates anything in the Book of Mormon. So again, it's allegedly a history of a lost civilization in the Americas descended from the tribes of Israel chronicling Christ's post-resurrection appearances in the New World. Joseph Smith himself had some issues. He was pegged for the demonic practice of glass-looking, adultery, polygamy, illegal banking, and he was killed in a shootout. This is the founder of Mormonism here. So Dr. Walter Martin, who wrote a classic book called The Kingdom of the Cults, said this about Joseph Smith. With one dogmatic assertion,

Joseph Smith pronounced everybody wrong, all Christians. theology an abomination and all professing Christians corrupt all in the name of God. How strange for this to be presented as restored Christianity when Jesus Christ specifically promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. So when you think about Mormonism, think about three S's. The first S is our Savior. You heard Cliff say it, let me say it again. They will say, Mormons will say, oh yeah, Jesus is my Savior. Okay, define Jesus. Well, his brother was Lucifer and it just goes into Star Wars from there. So we see a major problem. Then salvation, salvation in the Mormon church is through works. They'll say it's through grace. Grace is part of it, they say, but it's also following the doctrines, the ordinances. Have you ever heard about the Mormon underwear that you're supposed to wear? That's a whole other subject that we won't get into right now. In 1982, the Book of Mormon in this brilliant marketing campaign added this phrase, another testament of Jesus Christ. So the Mormons pray, P-R-E-Y,

on Christians who really don't know their theology, if that makes sense. I do believe there are a number of Mormons who want to become Christians. I truly believe that. They just have never, ever really studied it and they've never, ever really had a chance to understand what it means to know Christ personally. Another S, the third S, is gonna be scripture. They'll say, oh yeah, the Bible is our authority. Well, not really. Anytime you have a truth text, you're dealing with a false religion. A truth text is like, okay, yeah, I believe the Bible, but this text over here is just as important. In Mormonism, the Bible comes in fourth. You got the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, the Doctrine of Covenants, and then the Bible. So we see these issues, these problems already. So Jesus is not, in the Mormon church, who Jesus is to you and to me. So just think about those. Mormons also believe, this is really weird, that God was once human and he was obedient to his heavenly Father and now lives on this planet with his wives. God, are you ready for this? Again, I'm not joking when I say Star Wars. And he's procreating spiritual babies and these spiritual babies enter physical babies on Earth.

And the goal of Mormonism, if you're a good Mormon, if you do all these things and work and the ordinances and the doctrines and you follow Joseph Smith's teachings and everything, if you're a really good Mormon, guys, you will have your own planet and you'll have all these wives and you'll have celestial sex forever. I'm not sure what's in it for the ladies, but you can definitely tell the guy thought this religion up, can't you? There's a little bit of vibe of reincarnation into Mormonism as well. Here's what Joseph Smith said about the Book of Mormon. This is an interesting quote. He said, I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on Earth and the keystone of our religion. And a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than any other book. Since the writing of the Book of Mormon, there's been a lot of debate since the writing of the Book of Mormon, there's been over 2,200 changes in it. The Pearl of Great Price is another book which talks about the importance of the baptism of the dead, baptism for the dead. And it talks about temple marriage and the doctrine of the covenants is another book and it talks about various subjects

and then you have the Book of Abraham. It's translated from papyrus, found inside mummies Joseph Smith bought from a traveling salesman. And of course, these were deemed fraud. So that's just a little bit about Mormonism. Mormonism, if I had to do this, I would say Hinduism takes us in Buddhism about right here. Mormonism maybe takes us about right here. Judaism almost gets us halfway. See, we have a shortfall, don't we? We have a problem, an issue. And all of these people, many of these people are well-meaning. I'm not, again, let me say it again, I'm not hating on Hindus or bashing Buddhists or maligning the Mormons, I'm just talking about their religion. So you can be sincere, yet sincerely wrong. People say, man, he's sincere, she's sincere. Oh, okay, I can sincerely go, I don't believe in the law of gravity. After this service, I'm gonna climb on this ladder, jump off the roof of Fellowship Church. I just, I sincerely don't believe, well, bam, I'd face plant on the asphalt, wouldn't I? That's why we need to speak the truth in love, that's why we need to pray for everyone, that's why we need to understand what people believe and what people are dealing with. Couple of quick texts, and then we're done.

Revelation chapter 22, here's the difference. 18 and 19. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. Man, I wish the Bible was direct. Matthew 7, watch out, Jesus said, for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. Again, the big picture. Hinduism, escape. Buddhism, detachment. Mormonism, becoming. Christianity, grace and mercy. So if you're on this construction plan, this man-made construction plan, with your hard hat and safety goggles and red wings, trash that, park the crane, and accept the bridge God has built to you, because the bridge God has built to you is not a bridge to nowhere, it's a bridge to somewhere, and that somewhere is someone named you. In the early 90s, we just kicked off Fellowship Church, and there was a billionaire, that was before billionaires were cool, now everyone's a billionaire.

And there was a billionaire that came to our church, and he was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. And just because you're a billionaire doesn't mean you're brilliant, did you know that? If you find a niche, it'll make you rich. Now, a lot of billionaires are brilliant, I'm just saying, you find out someone's a billionaire, don't go, oh, he must be, she must be so much more intelligent than me. I mean, yeah, they're smart and everything, but they're regular people. Anyway, this billionaire invited Lisa and I over to his house, and he questioned me about Christianity, here I am. I mean, I'm 29, 30 years old, and he's talking to me about all these world religions and things, and I'm just sharing with him I'm just sharing with him the gospel and bringing him back to the person of Christ. So it was time for us to leave, so we walked through this house, it was so big, we had to pack a lunch to go from one side to the other. And we finally walked outside, and he looked at me before we got into our car, and he said, you know, Ed, I appreciate you talking to me, but I'm kind of a cafeteria-style guy. I wanna take something from Buddhism, something from Hinduism, something from Islam, and you know, kind of something from Christianity, and kind of mix them all together.

That's where I am. And I looked at him, and I know the Holy Spirit gave me these words. I said, you know, if you go to all of the tombs of the leaders of the world religions, they're occupied. But you go to Christ's tomb, it's empty. And I said, I don't know about you, but I'm putting my money on the one who came back from the grave. Lord Jesus, thank you for this message. Thank you for your grace and love. Thank you that we can just openly and honestly talk about these world religions. And I pray, God, if there's someone here, and you're from another world religion, you're from another faith system, maybe you're on this construction plan, it's time to trash the construction plan. If you're a Hindu, or a Buddhist, or a Mormon, I'm gonna challenge you to throw away the red wings, put away the safety goggles, park the crane, and say, God, I wanna walk your bridge. I believe you, God, sent Jesus Christ to down the cross for my sins and rise again. and to build this bridge, not to nowhere, but to somewhere, and that somewhere is someone named me. And I give my life to you. Just reach out to Jesus and say, Jesus, I give my life to you. Others of you might be like,

well, you know, I'm not quite ready for that, Ed. I need to study some more. If that's you, awesome. You continue to kick tires and test the waters. But if you're open, I'm telling you, God's gonna reveal himself to you. He already has today by you being here. So Lord, we thank you for this time, and we give this time to you, and we ask all these things in Christ's name. Amen. Woo! That was a lot. That was a lot. That was a lot. That was a lot. That was a lot. That was a lot. That was a lot. I know a lot more, but I just, I would still be talking, you know, until this Tuesday. But again, we have people from all different faith systems and all different walks of life, and due to technology and travel, we rub shoulders with them like we never have before, don't we? So this gives us an opportunity to understand them, and hopefully gives us a greater love for people and understanding.

Derek, man, this is a heavy topic. Yeah, you did great, Pastor. I think some great things are gonna happen. I'm just glad I talked to Cliff yesterday. Of course. After that omelet. And an omelet. Oh, yeah. It's a good day. Now, people sometimes wonder, hey, thank you, God, for coming to church. I wouldn't have come to church today with all the rain. Thank you for being here. But Lisa reminded me, honey, you're the pastor, so. And it's Master's Sunday. It's Master's Sunday. I didn't know that. It's Pastor's Sunday. What does that mean? Master's. Oh, I thought you said Pastor's Sunday. Every Sunday is Pastor's Sunday. I was ready to receive some love. This is Master's Sunday. Oh, Master's. Oh, yeah, I've heard that. Master's. Yeah. Man, I thought you said Pastor's. Ed, you know what I love about our church

is, like you just said, this is a place for people to kick tires and to learn and to keep coming back. Yes. And Tian shared a story with me right before we started. Several weeks ago, she met a woman who attended our church who was Muslim and wasn't ready to bow the knee, wasn't ready to put her faith in Jesus, but there was something that just made her wanna keep coming. And so she kept coming, she kept coming. Last Sunday, she was one of the people who walked the bridge. Oh, that's so great. Isn't that great? That's great. And you know, Derek, we have these tables and people sometimes wonder, what are these tables? It looks like a cool restaurant somewhere, you know, like in Grapevine. So if you'll go to those tables afterwards, you can have any questions, right? That's right. If you need a Bible, if you need prayer. Right, all those things. If you're today going, man, I just, first of all, I made a decision to give my life to Jesus today. That's the best decision you could ever make, and we wanna celebrate that with you. We wanna put resources in your hand.

We wanna give you a Bible. But like Pastor said, maybe you're like, hey, I'm not there yet, but I would like some more information. They can give you that as well. If you did make that decision and wanna get baptized, need to get baptized, that's going public with your faith. We go under the water, which represents our old life, being dead and buried with Christ. We come out of the water, which represents being raised to walk in newness of life with Jesus. You can sign up to get baptized at our tables. We can help you with that. And we also have tables up in the balcony and under the balcony for those of you in the back as well. And today, we mentioned earlier, we have our newcomer's luncheon. So also, if you're like, listen, I got some time, I'm hungry, we'll feed you. It's free 99. We'll take care of your kids. And you're like, I want more information. I wanna get involved. I wanna grow my faith, and I wanna meet people. I wanna find community. Come to the newcomer's luncheon. It's right across the hallway in the Source Cafe. Our team will have signs. They'll lead you there, and it's a great time. You know, Derek, also, a lot of times we do so many things

that people don't even really know about. One is our podcast that we do. We have a podcast that drops every Tuesday. It's called the C3. It's the Creative Church Leadership Podcast. I want you to know about that. Also, too, something that I even forget about, we have a national radio program. It's called the Creative Connection that is all over the place. And if you know someone in any of these areas, I guess we can find out what stations by doing what? By scanning, I guess. Yeah, well, the easiest thing to do is if you tap your seat, we've got a link that'll take you to edyoung.com, and that's the easiest way to find it. But we have it online. We have it on XM Radio, your local radio stations. You can see right there, 100.7. It's Monday through Friday at 9.30. And tell people, we have letters coming in all the time from people who don't go to church but listen to radio, caught pastors, radio show, and, I mean, you're talking people overcoming addictions. You're talking marriages that were on the verge of divorce, finding healing, finding restoration. So this is a great resource for yourself to share with your friends. Radio's old school, but it's still going.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's still going. Okay, we have four giant weekends coming up. Let me say that again. Next Sunday, next Sunday, we've got a young lady named Sadie. Well, before Sunday. Yeah, who'll be speaking. But before Sunday, we have our sisterhood extravaganza. That's right. With my lovely omelet-making wife, Lisa. You should make her an omelet next Saturday. I'm gonna do that. Derek, thank you. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do that, okay. Lisa, what do you like in your omelets? Spinach, tomato, and goat cheese. It's great, too. So Sadie and Lisa will be at sisterhood, and ladies, sign up. We have a number of people already who've signed up, but we still have room, don't we? Sign up. Yeah, sign up. Tap the seat, tap the seat. It's gonna be great. And then that Sunday, we're gonna have Sadie. Christian, her husband. And Christian, and they're gonna be with us.

So that'll be really, really something else. Yeah, tell your friends. And then. Next Sunday. Okay, next Sunday. Wow, we have a lot going on. This is crazy. We have. Pastor Andrew Sedra. Andrew Sedra, who is, you've probably seen him on social media, who comes from a Muslim country, a Muslim background. He is now a Coptic Christian. He hails from Sydney, Australia. He will be our special guest breaking down Islam. You do not wanna miss this guy. He is power packed. It's gonna be awesome. And then the Sunday after that, Pastor Sam Kelly's gonna be sitting down with Dylan Mandel. And for those of you that don't know Dylan, he was on your podcast. Yeah, if you've seen my podcast with Dylan Mandel, he's had cancer four times. He's a young guy. He's like maybe 20-something, 20. But he's gonna talk about his journey. And here's what we're gonna do on that Sunday. If you need any prayer for healing,

I'm talking about physical healing. It could be spiritual healing, mental healing. We're gonna have a special time of prayer. Nothing weird or crazy. You know what I'm saying? We're gonna pray for you. And we are just believing that some, I know, some amazing things will happen. And we're gonna talk about that. But don't be scared to go, oh man, it's Healing Sunday, I'm not sure. When I say we're gonna pray for you, we'll have the altar open up. We'll have people come forward and we'll have pastors pray for you. And then you return to your seat. That's what I'm talking about. I'm not gonna take my jacket off and start throwing it. No. I mean, you might take your jacket off, but you're not gonna throw it at anybody. You know, here I made fun of that toilet paper tail. I kind of. And then the next Sunday is Mother's Day, which is very important. And Pastor Lisa is going to be helping bring an incredible experience for all the moms. So just keep coming, just keep coming, just keep coming. The next four weeks are ridiculous. Yeah.

And then the next four after that will be great too. But hey, thanks for being with us today. We want y'all to stand to your feet and we're gonna declare God's truth, his promises, what we're about as a church, as we leave this place and go about our week. So I want y'all to say this with us out loud. You ready? Here we go. Say, Jesus, thank you that in you I am loved, forgiven, and blessed. For you, I will reach up and worship, reach out to share my faith, and reach in to become more like you. And because of you, the best is yet to come. Thank you guys for being with us. We love you. We'll see you next Sunday. We are the way. We are the way. I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free. My sin is gone, how can you be? I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free. And look at what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to the way I was. I'll sing, I'll dance, the times I need. I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free. Thank you, Lord. And thank you, my God, I'm free. And look at what the Lord has done.

I'm never going back to the way I was. And look at what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to the way I was. And look at what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to the way I was. I'm never going back to the way I was. ♪ There's never been a moment wasted ♪ ♪ The waiting is the place where faith is ♪ ♪ So watch and work, watch and work ♪ ♪ Don't lose heart, my soul, the King is on the move ♪ ♪ Lift your weary head, just break through, it's coming soon ♪ ♪ I know, I know, to see a miracle that only He can do ♪ ♪ Just wait, oh, just wait ♪ ♪ And watch Him work all things together like He said He would ♪ ♪ And watch Him turn our trials and troubles into something good ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, there's never been a moment wasted ♪ ♪ The waiting is the place where faith is ♪ ♪ So watch and work, watch and work, whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪ ♪ Because He's good today ♪