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wait have i seen the m ms from kids church i haven't seen any m m's from kids church at all maybe you should look in the other room hey i gotta record this message for tomorrow so uh hey everybody welcome to the gathering place this is more than sunday i'm daniel davenport hey welcome back and i'm so glad to join you in your home or wherever you may be watching today a couple really exciting things that are happening here at the gathering place first of all we're meeting in person every sunday morning 9 30 live on our campus here in folsom love to join you love for you to join me and so we could actually see each other face to face and not through this whole screen thing also february 20th pastor robbie booth is going to be out here with us doing a rock solid relationship seminar and pastor robbie has over 75 000 hours logged in of counseling marriage and family therapy and not only has he done that with a bunch of other people but he's done it with me and i can tell you what that if you come to the seminar you're going to love it you're going to find all kinds of tools that are going to help you in your relationship and your marriage so if you are married if you want to be married if you wish you weren't married if you just want to strengthen your relationships come on out on february 20th more information will be coming but you could send me a little note info at tgpchurch.com and let me know that you're interested in coming finally if you'd like to give online today you can do that just simply go to our website tgpchurch.com click on the little give button follow the link and it'll tell you exactly what to do also you can give through your phone simply text the word give to the number on your screen and follow those prompts and you'll be able to give online thank you for your financial partnership as well as your prayers and subscribing liking sharing these videos if they're encouraging you in your faith all right well i'm ready to jump into the word with you today so would you grab your bible hold it up and say this out loud this is my bible it is god speaking to me i am who it says i am i can do what it says i can do i can have what it says i can have so i open my heart today to hear god speak a word that will change my life forever have you ever been in a situation where you're having this conversation and somebody starts saying some stuff that's just absolutely crazy and you know it and your response to that is i don't believe it that's not right it could be about creation it could be about lifestyles it could just be about god about people about whatever and you say i don't believe it and they say why you say because the bible because the bible says this this and this so naturally that's a great response to have for a christian like to we want to believe what the bible says but then suddenly you know you might have said this in class maybe you're in biology and they're talking about certain things or a sociology class and you're like no i don't believe any of that stuff you guys are telling me here and and they say why and you say because the bible and they just love that answer because they're going to ask you this question why do you believe the bible now when you are asked that question often times as christians we don't know what to say typically it starts with stumbling uh well because and we come up with probably two of the more popular answers is one is because it changed my life because the bible changed my life and i don't want to take away your your testimony from you because your testimony is important and it's powerful and it's yours but uh having a testimony of a changed life is not a sufficient reason to believe the bible for example there are a lot of people who believe a lot of things and their life turns around and they live better quality lives and help other people but it doesn't mean that their experience was uh actually from god for example somebody could be in a a and you have to choose a higher power and you know maybe this person doesn't want to you know they don't know god they don't believe in jesus as their higher power so they look out the window and street lamps coming on and thinks oh well that's my higher power every time i see a street lamp i'm just reminded about there's a higher power and i'm going to live a sober life and that person goes on to live the rest of their life in sobriety well just because they had an experience with something doesn't mean that it was true or what about this here's a man who grows up with a mentally unstable mom and a dad who gets killed at an early age he ends up living with his aunt in boston gets around the wrong people ends up doing the wrong things finds himself in in jail in jail he's approached by some guys who say you need to clean your life up and turn it around and embrace the messiah well he doesn't believe them but later on in his jail cell at night he has a visitation from the messiah wakes up the next morning turns his life around gets on the straight and narrow becomes a model prisoner gets released early goes out and begins preaching and becomes one of the most famous preachers in the united states in america opens over a hundred houses of worship who is this man malcolm x who was his messiah elijah muhammad he had a visitation by elijah muhammad claiming he was the messiah and it changed his life later on malcolm x himself said my experience though was false and elijah muhammad is a fraud and he denounced the nation of islam which ultimately led to his assassination but here's a guy who had a genuine experience that changed his life so when we as christians say i had a life-changing experience because of of of god or because of what the bible says that's great to have a life-changing experience but i think that there is a better way to describe why we believe the bible another reason people often give is they say well that's how i was raised i was raised to believe the bible you know american american my mom and dad raised me to believe the bible and so that's why i believe the bible's true and all that other stuff is not the problem with that is what about the person who was raised a muslim to believe the quran what about the hindu what about the buddhist what about the atheist they all they all had a certain way that they were raised and are you saying your mom and dad are better than their mom and dad's your mom and dad never told you a lie your mom and dad never made a mistake the reality is by the time you're an adult actually quite a bit earlier than that you find out that your parents they don't know everything and there are some things that they raised you to believe that probably aren't true i know my kids are finding out maybe there's one or two things that i just wasn't accurate on i'm sure there might be more than that they discover later on when they're really old but nevertheless we know that our parents are capable of of making mistakes and not raising us uh to be 100 right and so i hope you were raised well and i hope you have had an experience with god but i believe that there is even a better more clear reason that you can give to explain why you believe the bible and believe that it's true and ultimately believe that it has authority to speak into our lives and not just us as believers but the entire world so i want to walk you through that and i'm going to give you four points and so hold up your hand four look at the person next to you four four we're going to go through four points of why you can believe the bible now by the way i'm not going to sit here and just defend the bible against critics i don't think the bible needs to be defended charles spurgeon said i would i would no rather defend the bible than i would a lion you see a lion doesn't need your defense just let the lion go he'll defend himself and the bible will speak for itself as well to people if they will simply read it you don't need to defend it but you do need to know why you believe that it's true so if i was to sit here and ask you why have you staked your eternity why have you made a decision that will determine what what you believe happens in eternity on what the bible says and then why have you made changes in the way you live uh doing certain things not doing certain things because of what the bible says you should have a good answer for this and i believe there is a good answer and so if you have your bible uh open it up with me to first peter chapter 1 verse 16 because the answer that i'm going to give you is not an answer i came up with on my own it's an answer that actually comes from scripture now some of you might think wait a minute you can't use the bible to prove the bible that's circular reasoning that's like saying i believe the bible is true because the bible says it's true okay i get it and most arguments circular reasoning is not a good tool to use however when you think about this and you think about trying to find a reason to confirm why you believe the bible if you say i believe the bible because it makes a lot of sense to me well what you're saying is my rationale my reasoning my human reasoning reasoning is greater than the bible it has a greater authority because if it didn't make sense to me then it's not true or if you say well i believe the bible because of science well even if science confirms a lot of the information in the bible if science science is the uh the reason that you believe the bible you're saying science is the authority what about if science doesn't affirm the bible what if you look at you know some other historical facts all of these things have value to them but none of them are greater than the bible and so they're not in greater authority so i'm going to go to the scripture and i'm going to read a scripture that gives a good reason for that is applicable today and is actually useful outside of the bible as well first peter chapter 1 verse 16 through 21. peter writes this he said for we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our lord jesus christ but we're eyewitnesses of his majesty for he received from god the father honor and glory when he such a voice came to him from the excellent glory saying this is my beloved son in whom i am well pleased and we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain and so we have the prophetic word confirmed which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts knowing this first that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation for prophecy never came by the will of man but holy man of god spoke as they were moved by the holy spirit okay there's a lot of words in there and so let me just simplify what he is describing right here to you peter is writing and i'm going to sum it up in four sayings that we can choose to believe the bible because it is a reliable collection of historical books written by eyewitnesses in the time of other eyewitnesses and it reports on supernatural events that fulfill specific biblical prophecies and claim that their writings are divine in origin rather than human okay so if someone says why do you choose to believe the bible why do you believe the bible why are you saying that that's what we should follow or that's what you follow don't say because my mama said it's the right thing to say you can simply go back to this right here i choose to believe the bible because it's a reliable source of historical documents written by eyewitnesses in the time of other eyewitnesses reporting on supernatural events that fulfill specific uh biblical prophecies and the writers claim that it was divine in origin rather than human all right that's a mouthful in and of itself it's four points let's actually break those down and we'll see how peter basically described the same thing okay first of all number one it's a reliable collection of historical documents the bible isn't one book written by one person that covers all of creation and history and god's story the bible is actually a collection of 66 books written by over 40 authors some of them were kings priests physicians tax collectors prophets poppers you have a variety of people who are writing on a number of subjects throughout all of the scripture here in three different languages hebrew greek aramaic written on three different continents africa europe asia over a period of about 1500 years it's not just one book it's a collection of reliable historical documents luke chapter 1 verse 1 says this the historian and dr luke writes and as much as many have taken in hand to set an order and narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us luke as he is writing the book of luke he mentions that there are many other people that have set an order a narrative they have they have written down the story of the things that have been fulfilled among us he's talking specifically about the life the death the resurrection of jesus and he said this isn't a story i'm coming up with there are many other people who have put the pen to the paper to tell this story and so there's a collection there are other ones you know matthew mark john those other gospel writers you have paul you have peter you have james you have jude you have the author of hebrews i might have missed somebody in there somewhere but nevertheless we have all kinds of those are just new testament writers not to mention the old testament writers but luke goes on to say just as those who were who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us it seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of all these things from the very first to write to you an orderly account a detailed specific account most excellent theophilus that you may know the certainty of those things which with which you were instructed he doesn't say i'm writing this so you can just take the blind leap of faith he said i'm writing these things so you can know with certainty that they are true we are eyewitnesses to these things it's a reliable collection of historical documents written by witnesses now that is the second part it's written by eyewitnesses so i choose to believe the bible because it is a has it is a collection uh a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses first john chapter 1 john's writing says that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declared to you that eternal life which was in the father and was manifested to us that which we have seen and heard we declare to you john is saying this is not just a myth it's not just a story we saw this with our own eyes we walked with jesus we saw the miracles we saw the healings we saw all of these things and ultimately we saw the resurrected christ we touched him this is not just some made-up stories this is a reliable collection of historical documents written by eye witnesses who were there they didn't just have a vision they saw with their own eyes and these things were not just written by eyewitnesses who said hey man i'm going to write this story it was written during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses this is important and it helps us to believe the bible and its trustworthiness because not only did these guys who saw christ and experienced these things firsthand write them down but they wrote them while other people who were there were still alive now what does that mean it means that you have other witnesses who could come in and either confirm or deny what you wrote down they could come in and and say yeah what he said was true or what he said was a lie look at this here in in first corinthians chapter 15 verses 3 through 8 paul writes this for i delivered to you first of all that which i also received that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures and that he was seen by cephas then by the twelve and after that he was seen by over 500 people at once brethren at once of whom the greater part remains to this day though some have fallen asleep after he was seen by james and all the apostles and last of all he was seen by me also as one born out of due time paul is sitting here and he's saying over over 500 people saw him at once most of them are still alive as i'm writing this check this out this is what paul is saying he's saying if you don't believe me ask all these people who are still alive they can testify they can vouch for what i'm saying so this is a big deal if somebody is writing this while other people were there they could sit there and say no man that's not what happened that he he didn't do that this isn't how it went down and they could have refuted what paul said here's the here's something that's important though we have no historical record of anybody from that time refuting these things there's none they had a chance they could have but they didn't and so we have a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses in the time of other eyewitnesses that's a big deal you ever watch these these crime shows what happens you know they're doing all this investigating they're trying to pull the pieces together and then boom at the end the eyewitness shows up and that's almost like case closed i know that i know that it's not always a hundred percent when there's an eyewitness but when you have multiple eyewitnesses that say the same thing there's corroboration their stories match and that's a that's basically a guarantee yeah that person is not lying that person's not making that up they could be proved wrong but weren't that's a big deal not only that do we have these other eyewitnesses but there's been over 25 000 archaeological digs that are related to the bible and over and over again they continue to confirm what the bible says and over the years past several hundred years you'd have professors or his archaeologists stand up and say well there's no proof you know the there's no city that that is in any of our records that the bible talks about by that name or that person didn't exist and then later on sure enough you stick a shovel in the dirt out in israel and we discover a whole city we discover a tablet and you know what that person does who made the claim that the bible was a lie they don't sit there and say you know what i was wrong the bible's true we should believe it they sit there and say well well there's another reason that we shouldn't believe some other reason to come up with another reason not to believe archaeology continues to to prove that the bible is truthful and reliable sometimes people would say well what about all these translations you know these guys they're they're writing things down and then and and you know they had all these other translations and you know how can i even believe what the the bible says how reliable is it if there's all these translations the problem is that's not how we get translations we don't have like we don't do a translation i'm reading out of the new king james version here this wasn't based on the old king james version and that wasn't based on some other version that's not how we translate some people think the bible is translated like the game of telephone where the original person went and spoke it like jesus said it to the apostles the apostle said it to the disciples the disciples said it to the churches the churches said it you know to their grandkids and all that and then and then it just gets passed down and by the time you get to the end the person at the end of the game doesn't have uh anything close to what the original person said it's not how it works translations today are not based on yesterday's translation we translate the bible based on the earliest documents that we have the fragments of manuscripts that were that were copied from the original writings within uh some of the oldest ones we have are written within one generation of of the originals now i know we don't have the very original uh documents still you know preserved those things they don't always last that we have any is amazing but we actually have thousands of them thousands of them there are more fragments and and and uh in poll uh whole or part of the new testament especially but the the old testament as well there are more than um there are more pieces and parts of these manuscripts that support and confirm what the bible says and that it's accurate and consistent more of those than any other historical document and into in antiquity i can't even say that word and in tickle me no it does not tickle me it's antiquity some of the things that we say when we're on camera nevertheless we don't have we don't have anywhere close to that when you think of like plato or aristotle you know all of these greek philosophers we claim to be able to talk about their their life their times and their quotes and sayings but oftentimes any documents we have close to their their lifetime it's like hundreds if not a thousand years later so the bible is so reliable and we have we have more evidence of its consistency from its very early writings than any other documents so i choose to believe the bible because it's a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses in the time of eyewitnesses that here you go ready for number three and they report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies so again what peter said of course he was mentioning were eyewitnesses but he said this he said that he speaking of jesus he received from god the father honoring glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory it's my beloved son in whom i'm well pleased he said we were eyewitnesses to this they were eyewitnesses to supernatural experiences supernatural events but these weren't just some random supernatural events that they saw with their own eyes these were specific fulfillments of biblical prophecy so they could go back and say wow this was done so that the scripture might be fulfilled this was done according to what was written for example isaiah 53 the suffering servant there points to the the uh experience jesus had when he was giving his life and how he died and paid the price for our sins and our sicknesses by his stripes we were healed it talks about that in the old testament and that the messiah would come and not just come and rule and reign but he would suffer first also psalm 22 you remember when jesus was on the cross what's one of the words he said my god my god why have you forsaken me well anybody who heard that saying when jesus was on the cross would have immediately gone back to psalm 22 in their head let me read to you some of these verses from psalm 22 my god my god why have you forsaken me why are you so far from helping me and my words from and from the words of my groaning oh my god i cry in the daytime but you do not hear and in the night season and i'm not silent but i am a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised by the people many bulls have surrounded me strong bulls of basin have encircled me they gaped at me with their mouths like a raging and roaring lion think about when jesus was up there and he was being mocked and ridiculed as he was on the cross he said i am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joints like my heart is like wax it is melted within me remember when jesus was on the cross they came to uh break the the legs of the two criminals on either side of them because that was something they would do while you're on the cross in order to speed up your death and make it even more painful they would break your shin bones so you couldn't push yourself up to gasp for air but jesus was already dead so they took a spear and stuck it in his side and it pierced his heart well what did that do it caused not only blood but water to pour out from his side he said my strength is dried up like a pot shirt and my tongue clings to my jaws remember when jesus was on the cross he said i thirst his mouth was dry there he said you have brought me to the dust of death for dogs surround me dogs is a reference to gentiles and jesus was crucified by the gentiles the romans he said the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me they pierced my hands and my feet i can count all my bones not a bone of jesus was broken when he was up there they look and stare at me they divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots remember the roman centurions were gambling for jesus clothes but the biggest part of that scripture right there he says they pierced my hands and my feet what's crazy about this is that when the psalmist prophesied this when he wrote this he had never seen a crucifixion he had never even imagined one or heard of one how do i know that because crucifixion wasn't even invented until like several hundred years after he wrote this so he is prophesying the manner in which the messiah would actually be killed by having his hands and his feet pierced when jesus was on the cross he was fulfilling as a supernatural event fulfilling specific biblical prophecies and then that's just the death not to mention the resurrection and i mean the healings the miracles the feeding of the five thousand they saw all of these things but especially the resurrected christ supernatural events that fulfilled biblical prophecies these prophecies were fulfilled before their eyes now that's those first three i choose to believe the bible because it is a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses in the times of other eyewitnesses who report on supernatural events that fulfill specific bible prophecies and they claim that their writings are divine rather than human in origin peter said this he said so we have the prophetic word confirmed we have the prophetic word confirmed knowing this first that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation or any private or personal origin for prophecy never came by the will of god man but holy men of god spoke as they were moved by the holy spirit they claim that this writing was not just a good idea of their own but that it came from god throughout scripture you'll see uh mention where it says and god said the lord said thus says the lord and it came to pass as god said you know all of these things were written at the inspiration of of god though men wrote it with their hands though these authors put the pen to paper themselves it wasn't of human origin it was divine in origin the scripture tells us of course that that that it's god breathed that it's that is inspired but some people would say well i can't believe the bible because man wrote it man wrote it well think about the logic of that for one second do you believe anything that people have written do you believe anything that you've written well if you can't believe the bible because men wrote it then you can't believe anything you've said unless you believe that you're a liar all the time or other people realize you see that logic it's inconsistent you do believe things that men have spoken you are maybe struggling with is it divinely inspired but here's how it works god doesn't put the pen to paper he's inspired people to write what they saw that uh and they experienced and what they heard and what they what they could see was a fulfillment of scripture of prophecy supernatural events they gathered all this together in partnership in relationship to god and they recognized this isn't just a good idea from a bunch of guys who want to really encourage people this isn't chicken soup for the soul this is the divinely inspired word of god other people would object though and say well i won't believe the bible unless you can prove it to me scientifically okay i know that makes you sound really smart if you say that but here's the problem with that you can't prove any historic event scientifically that's not how we prove historic events in the bible or outside of the bible it's just not how it works so so never say that and if anyone ever says that uh just pat him on the back and say you're gonna be okay you don't prove the bible through science meaning this you know you remember college or high school or junior high or maybe even elementary school the scientific method there's certain things that are required to prove it through science the scientific method okay it has to be observable it has to be measurable and it has to be here's here's a real hard part repeatable okay so the scientific method in order to prove the bible you have to be able to observe it can you observe it can you then measure it and can you repeat it you can't do that with anything uh from history that's not we don't go back and say you know was abraham lincoln a real person well let's observe that scientifically is he alive to you know you can't you can't do it that's just not how it works and no one would expect that for any historical event instead though we do have a process and it's called the evidentiary process and and and this is what they use in courtrooms this is what what historians use uh what how do you get the evidence how do you get the evidence to come to a conclusion that what that such and such happened this is how you do it you ask about the reliability of sources you look at the corroboration of sources you look at evidence that supports or denies those sources you ask the questions who are the witnesses are are they reliable are there other witnesses do their stories match up or do they conflict somewhere is it meaning is this falsifiable is it just one person or are there a number of people who say it are there other things that can confirm or contradict you know what what do we see here so you ask all of those questions and you examine it like you would in the courtroom now here's the thing what answers do you get when you do it that way you get this that the bible it's a reliable collection of historical documents over 66 books written by over there's 66 books written by over 40 different authors written on three different continents in three different languages over a period of about 1500 years touches on a wide variety of subjects and it's consistent throughout you find this that there's uh over 25 000 archaeological digs that actually confirm and support the bible what else do you find you find that there's a specific prophecies that were written hundreds and maybe even thousand years prior to the events in the new testament and they were confirmed in the life of jesus and in the early church you see all these things and it makes you think that this bible is worth believing and when you have that kind of confidence then you read the bible and you find out and what it says has authority in my life if the bible is true and it has authority then i i'm going to find out that all mankind will give account to god based on what this says and so we're coming into a time in fact we're already there where there are there there's such a battle for who will have the final say in our lives and i'm concerned about the church that we are given place to different philosophies political ideologies great ideas rationale and we're eliminating god as the authority and it just shouldn't be so if you're going to bank your eternity on jesus christ as your savior which is revealed through the book how much more can you base your life your beliefs your approach than the way you you you interact with people the things you vote about the things you talk about the activities you take part in the you know all of these things here the things you do the things you don't do you can base it on the word of god because it's trustworthy and it's authoritative and i want to take some time over the next several weeks just to begin to uh identify what does the word of god say concerning some of the current topics that we're facing some of the things that we we deal with as christians on a regular basis and why we can go back to the word of god and embrace that as truth and though it might be difficult with the culture going against us and against this right here i think that you're going to come away with more confidence more boldness to believe the word of god and you're also going to see god come through on his word well i hope that encourages you today maybe you're at a place where you like me had to make a decision because the word of god is true that you realize ah i'm a sinner i need to be saved and only jesus can save me so when i was 17 years old i placed my faith and trust in jesus asked him to forgive me uh come into my life be my lord be my savior i gave him gave him my life i entrusted him with my eternity i hope you would do the same thing today maybe you've already done that but there's other areas of your life you need to surrender to them do it right now tell them god i'm giving you every aspect of my life my beliefs my speech my actions all of that i give it to you i'm yielding it to you you know he hears you when you say that prayer well i can't wait to be back with you again next week remember live out your faith more than sunday you