Spiritual Lessons from our Walk with God - Part 4: Truth Matters (Session Two) | Pastor Pablo Morales

Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is

an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,

with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.

We invite you to connect with us from wherever

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mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed

by this week's sermon. Would you join me? Lord.

You alone. Your kingdom. First. Your strength.

Your power. Your timing. Your plans. Your vision.

Your presence. You. It is you whom we need. So

as we're in your presence today, Lord, we're

asking you to encounter us here today. You know

where our hearts are. You know where we have

been. What we need is you. So as we open your

word today, as we study together, as we listen

to what you have to say, Lord, We need you and

you alone. Let it be your voice that speaks deep

into our souls. And use me, Lord, in your grace,

in your power, in your strength. In Jesus' name,

amen. Well, I want to welcome you to ECB if you

are visiting us for the first time. Pray that

this is an encouragement for you to be here.

If you happen to have questions about the ministry

here at ECB or life in Bangkok, if you just moved

here, we have the Connection Center downstairs.

As you leave downstairs, turn to the left and

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to meet with you and answer your questions. For

the rest of us, the ECB family, I just want to

give you an update on some important things.

This is the season where we open our classes.

Some of the classes get full very quickly. Some

are starting already today. Some are starting

next week. So this is the time to register for

the courses. You can do it through our app online

or just grab your phone and quickly scan the

QR code. But if you are a person who is not yet

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you want answers in a place that is not threatening,

then Alpha Course is for you. If you are a Christian

that has questions and you want answers because

you want to think intelligently about these different

things and you are already following Jesus, then

Crossroads is for you. If you are a follower

of Jesus but you lack peace because there's woundedness

that you carry, there's bitterness, there's this

sense that there's something that's just not

right, then Freedom in Christ is for you. And

if you are married and you want just to strengthen

your marriage, The marriage course is for you.

So wherever you are in your journey, we want

to come alongside to strengthen your walk with

God. And we pray that this season will be encouraging

and impactful for your life. So register for

these things. Also, we want to rejoice with our

families at ECB that have had the blessing of

welcoming new children into their families. We

will have family dedication in February. And

we already have some people that have registered

for it. But we want to give the opportunity one

more time today in case you want to register

to have a time of dedication for your child.

You can go online and you will find information

there to how to register and what is required

for these things. And we are going to be celebrating

baptisms in March. This is one of those services

that I love because we get to hear the stories

of our people, how God has encountered them and

transformed their lives. So if you would like

to be baptized in March, what you have to do

is you have to register now because the baptism

class is in February. So register for it. Go

to our website. All the information will be there.

But we look forward to celebrating your life

and this step of faith and obedience to Christ.

These are the things that are happening now in

this upcoming month. So we want to share all

of these things with you as we move forward in

this year. At the beginning of the year, we started

a series of spiritual lessons from our walk with

God. And the goal was to give the opportunity

to different people that have been walking with

the Lord to share an important lesson that they

learned so that we can learn from them. Next

week, we will have a friend from the U .S. that

has been a pastor there for many years. He's

now serving with an international organization,

and he happens to be here in Bangkok for a couple

of months. And he's going to be sharing with

us next week. But today, I'm going to be sharing

as a continuation of what I did last week. Last

week, I shared with you the lesson that truth

matters. About my faith crisis. That I had to

go through. And today I want to complete this

study. So that's always part two. Have you ever

experienced a faith crisis? It's not pretty.

It's very disorienting. And scary. Because you

do not know what's going to happen. You just

find yourself in that place. Where things are

not solid anymore. And you thought they were.

And what is it going to be? I had the privilege

of coming to know Christ when I was six years

old because my parents were already followers

of Jesus and they gave us a good example. In

fact, it was my father who led me to Christ.

And then when I was nine years old, I was in

a children's summer camp where I asked the Lord

that I wanted to serve him with my life. I did

not know in what or how, but I just had this

desire for God at a young age. When I was 18

years old, I went to Bible college to study Bible

so I could serve in ministry and teach the Bible

to people. But I did not know yet what kind of

ministry I was going to be involved in. The only

thing I knew after I finished my bachelor's degree

is that I wanted to study more. I wanted to study

theology. So that's when I went to study master's

in theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. I

was a young adult in my mid -20s at that time.

And that, from all places, is when I had my faith

crisis. Once I started realizing that the Bible

that I was reading since childhood, the stories

I was reading since childhood, all of these things

suddenly it's like, wait, the Bible was written

in Hebrew and Greek and all of these things and

there are different ways of translating a single

word or that. And there's textual criticism and

there's manuscripts and all of these different

things I had never even known about or learned

to question any of these things was the catalyst

for my faith. It was a crisis that led me to

have to understand the things that I had believed.

I inherited them in a good way, not in a bad

way. But the faith crisis made me solidify these

things. And it moved me from believing, having

beliefs, to not having convictions. But that

process was a scary process. Because you start

asking questions like, how do I know I can trust

the Bible? How do I know this is true? How do

I know that God exists? How do I know that Jesus

is real? And suddenly all of these different

things came to the surface. And in that space,

God met me and led me. And I want to share that

journey with you. Because if you are in a faith

crisis, For some, that is just part of the journey.

Some of you will never have one. That's great.

But if you are in that stage of your life, don't

worry. It's okay. The Lord is with you. And you

are in the right place at the right time because

we want to walk with you. Because one of the

things that we're discovering in this journey

is that it's not so much about what do I believe?

What do I really believe? That's the wrong question.

The question is, what is really truth? Because

you want to believe truth. And that's why last

week when we started the study, I showed you

some of these different things that God... frames

this whole concept from his perspective. And

let me just review from last week initially here

what God had told the people about what mattered

to him. Would you read this aloud as a review?

These are the ones I look on with favor, those

who are humble and contrite in spirit and who

tremble at my word. We learned last week that

God cares about what attitude we have about His

Word. He wants us to take His Word seriously.

That matters to Him. And the second thing we

learned is that when Jesus prays for us as His

followers, He says that His Word, His revelation

is going to shape us and sanctify us. And we

read this last week. Would you read it out loud

with me? Sanctify them by the truth. Your word

is truth. Jesus cared about truth. He said that

truth was going to set us free. He said, I am

the way, the truth, and the life. And then when

he prays for us, he says, God, I pray for them

so that they will be transformed by your truth.

The reason why a faith crisis matters, It's because

it's an opportunity to discern what is true.

Not what I believe or what works for me. You

move from that place of having beliefs to now

having to move to a place of having convictions.

And that place matters because if you move from

belief to deep conviction, what follows is deeper,

greater kingdom impact. Because what you believe

now is solid. And truth matters. It matters to

God. He wants us to take his word seriously because

his word is truth. So we take his word seriously

because it's true. So we take his truth seriously.

But there's a reason why that matters so much.

There's a time in the Old Testament in which

the nation of Israel got to the lowest point.

Spiritually. And God sends prophet Jeremiah.

To minister to them during that time. And God

who cared about his people. Caring for truth.

Now looks at them. And just the very thought.

That God is pronouncing these words. It's a very

emotional heavy moment. God says. Say to them

Jeremiah. This is the nation that has not obeyed

the Lord its God or responded to its correction.

Truth has perished. It has vanished from their

lips. When I look at my people, I don't see anyone

that cares about truth. They don't care about

it. They don't know it. They don't speak it.

And because of that attitude towards my truth,

is that they have now embraced all of these worldviews

of all of these religions. And now they have

engaged in things that instead of moving forward,

now they have moved backwards. And it saddens

me to see my people no longer caring about truth.

And before that, in that journey that the nation

has gone in that process of decay, as they are

abandoning truth slowly and embracing other worldviews

of their surrounding nations, God has sent prophet

Isaiah to confront another dimension of this

journey that they were in. When you abandon truth,

and it's no longer in your lips because you don't

understand it, you don't care about it, you don't

speak it, you don't guide anyone into truth,

then how do you discern right from wrong, good

from evil? What is good and what is bad? How

do you discern that if it's not based on truth?

If we are living truth aside and we are simply

functioning on a matter of opinions, How do you

know? And how do you live? And that's why God

confronts the nation through Isaiah. And he tells

Isaiah, tell this people, a people now where

truth doesn't matter, a place where truth has

perished, tell them this, woe to those who call

evil good, and good evil. Completely turned around.

Their sense of right and wrong. Completely turned

around. Upside down as we say. Who put darkness

for light. And light for darkness. Who put bitter

for sweet. And sweet for bitter. He's seeing

the people. That now they are abandoned in truth.

And he's seeing them make decisions for life

completely contrary to what he himself has designed

for them. And not only they are disobeying and

doing the opposite, but they're calling that

good and they're calling his way bad. And he

says, woe to those who are wise in their own

eyes and clever in their own sight, but have

abandoned me. For their own versions of truth.

What we realize is that truth matters. Because

what we believe to be true. Will affect the way

we live. And God wants us to experience life

abundantly. According to his design. And the

moment we do not believe that he is truth. and

that His way is the true way, we will abandon

it for something else, and our lives and our

decisions are not going to take us to the right

place. And we will look back at our lives with

regret because we were duped by deception. Lack

of truth is not an option for us followers of

Jesus. if we are really going to overcome the

crisis of faith. We have to engage and wrestle

through it because we need to follow it because

it's true. If it's not true, then walk away from

it. Because God cares for truth. And it is sad

to see what Isaiah mentioned. come to fruition

in so many cases. But one of the sad cases that

I got to hear was from this young lady, Chloe

Cole. She did not grow up in a religious home.

So she didn't have really a belief in God or

the Bible or things like that. Her parents thought,

we're not going to impose any religious view.

Your own spirituality is your business. We're

going to let you develop your own convictions.

And as she looks back, she says, I wish my parents

did not have that mindset because I needed truth.

I needed convictions, but I didn't have them.

So when I was 12 years old, as I was entering

puberty, I started feeling uncomfortable with

my changes and with my body. And as a typical

teenager, I was spending a lot of time in social

media. And that's when I started seeing the stories

of all these people, some of them my age or older,

that had similar feelings to what I was feeling.

And then I realized that they were teaching me

that actually the way I was feeling, the reason

for that was because I had the body of a girl,

but really I was a boy. I was meant to be born

a boy. And the only way that his feelings would

go away was that if I became physically a boy.

So she started embracing that ideology at age

12. Which led her to eventually perform all the

hormonal treatment and the removal of her breasts.

And she became... A boy. And she was not a Christian.

She did not believe in God, the Bible, none of

these things. But it was in that period of her

life, between 12 and 16, as she was going to

high school and living life like a boy, that

she realized this was a whole mistake. I'm not

a boy. I can never be a boy. I can just look

like one. But I was born a girl and I'm still

a girl trying to pretend to be a boy. There's

no such a thing as different genders. And she

started feeling conflicted more and more. And

she's going to high school. And she's learning

about the human body and all of these things.

She says the maternal instinct started. Coming

up in me like the desire in the future to have

a child, you know, through these classes that

she was going through. And she said, the moment

I realized I will never be able to breastfeed

a child. And she started feeling the regrets

of her decision. Realizing that what she needed

was someone to help her understand her feelings

rather than someone to take these feelings and

make her identity. But all of this stuff, it

was a little bit too late because the breasts

were gone. Their hormones were already there.

Her voice had already changed. But in that stage,

she realized that there were other people that

were questioning these things. So she decided

to detransition and go back to being a girl.

And it's in that season of her life that she

met other people that were talking about how

wrong this was. And that's the first time she

met Christians and she heard the gospel and she

became a follower of Jesus. After the transitioning.

And for the first time in her life. She started

realizing that God had created her with the gender

that he desired. And that gender and sex were

not two separate things. That if you were a male,

you were a boy. And that if you were a girl,

you were a female. And that that identity was

God given. A gift for her to embrace. Her life

started changing completely from that point on.

And she says, That confusion around my identity

and my purpose as a woman came from a lack of

faith and objective reality and morality. I didn't

have that. And because I didn't have that, how

do I define what is true? These were the psychologists

and the counselors and the doctors and the government

telling me I needed to do this, that this was

the solution. I needed that solid foundation

that Christ has now given me. I needed it then.

Upside down. She says after her experience, this

is wrong. They call it medicine, but it's actually

malpractice. They call it affirming, but in reality,

it's not affirming anything except for my own

deception. And now she's dedicating this stage

of her life to testify, to bring some awareness

of how children go through these things. And

she has even testified before Congress in the

U .S. and been invited to different countries

to speak about this reality because she is living

it. Even now, she still has the consequences

in her body. Of all the treatment that she went

through only a few years ago. Could it be. That

when we say God you are wrong. We are right.

We are actually the opposite. That we were wrong

and that he was right all along. Truth matters.

If you happen to learn. To be interested in learning

more about. This. field of study of gender dysphoria

and someone that is an expert on this topic that

has worked with children for many decades on

these things, get this book called Lost in Transnation.

This doctor wrote it because she was concerned

of cases like Chloe's life. She was seeing this

time and time and time again. And she wrote this

book for parents and for She says, that's what

I had in mind, to let them understand what this

whole thing is about and how this thing really

works. Very fascinating, well -written study.

Truth matters. Because the way we engage with

truth will determine the decisions we make for

life and the outcome for years to come. And when

God looked at his people in the Old Testament

and says, truth has perished, I do not longer

see it on their lips. Wouldn't it be heartbreaking

for God to look at us today and say, you don't

care for truth. I don't see it in your lips.

So my faith crisis turned out to be a faith crisis

about discerning truth. Is this really true or

not? And I discovered that this crisis of faith

was not just unique to me. In fact, last week

when I shared my study, there was a friend that

came and said, Pablo, the faith crisis that you

experienced in seminary, I also experienced it.

And I wish that someone would have told us, when

you start seminary studies, a master's in theology,

and dealing with textual criticism, all of these

things, this could happen to you. But if it happens,

know that it's normal. You know, it would have

been so helpful. That crisis of faith has happened

to other people, and one of them is Nancy Percy.

Nancy Percy grew up in a home that was Lutheran.

Scandinavian parents. So as she started growing

older, she started wanting to know, how do I

know this is true? How do I know the Bible is

true? How do I know Christianity is true? She

could never get a good answer. The closest answer

she said she got was this religious leader that

says, well, it works for me. And she said, that

doesn't fly. I mean, I'm looking for truth, you

know. It's like I want to know objectively, how

do I know this is true and not that? How the

Bible is true but not that other book? How Jesus

is true but not that other religion? How do I

know? She wanted to discern truth. But because

she couldn't find someone to intelligently engage

with her in that journey, she became an agnostic

and a moral relativist. What she discovered is

that there are these two competing worldviews.

And the worldview that she embraced is what she

called the materialistic worldview, also known

as Darwinian materialism or naturalism. And this

worldview is a prevalent worldview in Western

countries, also in academia across cultures.

And because she started meeting more people that

embraced this worldview from the academic world,

she started thinking that the biblical worldview

was wrong, was not true, and this other worldview

was. Until eventually, she met a group of Christians

that were apologists. They were trained in helping

people reason through epistemology, through discerning

what is true. And for the first time, she was

able to engage in intelligent conversations to

answer the questions that she had. And even though

she wrestled and she resisted, eventually Nancy

came to know Christ. She became a follower of

Jesus and was able to understand why the Bible

and the worldview of the Bible was true. And

today, she's a professor at a seminary in Houston

in the U .S. And she has written numerous books

that are very good. These worldviews that she's

talking about are very opposite. And we need

to take a moment to look into them. Because part

of the faith crisis of many people within the

church and outside is precisely because they

find themselves in this quandrum of, which one

is it? This is the way it works. The materialistic

worldview starts with the assumption that God

does not exist. There's no God. And therefore,

because we exist today, things began at some

point. But when and how? Well, from this perspective,

I want to tell you the way worldview is. There

was a point in history where, if you rewind,

Rewind, rewind, you get to the very, very beginning.

There was a point of singularity, energy at the

smallest possible level that suddenly exploded.

We don't know exactly how that works, but one

day science will explain it. And this thing exploded

and now matter began. And suddenly all these

gases and then all these material stuff started

going everywhere, including rocks. And suddenly

all of these rocks started hitting, explosions.

And with the heat of the friction, they started

melting. And with time, this melting of crashing

rocks became a round, big, round, melting rock.

And within that, suddenly a piece flew away from

that that became the moon. And now this big piece

of melting lava now. is this huge place that

we call Earth. But it took billions of years

for this heat to cool down and become solid.

And from that big bang, as life happened, we

do not know how, but between the gases and the

rocks and all these things, suddenly all these

minerals and things that started combining. Before

you know it, a bacteria was born. And this bacteria,

with time, with this 4 .5 billion years that

we know the earth is that old, eventually became

other forms of life and eventually became you

and I. We know that the Earth is 4 .5 billion

years old because if you calculate how long it

would have taken to this lava to cool down, including

factoring all the elements of the magnetic field

of the Earth that we know today, you come down

to about 4 .5 billion years. Therefore, the history

of the earth has been progressive. When you look

at geology and all of these things today, you

have to understand that things happened throughout

billions of years of small erosion. The idea

there was a global flood, all of that is just

myth. It's just one more of those myths of the

Mesopotamian cultures. Anybody that's intelligent

and well -educated like I am today knows that

that's just myth. And therefore, anything that

has to do with sexual identity, gender identity,

or marriage is just a social construct. So if

you feel a certain way, embrace that identity

because who am I to tell you you are wrong? I

mean, all of it is just a social construct. Because

ultimately, we are biological machines. There's

no soul and spirit. That's myth. We know today

that we are just biological machines and that

religion is just a human effort to try to explain

that which science already explains for us. There's

no God. There's no need for salvation. You die

and that's it. This materialistic worldview is

the worldview that permeates colleges, universities,

science departments. So if you are going to go

to college, doesn't matter where you're going

to go, most likely this is the worldview that

your professors are going to come from. This

is the worldview that Nancy discovered that led

her to become an agnostic. But the worldview

of the Bible is very different. The worldview

of the Bible starts with the assumption that

actually God exists. And that at the beginning,

There is God. God designed everything. And he

brought it into existence by his very word. And

God designed the universe as we know it. Life

as we know it. And everything was engineered

from the very beginning for life. The entire

ecosystems were engineered from the very beginning

for life. The entire systems of human or animal

life, plant life is so complex at the atomic

and cellular level that we know that it's so

complex. And the Bible says, yeah, it was engineered

from the beginning as a system that was all put

together from the very beginning. Therefore,

there's no need for long ages of time for life

to happen. Because we did not evolve from our

bacteria. And there was a time in which people

turned away from God and the level of corruption

became so deep that God judged that generation

of humans with a global flood and He promised

never to destroy the world again with water.

However, at the end of times, he's going to destroy

the world with fire and he's going to start a

new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

And humans were created from the very beginning

in God's image. Your great, great grandparents

were not apes. Your great, great, great, your

immediate... Your immediate ancestor is God himself

because God created humans in his image and his

likeness. And it is built in, each one of us,

your gender and your sex as one thing. So if

you are a boy, you are a male. And that is written

in your very cells. Every cell of your body is

a male cell. If you're a woman, every cell in

your body is a female cell. It's written in your

very code. And therefore, gender, sex, and marriage

are not social constructs, but they are the order

in which God designed the created world, and

that's how we are what we are today. And we are

not just biological machines. We are people who

are physical, but we're also spiritual. There's

a soul. And if you were to die and your soul

is separated from your body because of your sinfulness,

because of your rebellion against your creator,

you will not be able to be with God, but instead

you will have to be judged and be separated from

him. But he sent Jesus to solve that problem

so that you can be forgiven if you just ask for

his forgiveness so that you can be reconciled

to him so that you can be saved because Jesus

is the truth. And also he's the only way for

you to experience salvation and true life. This

is the biblical worldview. What Nancy discovered

is that they were so opposite that that was not

the shocking part. The shocking part was how

many people were trying to mix both worldviews.

And many Christians were trying to develop a

Christian story of creation and of the history

of the world that grabbed a little bit of that,

a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a

little bit of this. And truth slowly started

being replaced with opinions. And opinions led

some people to paralysis by analysis. I don't

really know what belief anymore. Because that

book tells me that. That book tells me that.

That book tells me that. Pastor Pablo tells me

that. I have no idea what to believe. So because

I do not know what to believe. Truth is no longer

in my lips. Because I do not know what is true.

And I have stopped caring about knowing. And

I'm going to simply live by the motto that says.

It doesn't matter what you believe. It only matters

how you live. So be a good person. Leave all

this stuff. For others to discuss. And in that

space of trying to live with mixed world views.

We have abandoned truth. And we start making

decisions. That do not reflect a heart of God.

There are scientists. Who write books about theology.

And there are theologians that write books about

science. And therefore, the mix becomes a mess.

It sells well, though, so it's profitable, but

confusing. And this is what Nancy discovered.

And she wrote a couple of books I mentioned last

week. Total Truth. But she also wrote this book,

Finding Truth and Love Thy Body. This book, Love

Thy Body, is a must read if you want to understand

the thinking behind how we approach these issues

of separation of gender and sex and the way we

see our bodies. She does an excellent job bringing

the Christian theology into it. Again, these

are academic books. If you love reading that

kind of more intellectual type of Christian thought,

These are great books for you to engage with.

What I discovered is that there were other people

like Nancy that were also going through a faith

crisis trying to discern, is this true or not?

And people like her that went through that journey

eventually turned around and said, yes, now I

understand. I believe it because it's true. And

I thank God. That he gifted people like her to

be able to write about things like that to help

the rest of us in that journey. But what I also

discovered is that this faith crisis was not

just a faith crisis on Christians that were trying

to figure out this was true. I found... That

there were people who did not believe in the

Bible, who did not believe in God or Jesus, who

had their faith in their own worldview. They

were agnostics and some of them atheists with

this materialistic worldview. And that's what

shaped them and that's what they believed. But

they themselves had a faith crisis because the

science that they started studying revealed that

the worldview that they had inherited was not

true. One of those cases is the cases of Dr.

Egnor, Michael Egnor. He was a neurosurgeon who

studied the brain. And as an agnostic person

with a materialistic worldview, you believe you're

a biological machine. Therefore, mind is simply

the product of the brain. If there's no brain,

there's no mind. Simple. But what he discovered

in his field was the opposite. He realized that

mind existed separated from the brain and that

we are a soul. So he wrote this book, The Immortal

Mind, to talk about the evidence that he found

as a scientist, the evidence for the soul. But

in his struggle, one of the things that you discover

from many of these people that come from that

background is that the peer pressure To even

mention some of these things because the moment

your science is indicating that perhaps this

worldview is wrong and that there is a God, you're

going to make lots of enemies and you may even

lose your job. So there's this reservation to

even try to publish the data because you do not

know it's a high risk. There was another scientist,

a PhD in chemistry from Australia. His name is

Stephen Crockett. Was studying chemistry from

all things. Also an agnostic. Same materialistic

world view. And he had a faith crisis. Because

from all things. When he started studying helium.

The guys that make you speak funny. Helium. Was

one of the first moments. In which he said. The

earth cannot be billions of years old. It's impossible.

It doesn't match the chemistry. And the more

he started studying chemistry, the more he started

realizing that his worldview was not true. And

he faith crisis, he resisted it because he said,

you have no idea. We scientists experience the

most fear pressure than any other field because

the moment you publish your findings insinuating

that there's no God, I mean that there's a God

or that there's a creator, you're going to lose

the grants. You're not going to be able to be

sponsored to do research. And if you don't research,

what do you do as a scientist? And that is why

a lot of what is written in the academia reflects

this materialistic worldview. Not because it's

true and the people that write less are mistaken.

It's because they're not invited into the conversation.

In fact, there's a documentary that was done

about this. It's not in my notes here. But if

you had a chance to watch it, go ahead. It's

on YouTube. It's available. But it's called Expelled,

No Intelligence Allowed. And it was produced

by a Jewish comedian where he interviewed all

these scientists. And he started saying, what

is the big problem with... Finding information

that points to a designer. Why this big rejection?

And what you realize is what this guy's experience

is true. There's a peer pressure to maintain

this because if this is not true, then the implications

are huge. From believing that no one plus nothing

equals everything to believing that someone Created

everything and we are accountable to him. The

implications are huge. But which one is true?

Ah. When we start asking that question, it leads

us to a whole different space. And that's why

these guys experienced that. And it was in that

journey from... agnosticism, materialistic worldview,

encountering truth through science, that they

were able to start discovering the Bible and

the narrative, the history of the Bible, and

they realized that matches the evidence that

I'm discovering in my field. We do have a soul.

And there was a global flood. And that's what

I see in my field. And the Bible says it. Then

it must be true. And from that point, These guys

became followers of Jesus. And this is just a

few of many that have gone through that journey.

Truth matters. And what God wants us, as followers

of Jesus, is that if we are going to experience

a faith crisis, we frame it from the perspective

of truth. And that we engage with it, and that

we learn to add knowledge to our faith. Because

if we acknowledge an understanding that will

result in many more things that we need in order

to serve God well. That's why the Apostle Paul

wrote to the Ephesians these words. He says,

guys, you know, we need to grow. Let's mature

a little. Let's add knowledge to our faith. Let's

become more mature followers of Jesus. And then

he says, When we grow in maturity, then we won't

be tossed and blown about by every wind of new

teaching. We will not be influenced when people

try to trick us with lies so clever they sound

like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth.

How? In love. The truth will be on our lips.

We will know it and we'll speak it. In love.

Growing in every way more and more like Christ.

Who is the head of his body. The church. God

cares about truth. That I understand it. That

I speak it. Because there are people that are

in darkness that need the light. So that they

can find the truth. And the truth has a name.

His name is Jesus. So what I discover in this

journey is that God wants me to know the truth.

He wants me to live the truth. And he wants me

to speak the truth in love. And if I'm able to

grow in that journey like that, then I'm in the

right direction. So a faith crisis is not the

problem. The problem is I stop caring for truth.

If you are in that journey, I'm here to encourage

you. Engage. Learn. Read. Watch. Talk. You're

in a place where we care about your journey.

There are no stupid questions in this context.

We are all growing in understanding because we

love Jesus and we want to encounter God. So after

sharing these things with you, Let me spend the

rest of the minutes of this study just giving

you helpful resources. Okay? So I'm going to

go like with the fire hose. Lots of resources

for you now. Okay? So be prepared. Take pictures.

Because if you have any of these questions, they're

going to help you. Okay? I'm going to rush through

it, but it's right there in the notes for you.

There are three questions that I had to basically

ask in this process of faith crisis. And it comes

to the point that how do I know it's true? Well,

because truth matches reality. Simple. Let me

put it this way. If I tell you, grab your umbrella

because it's raining outside, how do you know

that I'm telling you the truth? You will go outside

and it's raining. Oh, so he was telling me the

truth. Yeah, truth matches reality. Simple. It's

no more complicated than that. So if you're trying

to discern, how do I know this is true? Well,

then engage and see it doesn't match reality.

And there are three things. First, How do I know

the text is reliable, the Bible that I'm reading?

How do I know that it has not been altered and

that it's the same Bible that the apostles were

engaging with? The same books of the Old Testament

that Jesus read are the same ones I have. How

do I know the text is reliable? Here we go. Ready?

Okay. We have the largest collection of manuscripts,

Old Testament and New Testaments, ever. One of

the earliest. Copies of manuscripts that we have

is a copy of the book of John, chapter 18, 37,

John 18 · chapter mention

38, where Jesus himself is talking about truth

from all topics. We have the largest collections

of Old Testament manuscripts called the Dead

Sea Scrolls. You can see them on display in Jerusalem

at the Museum in Jerusalem. They are the oldest

collections before Jesus' lifetime. And they

match exactly the Old Testament that we have

today. One of the earliest quotes of the Old

Testament is from the book of Numbers. It's a

scroll made out of silver that dates to the time

of Prophet Jeremiah. And it's the quote of that

blessing of Numbers. It's called the Keter Himon

Scrolls. We have... a collection of New Testament

manuscripts and a collection of codices. You

can see some of these in England and in other

museums as well. But one of the most fascinating,

I think it's in, if I recall, might be in the

museum in Jordan, is, do you remember the story

when Israel is leaving Egypt? And they are entering

the promised land and somebody calls this guy

called Balaam to curse them. And the guy can't.

He can only bless them. And they call him again

and curse them. And they pay him to curse them

and he can't. Remember that story? That's the

book of Numbers. Balaam, son of Beor. There's

a whole archaeological discovery. These tablets

that have the name. It says the book of Balaam,

son of Beor. Asir. Outside the Bible. And this

dates to the 8th century before Christ. I mean,

the evidence for the text to be real is so huge.

If you want to see some of the codices, you can

go to the British Library in England. But you

don't have to travel anywhere because today there's

an organization called the Center for the Study

of New Testament Manuscripts. And they have...

As they're mentioned, to be able to digitize

all the New Testament manuscripts, which means

that if you want to see if the textual evidence

matches your Bible, you can go online, go to

the website, click on the manuscript, and you

will see. It's unbelievable how much information

we have today. The Bible is the most well -attested

ancient document. that we have today from any

other book in history. Do I trust the text? Yes,

I do. There's a documentary called Fragments

of Truth. Go to YouTube, Fragments of Truth.

It's a very well done documentary that summarizes

everything that I just told you about the text

itself. Is the history accurate? Did these things

really happen? How do I know? Archaeology. There's

so much evidence today. And so many documentaries

that have been created. Timothy Mahagany, he

was a guy, a Christian guy, a filmmaker, that

started taking some of these tours. And he started

hearing from some of the tour guides and some

of these archaeologists saying, oh, the Exodus

never happened. Moses didn't exist. There's no

archaeological evidence for it. But that's okay.

You can still believe in that as metaphor. And

he says, no, no, if it didn't happen, then why

would I believe it? I need to know whether this

is true or not. So as a filmmaker, he did a series

of documentaries that are very well done. And

what he does is that he shows you what is the

actual archaeological evidence and what is the

interpretation from liberal to conservative circles

about this evidence. And then he tells the viewer,

you decide. Based on the evidence, who do you

think is right? And it's amazing the amount of

archaeological evidence that is about the Exodus.

If you want to learn more about that, you can

find these videos in RightNow Media. If you have

a RightNow Media account, you can see them for

free. There is an archaeologist based in Jordan.

And Joel Kramer is his name. He has a YouTube

channel. channel called Expedition Bible. He

takes you to all of these different places to

show you how the archaeology matches the Bible.

There's this couple, Sergio and Rhoda, that live

in Nazareth, the same town where Jesus grew up,

where people say, can anything good come from

Nazareth? You know, that place. And this couple

are Christians, and they live there, and they

have created this YouTube video where they show

you places from Israel and how they match the

biblical description. You can also find the series

of studies from Dave Stotz, who is the guy that

did Drive Through History series. He did Drive

Through the Bible and the Gospel series. He takes

you with his car driving to all of these different

places. If you are studying the book of Colossians,

he takes you to Colossae. And he shows you the

ruins and he tells you everything. The entire

New Testament he has done. You can see the archaeology,

the places, the names, the evidence right there.

Go to Amazon and you will get these videos downloaded

digitally. You can watch it from your phone when

you are bored. All of this is available. There's

a YouTube channel called Digging for Truth. And

every year they show the summary of the 10 most

important archaeological discoveries of the year.

So you can go and see them. It's available for

you to see. Is the history accurate? Yes, it

is. We have the evidence for it. The evidence

matches reality. Well, what about the science,

Pastor Paolo? Does the science, is it factual?

Because I've heard that people say the Bible

is not a book of science, so I should not read

it like that or expect it to be scientifically

accurate. It's like, of course the Bible is not

a book of science. I'm not going to look for

a chemistry formula in there. But it's historical.

And if it is historical, then the science should

match. And this is not me just saying it. Did

you know that three of the astronauts, including

one who walked in the moon, And one who has the

most hours from anyone circulating on the orbit

of the earth. These three astronauts that were

from NASA are Christians. And after they experienced

being there, especially after looking at the

earth from the moon, their conviction of saying,

wow, that matches exactly what the Bible says.

that God has the earth suspended in nothing.

How could we have known that? These three astronauts

believe in the Bible. And when they are asked

about how do you mix Bible and science, they

say, well, the Bible is not a book of science,

but it's scientifically accurate. And their experience

in space has done nothing but reinforce their

belief that the Bible is true because it matches

reality. There was an atheist guy who, a movie

producer, he produced a couple of horror movies.

He came to know Christ. He became a believer.

And when he realized that there was so much evidence

in the sciences about the designer and how it

matched what the Bible said, he was so excited,

but he was shocked that many Christians had no

idea about it. So as a filmmaker, he felt called

to create a film, a documentary that could summarize

all this information. Universe Design is the

name of the documentary. It was just published

last year, recently, 2025. You can go online.

You can see the video. You can download it in

Amazon, in a video player, digitally, if you

want to understand what is the science that corroborates

what God says about creation. And finally, there's

a group of scientists from different countries,

from lots of different fields. Remember the chemist

that I told you about at the beginning? People

that were agnostics, people, some of them were

Christians, they were scientists, and they started

discovering more and more in their fields that

the reality that they were seeing matched what

the Bible said, not what their other view they

had been taught. And it's a big organization

now of this ministry called Creation Ministries.

All these scientists, and they have also published

scientific peer review articles. And more at

the lay level articles in a magazine for people

that are interested in understanding the science

of these things. If you are a scientist and you

want to read serious scientific studies, they

have this level of writing as part of their ministry.

And you can go to creation .com and learn from

it. All of this stuff is available for us. You

don't have to go through a faith crisis blinded.

It's there. Engage with it. Go through the crisis

so that you come out of it more mature, more

solid, with deeper convictions. But whatever

you do, don't stop caring for truth. And don't

let truth abandon your lips because God cares

for it. May you find in ECB a place. Where you

find truth. Are you trusting in God's word? I

pray that my journey of faith. My faith crisis.

Will help you. In your own journey. To love the

Lord. To love the truth. To stand for it. But

I would like to ask you to read with me. These

final words. From Isaiah. The grass withers.

And the flowers fell. But the word of our God.

Endures forever. Lord. Thank you for your word.

For caring for us. You care deeply. Help us care

deeply too. And I ask you in Jesus name. That

if there's anyone here. That is going through

a faith crisis. You will encounter them. In that

place. With truth. And love and grace in Jesus'

name. Thank you for tuning in to the ECB Sermon

Podcast. Whether near or far, if you are looking

for community or are in need of prayer, we welcome

you to engage by sending us an email to office

at ecb .asia. If God is calling you to support

our ministries, you will find giving options

on our website. And remember to join us next

week. God bless you.