2024 Women's Conference - Session 2

[00:00:00] I've been walking with Jesus for a long time now, I feel like. Not that it's a badge of honor or anything, but I've known the Lord for a long time. Probably not as long as some of you in this room, and I want to hang out with you and learn from you, those of you who have been walking with the Lord longer than I have.

[00:00:17] But anyway, there's a pretty good chunk of years behind me of walking with the Lord. And honestly, last night it was so good for me to be reminded in a fresh way that God really does exist. That He is so real.

[00:00:35] And to be reminded, among other things, that He doesn't need anything, but He gives everything. That is a fresh word that I need all the time.

[00:00:48] If I let that really like sink into my soul, just like a little bit deeper. If I let that rewire my brain just a little bit more than it's in there right now.

[00:01:01] I can honestly say, even after walking with Jesus for a long time now, that my life would look different. My Tuesdays, as Dina talked about.

[00:01:10] They would look different, not because my circumstances would be different, right? But because how I think about my circumstances, how I feel about my Tuesdays, how I act and respond in everyday life stuff.

[00:01:23] It really would be different if I lived and pressed into that reality that God is. That God is real.

[00:01:32] And I needed that fresh reminder of who He is, how in control He is, how real He is.

[00:01:38] So, anyway, I think I would worry less. I think I would fight for control less.

[00:01:45] I think I would invite Him into it like every minute so much more if I let that sink into my heart a little bit more.

[00:01:52] So, anyway, that was one of my takeaways from last night. I hope you enjoyed it too.

[00:01:57] But here we are on Saturday morning, right? And we've got more ahead. Two more teachings from Dina.

[00:02:03] And I'm pretty sure we all showed up this morning hoping to get something from God.

[00:02:09] No matter where we're coming from or what we've been in this week or this year, I think we've all showed up wanting to have an exchange with the Lord.

[00:02:17] And I just want to encourage your hearts. I want to encourage you to settle your hearts and settle your minds.

[00:02:24] And just in this time where Dina shares right now and her next session, just like settle into that reality again that God is.

[00:02:33] He is real. And He is going to. He wants to talk to your heart.

[00:02:40] Hebrews 11.6 says that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

[00:02:45] Right? To me, signing up for this conference was an act of seeking Him.

[00:02:51] And showing up today was another act of I'm seeking you, God.

[00:02:57] So I am sure that God wants to bless those steps by showing Himself to you, by revealing Himself to you in a deeper way.

[00:03:06] So I encourage you, settle your mind and allow the God of the entire universe to talk to you this morning.

[00:03:15] All right. It's my privilege to invite once again our guest speaker, Dina Davidson, up to share with us this morning a quick refresh.

[00:03:23] Come on up, Dina. But if you weren't here last night, she comes to us from Bayside Church in Roseville.

[00:03:28] She's a mom of three little ones, the director of discipleship at Thrive College, and a compelling and wise Bible teacher.

[00:03:37] So we're really privileged to have her. Why don't you welcome her back up?

[00:03:43] Thank you so much. So excited to be here once more.

[00:03:47] How did you sleep last night? Good? Excellent. I envy you.

[00:03:52] I have a three-month-old.

[00:03:55] He's been a great sleeper, but last night he was like, does my mom still exist?

[00:03:59] And he needed it to be proved many times throughout the night, which, yes, you're right, is quite precious.

[00:04:05] I am still needed in my three-month-old life, so it didn't feel precious at, you know, 3, 5, 6 a.m., but it was precious.

[00:04:14] Okay. I admire your beautiful little booklets.

[00:04:17] I wonder if someone can let me borrow theirs for this morning.

[00:04:21] We're going to continue in Act 17. Perfect.

[00:04:23] Okay. I know you were planning on taking notes. You can take your pen.

[00:04:26] I won't need your pen. In fact, I'll probably lose your pen if you give it to me.

[00:04:29] Thank you. Okay.

[00:04:31] This, for the purpose of this message, represents your brain, your mind, and everything that you know.

[00:04:40] Okay? You're like, aha, we've been writing in this.

[00:04:44] Did she plan this out? No, I saw this, and I was like, we're going to use that.

[00:04:47] That's beautiful.

[00:04:48] This is your brain. This is your mind.

[00:04:50] We're going to continue in Act 17, because yesterday we answered, asked and answered, the most important question we could ever ask, which is, is there a God?

[00:05:00] And we found out that it is, in fact, reasonable to believe in God's existence, that he exists.

[00:05:06] And now we have to ask and answer the second most important question.

[00:05:10] And this is the one that Paul picks up on in Act 17, which is, has God spoken?

[00:05:17] Because 200 years ago, a little over 200 years ago, in the Enlightenment, there were a lot of people that believed that perhaps it was reasonable to believe that God exists, but this God has never communicated.

[00:05:29] In fact, the human brain is so limited that we could never actually communicate with the divine.

[00:05:34] And so we're kind of just having to live as practical atheists because we have no access to the divine.

[00:05:40] Because of the problems we mentioned last night, we better believe in God's existence, because otherwise there can be no meaning, there can be no truth, there can be no value, there can be no beauty.

[00:05:47] But we don't know who this God is.

[00:05:51] And that is the question that Paul picks up on in Acts 17, picking up in verse 26.

[00:05:57] And he made from one man every nation, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.

[00:06:15] We're going to pause there for a second.

[00:06:17] Because you remember your brain?

[00:06:19] You remember your mind?

[00:06:20] Something interesting started happening around the 60s.

[00:06:24] Anyone?

[00:06:24] Oh, I don't want to make you raise your hands, but if you want to like own it, own it.

[00:06:29] Who was alive in the 60s?

[00:06:31] Yeah.

[00:06:32] Okay.

[00:06:33] All right.

[00:06:33] So something very interesting happened around the 60s.

[00:06:37] And that was the whole concept of truth began to be questioned.

[00:06:41] Yes, there may be a truth, but how do we know what is true?

[00:06:46] And so into society, we started to think about relativism.

[00:06:50] And you've probably all heard about this word.

[00:06:52] And postmodernism.

[00:06:54] Which basically says that we don't have access to the truth.

[00:06:58] So nowadays, you know, this is how it used to be.

[00:07:00] Is this was everything that your brain contained.

[00:07:04] And before something went into this folder, we would carefully sift and filter and examine it to reality to see whether it corresponded and should actually go in our folder.

[00:07:17] Right?

[00:07:17] We would actually pay very close attention to what we believed to make sure that before we added something to our beliefs that actually not only fit in with reality, but it also cohered with the rest of our beliefs.

[00:07:31] Enter relativism.

[00:07:33] Enter postmodernity.

[00:07:34] Enter this idea that we can't really access the truth.

[00:07:37] And now you get the modern mind.

[00:07:40] Which is basically, we watch an episode of our favorite television show.

[00:07:44] Tell me your favorite television show right there.

[00:07:47] Yes, you.

[00:07:48] No, right next to you.

[00:07:49] Elberher.

[00:07:50] Yeah, you.

[00:07:51] Sir.

[00:07:53] Is that still going?

[00:07:56] Season 100?

[00:07:57] Like, where are we at?

[00:07:59] 47.

[00:08:00] Who are you?

[00:08:02] Who are you rooting for?

[00:08:04] Unclear at this time.

[00:08:05] Okay.

[00:08:06] It's too early.

[00:08:07] It's too early.

[00:08:07] Okay.

[00:08:08] So we watch Survivor.

[00:08:09] Someone says something interesting and we're like, oh, okay.

[00:08:12] Add it to the file.

[00:08:14] Yoga.

[00:08:15] Perfect.

[00:08:15] All right.

[00:08:16] Yoga can help me with my anxiety.

[00:08:17] Great.

[00:08:17] And then we listen to your incredible pastor's sermon.

[00:08:22] I forget his name.

[00:08:24] Nate.

[00:08:25] I'm so glad you knew that.

[00:08:26] That would have been so awkward.

[00:08:30] She just locked up and couldn't access her husband's name.

[00:08:33] Great.

[00:08:35] Pastor Nate preaches this incredible sermon from the word of God.

[00:08:38] And we're like, yeah.

[00:08:40] And we file it right next to what the lady on Survivor said about yoga.

[00:08:46] And then we listen to the radio and we add that to the file.

[00:08:49] And then we listen to fill in the blank of presidential candidate you like.

[00:08:53] And we add it to the file.

[00:08:54] And then we go on through our life simply adding things to the file until all of a sudden what we have is we have a file, a folder of ideas that are, you know, present.

[00:09:08] But we've never given any thought to whether they actually match reality, one.

[00:09:14] And second, fit with the other ideas that we have in our folder.

[00:09:18] And so what we get today is the disorganized brain of the 21st century modern mind.

[00:09:24] And you're like, I wonder why there's so much anxiety.

[00:09:27] I work with college students and they're like, it's just so hard to get out of bed.

[00:09:34] And I'm like, totally.

[00:09:36] Part of why it is so hard to get out of bed is because your brain looks like this.

[00:09:43] And when you're in pain, you don't know whether to do yoga or like talk to God or take a pill.

[00:09:51] There's so many ideas in this file.

[00:09:54] And the only thing you know is that there's an answer.

[00:09:57] You just don't know which one it is.

[00:10:00] And you're anxious all the time.

[00:10:02] And the reality is that your ideas don't go together.

[00:10:06] I remember as a philosophy major talking to this gal who said she was a Christian and she was a fatalist.

[00:10:12] And you're like, what is a fatalist?

[00:10:13] It's a terrible idea.

[00:10:15] A fatalist is someone who thinks that there is no free will, right?

[00:10:20] Like no matter how hard you try, your steps are laid out in front of you and you have no free will.

[00:10:26] So if you raise your hand, it was predetermined from the dawn of time that you would raise your hand.

[00:10:30] You have kept your hand down.

[00:10:31] So it was predetermined from the dawn of time that you would keep your hand down.

[00:10:36] I was like, okay, okay.

[00:10:37] I understand the philosophical like chain of thoughts that led you to believe in fatalism.

[00:10:44] But here's what I didn't get.

[00:10:46] She wanted to be an FBI agent and she wanted to hunt down child molesters.

[00:10:53] And I was like, hold on.

[00:10:55] You want to devote your life to bringing to justice people that had no free will in their actions.

[00:11:02] She goes, yeah.

[00:11:04] I was like, do you see a problem with that?

[00:11:08] You're going to bring to justice people who have no control over their actions any more than you have control over your action to go pursue them and bring them to justice.

[00:11:17] She's like, yeah.

[00:11:19] And she was literally smiling that wide.

[00:11:21] I was like, do you understand how illogical that is?

[00:11:23] She said, yes.

[00:11:24] I know.

[00:11:25] It's crazy.

[00:11:26] What is happening?

[00:11:29] This.

[00:11:30] This is what is happening.

[00:11:32] She had added something to her folder called fatalism.

[00:11:35] And she put it right next to her desire to end children's suffering from terribly tragic events.

[00:11:42] And even though she knew they conflicted, she kept both in her file.

[00:11:46] And I was like, I don't know how to keep talking to you.

[00:11:49] It's because you seem happy to have this disorganized brain.

[00:11:54] Paul says that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him.

[00:12:01] That's the 21st century man.

[00:12:03] I think we are seeking after meaning.

[00:12:05] We are seeking after justice.

[00:12:07] We are seeking after, you know, we want through our cancel culture to do what is right.

[00:12:12] But we're just feeling our way towards God.

[00:12:15] And maybe we're going to find him.

[00:12:17] Maybe we're going to stumble onto the divine and we'll put it right next to what the survivor lady said.

[00:12:22] That's the condition of the modern man.

[00:12:25] And it was the same 2,000 plus years ago when Paul was speaking to the men of Athens.

[00:12:31] But he's going to offer a different way.

[00:12:35] Yet, he is actually, Paul says, not far from each one of us.

[00:12:41] For in him we live and move and have our being.

[00:12:44] As even some of your own poets have said.

[00:12:47] Paul recognizes, ah, there's truth in here.

[00:12:52] There's truth in here.

[00:12:53] And it just didn't come from Pastor Nate's sermon.

[00:12:56] You see, mankind has the ability to stumble towards truth.

[00:12:59] To reach out towards God.

[00:13:01] And perhaps maybe stumble onto truth.

[00:13:03] And put it into the file.

[00:13:04] Put it into the folder.

[00:13:07] 29, Paul says, being then God's offspring.

[00:13:11] Meaning we came from God.

[00:13:12] We ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone.

[00:13:17] Paul says, hey, there's some ideas in there.

[00:13:22] You got to get rid of them.

[00:13:24] You got to get rid of them.

[00:13:26] An image formed by the art and imagination of man.

[00:13:30] Sorry, survivor lady.

[00:13:31] The times of ignorance God overlooked.

[00:13:35] But now, he commands all people everywhere to take their ideas.

[00:13:39] To sort them.

[00:13:40] To filter them.

[00:13:41] And when they realize that they are false and contradict the truth.

[00:13:46] To reject them.

[00:13:48] He commands all people everywhere to repent.

[00:13:52] This passage shows us that God has spoken.

[00:13:59] God has spoken.

[00:14:03] Which means we can know the truth.

[00:14:06] We don't just have to live our life stumbling towards the divine.

[00:14:10] Hoping to encounter maybe something that approximates truth.

[00:14:14] We can know the truth about God.

[00:14:18] The world we live in.

[00:14:19] Ourselves and others.

[00:14:22] You know me.

[00:14:24] Mrs. Philosophy.

[00:14:26] We're going to go there philosophically.

[00:14:28] You're like, that was so boring yesterday when you did that.

[00:14:30] Stick with me.

[00:14:31] Some people in this room, they really loved it.

[00:14:34] And they really need it.

[00:14:35] And if you were not one of those people, you get a three-minute parentheses in which you can take a short nap.

[00:14:41] And then I'll bring you back.

[00:14:43] I'll bring you back for the practically.

[00:14:44] But here we go.

[00:14:46] Philosophically.

[00:14:46] Big picture.

[00:14:47] There are four ways that we know things.

[00:14:50] If you take an epistemology class at any college of your choice, you will learn that there are four primary ways that we know things.

[00:14:57] A.K.A.

[00:14:58] Four ways things go into our folder.

[00:15:00] The first is through reason.

[00:15:03] Right?

[00:15:03] All bachelors are male.

[00:15:06] Ted is a male.

[00:15:07] I'm sorry.

[00:15:08] All bachelors are unmarried males.

[00:15:10] Ted is a bachelor.

[00:15:12] Therefore, Ted is a?

[00:15:14] Excellent.

[00:15:15] We don't know what maleness is nowadays.

[00:15:17] But at least given the sentence structure, we know that Ted is an unmarried male.

[00:15:23] There are some things we just know through reason.

[00:15:26] But there's another way that we know things.

[00:15:28] The second way is through culture.

[00:15:29] This is basically my mama told me so.

[00:15:32] So I teach ethics at Thrive College.

[00:15:34] And so every year, I start out by just being the worst human being and playing the best devil's advocate.

[00:15:40] And for 45 minutes straight, I try to make them tell me why murder is wrong.

[00:15:47] And you would not believe how great their reasons are and how quickly I can shoot them down.

[00:15:53] But basically what it comes down to is like, hey, we just know that murder is wrong.

[00:15:57] And in part, like what would happen if we went out and just tried to murder people?

[00:16:01] Society would stop us.

[00:16:03] Meaning that our culture around us has taught us certain things, including our moral code.

[00:16:08] We just know things because everyone around us knows these things.

[00:16:12] How do I know that you can raise your hand?

[00:16:14] Because you can just raise your hand.

[00:16:15] And I've seen a bunch of people raise their hands.

[00:16:17] The second way that we know things, things that go in our folder, can go in through culture.

[00:16:22] Our culture says so.

[00:16:24] It's really interesting when you start traveling around to different cultures, though, because they have different things in their folder.

[00:16:28] Interesting.

[00:16:29] But then there's experience.

[00:16:31] Experience is the third way that we can learn things.

[00:16:34] And this can be internal experience or external experience.

[00:16:37] So external experience is like the realm of science.

[00:16:41] So we can go out and we can explore and we can have a hypothesis and we can test against reality.

[00:16:47] And we can see what is true when we experience it.

[00:16:50] That's external experience.

[00:16:52] And that's one way that things can go in the folder.

[00:16:54] But then there's internal experience.

[00:16:56] If you've ever met a more new age person who says, like, I just know it to be so.

[00:17:01] I just, like, I have decided.

[00:17:04] Right?

[00:17:05] That is someone who is living off of internal experience, their gut reaction to reality.

[00:17:10] And they believe that their gut is so powerful that it actually can influence the way things are.

[00:17:16] You know?

[00:17:17] Like, just put it out into the universe.

[00:17:19] That is someone that lives by internal experience.

[00:17:22] And that is a way things can go into the folder.

[00:17:25] The fourth way, if you were to go to an epistemology class, is that evolution has programmed into us.

[00:17:33] And now don't get all freaked out.

[00:17:34] I'm not saying that evolution is the correct way to understand the origins of mankind.

[00:17:40] All I'm saying is that if you go into an epistemology class, they would tell you that there are certain things that evolution has pre-programmed you to believe.

[00:17:49] Right?

[00:17:50] That there are aspects of our moral code and how we react to the universe that have been pre-programmed into us by the cause and effect of survival of the fittest.

[00:18:00] And those are the four primary ways of knowing.

[00:18:03] And let me save you a lot of pain so you don't have to take this epistemology class.

[00:18:09] Those four ways of knowing are trusted, but they are limited.

[00:18:16] Because here's what those four ways of knowing after thousands and thousands upon years, but especially the last 200 years of trying to achieve enlightenment, to achieve truth through those four routes.

[00:18:27] What do they get us?

[00:18:29] Well, they get us some good knowledge.

[00:18:31] They get me the knowledge that if I slap you, you're going to report it.

[00:18:35] Or slap me back.

[00:18:36] One of the two.

[00:18:38] That if I steal your purse, you're not going to let me just do it.

[00:18:41] They get me the knowledge that I can't jump off of a roof and not break something.

[00:18:46] They get me all sorts of knowledge.

[00:18:47] But you know what kind of knowledge they don't get me?

[00:18:50] They don't get me the knowledge that we most value.

[00:18:53] They cannot.

[00:18:54] They can give me beliefs, but not knowledge of the divine.

[00:18:59] They can give me beliefs, but not knowledge that I am a free being able to use my agency to affect the world.

[00:19:05] They can give me beliefs, but not knowledge about the afterlife.

[00:19:09] They can give me beliefs, not knowledge about morals.

[00:19:12] And that's why when you go out there and you just say, well, God says no one who's not a Christian cares what God says.

[00:19:20] In fact, all they think is they hear you saying, this is my opinion.

[00:19:23] This is my opinion.

[00:19:24] This is my opinion.

[00:19:24] I really don't like your behavior.

[00:19:26] You're like, I said God says.

[00:19:28] They're like, I don't even know if we can know that God exists, much less what he thinks about my actions.

[00:19:33] So how dare you condemn my actions?

[00:19:36] You're just trying to force your own morality on me.

[00:19:39] You're like, but God says.

[00:19:41] These ways of knowing don't grant us knowledge about morality.

[00:19:46] And last but not least, they don't grant us knowledge about the meaning of life.

[00:19:54] Why are we here?

[00:19:56] Why should we take another breath?

[00:19:59] You see, the biggest problem in philosophy is why should we just not end our life?

[00:20:06] If these are the only ways of knowing and we're in this box where we can't know if there's any meaning of life or any afterlife or really what right and wrong is,

[00:20:14] and we're just left to our own devices to make these leaps of faith and say, I guess I'll establish meaning for my life,

[00:20:21] then why wouldn't I just end it all right here, right now?

[00:20:25] That's the problem of the modern mind.

[00:20:28] No wonder we're so anxious.

[00:20:31] No wonder we're so depressed.

[00:20:34] We've lost all ability to know the things that most matter to us.

[00:20:40] And into that world, Paul asks and answers the question, is there another way that something can go into this folder?

[00:20:48] Not through reason, not through experience internal or external, not through culture, and not through evolution.

[00:20:55] Is there another way?

[00:20:58] And if you heard Paul's words, you heard him say loud and clear, there is another way.

[00:21:03] And it is simply this, revelation.

[00:21:07] The God that is speaks.

[00:21:11] The God that is gets to come down and reveal what the truth is.

[00:21:18] And I'm going to give you back your notebook because you probably want to take notes at this point.

[00:21:22] You're like, I've been taking notes on my phone.

[00:21:25] Can you imagine this?

[00:21:28] You see, if there is a God and he created everything, he knows a whole lot more about the meaning of the universe than you and I.

[00:21:37] And if there is a God, and we found out last night that there is, he knows a whole lot more about what will make us flourish and what will make us suffer.

[00:21:46] If there is a God, he knows a whole lot more about what is actually good and what is actually wrong.

[00:21:53] And he knows more about eternity and he knows more about the temporary.

[00:21:57] God knows more in every way.

[00:22:00] And if this God is good and he cannot lie, why would we go around with our folder and watching Survivor and just simply adding to our folder?

[00:22:12] What we should do is we should pay attention to revelation, to the words that God has said.

[00:22:19] You see, if you stumbled into this room and someone just invited you and you were a skeptic and maybe last night you became open to the idea that God exists, but you're still like, I just don't understand how Christians can trust their Bible.

[00:22:32] It is a document that was created thousands upon thousands of years ago.

[00:22:36] It's been changed over time.

[00:22:38] Let me spare you the apologetics argument.

[00:22:40] But if you actually study it, God's word, his revelation has been preserved through time.

[00:22:47] The words that he said are the words that we read.

[00:22:50] And it's really not reasonable or rational of any type to say anything different.

[00:22:56] I know TikTok might say differently.

[00:22:58] But if you actually study the argument, you know that what was said then is what we have now.

[00:23:04] And the whole Christian idea, whether you accept it or reject it, is that there is a God and he's a great communicator.

[00:23:13] He wants you and I to know certain things about him, about the world that we live in and even about ourselves.

[00:23:22] Doesn't it make sense that we would actually study that revelation?

[00:23:26] Doesn't it make sense that we would take our folder and we would simply go to God and say, sort this, filter it.

[00:23:34] I give you permission to remove any belief that doesn't match what you have said in your word.

[00:23:41] Doesn't it make sense that instead of believing what we believe, we would trust what God has said.

[00:23:48] I mean, I literally cannot figure out how to operate my remote at times.

[00:23:53] Right?

[00:23:53] Just sometimes it stops working.

[00:23:55] And I know it's the devil, but I can't prove it.

[00:24:01] And here I am, a 37-year-old woman, and I am like, I can't make this work.

[00:24:09] And yet I'm going to trust my ideas about the afterlife more than what he has said.

[00:24:14] I am going to trust my ideas about what is right and wrong over what he says.

[00:24:20] I think that I am so smart and so in tune with reality that I know what is actually my good and what will bring me happiness, even when it conflicts with what he has revealed.

[00:24:33] Rationally, it doesn't make any sense.

[00:24:36] Paul says God has spoken.

[00:24:40] It's not like we're just waiting, you know, God is waiting for us to kind of stumble onto him.

[00:24:45] Right?

[00:24:45] He's not like in heaven being like, I wonder if today is the day that they'll discover why murder is wrong.

[00:24:54] Wouldn't that be so convenient for humanity to know that murder is wrong?

[00:24:58] He's not that God.

[00:25:00] He's not like, let's just watch them fight.

[00:25:04] Okay?

[00:25:04] Let's just watch the spouses take it out on each other.

[00:25:07] If only they could know the secret.

[00:25:09] That's not who God is.

[00:25:11] And he's not a God that has left us to our pain to wonder why this is happening.

[00:25:16] Yes, we don't always know the full why, but we know part of the why.

[00:25:21] We know that based on God's revelation, we live in a broken, fallen world where mankind uses his freedom to hurt and inflict harm on each other and on his creation, which yields such terrible consequences.

[00:25:36] God has not left us to simply stumble towards him and perhaps find him.

[00:25:40] God has revealed himself.

[00:25:42] Three ways that he has revealed himself.

[00:25:45] His world, his word, and his son.

[00:25:50] Any atheist can go and stand on a sandy beach and look up to the heavens and see at night the vast array of the stars and know, know there is something beyond.

[00:26:05] There is something that calls to deep within himself that says, I am here.

[00:26:12] Keep seeking me.

[00:26:15] We can know God from his world, but we can also know God through his word.

[00:26:20] Throughout the ages, everywhere that Christianity goes, whatever nation it goes into, literacy skyrockets.

[00:26:27] Why?

[00:26:28] Because we are people of the word.

[00:26:31] You see, God did not want to set up a dynamic where you have to trust me in what he says.

[00:26:37] God has set a dynamic up where you don't have to listen to a single word I say.

[00:26:42] You can go home and you can open up God's revelation and read it for yourself and make sure that what I am teaching to you is correct.

[00:26:51] You don't have to trust Pastor Nate.

[00:26:53] You should because he's amazing, but God forbid he ever strayed and he contradicted what God himself said.

[00:27:01] Pastor Nate would tell you, go compare it to his word and know the truth because God wants you to know the truth.

[00:27:08] Last but not least, as we celebrated with communion, God has revealed himself through his son.

[00:27:14] Jesus Christ stepped into history so we didn't have to wonder who God is, but we can look back 2,000 years and simply know how would God interact with someone who'd committed adultery?

[00:27:25] We don't have to wonder.

[00:27:27] We know.

[00:27:28] How would God respond to someone who had betrayed him?

[00:27:33] We don't have to wonder.

[00:27:35] We know.

[00:27:36] How does God feel about sickness and death?

[00:27:40] We don't have to wonder.

[00:27:41] We know.

[00:27:42] We get to simply read the account of Jesus who walked this earth and experience what you and I have to experience in this broken and fallen world, and we know the heart of God towards it.

[00:27:56] I want to read to you a lengthy but I think so powerful quote from theologian Jerome Bars.

[00:28:03] God is not an idea.

[00:28:06] Projected from our minds or from our longings onto the giant screen of the heavens, a kind of superhuman created to meet our needs.

[00:28:14] God is not a thought and the system of a philosopher who cannot cope with having no answers to the dilemmas of our human existence.

[00:28:22] No.

[00:28:23] God truly exists.

[00:28:32] God has spoken to us in our questioning and searching.

[00:28:38] God has revealed to us the truth about the world in which we live, the truth about our human existence, and the truth about himself.

[00:28:46] God has spoken to us in our human existence.

[00:28:49] God has spoken to us in his word, and therefore, the message of the Bible fits with the nature of reality as we experience it.

[00:28:56] And I love this image.

[00:28:57] To use an image, the biblical account of human life fits like a glove on the hand of reality.

[00:29:05] Christianity is true to the way things are.

[00:29:10] Let that sink into your soul.

[00:29:13] This is what Paul is saying in Acts 17.

[00:29:16] God has spoken.

[00:29:18] Christianity is true to the way things are.

[00:29:21] You can go out and test the moral revelations of Scripture and encounter that God's way, when you live according to his word,

[00:29:32] they produce a life of flourishing.

[00:29:35] Not that everything will be perfect.

[00:29:37] Not that everything will be happy-happy.

[00:29:39] But that you yourself, your soul, will be able to experience peace and joy in the worst of circumstances.

[00:29:48] The ethics of the Bible have been tested throughout time.

[00:29:51] Christianity is true to the way things are.

[00:29:55] So practically, you're like, that was the longest parentheses in the world?

[00:29:59] I'm so sorry.

[00:30:00] Come back.

[00:30:04] What should we do with this revelation?

[00:30:07] What should we do with the fact that God has spoken?

[00:30:10] Well, we should study it.

[00:30:12] We should read God's word.

[00:30:14] We should wake up every single day hungering for God.

[00:30:18] In our conversation earlier, the practical advice that my friend shared, let me see if I get this right.

[00:30:23] No read, no eat.

[00:30:26] Is that it?

[00:30:28] No read, no feed.

[00:30:29] Yeah, right.

[00:30:29] That's what's better.

[00:30:30] No read, no feed.

[00:30:31] So apparently the advice is, if you haven't read your Bible, you don't get to eat breakfast.

[00:30:36] That's really practical.

[00:30:38] No read, no feed.

[00:30:40] Child abuse, like at some point.

[00:30:43] But no read, no feed.

[00:30:45] In the morning, we wake up and we immerse ourselves in God's word.

[00:30:49] We don't want to go out there and be confronted by Tuesday and let that just add things to our folder.

[00:30:56] Rather, we want to start our day by taking in what is true and letting it orient our heart and our mind towards what is true so that we go out and our experience of Tuesday is altered.

[00:31:11] Now, here's an interesting question.

[00:31:13] And you were probably wondering, why do we have pitchers of water up here on stage?

[00:31:17] This is if we need it.

[00:31:19] We'll say if we don't.

[00:31:21] But we might.

[00:31:23] All right.

[00:31:24] This, oh dear.

[00:31:26] This is God's word.

[00:31:28] You're like, it is not.

[00:31:29] It is water.

[00:31:30] I need you to go with me here, okay?

[00:31:32] This is God's word.

[00:31:34] And what I am saying to you is that this is truth.

[00:31:38] And you need to get truth inside of yourself.

[00:31:41] But watch what happens.

[00:31:43] Oh, no.

[00:31:52] That looks nothing like this.

[00:31:54] Right?

[00:31:55] And you must be wondering, how can we trust that God's word is truth when so many people have such different interpretations of what is true?

[00:32:04] I mean, I could just create so much anger and controversy in this room by just mentioning some, you know, complex theological passages and the differences that have literally divided Christians even to the point of killing each other.

[00:32:17] It's like we're unclear about what scripture says over here.

[00:32:20] So let's violate the very clear do not murder.

[00:32:24] People are weird.

[00:32:27] And you're just like, how can I trust revelation?

[00:32:29] It feels as relative as just going out and trying to stumble towards truth.

[00:32:34] You see what happened when I poured this, the true, perfect word of God into the picture of humanity?

[00:32:41] Let's just say this is Dina.

[00:32:43] Dina has a background.

[00:32:45] Dina has a history.

[00:32:46] Dina has lots of Tuesdays that have colored her interpretation of scripture.

[00:32:52] So is that it?

[00:32:53] Are we just like, is everything relative still?

[00:32:56] Even though the God of all eternity has spoken into my life, is that it?

[00:33:02] Am I just to live with my colored interpretation of scripture?

[00:33:05] No.

[00:33:06] We will need the second picture.

[00:33:09] Because what happens, we're going to do this.

[00:33:13] What happens when we take God's word and we keep pouring it into ourselves?

[00:33:23] You're going over.

[00:33:28] Yeah, you know, that's okay.

[00:33:29] That was the plan.

[00:33:32] You guys are so clean.

[00:33:36] Okay, Christina, go get more water.

[00:33:40] I'm a sinful human.

[00:33:42] I'm a sinful human.

[00:33:45] But you guys get where I'm going with this, right?

[00:33:47] We'll complete the illustration at the end of the message.

[00:33:51] She's going.

[00:33:52] I love a good interaction.

[00:33:57] Listen, as I pour God's word into me, the me gets out and God's word gets in.

[00:34:07] Over time, as you keep taking God's word in, it reframes how you see Tuesday.

[00:34:14] And the brokenness that you experienced as a four-year-old is not as much coloring reality

[00:34:21] as the redemptive truth of God's word.

[00:34:24] And the more that you take in a scripture, the more of your interpretation that gets out.

[00:34:31] And many of us, we've been following God for so long and we keep taking God's word in,

[00:34:37] but it just feels like nothing is happening because this is a slow process that takes time.

[00:34:42] Here she comes with the water.

[00:34:45] Christina, Christina.

[00:34:48] Some of you, you read God's word, but it's not that simple.

[00:34:53] It's not just a matter of reading your chapter before breakfast.

[00:34:58] You actually have to renew your mind in scripture.

[00:35:02] Thank you.

[00:35:04] You actually have to keep taking it in and not just taking it in,

[00:35:07] but giving yourself over to the God of the universe to actually replace.

[00:35:11] Am I spilling again?

[00:35:17] And as time goes on, slowly, more water.

[00:35:35] It's okay.

[00:35:35] Okay.

[00:35:36] Some of you are going to be deeply impacted by the fact that you are like this picture.

[00:35:44] No, she did not.

[00:35:46] She knew that I was going to be the sinful person in this illustration.

[00:35:51] We're going to keep doing this.

[00:35:56] Christina asked me how much water is going to spill.

[00:35:58] I think I didn't prepare her for how much water was going to spill.

[00:36:01] Oh, but it's still on the thing.

[00:36:03] We're going to probably get off of it at some point.

[00:36:06] All right.

[00:36:07] All right.

[00:36:07] In a moment, in a moment, I'm going to ask you to respond to this message.

[00:36:12] I'm going to ask that you actually do this process.

[00:36:17] As you can see, sometimes it doesn't go exactly as we hoped.

[00:36:21] It's not just like you believe this lie about yourself.

[00:36:24] You believe this lie about the world.

[00:36:26] You believe this lie about other people.

[00:36:28] And all of a sudden, you read a Bible verse and your mind is transformed.

[00:36:33] No, it takes a lifetime of sowing the truth.

[00:36:36] It takes a lifetime of identifying the lies, confessing it, and saying, God, I just, I want you to renew my mind.

[00:36:45] I want to trade my thoughts for your thoughts.

[00:36:49] Because if I really do believe that God exists and that he has spoken, it is irrational for me to believe anything except what you have said.

[00:36:59] And so I will replace it.

[00:37:02] So in a moment, I'm going to ask you to identify a lie that you believe and to replace it with truth.

[00:37:09] And I'll go first.

[00:37:11] I'll share with you a lie that I have believed.

[00:37:14] Here's the thing.

[00:37:16] Walking into environments like this where there are a lot of women is actually not easy for me.

[00:37:23] I am far more comfortable being on stage than I am just sitting in the midst of you.

[00:37:28] Because I feel like when I'm up on stage, I can control what you see.

[00:37:32] But sitting in the midst of you, that's far more vulnerable.

[00:37:37] You see, I used to really not like to get close to women.

[00:37:42] I used to really have a hard time.

[00:37:44] It was like I could pal around with the guys, but there's this natural barrier.

[00:37:47] So I was comfortable with that.

[00:37:49] But women, you ask questions.

[00:37:53] And you have this way of knowing when we're hiding.

[00:37:58] And I used to, for years, just have this experience of I'd get close to a woman and then the relationship would sour.

[00:38:05] And I'd get close to a woman and the relationship would sour.

[00:38:07] And so over time, I developed this lie.

[00:38:11] I think it was actually sown in my childhood through some hard experiences.

[00:38:15] But I believed, fully believed the lie.

[00:38:19] I am poison.

[00:38:21] I'm poison.

[00:38:27] And so rather than be vulnerable with you, rather than give you a, yes, very good idea.

[00:38:33] Do it.

[00:38:34] Do it.

[00:38:36] Do you see how much I need to protect people from me?

[00:38:41] We'll use whatever we're given in this illustration.

[00:38:44] And this is totally unplanned, but I'm going to use it.

[00:38:47] Like this is what I would do.

[00:38:49] I would literally protect people from my poison.

[00:38:54] I would say, I'm not going to get close to you.

[00:38:57] I would prepare my answers of, how are you doing?

[00:39:00] And I would literally rehearse what I was going to say.

[00:39:03] And I would make sure to cut my heart off from every person because I knew if I allowed myself to just drop the mask and be honest and just be myself,

[00:39:11] I would be vulnerable and then ultimately I would hurt you.

[00:39:16] I believed that I was poison.

[00:39:20] And thankfully, God didn't let me stay in that lie because he put around me some women in my life that wouldn't let me hide.

[00:39:30] And they kept pushing and pushing and pushing on that lie.

[00:39:33] And I felt like I kept hurting them and they kept showing up and I kept hurting them and they kept showing up.

[00:39:39] And eventually to the point where I was just like, God, why is it so hard for me to be in relationship?

[00:39:45] Why is it so hard for me?

[00:39:47] And he was like, Dina, you believe that you are poison.

[00:39:51] That any relationship you're given, that you're ultimately going to ruin.

[00:39:57] I was like, I believe that.

[00:40:00] And to this day, I'm tempted with that lie.

[00:40:03] I'm tempted to crazy control what you see of me and what you don't.

[00:40:08] Guys, I didn't wear the right pants yesterday.

[00:40:10] I got to tell you, there was like baby spit up all over them.

[00:40:15] And I was like, oh, I forgot to clean my shoes.

[00:40:18] Like, and I was obsessing about these things.

[00:40:20] God's like, you know you're talking about my word, right?

[00:40:22] Your shoes like don't so much matter.

[00:40:24] But it was this control mechanism that I was like, oh, they're going to be like sad that they brought you here.

[00:40:29] You're going to ruin this opportunity.

[00:40:31] Everyone's going to walk.

[00:40:32] And just all of these lies still to this day flood into my mind.

[00:40:36] But you know what?

[00:40:37] I'm not captive to them anymore.

[00:40:40] I'm not obsessing over them anymore.

[00:40:43] I'm not sitting there and refusing to engage with you.

[00:40:49] Because I've been transformed by the renewing of my mind through the truth.

[00:40:54] You see, my lie says I am poison.

[00:40:56] But 2 Corinthians 5 says that I am a new creation.

[00:41:02] And I have learned over time to keep taking in the word of God.

[00:41:12] Poor Christina.

[00:41:17] Oh, yeah.

[00:41:17] These are the worst.

[00:41:19] We'll just take forever.

[00:41:23] All right.

[00:41:24] Maybe what God wants you to know today is that the goal of today is to not be perfectly without sin and without lies.

[00:41:45] But do we see how much clearer this is?

[00:41:48] Do we see how much more emptied of the lie that I am poison this is?

[00:41:55] Because I'm going to invite you to do the same today.

[00:41:58] I'm going to invite you to exchange a lie that you believe for the truth.

[00:42:05] I'm going to give you silence and the opportunity to talk to God just like we did yesterday.

[00:42:13] And I'm going to give you some examples of lies that Christians commonly believe.

[00:42:17] But by all means, just sit with God and ask him, God, what lie do I believe?

[00:42:23] And what is the truth that you want me to replace it with?

[00:42:26] Here's some lies that Christians commonly believe.

[00:42:29] Perhaps you, like me, you believe I am poison.

[00:42:33] That I, like at rock bottom, I'm a bad girl.

[00:42:37] That there is something so deeply often wrong with me that I just have to hide who I truly am.

[00:42:42] Because if people really found out who I was, they wouldn't love me.

[00:42:47] And against that lie, I am encouraging you to replace it with the truth of the revelation of God.

[00:42:52] 2 Corinthians 5, I am a new creation.

[00:42:57] Maybe you believe I will always be lonely.

[00:43:01] Married or not.

[00:43:03] You just believe that you're always going to be lonely.

[00:43:07] That that's just your lot in life.

[00:43:08] You've experienced it through childhood and you're going to experience it into the future.

[00:43:14] And against that, I want you to believe the truth.

[00:43:17] Hebrews 13 5, Jesus is with me.

[00:43:20] Jesus is with me.

[00:43:23] Maybe you believe I have to plan every day of my life.

[00:43:28] I can't relax.

[00:43:30] For you, your life is one big math equation of figuring out how to get from here to there.

[00:43:36] And if anything goes wrong, any tiny illustration goes astray, you're just like, ugh, the whole conference is blown.

[00:43:45] We should have done a rehearsal.

[00:43:53] Maybe you think like me.

[00:43:54] Oh, my kid is crying because I didn't perfectly plan out how their day needs to go.

[00:43:59] Oh, my kid is having a tantrum because I didn't emotionally regulate them.

[00:44:06] I have to plan every day of my life.

[00:44:08] I can't relax.

[00:44:10] And against that, Proverbs 3 5, I can trust God.

[00:44:14] He will direct me.

[00:44:16] I can lay down my need to control and plan and strategize.

[00:44:20] I can just let him direct me.

[00:44:24] It would take a brave Christian to admit this.

[00:44:27] But far more Christians than you would imagine believe this lie.

[00:44:31] God only values me for what I do.

[00:44:34] My life is just a means to an end.

[00:44:37] Other people, other people get good things from God.

[00:44:41] But my role apparently on this earth is to help other people get good things.

[00:44:46] But my life is just a means to an end.

[00:44:48] And against that, Galatians 4 7, I am no longer a slave.

[00:44:54] I am no longer someone that works to get.

[00:44:57] I am God's child.

[00:44:59] My three kids are just absolutely awful some days.

[00:45:04] I still feed them.

[00:45:11] Thank you.

[00:45:13] I still hug them.

[00:45:15] And I am a really imperfect parent.

[00:45:19] But if that's how I respond to my kids who are absolute terrorists certain days,

[00:45:25] how much more the God of the universe to you?

[00:45:28] He needs nothing.

[00:45:30] He gives everything.

[00:45:32] I'm going to give you five minutes right now to go before God and simply ask those questions.

[00:45:39] God, what is the lie that I believe?

[00:45:41] And what is the truth that you want to replace it with?

[00:45:44] Amen.

[00:45:44] I love you.

[00:45:44] Thank you.