Restoration 2015:  Do You Mind...??

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Restoration Ministry

Overcoming Addictions  (Evening Meetings)

Chad Kreuzer

Overcoming Doubt and Skepticism

Tonight's message is entitled, Overcoming Doubt and Skepticism.

And I was thinking about this just a couple days ago, how some of the biggest decisions of my life have been influenced by skeptics, atheists.

I lived in a couple of the most atheistic countries on the planet, and growing up, my very best friend was an atheist, and because of him, I gave my life to Jesus.

Actually, because of different skeptics, different atheists, we started a film company, Anchor Point Films, and strangely enough as I look at my life, some of the biggest decisions in my life were affected by skeptics and atheists.

So when I put overcoming doubt and skepticism, I love atheists.

And I'm not saying this, this is not about overcoming people, this is talking about overcoming this struggle in our own life.

That's what we're really dealing with tonight.

And before we begin, I just ask that you would bow your heads with me for a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the time to open your word.

I pray that your Holy Spirit would be here in a special way And I pray that You would teach us.

There was a very strange group of people.

These group of people lived at 1 point in a land called Egypt.

And the strange thing about these people was they had very distinct beliefs from the rest of most of the world.

You see, while they were in Egypt, the Egyptians believed in different gods, all kinds of different gods.

You know, they had the god of the sun, the sun god.

And here were these strange group of people called Israelites or Hebrews after they left.

And these strange individuals had this peculiar belief that there was only...

Now they moved from a place called Egypt and they made their way over into what we now call Israel, Mesopotamia.

And they moved into this area and the people of the land there were similar to the Egyptians.

Not with the same gods, but those people believed in a multiplicity of gods.

They believed in Baal, and they believed in El, and the other gods of Mesopotamia.

And so you have these very strange people in ancient history.

They didn't somehow evolve their religion out of the religions around them.

And 1 of their strange beliefs, when you look at these Israelites, is they looked off into the cosmos and instead of having the typical beliefs, because the religions around them, when you look at the religions of the people around them, those people had perspectives of a universe that had somewhat always existed.

And so here you have these Israelites, they had a different perspective also once again.

The people around them said, you know, the universe has been here, or the gods used pre-existing matter to kind of make and form what is around us today, the universe.

So, you kind of have an eternal universe with gods who came about at some point, and these gods used a pre-existing matter.

And then you have this strange perspective of these monotheists, those believers in 1 God, the Israelites.

They believed that their 1 God didn't use pre-existing matter, but what He actually did was what?

How distinct from all the people around them.

Then after that, Christianity took hold of this.

And then later on, you have Islam takes hold of what the Bible had taught, with the creation being made by 1 Creator God.

And what's interesting though, is you look back through history, and you see that the general tenor of belief through Western society was the idea that you had an eternal universe with ever-existing matter.

But the Jews, the Christians, and even the Muslims held to this idea that the ancient Hebrews had that God spoke the world into existence.

What's fascinating is you come to the turn of the 20th century and something began to happen, a shake-up took place inside the scientific world.

They began to look at what Einstein taught, his theory of relativity, And as they were looking at this, they began to discover that actually, the universe didn't seem to exist for eternity.

That the universe actually had a beginning.

Now you can imagine, this was hard for some of the scientists.

This was hard for some of the scientists.

This was hard for some of the scientists because if the universe had a beginning how did that happen?

Now we're not going to go into why they believed it was so, but they finally came to the conclusion, look, the universe got started somehow.

And 1 of the scientists we read here, that Paul Davies, who's a theoretical physicist, he said the universe is like a clock, slowly winding down.

And he asked the question, how did it get wound up in the first place?

How did the universe begin in the first place?

I mean, it's cooling down, it's working its way down, it had more energy before, but that energy is going away, and sooner or later, the energy in the universe will cease to exist.

This was actually a struggle to some of the atheists who said, I find it repugnant that the universe had a beginning.

Because it begins to beg the question, How did it happen?

And the answer to that, according to magazines like Discover Magazine, I don't even know if you're going to be able to see it here on the screen, but it says, this is taken from a secular periodical, the universe burst into something from absolutely nothing.

And as it got bigger, it became filled with even more stuff that came from absolutely nowhere.

Ask Alan Guth, his theory of inflation helps explain everything.

That the universe burst into something from what?

Now some of the scientists, you look at the agnostic himself, Sir Fred Hoyle.

Sir Fred Hoyle was not a believer in God.

But when he looked at this idea that the universe came from absolutely nothing.

You see, the idea is that there was a time when there was no space, matter or energy and then there was an explosion from absolutely nothing where time and space began and so Fred Hoyle, the agnostic astronomer and mathematician He says the universe is supposed to have begun at this particular time from absolutely nothing.

The usual answer he says, surely an unsatisfactory 1, is from nothing.

So this agnostic says, I don't find that a satisfactory answer to say that everything came from absolutely nothing, and then at some point that nothing became something, and that something began to think, and here we are.

And so this is what some of these skeptics were struggling with, and we look at a man by the name of Anthony Flew, who was 1 of the foremost philosophical atheists of the 20th century.

And Anthony Flew, I had an opportunity to read a book that he had written.

He wrote a book called, There Is No God, and then on the cover it's crossed out no, and it says there is a God.

Anthony Flew, this man who had written books on atheism, books on skepticism, this man went from saying there is no God, There's no logical reason to believe that there is a God.

And as he got older, as he continued searching, searching for facts, searching for the evidence, something began to change in his mind.

He began to say, things are different than I originally perceived them to be.

Anthony Flew said, it seemed, speaking of the idea that the universe had a beginning, he said it seemed that the cosmologists were proving a scientific proof providing a scientific proof of what St.

Thomas Aquinas contended could not be proved philosophically, namely, that the universe had a beginning.

Basically, what he's saying is it's interesting that the scientists began to prove what the Bible had said all along.

That there was a beginning to this universe.

And then there actually was nothing at 1 point in time.

Overcoming Like Jesus

Tonight's message is entitled, it is entitled Overcoming Like Jesus, Overcoming Like Jesus.

But before we begin, I just ask that you'll bow your heads with me for a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Bible, We thank you that this is the living Word of God.

I pray that your Holy Spirit would be here in a special way.

Lord, we give the time to you in Jesus' name, amen.

A number of years ago, in the 90's, some skepticism was going around specifically regarding a man in the Bible, and this individual, this man, his name is used more than any other name in the entirety of Scripture.

Can you guess what name is used more than any other name in the entirety of Scripture.

Can you guess what name is used more than any other name in the entirety of the Bible?

It's not Jesus, strangely enough, and it's not John.

David is the name that is used more than any other name in the entirety of Scripture.

And speaking of this king, the ancient king, the psalmist King David in the Bible, now this idea came forth that maybe actually David's just a fictional character, that he actually never existed, And you know it's nice that the Jews believe in him and the Christians, but there's really nothing in archaeology that backs up the idea that there was this great king, David, that the Bible refers to.

Interestingly enough, we look back at a book that was written in 1992 by Philip Davies, and he says in this book, he said, the Israel of biblical literature is at least, for the most part, not a historical entity at all.

So this idea of this ancient Israel, it's not really even legitimate, It's not even true, at least generally.

And he goes on to say in his book, he says, the biblical empire of David has not the faintest echo in the archaeological record as of yet.

That this man that is so revered by the Jews and the Christians may not have even existed, this is the argument.

Now, before we go any further, I want you to think about this for a moment, because this is a very serious issue.

Because you may remember that in the biblical account, in the Gospels, Jesus is making His way toward Jerusalem and He's riding upon a certain kind of animal.

And the people are yelling out a certain word that we don't typically use.

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Over and over, you read about Jesus being referred to as the son of David.

Now think about this with me for a moment.

If, in fact, David never existed, do you realize this causes a big problem for Christianity?

Jesus was the son of a man that never existed.

That would be a little bit troubling, wouldn't you say?

But keep in mind when this book called In Search of Ancient Israel, notice what year, it was written in 1992 And the very next year, archaeologists in 1993 were digging in an area in northern Israel, in an area they called Tel Dan.

And they were taking, they were working in their archaeological work, and 1 of them picked up something that was like a brick, a stone, and as they picked it up, it dropped and it turned over, and they discovered an inscription written on this stela.

And as they noticed this, you see, archeologists, when they're digging, it's not like every day you just find some kind of inscription.

So when you find something, this is quite interesting, oh I wonder what it is.

So they find this and as they look into it and they begin to read, what does it say?

They end up discovering that on this stone, this is a picture of the stone here, this is the, you know, King David Stele they call.

Actually on this stone were the words speaking of this King David or the line of David, this great king.

It says in Biblical archaeological review, archaeology review, a team of archaeologists digging in northern Galilee found a remarkable inscription from the 9th century BCE that refers to both the house of David and the what?

Is it not interesting that this man, in 1992, he comes out and says, listen, maybe King David never even existed.

I mean, we have no archaeological evidence that this guy actually existed.

And the very next year, God allows him to drop a stone.

King David has been discovered in the rock records.

You know, have we discovered the name of everybody in the Bible in the rock records?

But We've discovered at least 50 names of people in the Old Testament, in the rock records, outside of Scripture, that were men that were written about in Scripture.

So the evidence continues to build that testifies to the truthfulness of the Word of God.

It testifies to the veracity of the Scriptures.

But the reality is this would be difficult if King David didn't exist, it would also call into question who Jesus really was.

This would actually call into question who Jesus really was, but the question is sometimes people say, well, did Jesus really exist, or is He just a mythological character that was written of by these ancient Jews, or the Christians came up with this man, or a Roman conspiracy, what have you.

But think about this with me for a moment.

How do we know that people like Alexander the Great existed?

I mean, we take the testimony of ancient historians, and nobody questions whether Alexander the Great existed.

How do we know that a man like Jesus existed?

Well, we say, well, we have the 4 Gospels, they're quite clear about that.

And then people say, yeah, yeah, but how about outside of the Bible?

The interesting thing is that we have historians, several historians, from around the time of Jesus, that lived just around the time of Jesus, or just after, who wrote about this man.

We have Josephus, who was the Jewish historian.

We have Tacitus, who was 1 of the greatest historians of ancient Rome.

This man was not a follower of Christ, but he knew history.

He was a man who lived just around the time of Christ, just after.

And notice what this man Tacitus, the greatest historian of ancient Rome, he wrote in his works, Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.

And if you take just the secular writings that wrote about Jesus, we can basically have the gospel story that we talk about as Christians.

Meaning people outside of the Bible recognize that these things, these were actual historic events by a real man, Jesus of Nazareth.

And He did these great and wonderful works.

So the interesting thing is, ok, so Jesus existed.

We have historical evidence that Jesus existed.

But if it's just a fact, that only brings us so far.

Some guy lived 2, 000 years ago, he was a Jew, and he died on a cross.

What distinguishes him from all other men in history?

Why has the world been revolutionized because of this 1 individual?

You know, it's interesting, there was a professor by the name of Peter W.

He was a mathematician, and he set out with his students to look into the mathematical probability that any 1 individual would fulfill the prophecies of the Messiah.

So what he did is he took his students in his course, and he said, listen, I want you to look into the Bible and discern how many prophecies there are in the scriptures in the Old Testament that prophesied of the life, the work, and the character of the Messiah.

Gaining the Victory

Speaking of health, I love to exercise, I love to eat healthy food.

I went for a run today and I ran out of the place where I'm staying.

And as I ran out, there was a man who was 70 years old running up the hill that I was about to run up.

I'm 34 and so immediately the first thing that came to my mind and this is not a holy ambition I thought I can't let this man beat me right I mean he's 70 years old and then it struck me I must be in Loma Linda because not anywhere is it not you know I like to exercise this is something I do on a regular basis so you know I'm running along and and the good news was that when he got to the top of the hill he stopped and I get to run past him So it worked out well for my part.

But I did end up going, then I went up into the hills, and as I went up into the hills, I would run up, and then I would walk down, and I'd run up, and I'd walk for a bit, and then I'd run up.

And when I came down, I saw the man, I was guessing he was 70 years old, and as I'm running down he's running toward me again and as he's running toward me I said sir how old are you and he said I'm 70 years old and I thought I knew it I knew it it was right and so we're in a place where health is something that you know this area is renowned for They call it 1 of the blue zones, as you may know.

I actually, I wasn't raised of this faith.

And I never had a salad in my entire life until I was 19 years old after joining this church.

But I'm not talking about health tonight.

We're going to talk about victory and something that washes away the lies that may lead to us failing.

But before we do, before we begin, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to open your Word together.

I pray that you would guide in a very special way that Jesus would be seen.

We give the time to you, I pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.

This evening we're gonna cover a topic and before we even begin I'm gonna tell you why I'm sharing this topic.

The reality is the series that we're at now is called Do You Mind?

That we're going to be talking more and more progressively as we go forward, especially during the noon meetings.

We're going to be talking about the mind, finding victory over negative habits, negative memories, all of these things, finding victory.

We're going to talk about that Saturday morning right here at 11 o'clock.

We're going to talk about some neuroscience and victory, how to find victory over bad habits and so forth.

We're going to be talking more and more about that.

But we begun with a spiritual emphasis on some of these issues.

And the spiritual emphasis that we're looking at tonight on this subject has to do with the fact that if we have false conceptions in our mind, these things can keep us down and can hinder our addictions, our habits, they can hinder our spiritual life.

So we're going to see this, if you have your Bibles, if you brought a Bible with you, and if not, let me ask you, are there Bibles and pews with you?

If you didn't bring 1, there should be some right there, I guess.

And what we discover is that the Apostle Paul, speaking to the church in Corinth, made a very interesting statement.

2 Corinthians 4, we are going to begin in verse 3.

2 Corinthians 4, Paul here is speaking, the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth, and He says, but if our Gospel is hid, it is hid from those who are lost.

Now, what on earth is he talking about here?

Last night, we talked about Jesus, and we talked about Him going to the cross.

We talked about the sufferings that he went through there were much more than just physical.

They were the spiritual sufferings of the weight of the sins of the world.

And as he was going through that, he died for our sins, he rose up for us, and he says that, listen, if you receive my death, if you by faith receive that in my resurrection, You confess your sins, you turn away, you repent, you can be saved, and this is called the Gospel.

And he says if our Gospel, if our Good News is hid, it's hid to those who are lost, what does he go on to say in verse 4?

He said, "...in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which do not believe, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine upon them." So we have this picture.

Paul tells us that the enemy, that the enemy of our souls, that he blinds the eyes of man.

And we read in Ephesians 1, verse 18, the Bible says, The eyes of your understanding being enlightened.

The Bible talks about the eyes as something that has intelligence, and it doesn't mean literally that your eyes are intelligent per se, but it means that it's like your eyes being open to something new.

We use that same terminology in the modern English language, is that right?

And so, he says, listen, but people have their eyes covered, blinded by the enemy, because they have false conceptions, and with those false conceptions, they can be led away from God and eternal life.

And I have seen people who have struggled because of past experiences, and it blinds the life that they've experienced.

I was in the state of Florida for a time, I lived there for a while, and while I was there, I was visiting with a woman.

I was visiting in her house, her name was Sue, and as I was sitting there with my friend Nathaniel and Sue there, this woman Sue began to relate to us some of the experiences that she had personally gone through in life.

She shared with us how she had been abused in every way you can imagine possible by her family.

She was abused in horrendous ways by her father, specifically her brother.

She had gone through this horrible ordeal.

And as we looked at her, you could see that she had, and she shared the story, she would take lit cigarettes and she would just burn them into her arm.

She would burn them and you could see all the scars there on her arms there.

And I think she actually, at 1 point, she told us, we could see, she had slit her wrists.

And when her mom came in the room, her response to finding her daughter with her wrists slit open were, Look what you've done.

We have a Savior that is saying, listen, I want to open their eyes.

But so many people have had their eyes blinded that they cannot see the light of truth.

I've had the opportunity to live in California at different times.

And while we were in California, I was visiting with a young man, I won't say his name, he was in a gang here in California called the Bulldogs.

They're known for being just a rough and tump gang here in California.

And this young man had grown up in a house.

His mother, the father was out of the picture, and so she remarried another man.

And this man also sexually abused both this young man that I was visiting and his brother.

And so as these young boys had gone through this terrible ordeal as they grew up, and what ended up happening was as they began to get older, they began to get angry.

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Overcoming Addictions (Evening Meetings)

Overcoming Doubt and Skepticism

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