Amazing fact has been dedicated to sharing God's word through media this program features highlights from some of our best television broadcasts we invite you to sit back and enjoy this edition of amazing facts presents. Now as we explore our subject tonight which is really dealing with what is truth. And this is I think one of the most important things that we could discuss and so I hope you'll be praying with and for me and also those of you who are at home I'd like to make a very simple statement here we know that we're here. And we know we won't always be here this life that you're living right now in your body even if you're alive when Jesus comes this is not going to last forever it's temporary What really matters is the life that lasts for eternity your eternal destiny is what really matters now if that's true. As I believe it is then the greatest treasure is truth we have a limited period of time to discover what is the truth and the greatest tragedy would be a wasted life. And that's why I think this is so important and I just like to speak to your hearts now I don't want to sume that everyone here knows me or knows my background or where I came from but very quickly let me summarize that. First 1617 years of my life was a real mess I won't go into all the detail but they're born in California grew up in New York City Boston Miami. Part of the time in Europe father was raised the Baptists but during World War 2 he became an atheist my mother was Jewish but she also was pretty much agnostic. Went to 14 different schools and you get a pretty broad perspective of different people when you go to 2 different Catholic schools 2 different Jewish schools multiple public school military school and a free school with no rules in a school on a sailboat that goes around the Mediterranean and that was before I went to college and so all my life being raised pretty much an atheist I didn't think life had any purpose I was taught you're you're born you live a while you die and you basically just migrate back into fertilizer and that was your life and so it just seems so meaningless to me and I thought there's got to be more than this and I just really began to search now a lot of people in the world will tell you that happiness comes from success money the power that comes with that and I think the key is if you could just have a lot of money most of us would not argue have someone wanted to give you a lot of money right you think that be a good thing. And money in itself is not evil the Bible says it's the love of money and my father had millions and millions of dollars and when he passed away he started a foundation that's got over 300000000 dollars in it but all of my life I remember my dad being very unhappy and he drank himself to sleep every night on the other side my mother she was in show business just a whole different kinds of show business she was a songwriter she used to write for Elvis Presley I saw some of you I don't know how many people in the college would remember Andy Williams But Andy Williams died a couple of weeks ago and I looked on the Internet news and I saw there was a picture of my mom on stage with Andy Williams I put on my Facebook if any of you are my friends on Facebook and. And he was singing a song that she wrote he let her dance on the routine during his show but she was during that time she was writing songs and musicals and she was an actress but most of all she was a film critic in Hollywood she was the president of the l.a. Film critics Good Morning America film critic and she knew a lot of people in Hollywood and we knew some of those people my brother and I were his and involved as my mom was but. She was very unhappy and a lot of the people that we knew in that life were very unhappy and some who are successful and wealthy and good looking and healthy and talented as losing with talent good looks killed themselves because they were so unhappy and so I thought happiness doesn't come from money happiness doesn't come from fame what is the purpose of life and I just began to search I was really hungry because I thought well I can kill myself I used to think about suicide all the time but I thought you know suicide is someone's You do it you can only do it once if you do it right you can only do it once and I figure if I'm going to do it I'm going to do it right and but I thought you know. I can postpone that and do my best to find out if there's any purpose because I'd sure hate to get it wrong and so I just begin to search and I just tried everything and I won't go into all the details but I mean I tried the drugs and the war in the wild living in crime and. Ultimately I was living on the boat in the Mediterranean and just searching trying I began to get into the eastern religions I was willing to try anything hallucinogenics mushrooms l.s.d. Anything just I was hungry to find out where is meaning what's the purpose of life and then I decided it was in nature because nature at least seem real to me I was so fed up with New York City in the Hollywood scene or. I moved into the mountains outside of Palm Springs into a cave to be at one with nature and I went all out when I do so I go all out and. I mean I didn't wear any clothes and I just I tried to live off the land for a little while but I'm nearly starved to death I'll just tell you there's not much meat on a rattlesnake in a squirrel you just take my word for it. So but I would panhandle in town and I'd get my groceries and the short version of the story is someone had left a Bible in the cave before I ever got there was a good camping spot by a creek up in the mountains way back and I started reading the Bible never intending to believe it and. Somewhere along the way I encountered the teachings of Jesus and I couldn't shake it I just knew that this was true I said I can't picture my mother being jewish said you know Christians are the problem with the world and that they've always persecuted Jews and so I was very bias but when I read the actual things that Jesus said I've never heard anyone talk like that before you know his enemies sent some guards once to arrest him and they came back without Jesus and they said Where is he why didn't you arrest them and they were dumbfounded and they said to the leaders never man spake like this man. Now I'd like to direct your attention to a story in The New Testament go to the Book of John and in the Gospel of John chapter 8000 Jesus is being tried by ponchos pilot. And in the exchange you know them the mob is calling for his crucifixion pilot is intrigued because he's received a letter from his wife and she says I've suffered many things in a dream because of this man and don't do anything with that just man so his wife told him that that's taken him up and he's heard about Jesus and is a great teacher in that he's a worker of miracles and then he's being told that he's a rebel and he's causing an insurrection against Roman pilots not quite sure what to think and he can look at Jesus and see I've seen many criminals and this man is not a criminal so he does something very unusual he wants a private interview with Christ and takes some aside and he's talking to Jesus he took him into the Pretoria actually and verse 33 and he called you see she said Are you the king of the juice and Jesus answered Are you speaking for yourself about this or did others tell you this concerning me pilot answered in my and you your own nation in the chief priests have delivered you to me what have you done Jesus answered and said My kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom were of this world my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews but now my kingdom is not from here pilot and said to him Are you a king then Jesus answered You rightly say that I am a king for this cause I was born for this cause I have come into the world that I should bear witness to the truths Jesus said that he came to bear witness to the truth he came to show us what the truth is everyone who is of the truth hears my voice pilot said to him what is truth in case you think I made up the sermon title for this evening identity pontius pilot did what is the truth nothing is more important than truth there is no greater treasure than truth is no greater tragedy than a wasted life. You know what sad pilot didn't wait for the answer maybe the crowd was screaming outside maybe there was some cynicism in the way that he answered this what is truth can you imagine being the governor and today at that time with all these different religious fractions that are fighting and even when the Roman Empire had so many different religions the Greek religion all the different Roman gods and all the different religions of Asia and and he says what is truth everyone says they've got the truth how can anyone know what the truth is and you know I think right now young people especially in in the. College years are bombarded with a kaleidoscope of ideas and there's so many new creative bizarre ideas out there that you can become overwhelmed and it all gets fuzzy and you start to think what is truth and how sad to be standing next to Jesus who is the embodiment of truth God The truth of God was incarnate in the person of Jesus to be standing so close what an interesting conversation that must have been one of the leaders in the Roman Empire to say to God incarnate what is truth and not wait for the answer but to turn and walk away how sad to be so close to the truth and not listen to what Jesus had to say now someone might say well you know we all come from different backgrounds and so we all have different perspectives and it just depends on what your perspective is and maybe you've heard the illustration used before about this king this king wanted to find out how blind men would react when they saw an elephant they'd see an elephant but when they were exposed to an elephant and so he got 6 blind men and he led them up to the elephant but he led them to different parts of the elephant. And one of the blind men you've heard this before one of the blind men he gets up to the elephant's trunk he says Ah I understand the elephant he calls out to his friends an elephant is very much like a snake and the other one he got lit up to a lady get it all you're all wrong not at all like a snake an elephant is a tree very much like a tree another gets a hold of the Tuscon he's in on all elephant is like a stick I understand the elephant it is like a stick someone else has led to the bodies as you're all wrong I say I don't know how you can even see it that way than elephant is a mountain the other one he's led around by the tail is all elephant like a rope one gets a hold of the ears it's like a great bird they all have different parts of the elephant and people love to use that illustration and say. Everybody comes the truth with different perspectives and just depends on what part of the truth you got a hold of and they're really nobody knows for sure you're so sure because you've got the trunk and you're so sure because you've got the ear in and no one can really know what the truth is or you know that elephant got upset because all these people were groping it. And it trampled the blind man but the king who could see survived that's the rest of the story that elephant did not stop being an elephant . Just because some people had the wrong part of the elephant. There is a truth you know. Not too long ago we were all just horrified by the news images that came through of somebody that spent way too much time watching videos and they dyed their hair red and they went into a movie theater and with. Automatic weapons and just began to blaze away at people who had come to watch The Dark Knight now who knows what in the world I don't know if anyone knows yet what the world was going through that guy's head but he was living in an alter reality we all agree with that. Doesn't matter if he says but I was sincere. That was absolutely wrong there are some things that are right and there are some things that are wrong where do we go to find out what the truth is are we forever to be just kind of guessing I'll submit to you and you knew where I was going with this the Bible is true God's Word is the truth. And that's what it says about itself John 1717 Jesus said sanctify them by your truth your word is truth you know used to be when you went into a courthouse and you were going to testify somehow that you'd say you promise to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. What you think you need to know what that was in the judge needs to discriminate your pilots getting ready to judge Jesus and he's that I don't know what truth is would you want to judge who says I don't know what truth is who knows what the truth is and he's getting ready to decide whether you're going to live or die. If God's going to determine your eternity do you want him to know what the truth is do you need to know what the truth is. Jesus said I have communicated to humanity through a book through a sacred supernatural message my words have been preserved and His Word the scriptures are the truth of God Now I take it out as it's whole and I've been reading the Bible for years and I understand there are some difficult passages and I don't claim to have all the answers but I'd like to suggest to you that you're better off believing too much of the Bible the not enough of it you're better off believing that it's all true than thinking well you know I might take a little bit out here and edit a little bit here if you take the whole thing as the Word of God Your life would be a lot happier Oh and that's the next thing someone's going to say Pastor Doug you say the Bible is true whose version of the Bible. Before I joined my church I studied with Christians from all different backgrounds and I was so frustrated because everybody had a different idea and I just had to pray and say Lord I want to know what the truth is I believe Jesus is true I believe the Bible is true but now there's all this disagreement among Christians so should I shrug my shoulders like pilot and say what is truth or do you need to search so how do you find when you're reading the Bible what's what is the truth well there's a few things in particular you do one you compare Scripture with Scripture let the Bible interpret itself pray for the spirit as you read the Bible God's Spirit will lead you in the truth and then consider Christian counsel as a number of other things you can do but you can actually pinpoint with some precision what the truth is now if you're trying to pick something that's popular It may not be the truth because the Bible says straight is the gate and there was a way that leads to life in the few there be that find it why are there few that find the truth because truth can hurt truth is the most valuable thing and it's a treasure doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be the most popular thing you've got to search for it with all your hard Jesus said it's actually Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 13 you will search for me and you will find me when you search for me in all the rest of it with all of your heart you know the Lord promises seek and you'll find what would be more precious than finding the truth. But it's something that needs to be sought after so you search and you search with all your heart for the truth for one thing God's Spirit is truth. John 16 verse 13 however when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth so as you're reading the word and you're comparing Scripture with Scripture you pray for God Spirit you know when I open the Bible and I begin to study I always pray 1st thing in the morning before I open the word I prayed say Lord guide me into the truth and you know our lives depend on that another verse John 424 God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth let me tell you why I think this is so important is the day coming when everybody in the world according to the bible is going to either see you did it east. Give you sudden on. To you. It's just. One seems to hear. From everyone at. Talegaon late I mean people sing song. Says here daily named Amy and a. Little while the. Bills all seem to say. Christmas is here. I know me. 'd 'd very merry. Merry Merry. Christmas is here to bring to ya know me. People saying. How BUSY BUSY BUSY. And you have a problem that needs solving the Bible says that you can do all things through Christ to strengthen Jew and that includes solving problems you know Problem solving is like positive goal setting solving a problem will reduce stress it will provide a natural mood elevator tree her life clutter your life to the other important matters that you need to pay attention to 4 things number one number 2 is the problem clearly Number 3 Create a plan a clear game plan for dealing with this problem and then this is the most important step. Unless you choose to the problem will never be solved solving problems you can do it intentionally today free resources for your relationships just click away . That's on call radio. On today's creation moment we take a closer look at the Life and Times of James usher the man who calculated from scripture that creation took place in 4004 b.c. In the creation moment Taylor the years between 16391651 with times of great turbulence in the British Isles as a series of deadly conflicts were played out James Usha was born writes in the middle of these events being born as he was in Dublin and 15. In a previous creation moments we relate to precocious childhood that led to his famous calculation of the dates of creation as 4004 b.c. a Ship became a minister in the Anglican Church of Ireland eventually becoming archbishop of in 1625. Travelled to England to study in 1640 and while he was that the Confederate War broke out. Russia's house was plundered so he never returned. The Emerald Isle as war loomed in England also made clear his loyalty to King Charles the 1st therefore his life could have been in danger as he found himself studying in London in 1649 at the time of the execution of the king which brought the English Civil War to an end however the Lord Protector of the English Commonwealth Oliver Cromwell favored. When OSHA died in 1656 Cromwell gave him a state funeral mammoth work the annals of the world had been published in 1654 it is a huge book replete with details still a ship and was a lifetime's work for the scholar having taken him 59 years to complete this is the background of the famous creation date calculation visit us a creation moments dot com for a huge selection of books and D.V.D.'s about biblical creation in the Bible or call 18042 Bible and ask how you can get a free e-book on creation. It's time now for Bible time join our host Kerry camps and John Bradshaw is they open the Bible and talk about themes that affect your life today stay 10 because the next 15 minutes will deepen your understanding of God's word. And welcome to Bible 2 where we talk about the Bible and how the Bible affects us today my name is John Bradshaw with me is Gary cues by Gary. We're going to talk about something that a lot of people would never admit to and that is hearing voices hearing voices hearing voices got a question for you today how do you know when you're hearing the voice of God He's the reason I'm asking you this question I mean a lot of people who will say well the Lord told me I heard God say This is what God said or this is what God wants me to tell you man I gotta tell ya sometimes I get the impression that some of these people are right in what they should. Sometimes I get the idea that some people were a off way out there how do you know when you hear in God's voice that a guy come to meet John one time and hit these big spooky eyes he has this blank look in his eyes and he came to my wife and me and he said I got to tell you something