Truth and God

thank you pastor praise the lord church there's your mind you can't have them jelly beans no it's so good to see you here tonight i uh in the bible it says uh to confess your sins to one for another to another you know and that's good for your soul and all you know everybody knows confession is good for yourself so tonight this is our panel of confessionists um everyone just getting the line we're going no i'm just uh what they're gonna they're gonna open up with us there's this uh this late night game uh jimmy fallon does it's called true confessions and they are ripping it off and they're going to y'all just watch they're going to entertain you for just a minute and it and and see what they do they've got what is it they've got a one truth and one oh oh sorry all right go right ahead hello everyone welcome to true confessions is everyone excited to be here today we have a fun game i'm sorry i just spit on you we have a fun game set up for you today so here's how it's going to go we have our friends eli and amari everyone say hello so they have a story each of them have a couple of stories and they have two note cards in front of them one says truth and one says false so they are each going to pick for each other but they're not going to know if they picked true or false so basically he's going to tell the story i'm not doing a good job with this he's going to tell the story he's uh he's gonna know if it was true or false based on the card that amari picked so he's gonna tell the story make it as elaborate as he needs to basically trying to trick amari up to so he doesn't know if it's true or false in the end amari will make a decision if it was true or if it was false and you guys can help him make the decision we'll do two one you know one for each so you guys um listen as well and you guys will help um then pick in the end so who wants does that make sense to everyone i'm not a good explainer of things so okay who wants to go first eli you posted okay eli's gonna go first okay press the button on the bottom okay okay okay do you want this one or this one he doesn't know oh it doesn't mean that yeah this one or this one okay i can see the truth so just do it fix it because i'm honest i didn't see okay we're gonna move your arm okay the lift my left or your left this one okay okay one time i got lost in a national park for like eight hours what national park it was natchez trace who are you with i was with hunter lewis and luke uh luke bullard my brother oh okay okay um how long were y'all lost eight hours i'm gonna give or take 30 40. i'm gonna say that's true is it true oh okay audience what do y'all think we think it's true because i feel like that's something you do okay it is fake he lied you all are wrong amari now it's your turn how does it feel to be defeated to feel defeated not good truthfully yes okay now it's amari's turn let me go with that one okay so one time i was riding my four-wheeler when i was younger and i jumped the hill and i flew off and i went in the grass it was tall grass and a frog went in my mouth did did like you land open mouth on the frog like it was like or did it like hop in there after you i don't really know i just opened my mouth and there was a frog in there and i spit it out okay when was this i was probably like 10 11 i was in like second grade you're in second grade 11 years old i don't know like i don't know i was in second grade i was in second grade you're sticking with second grade i was in i'm pretty sure i was in second grade first or second grade i don't know i was young i had no business on a four-wheeler by myself but okay what kind of four-wheeler was it it was a blue honda four-wheeler it was blue it was blue yes what do you all think i think is a liar okay i feel like it's true i don't know i was in second grade i don't know how old i was but so you specifically remember what grade you're in but you don't remember how old you were yes like when that happened you were like okay i gotta remember i was in second grade yes okay well anyways thank you all for playing our game tonight we hope that you've enjoyed yourself and this is uh cac's edition of truth confessions can we all give him a hand clap i really i'm really worried about you amari that's okay all right i mean uh you you everyone should have a handout with you tonight this is just an outline of some things we're going to talk about um truth is a it's a it's a hard like i know we're like oh we believe in truth but like for real like you know how do you research and teach about truth right other than saying things that everyone already knows like oh that's truth okay good job and hopefully you know there's not going to be any like somebody booing me here and be like nah i'm gonna argue so that's that would make it we're not doing a debate tonight thank god that would be rough but as apostolics right most of our time most of our learning is is spent around uh learning the bible right we we learn uh apostolic doctrine we i'm i think most of us are pretty solid on believing that there is one god you know and that his name's jesus and you gotta you know repent and be baptized in jesus name and and then be filled with the holy ghost and all those things those things are pretty solid those things i i've learned those from i mean as long as i can remember right most of us grew up in church that's you know that's that's something that is tall over and over and rightfully so but when when we look at and we understand you know jesus said i am the way i am the truth i am the life and no man cometh unto the father but by me we we know that verse and it's it's a great point to bring out an understanding that god is truth but from an outsider's perspective when an outsider walks into an apostolic church what are they saying like oh hey brother how are you doing hey sister and everybody's like man why are all these people ken you know or you know oh how are you doing oh i'm just leaning on the lord or you know just the whatever all these weird things that we say that we all just you know we just got programmed automatic responses programmed in our head that that's just the way it is that's church talk that's any organization you're going to have that type of talk but when you when you i mean when i when i was growing up right you you brought a guest to church and or anytime you brought a guest to church i was always hoping all right god i know you're good but let's just keep it settle and calm tonight like these people have already heard enough about apostolics pentecostals they i had to convince them there were no snakes to get them to come here uh and you know and you know that and so like never fails it'd be like i brought them to a wednesday night it's gonna be super chill i mean i really i've done that here i i brought uh a co-worker of mine i told her i was like hey why don't you come to church with me and she was like yeah she was like is it going to be like you know fiery and i was like no it's wednesday night it's super chill it's like and that one wednesday night i brought her i think we had uh remy duncan he's a he was a yeah home missions guy he song like he was from the brooklyn tabernacle and he preached a fiery message and i looked at her i was like i'm so sorry i lied the one time she came i was like man maybe she just needed to hear that i don't know but it never fails like i mean i always want to be like look friends it's going to be all right and then like you know people start running the aisles some guy jumps up here like man calm down just calm down you know and then there's that lady that shrill scream you hear like no okay all right maybe i'm just the only one that's ever heard that but i think everyone's heard that and you thought somebody was dying sirens i don't know if something was burning who knows you know it was just it's church culture and we get so accustomed to that that we just take a lot of these things for granted uh there are a lot of there are a lot of ways we think a lot of ways i think that uh you know if questions i have my first thought is to go to the bible and rightfully so it's the word of god but how did it how did it get established as the word of god uh if someone you know you know if someone doesn't believe in the bible uh how how do we convince them that it's true i know i mean i know that if you're talking to my grandmother i love my grandmother and you're like i don't believe in the bible she's gonna be like well let me just tell you and then she's either gonna cast the devil out of them or scare them to death or you know what i'm saying like by the end of that conversation some it's real awkward everybody's like man what just happened there you know it's like and and somebody's crying like it's just it's just the way it is i am a grandma uh and so when when that conversations happens with me i'm like all right grandma i know but what if there isn't a god and she's like well let me just tell you what he done yes i get that you know that's the that's the foundational point especially as apostolics what has god done for you because there's nothing more important than a personal testimony right a man with a with a argument cannot convince a man with an experience right if you if you've got the holy ghost i don't i mean the only person that can convince you that the holy ghost isn't real after you've received it is yourself that's you you're the only one can talk yourself out of that but how do we get there in this modern society we're actually it's a po they call it a post-modern world how do we get to the point of where truth is a establishing what truth is everyone asks why right you've seen that this this example with these guys we don't really know their life we don't know their backstory the weirdest wildest tale and we all all we can do is ask questions there's there's no time to bring up exam of proof of you know witnesses there's nothing but just what can we make a snap judgment on and we were wrong both times mostly right it's just it's hard to tell and so with that there luckily there is there is reason and there is logic to get to certain things right i mean we we saw they tried to get there but it just didn't work they had an answer for it uh in in first peter 3 and 15 it says but sanctify the lord in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that seek the ask of the reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear be ready to answer so when someone is always asking why why why why there's a couple ways we could take take that it could be in a wrong manner right they can just be be in and jesus had those examples of people asking questions and he didn't answer them because of the spirit the question was asked in but someone and this is this is my personal opinion here but someone that is truly searching for truth if they if they search for truth with a pure heart they'll find god because what god is truth right and so when when in order for us to help them on that journey there is a there's a set of tools per se that helps us get that that's kind of established in in getting there i've given you some questions is there a god if so uh how do we reason this to be true is is the bible the word of god uh why do we think it's the word of god can we prove the infallibility of the bible and and all these points i want to touch tonight and in the next couple weeks i want to touch on these things and the the thing is this logical process this isn't it's not mine thank god or it would just be a terrible process but it's a process of apologetics and that is a reasoned argument in writing and justificat or writings and justification of something typically a theory or religious doctrine it's it sounds it's a great word so it sounds like a we're apologizing for something but really the history of it is they would stand in court and defend themselves and it was apologia in greek however you say that but when when we look at that we we have to start all the way at the very first question so is there a god right i'm assuming since we're in church tonight that we believe there's a god but how many times does someone walk in the doors questioning is there a god or how many times in our own hearts and minds right i don't know if y'all have asked yourself the question i know i have is is there really a god right i mean that's that's a that's not when we talk about life that's not one you just go around to to everybody oh man i don't know if i even know if there's a god right that's something that we deal with and we have to accept on faith but i want i want to present the argument tonight that it's a well-reasoned face or it's the most reasonable faith because trusting faith uh that that they go hand in hand and anytime that we're asked these things because i guarantee you there's somebody that somebody that doesn't believe in god they've thought about it a little bit and they've thought of some pretty good humdinger questions of why you know of how to trip up people i'm not going to be able to to teach all those things but i do think there are some foundations for that uh there's some there's some good solid reasoning uh to establishing is there a god um one of the things is if someone claims that there isn't a god that's a bold claim right so wait a minute you're telling me i mean and just you know you're telling me that if you've traveled all the earth all the all the world all the unifor universe and you know all things and you know for sure there is no god wow congratulations you yeah now that may be a little mean to start out with so i wouldn't suggest that but you know just depends on how how it comes at you but you can come across one of the founding one of the first principles to look at here is the universe how did we get here how were we how are we in existence how is the universe here there are there are three theories overall right you can sum up all the different theories into these three umbrella theories here the first one is the eternal universe it's always existed there was no creation there was no big bang it was just there now this one has been largely largely thrown aside by scientists and and theologians alike because if you if you start doing the numbers real thankfully we didn't have we don't have to run those numbers the light would apparently if light was always in existence our sky would always be just light it would look like the sun in every single point because the light from all points of the earth of the universe would have reached here so that one's been discredited and is showing that there's also the point that the universe is expanding and changing so it's not just eternal it's a it's an evolving changing creation but the second the second predominant theory is the big bang theory and if you've been in any type of school this is what you're taught in science class uh it's a uh in in i don't know if y'all have ever watched a sitcom called the big bang theory but it's got a really catchy little tune to it and talking about the cr the explosion and there and it all started with a big bang but the idea behind that is there was nothing and then poof there's something now that can't be explained outside of there was nothing in poof there not there was gasses not there were there was matter there was nothing like i don't even it's uncon i can't even comprehend it but there was nothing and then there was something then there was a big bang so that one that one is the theory of most scientists and and if you study into it you'll see there's a bunch of different steps to that of quote unquote leaps of faith right there it takes faith to believe in that and then the the last predominant theory is creationism simply god created the universe when when we look at this we we see all three of these take a leap of faith right it takes a leap of faith to believe that the universe has always existed it takes a leap of faith that there was nothing and then there was something they'll you know there can be all kinds of numbers thrown at you but when it gets down to the bottom of it when you get down to the fashion it foundation it is just faith these you know a scientist is i believe there was nothing and then poof there was something i i bel you know that's that's that's it's faith that scientist believes in that science in that and they have faith in that science and then there's creationism that an alter an almighty god or an eternal god created a universe that also takes faith there is no way that we could go back in time ourselves unless god deemed it so and proved that this was what happened all of these things are a leap or a step in faith but i believe that creationism is the most reasonable faith i believe that the reasoning behind that of nothing proof than something versus a intelligent being an intelligent god having a creation or creating a universe i believe that with the complexity of the universe i believe the complexity of dna of of healing like when you cut your finger of how your your body responds to that i believe the intelligence within our our unconscious being is so uh it's so amazing that it couldn't be by accident i believe in in that it is faith i i mean i know the word of god says it but let's let's just take for instance this person we're talking to does not believe in the word of god how do we where how do we start a conversation with them and so when we get here if if we can ever get someone to agree yeah okay i see what you're saying that's a reasonable faith that makes sense uh it it all takes faith but it's in my opinion the most reasonable now when you when you combine that with your personal miracles your personal relationship your personal testimony then all of a sudden it becomes something completely different because in this world right everyone questions everything they question facts they question everything but the one thing people do not question is someone's personal experience they're like oh i identify uh trying to make sure i do this right i identify as an ape or i identify as an elephant or i identify as a giraffe well if that's the way you want to do your per your opinion your personal matters most right that's that's the culture in the day and age we live in that is that personal what you believe is your truth so that that that personal testimony not not trying to uh validate that reasoning any i'm just saying right now that's that's something that is not questioned nearly as much is when when we can you know i know we rely hard upon getting someone in the house of god right because i mean i know and you know if someone when god starts moving on somebody that that that trumps every argument but we got to get them there first right so that's that's where i'm kind of those that reasoning there to get them up to that point of well let me tell you what god's done for me you don't believe in a god but i'm i'm telling you it's a reasonable faith and i'm telling you that god has done this this and this for me i've spoken in tongues i've had prayers answered that there was no way those prayers could be answered outside of an almighty god moving something and so getting to that point then they're like okay well i let's just you know humor they they humor you or whatever and then we have to we we get to is the bible the word of god because there are there's as many different religions as there are shoes in the world you know and people just change religions or like they change shoes and it's just it's so on and so forth and the number one question you know a lot of times is how is what's what's to say your religion's right what's to say christianity's right or what's you know why is it any different than than you know mormonism or why is it any different from islam anything like that and so we have to i mean once again a lot of times we rely upon that personal experience which is solid but we got to get there right so brother bernard he uh he writes in god's infallible word he said if we believe in god we should also believe in the word of god see for since god was interested enough to create us and since he created us as rational beings surely he is interested enough to communicate with us and thereby fulfill his purpose for creation so if we've got them to the point where they admit maybe there is a god exists does exist so then we have to establish the point of all right did someone does this god why did he create us and what did he do you know what was the purpose of his creation and he so and how did he create he created us as rational beings uh and logically speaking we are i mean the first thing we do when we come out of out of the womb right is we get spatted and we start screaming right we want to communicate that that hurt that's that's that's our very first or our very first instinct is to communicate and if we're creating the image of god then we we can that kind of follows god's logic if we're made in his image in his likeness then maybe we want to he wants to communicate as much as we do then if we if we believe that he created us or then we can go in how would he communicate would he just talk to someone but he wants to communicate with his whole creation would he just show a sign or you know and you can look at those things and sure he does those things but what is the most reason what is the most reasonable what's the most uh consistent way of communicating with generation after generation and it's the written word it's uh it's that that goes down through i mean i don't even know let's say several thousand years that the written word of the bible goes on and and the only way we learn about ancient cultures nowadays is if we go and we find their writing and we translate it into something we can understand that's i mean it from thousands of years ago now we i mean that's not to when we when we see that and we get to that point then we we have to look at the bible we or we look at the bible we'll say well all scripture is given by god second timothy 3 and 16 is profitable for destruct for doctrine for proof for correction for instruction righteousness itself it's self-vindicating it's uh but if someone doesn't believe if we've just now got them believing in god then what are they going to believe in the bible right why do we think it's the word of god there there are multiple outside of the bible sources that that corroborate the stories that corroborate the the places uh and honestly there is not a uh there's not a historical text that is as wide and varied and yet accurate as the bible uh you can there are ancient traditions uh in many lands right they they agree with the biblical account of noah's flood uh archives in egypt assyria babylon uh and and i've read of of like uh even i think it was native american cultures having the the the story in their religions of the great flood so these are you know verifiable offense over time archaeologists they've long used the uh the bible to medic to locate lost cities in the middle east uh the the city of er of you or your of you are city of ur that abraham came from it was lost for a really long time and no one could and they thought it was fake they were like the bible's not true i mean this was a place that doesn't exist but as it turns out the river had had moved and the city had been abandoned and it turns out this was actually a major trading place that i mean there was only the only way we would have really known about it was through uh the bible the history of the bible and writing about that now there there have been several tablets if you if you care to look at these ver some of these things genesis some names in genesis were verified by the uh ebla tablets that's ebla and then legal and social customs of the patriarchs in genesis were verified by the news of tablets in uzi and we get to there there's a conclusion it was written by nelson glueck he was a is a reformed jewish archaeologist it may be stated he said it may be stated categorically that no archaeological archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference so everything in history has it has not it hasn't it hasn't come up and tried to disprove they you know there's been claims of this disproves it uh or that the lack of this being there disproves it but later when it's found it corroborates it it vindicates it now someone that has studied anything about anywhere on the internet and looked up how do i prove the bible's wrong they're going to come across something called variance inscrible errors right we covered a lot of this our pastor covered a lot of this in the in the first section but in i mean the the bible we have it now it obviously wasn't in that form 2000 years ago it was in something uh it was it was in in different individual pieces now the new testament in the old testament they originated differently but we do we do have uh pieces of pieces of the new testament like from 80 from 125 8125 so and it was the writings of john so if john wrote them in nine in 90 a.d or so uh then it was you know it was less than a generation after him now this is like this is like papyrus so this stuff would like crumble and and that's why you have to have multiple texts because it only had it had a limited life span it'd be like trying to keep paper uh over three generations without air sealing it off it just it just disintegrated it wouldn't last exposed to the elements and so scribes would come along and copy it that's why we don't we don't have the original but we have uh in these copies of these manuscripts we have as close as you can get to it basic actually if you if you really dig into it we have closer uh we have closer manuscripts of the bible than of any other historical uh historical reference historical ancient figure in the world i mean for real like uh there are only like two or three sources on alexander the great there there are only one or two sources on the history of rome and those things were massive we have over i want to say over 5100 either parcels or full or or parchments of the new testament of the history of jesus the life of jesus these i mean when you get down to the fundamentals of this it's super it's like super boring and like i honestly like in studying this and reading this i was like oh okay all right oh man yeah it's good stuff whoa like these guys literally i don't think they know what a comedian is right but when you get down to that they there are there are differences so for example if if if we had uh this piece of paper right here it's got just a few words on it and two of us were to write to sit down and hand write it out there would there be a slight there might be a slight variation a slight error in that piece and then if we were to hand it off to two more people each one off to two more people there might be a slight variation a difference of a comma somebody dropped a comma somebody misspelled a word they when when someone says variance that's that's what they're talking about it was copied by by hand they didn't have photocopiers uh you know so it was it was copied by hand and there were differences and but because there's so many different sources they can compare them and and look at them and see all right well this one was variant here but it was the same here and and you can go through and you can get you you can get what it was saying for sure and if you if you do a uh they ran a statistical um they ran a stats analysis on it yeah ran a stats on it and they in some they all of them that i saw it was up to 99.89 99.95 99.99 percent close to the as close to the original as you could get like it was because when they when they covered all these variants in none of them have have caused any type of re restatement of the christian doctrine none of them have changed any type of actual standard of faith it was it's more along the lines when just remember if someone ever brings up variants they're probably talking about a comma or you know a word it's very very miniscule now when we when we get to that point we see if we can you know get past the point of all right there's there is a god there is a a word of god this this is most likely how he would talk to his people now and we've brought in the bible into this but then obviously they're gonna be like well wait a minute what makes christianity any different why why do i believe why would i believe in christianity there's if we just stick with the five main there's uh judaism there is uh islam there's christianity there's hinduism and buddhism now why would why why what separates christianity from these when we look at them buddhism and hinduism are they're not they're not claiming excuse they're not claiming to be from the divine they are men who looked for enlightenment there are men who who said this is the way to live a better life this is not the way to rid yourself of your flesh this is a way to live a better life there and then you you look at judaism and and christianity and that's that's a different debate but basically we differ there and we believe in christ and and the redemptive power of him as the messiah and they kind of they dropped that part off and then we get down to islam and christianity when we look at islam and christianity they do have very they do have the same claims in in the fact that uh muhammad claimed to have received uh the quran from god he he said that uh gabriel uh came to him in a cave and he transcribed it for him now this was you know do this what you will i think muhammad was both he couldn't read nor write but do do with that what you would have i'm not really sure what to do with that um and so uh muhammad claimed you know he received it from gabriel and he went on but and and you can trace they do claim that is the word of god so when you when you put up a a scholar uh a christian scholar and an islamic scholar they you know and especially if he's apostolic one god you know we got the word of god we've we've got you know a direct line from god uh we can trace this back and it's it's at least the writings are traceable to their the origins then we can get down to a point of where okay well we're at a standstill well then that's when we just rely upon our good old personal experience right islam cannot they don't claim that god can heal you they don't claim to receive the gift of holy earth they don't claim to receive these blessings from almighty god in the present day it's all about in and if you the nature of it is about doing what the quran says now in order to get to a honestly it's it's a more of a flesh fulfillment type heaven instead of a god fulfillment helmet heaven it's wednesday night right uh so that would be that would be that point of of differentiation there where we start to rely upon what god has done for us but in order to get there these are some points now when one of the biggest i don't know it's a it's a very emotional argument but if god is all-powerful why does he let bad things happen right that's i mean i don't know about y'all but i'm like why'd you let that happen right man you could have stopped that from happening and some people especially people that's been through like you know people that that that came through traumatic events of war you know it can go one or two ways they can see what humanity does to each other and they can choose okay well god would never allow that to happen or they could choose to say well my only hope is god you got usually one or two roads there and when when they when you get to that point there is there is some there's some logic to that uh if if someone's trying to claim that there is writing wrong without a god they do not have any grounds for morality all they have is humanistic reasoning all they have is you know what i think is right and what i think is wrong and that what what one person claims is good for the human race and what another person claims is good for the human race just really i mean just ask hitler right like that that didn't work out well that will not end well don't ask him uh if if you if you do that and then some will argue that that suffering maybe it's not what other humans do to other it's just suffering in general they've seen terrible suffering that why would god allow that to happen well that's just the existence of suffering is not an argument for the absence of god the natural the natural way of life if you just look at the wild is suffering you're gonna have i mean if you i don't know if you've ever watched a documentary like really late at night you're trying to go to sleep but you can't and so you watch one of those like animal planet documentaries and it's talking well the herd of antelope you know they go through here and here comes the cheetah he's going to pick out the weakest the slowest and the old one right that's in that's nature that's that's just and so those those observations of bad things honestly they still you can go back to that first point of if there is no god there is no such thing as a bad thing because there's no moral standard there there is no there's nothing to stand on it's i mean you can do what you want to do who's to say what's right and what's wrong right and sure some people really want that but if someone's arguing well this is why god doesn't then bro that's that's not really going to you don't have a leg to stand on you chop you know you chop the chop the limb you're standing on there and you're just gonna fall so my last point is uh my is what difference does it make right that's a that's an easy easy one to come across because people are like well what's going to matter right it's an easy easy attitude to have in a world that you can distract yourself from your own thoughts for quite some time and you're just yeah until that one day you're like all alone you're like oh no right no okay don't christian but what difference does it make why should i believe in god how will it benefit me there was a man there was a philosopher it's called pascal's wager this was found after he was dead and pascal argues that a rational person should live as though the christian as though is the christian god exists and seek to believe in god if god does not actually exist person will have only finite loss you know you only have a little if god doesn't exist and you live your life like that you're only going to miss out you know some humanistic pleasures in life whereas if god does exist stands receive infinite gain heaven but to avoid infinite and and if and avoid infinite losses so if you know if you live your life like god does exist you have to you know live in a christian manner and then you have to you know at the end of it if you die and there is no god well you've you've lost a little bit of human pleasure if god does exist and you've lived your life in a in just a worldly fashion in a humanism pleasure seeking manner then at the end of your life if god does exist you have lost a whole lot right so i need i need a volunteer real quick i need somebody who likes do you like jelly beans you like jelly beans all right come on bella i seen your hand first all right my final point for tonight i will give you these jelly beans tonight or next week i will give you a whole bag of jelly beans it's up to you you take the bag that's next week okay all right that's that's it all right that's it that's the end of my point that's it you don't get nothing tonight nothing tonight if you would would you stand with me for just a moment i want to thank you for your time tonight i thank you for listening to the word i hope that these points are something that that helps you in the future i hope that because they've really made me think of there are some sources i put on your your list some good books to read god's infallible word by brother david bernard it's top notch it's really hard to read but it's top-notch it's good stuff but you know and then truth in a culture of doubt it's engaging skeptical challenges to the bible now that one is it's very pointed in some in some uh apologetic notes uh they're they call out a very uh a very popular uh critic writer about christianity this guy's written a lot of first uh bestsellers uh claiming that god doesn't exist and so they actually go through and name this guy by name which i thought was a little brash but you know they do have some good arguments against his points uh so if you get a chance i would definitely check into those read those those are if you need a good night's sleep or a good afternoon nap bam that's where you go right there right can we all can we all just lift our hands for just a minute and let's let's thank the lord for his word for his goodness and his mercy god we love you and we thank you lord so much for your kindness your mercy lord you've been so good to us sword i thank you lord for helping me to understand who you are god i ask you lord to help me god to have your word steadfast in my heart so that i that i might not sin against you but lord so that i and also that i can give an answer to those that would come against the faith god help me lord to defend the faith my faith in you lord to the best of my ability god i ask you lord as we go this week that you would put in our hearts and our minds and our souls god help us lord to be a witness god to our co-workers to our friends to our neighbors to our family god i ask you lord help us to be what what it is to be christ god strengthen and guide and direct us god help us to be true through and through christians god help us stand upon the truth help us to know it inside and out god will be sure to give you all the praise the glory and the honor for we know that you are a holy god in jesus name we pray amen you're dismissed church thank you so much