Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 15 & 16, 2017 | Easter Weekend - "Let It Be Known"

Transcript

April 15 & 16, 2017 | Easter Weekend - "Let It Be Known" · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Happy Easter.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is risen.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: He really is.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: One of the highlights of our Easter service every single year is that I get to introduce to you someone who'll tell their sort of resurrection story, story of their life.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: This year, I get to introduce to you Scott.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Scott, come on up to Scott Stebner.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: I can hardly wait for you to hear Scott's story.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: He may make movies now for the Kansas Beef Council.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: But he grew up in Southern California, and you've got to hear the story.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Get right over here and tell him.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: I am from Southern California, so I might say some weird stuff that Southern California is slang.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: So if I see people nodding in the audience, I'll just assume you're from Southern California as well.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: But I grew up with an amazing family.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you probably didn't expect to hear me start a testimony story that way.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I really did.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up amazing parents who were incredibly supportive, incredibly hardworking, and encouraged us to do anything we could ever dream of.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: They were highly educated with advanced degrees from some of the best universities in the country.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I had everything stacked in my favor growing up.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like most families in the United States, they weren't believers.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And only then could it be logically deduced to be real.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that was kind of how we approached arguments in our family, too.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: On the rare instance that we ever did have an argument, they would approach, you know, five-year-old Scott and say, Scott, let's remove emotion from this and take a look at the logical merits of your issue.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that really resonated with me at five.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, um sadly it actually kind of did.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's how we went along.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I had to, like I said, I was very happy, uh, very uh much the happy kid.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was well known in school.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: My parents volunteered in the community, I was volunteering in the community, and that's how things kind of progressed.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember in seventh grade, a good friend of mine invited me to youth group, and that was so different because I'd never been to church, I didn't really understand what any of this stuff was, but I started surveying the people who were at the youth group, and I started noticing that that's where all the cute girls were.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: So naturally, um, I believed that that's where I should be spending my time.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I spent 7th, 8th, and start of ninth grade going to a youth group, and and there I was pretty much introduced with a faith.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: What my understanding was is all I understood was how not to go to hell.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's really the only thing that I picked up from it.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: People didn't really talk to me, especially the cute girls at the time, and uh, but I just kept going because I thought that's what you do once you start going to church.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: You just keep going.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember that's how it progressed until around January of my freshman year in high school.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that happy kid was just going along, and all of a sudden I remember, just like that, a switch had turned in my brain, and that happy kid wasn't happy anymore.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I started getting sadder and sadder going through that first month, first two months, my freshman year in high school.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And by the end of January, I started getting full-on depressed.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember around January, February, I started getting thoughts saying, you know, you should go kill yourself.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: That'll make things better.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And naturally, that didn't really stack up.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was going to church.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Why was I feeling all this stuff?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I started getting very angry with this God that people were telling me to believe in.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because how on earth could this loving, caring God let me experience this?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't right, it wasn't fair, I thought.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so soon I got even more depressed.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember one night, around February, once again, my freshman year in high school, I was sitting there one night and a thought popped into my head, and it was just, hey, see that screwdriver on your table?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Take it and start cutting into yourself with it.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't imagine, most of you are probably shocked to think, why would someone do that?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so hard to even put yourself in that mindset unless you personally experienced it.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I did, and you know what?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: For some odd reason, that made me feel better because my psychological issues were so deep at that point.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And every day for the next two years, I would cut myself to sleep.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you see, I got so angry at God that I started shunning anything possibly doing with Him.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And what I did is I got into pagan cults.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: I started satanic worship or looking after anything that was the exact opposite of what God was, because obviously God wasn't doing it for me.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: I started hating Christians.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you were a Christian, I would combat you and I would try to prove that you were absolutely illogical, irrational, and stupid for believing in this God.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: That obviously I saw no tangible proof in by what he was allowing to happen in my life.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: So starting to smoke more and drink more in high school.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember, end of my sophomore year, it had gotten so bad that I started carrying a razor blade in my wallet in case I wanted to kill myself wherever I was.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember I was at the movies one night, and I don't remember really what happened, but I remember going into the restroom at the movie theater and coming out with my shirt soaked in blood.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember thinking to myself when I went home, something's gotta change because I'm gonna die if I continue on this journey.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew, feeling so alone because I didn't even tell any of my parents any of this stuff, and no one knew I was going through this.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so I made that mental shift going into my junior year.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you know what?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't exist.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I thought to myself, all this stuff that I was chasing, this spiritual stuff, doesn't exist.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because the only thing that's making me feel this way is an imbalance of chemicals and hormones, dopamine and serotonin in my head.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a lot easier to believe that this is a biological, chemical process that has gone awry than any God that would ever let me believe this.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so I became a hardcore atheist that day in my junior year.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember writing in my journal, because I was an avid writer, and it's still there today, and I said, My goal in life is to disprove the fraud that is Christianity.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And once again, I was becoming very belligerent.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: I would go up to people and make sure that they knew that they were not as smart as me because they believed in something that they couldn't prove.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know what?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: My path to happiness is I'm gonna be popular, I'm gonna chase after the girls, I'm gonna go party, do whatever I could.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd go surfing almost every single weekend from Southern California.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: I got into hard rock bands and we toured all over and got pretty darn popular.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how it was.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was living the life.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: People knew me in town, I was in the newspapers, you name it.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then about a week going, I was uh even got accepted into the College of My Dreams, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which ironically was rated the number one happiest place in the country.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: So and it was a few days before I was going to leave for Cal Poly where a good friend of mine who helped me pass chemistry and I was a surf buddy with, said, Hey dude, there's an epic swell coming, there should be some gnarly surf.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you come out and go surfing with me?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, sweet, I don't have to uh go ahead and pay for gas, I'm gonna go.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he knew where I stood on things, and he said, the one catch is there's going to be a church group, it's with a youth group.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of weighed my options, spending time with Christians or going to have this epic surf.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I and I thought, you know what, I will put up with Christians if I can get a free ride to go surfing.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I did.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I went to the beach, we had an awesome surf set, and then we came back to have a bonfire, and the pastor started talking, and I remembered some of the songs and the hand motions of the 90s uh going to um this youth group, and he started talking about Revelation 3.16.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I wish you're either hot or cold, but since you're lukewarm, I'll spit you out of my mouth.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't quite understand it at the time, and I was like, oh, okay, whatever.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Time to go off to college.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And before college, where I went, there's a week of welcome where they just try to make sure that you have fun getting ready to go to college.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then I thought I had lived in this small town of 55,000 people for uh my whole life.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: I had never moved, and everyone knew Depress Scott during freshman sophomore year.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is my chance to reinvent myself.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: I could become a new person if I could just act differently, if I could just chase after popularity.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: So from the get-go, I was with the popular, cool group in the dorm, and we were going out to go party and chase after women the whole time that first week.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: But all of a sudden, every single time I had gone to go party, there's a voice in my head that's like, you know, don't drink.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Don't drink.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Don't do that.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that was really weird for me.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then a voice popped in my head too.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: That was just thinking, you know what?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: What if God is real?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like, where did that thought come from?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because that is not something that I believe at all.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: But that thought was there.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: What if God is real?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Push that aside, and I remember about Wednesday before school started, that switch popped back on in my brain.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the happy Scott wasn't happy anymore.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And Thursday, I got a little more depressed.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Friday, I got a little more depressed.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Saturday, I remember hanging out at the beach with friends.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: There was a cliff, and I remember the thought saying, you know what, just throw yourself off of it because it'll be better.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I went to bed that night incredibly depressed, and I thought to myself, you know what?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Something's gotta change.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the first time I had ever said an honest prayer in my life.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I just reached out, and that thought in my head said, What if God is real?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, God, and I prayed this, if you're real, you better prove it, because you and I both know I'm gonna be dead in the morning if you don't.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I went to sleep right then.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And oddly enough, I woke up really early the next morning, which is very rare for me at the time.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I was walking through the dorm, and those guys that I had been partying with every single night walked through the dorms and said, Hey Scott, do you want to go to church?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, really?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I was thinking.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, all right, sure, I'll go.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so I so I went to church feeling very, very awkward.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the pastor comes up and he said, You know what?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: We're not going to talk on a regularly scheduled sermon series today.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like God needs us to look at something else today.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like he wants me to speak on Revelation 3.16 about being hot or cold and not lukewarm.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And he started talking, and for the first time, I came to the understanding that God did care.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: That he never did leave me.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that God was real, he was rational, he was logical, but most importantly, he was pursuing me.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't an altar call or anything like that that day, but I just bowed my head and I gave my life to Christ then and there.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden I started realizing that God had surrounded me with Christians my entire time there at Cal Poly.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: That first week, even though we were going out and doing things we probably shouldn't have, every single person I'd had formed a friendship with was a Christian.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Every single one.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I was going to Bible studies and understanding about my faith.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: We got involved in worship teams and I started uh going on uh trips here and there.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just amazing how that was God's way of showing, like, see, look, you're not alone.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Look who I put in your life.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's really funny.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Your first few weeks, you know, when I came to my faith, I I had a faith that uh was just didn't know any limits because you're like, wow, this is so new, this is so awesome.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember my first two weeks or so as a Christian, I started praying, and I'm like, God, I'm tired of these scars on my arm.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Can you take them away from me?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I went to bed fully expecting to wake up that morning with all of my scars gone.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I woke up and they weren't.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: I remember being frustrated, wondering, God, look, your book is full of miracles.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you do this miracle in my life here?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you don't understand why God didn't answer a prayer until years down the line.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a four and a half-year-old son named Carter.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's a wonderful son, I love him to death, and he's starting to ask questions, he's starting to be observant.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And what he did is the other uh month, he pointed to my arms and said, Daddy, what are those?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Pointed to all the scars in my arms.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Then I realized why God never answered that prayer.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Carter, those are signs of God's grace.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Those are signs that God loves me.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Those are reminders that he never left me.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: That he was always with me.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And those are signs of his wonderful grace.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so, right about now is when I start thinking of, am I making all this stuff up?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Is this just some story?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know what, it doesn't resonate with me at all.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm telling the story about someone else who doesn't exist.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And in a way, that's true because God tells us as far as the East is from the West, that's as far as He's removed their transgressions from us.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I don't view this as a sad story or I don't view this as a broken story because God says that anyone in Christ is a new creation.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So this isn't a story of sadness, this is a story of victory because Christ has overcome the dead and he has been able to give us grace.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's been able to give us a new chance, and he has drawn us into being new people.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I also was thinking, and I know the perfect Easter story from the Bible to follow Scott's story.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: This is the story of Thomas.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Doubting Thomas, you know the story, right?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's Easter night, the first Easter night, resurrection Sunday night, and the disciples have gathered together, and they're scared they might be targeted next, so they lock the doors.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: And of the twelve, ten are there.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Judas isn't there, of course, uh, obviously.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: But there's another disciple who's not there.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Thomas isn't there.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Don't know why he wasn't there.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know what appointment kept Thomas away.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Thomas wasn't there, and so he wasn't uh there to see the revelation that the others got, which is Jesus came and appeared right in their midst, proved it was him by showing them the holes in his wrists, in his wrist and in his side.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: And they were blown away.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: So later that night, one of the disciples finds Thomas.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: You're not going to believe this, he says.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is alive.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: He really is.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: He came, he showed himself to us tonight, showed us the holes in his hands and in his side.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: He's really alive.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Guy was right.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Thomas didn't believe him.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think I know what Thomas was thinking.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think he's probably thinking, oh, that John and some of the other disciples are so emotional, and they want him to be alive so badly that they're imagining this.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: And he says to the guy, I'm sure he said something like this.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure he said, hey, listen, don't get me wrong.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing I want more in the entire world than for you to be right.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: But forgive me if I'm a little bit skeptical.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Forgive me if I have a little trouble swallowing this.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, you say he proved it to you by showing you the holes in his wrists and in his side?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's all I'm asking for.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: If I can see those same scars, even put my hands on them, then I'll believe too.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, really?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Can you blame him?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: We call him doubting Thomas.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: But if he'd been there with the other ten, he would have believed like the rest of them.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, which of us would be quick to believe on the word of someone else, that someone, a loved one that we knew, and we knew had died and been buried, come back to life?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Who'd believe that?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think of my brother.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think of a few years ago when I got a phone call that stopped my heart in the evening.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, is this Jim Congdon?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it is.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: You don't know me.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm calling you from Roseburg, Oregon.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: We've got a body here, and somebody says that you might uh be a relative.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: He uh apparently was out riding a bicycle a couple of days ago this weekend.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: No identification on him, had a heart attack.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: He's visiting he's been lying here.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: What happens after that?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Fly out to Portland, long drive south.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Then eventually, you know, there's a there's a memorial service.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: All of us gather, we laugh, we cry, and then the eleven brothers and sisters, we all drive up the hill to Steve's house.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: Open the door.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, was that weird?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: I've been to that house many, many times, but never when Steve wasn't there.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: It just felt so empty.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you, what would have been weirder, what would have been a thousand times as weird is if Steve himself, if big Steve had walked out of a back room, and as he as he often would, and his huge voice said something like, Hey, what shaken?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: I would have been shaken.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'd have been fainting because dead people just don't come back to life that way.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: And don't make any mistake, Jesus was really dead.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Don't believe the people that say, well, he was swooned or he was comatose or he passed out just temporarily.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: No, he'd been beaten nearly to death, hung on a cross, bled, died.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: They proved it by putting a stabbing a hole in his side, took him down, wrapped him from head to toe in cloth, and buried him.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: So no wonder Thomas is saying, Really?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: You're telling me that Jesus is like totally live again?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, who can blame him, really?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then comes a week later.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: One week, exactly a week later, after Easter, Sunday night, disciples get together again, once again, nervous.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: They lock the doors behind them.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: Once again, Jesus appears.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: Thomas is there this time.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: This time there's eleven.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: Who does Jesus look at first?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: He looks straight at Thomas.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Notice what Jesus does not do.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Notice what Jesus does not say.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: He does not say, Thomas, you really disappoint me.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: You've been walking the streets and everything for three years, and now you're laying conditions on me.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Now you're saying you're not going to believe unless I do this or I do that.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have to prove myself to anybody.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Skeptics totally disgust me.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't say that.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't put him down.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't accuse him.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't criticize him.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't blast him.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: No, Jesus did exactly the opposite.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Thomas, you want proof?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: Here you go.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: Put your finger in the holes.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Jam your hand into my side.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: Go ahead.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: Did Thomas take up the challenge?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: Did Thomas do it?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't appear that he did.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: And which of us would?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, after all, Jesus has proved that he heard a private conversation that Thomas had had a week before.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Secondly, he can see the scars.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like Scott can tell you, you can identify somebody by their scars.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe most of all the compassion, the kindness to not criticize them, but to say, hey, you want proof?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'll give you proof.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: And that's all it took.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Thomas broke.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Thomas said, My Lord, my God.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Now listen to me very carefully.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus will do anything.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus will stop at nothing to get you to believe in him.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: He really wants you to believe.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: He is determined to win you over.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it can happen as quickly as that.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: One moment Thomas didn't believe.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: The next moment Thomas believed.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: When Scott walked into church that morning, he wasn't a believer.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: When he walked out of church, he was a believer.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: When C.S.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Lewis climbed on the back of his brother's motorcycle, as he said, we were going to the zoo.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: When I climbed on the back of the motorcycle, I didn't believe.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: And when we had arrived, I did.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't take long.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: One moment you don't believe.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: The next moment you do believe.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: You're convinced.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: You see the evidence.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Friend, there's a little bit of Thomas in all of us.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: We live in a skeptical world.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're a little skeptical that Jesus died and rose again to save you from your sins and to give you eternal life, let me warn you of something.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus will do anything.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: He will stop at absolutely nothing.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: Even a cross.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: Even allowing you to make a crude jab in his side to prove to you that he is everything you need him to be to get you to believe in him.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: He's determined to win you over.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it can happen just that quickly.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: It can happen in a moment.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: It can happen in the moment of bowing your head, looking up to heaven, and saying, in the words of Thomas, My Lord, my God, I believe.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Let's give ourselves a chance to do that right now.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: Bow your head with me.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, there's a bit of Thomas in all of us.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you that you're so gracious that you're holding out your wrists, you're pointing to your side, you're saying, What does it take?
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever it takes, I'll do to get you to believe in me.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: I want to win you over.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for loving us that much.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: I pray for people right here, right now, that they'll look up to you and say, My Lord, my God, I believe.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: For the sake of forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.