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If God Is Real, Why Doesn't He Speak? · SOLID START

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Solid Start, a podcast designed to get your week off to a solid start by focusing on life from God's perspective.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Greg Reed, life coach at Merrill Bros in Kokomo, Indiana, stormy and uh rainy Kokomo, Indiana, joined by my wonderful and amazing co-host, Brian Herzog.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Brian, good morning.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning, Greg.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: And happy Father's Day to you from from yesterday.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: And to all those of you that are listening that are dads, uh thanks for taking on an incredible role.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the importance of what you do day in and day out is so significant in the lives of your um sons and daughters, uh, maybe grandsons and granddaughters as well.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: So you never stop being a dad.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: No, you do not.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: No, you do not.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, your kids are both out of the house uh in in college and beyond, and you're still a dad.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: You're still a dad.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: It just changes a little bit.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: But you're you're you're never not a dad.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: So what's m one memory you have of your dad?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: What's one thing that you remember?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh one thing that maybe was the biggest influence.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: A big influence.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: He passed several years ago now.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: One thing that he was always known for is trying to get through a terrible joke.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um he couldn't stop laughing through the through telling it.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so he would very rarely get to the end of the joke because he would just start laughing before he thought it was so funny.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you know somebody like that.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: But uh My kids will say, Dad, you just crack yourself up.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I do.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I'm just cracking up, just trying to even tell it.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think it's hilarious, and obviously they do.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, at family reunions and things, and they were like, There, there's there's Eddie trying to tell a joke again.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one thing.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: And he's cracking himself up.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's great.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, good.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Anything else over the weekend?
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh did nothing on Father's Day but just work outside.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I wanted to do.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to get some work done.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then of course the storms hit again.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, right.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So m praying for all of those folks that were hit with tornadoes.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, the last couple of weeks have been incredible here.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Twenty some, maybe even thirty tornadoes yesterday across uh Illinois and Indiana.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um that was just in one storm system going through.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we watch online all the time Ryan Hall, y'all.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if anybody tunes in to him, but he covers these storms as they pass.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And um man, every time you see a tornado drop, you know, like those that's affecting someone.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: So praying for all you who may have been hit with those storms, uh, yeah, it's not fun.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I talked to my 95-year-old mom last night, and she was in the bathroom down in Columbus, Indiana.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they got hit.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: And they got uh so if you're listening to this podcast and you're one of those, and if there are ways we can pray for you, please let us know that because we want to uh know how we can make a difference and be of help to you.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know what, uh Brian, I learned something that I didn't know.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: I know that's hard to imagine that knowing all truth, wow, uh, like I do, wow, is right.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't even realize, and I was fully alive in 1977, I didn't realize that scientists and engineers placed a gold record aboard the Voyager spacecraft.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh did you had you heard about that or didn't we?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't heard about it, but you are so smart.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't my son loves that type of field.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so he tells me all those stories, but I don't know much about it.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: I just know that they sent one up.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they carefully selected music and greetings, photographs and sounds from Earth and ways to decode all of that to basically trying to find out is anybody out there that would want to know about Earth and that could communicate with us.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so I thought uh, you know, that wasn't uh basically to say, hey, we're here and who are you?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Are you out there?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: As far as I know, we have not gotten any messages back.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: So shockingly.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Shockingly, nothing has come back.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: But it just it made me start thinking then, you know, if somebody did communicate with us uh from some galaxy far, far away, then we would want to know, well, who sent this and what's it mean, and why did they send it?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: And how should how should we respond to it?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you think all of those things are are important, and that's why we've been looking at this series on shape, saying, is there evidence that we are here on purpose, or was there some accident?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we've made a pretty strong case to say it couldn't be accident.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we've just looked at very simple things, even the human body in the ear, the heart.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Last week we talked about the heart, you know, the size of your fist, and yet it is so complicated, it could not have happened by accident.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: So if there is a designer, which is what we're trying to push the argument toward, then what if that designer wanted to communicate with us?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking there would be things like the designer would probably want to be uh personal.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: It would, he would want it to be, he or she would want it to be understandable.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh a designer would want the message to be accessible, uh, would want to communicate in clear terms.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so all of those things would be, you think if somebody really wanted to get a hold of us, wouldn't they do all of that?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's what we would expect that communication would be like.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly what those of us who are followers of the God of the Bible, that's exactly what we believe that God did in fact want to communicate with us.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, sometimes I uh you see those movies that they have a, you know, they put a message in a bottle and they send it, and hopefully somebody around, you know, on the other side of the world maybe will find it.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um but if God wanted to communicate with us, he did not choose to send a message in a Bible, he sent a person.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so this uh verse that you're going to read, Brian, comes out of the Gospel of John.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: There are four uh accounts of Jesus' life: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: John was one of a core of intimate, three intimate followers of Jesus.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so I want you to read what John said about when the designer wanted to communicate with us.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: What did he do?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is John 1 14 from the message.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: The word became flesh and blood.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Stop right there.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: So rather than then just maybe in our for today, we could say that the designer, instead of the word, the designer, right?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: That might be another way to translate that.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: The designer became flesh and blood.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And moved into the neighborhood.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one of a kind glory, like father, like son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: So the claim of Christianity is not just that Jesus was a great teacher, the claim is that God stepped into human history.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: The Creator didn't want to just send us information, He sent Himself.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so He entered our world, He walked among people, He answered questions, He healed, He taught, He loved, and He ultimately gave His life.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: I was uh I'm in interested in uh what quotes there are from people who do not see life the same as me.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And H.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: G.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: Wells is often called the father of science fiction.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: And here's what he said.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm an historian, I'm not a believer, but I must confess that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: So here's a guy that's saying, I'm I'm not a believer, but I do want to say that this whole person of Jesus does in fact stand at the center of human history.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: So whether someone believes in Jesus or not, history cannot ignore him.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: The question really isn't, uh as H.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: G.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Wells said, it's not whether he existed.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: The question is, what do we do with him?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so my challenge that I want to issue for this week is this that if Jesus really was who he claimed to be, what difference would this make in your life?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're listening to this and think, okay, so what if this, I mean, Jesus did exist.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: He did show up on planet Earth.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: There's ample history to verify that.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: So if in fact he claimed to be God and he was the designer showing up to give us a message of himself, then what difference would that make in my life?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Next week we'll we'll kind of finish that thought and say, okay, now what do we do with that?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: But this week we just want you to be thinking, what difference would this make in your life?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then next week we want to give you an invitation.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: We want you to know how you could, in fact, say yes if you're ready to do that.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: So this week's your week of investigation.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: This is your week to ponder and think.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Brian, remind us, how old would you have been when obviously you had an opportunity to embrace and to notice and to see the difference it made in the lives of your parents and many other people growing up like you did?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: But you were a young man, right?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, eight or nine.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: For me, I think I was uh twelve, even though I grew up in a Christian home.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I was twelve years of age when I was baptized.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then I think at night age nineteen is when it became even more real for me, kind of as an adult.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when the transformation began to take full force in my life and kind of changed the whole direction of my life from a pre-med direction to preparing for a pastoral ministry for all of my life.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that's uh, so there's there's your challenge, there's your question for this week that if Jesus really was who he claimed to be, and we believe that he was, then what difference would that make in your life?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: So we're excited for uh you to do some investigation this week and just say, God, if you're who you say you are, what do you want to do with my life?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um anything else, Brian, that you want to add to the thinking of uh how we can challenge people for this week?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just one one sentence.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: If history doesn't deny Jesus, then why do you right?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Just think about that.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's good.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, all of history is based on a a B C and an A D, and that uh and the the linchpin of that is in fact Jesus himself.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um so good thought.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: Good thought.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: Brian, I'm thankful we have a privilege uh every week to be able to pray for our company and to pray for things that are important to us.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things I mentioned this morning was that I had a young man uh who called me, I think it was last Thursday, and said he'd got my number from his mom, and I have no idea how his mom got my card or got my contact information, but he's one of those people who I think is searching for a designer.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: He's searching for some answers.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: He seems very lost, but very open to say, hey, if there's a God out there, how could I know him?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I would love for you to pray for my time.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'll just call him Curtis.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's not his name, but we'll just call him Curtis.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: God knows his name.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: But I would love for you to pray for uh from my appointment with Curtis this coming Thursday, if you would.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh we've got a lot going on in Florida, so I will I'll have you pray for just a little bit.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: Just a little bit.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's a massive operation, so I'll have you pray for our team in Florida and all the exciting things that are happening there with new positions and distribution and all of that.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then I want to pray for mechanics.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, they are just so critical to our operation.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we can't have anything on the road uh throughout the United States unless we have some people repairing that stuff.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then in order to repair, they need parts, and we have amazing parts teams here and in Florida as well.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I want us to uh to pray for and I'll I'll pray for those uh those two groups and have you pray for the other things if you would.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for this day.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for how you provide.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, how you pr continually provide for this company.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so grateful for that.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And God, I want to pray for Greg and his meeting coming up Thursday with uh Curtis.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I just thank you that you have divinely put them together for this conversation.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Apparently, you you've got something going on in in Curtis's heart, but God, you ha the the seed has been planted, and I'm so I'm just praying for this conversation that uh that you would use Greg to continue to grow that seed and to help him with some of the questions that he might have or the doubts or whatever's going through his mind, God.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that that you would just be with Greg during that conversation and uh help Greg just articulate that you are the great designer, you are the one who loves and cares and wants his children with him in heaven one day.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so just pray for that conversation.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And again, we thank you for that conversation.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I want to pray for our Florida team, uh our fertilizer division and uh just the products, compost, all the things that we have going on down there.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: We have a lot of decisions that need to be made, a lot of work that needs to be done quickly.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I I'm just praying that uh we would continue to put you first in the decisions that we're making uh with things that are coming up.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh be with our sales team, be with our our uh compost guys and those in in the uh fertilizer side of things.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: I just pray for them.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Pray God that you would continue to guide and lead, help us make the right decisions, uh, and help us just to get the work done that needs to get done.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh just watch over them, keep them safe as they do their work in Jesus' name.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus' name.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Father, thanks for the incredibly talented uh mechanics that you've uh brought to this company and the opportunity that uh uh we have to see the um amazing work that they do in order to keep all of our equipment running and on the road.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so we pray for mechanics from Indiana to Florida and any of those that might be in between and around this country.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: We're so grateful for that group of people that's so knowledgeable and willing to uh really deal with a lot of heavy equipment.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh just attire is beyond what I could even think about trying to handle.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: And thanks that they do all of that so willingly and so graciously and so skillfully.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: And Father, in order for them to do their work, they need parts.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: And every part of this uh company is dependent on getting parts.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: And we have to have people that know how to search those out, people that know where how to find the best deals, people that know how to um be able to make sure that those get here in a timely manner.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: So we pray for our parts team in Indiana and in Florida that uh you would just continue to give them great uh wisdom and knowledge and uh resourcefulness in order to be able to do that task uh at the same high levels they do it.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Father, pray for the people listening to this podcast that may feel like there's something missing inside and that there's this vacuum that uh we believe can only be filled in a relationship with Jesus Christ, the one who moved into the neighborhood uh full of glory and gave his life for us.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so we just pray for this week as people are on the lookout to say, what difference would it make in my life if Jesus was who he claimed to be?
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: And just pray this will be a great week of finding answers to those uh questions and those reflections.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we just give you thanks for uh this day, for this podcast, and for the opportunity we have to connect with one another, uh, even though we uh never get to be in the same room.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Brian, as always, uh we've got people that uh I believe will want to get a hold of us.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: And in order to get a hold of us, uh there's there's a good way to do that that's simple, and uh tell them, remind our audience how to do that.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just go to Merrillbros.com, click on the prayer tab at the top of the page, okay, and then you can get in touch with us.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we'd love to have a conversation, love to have a phone call, love to have an email, uh any way that we can help you take a next step.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Be a courtis.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's right, be a courtis, yes.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: So reach out to somebody.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: If it's not us, reach out to somebody.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: And my guess is you're uh you're close to people that uh if you're in Florida, we have a great uh life coach down there, Kevin Murray, uh, who is always accessible and uh wants to do whatever he can to help people take a next step.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're ready to take a next step, let us know that and we would love to guide you on that journey.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: So Lord bless you and have a great week.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Take care.