So, a few weeks ago, no, that's not correct, a few months ago, Pat Roy reached out to me and he said, hey, we're having this conference and we're going to have these great speakers in the area, if you're interested, on August 22nd, having one of them at your church. And I said, well, who's left of the speakers? And he said, actually, you're the first one I called. So you have access to all the speakers. And so I went and looked at all the speakers that were going to be in the area. And there was about six of them. And I really liked all the stuff that I read about Carl. Did you know you were my first choice? Yeah, you're the first choice. So all these guys choose from and thought, boy, that'd be great to have Carl come here and share. And so he's the founder of Reasons for Hope. And he's one of the founding members of Answers in Genesis. And those who attended Sunday School I know were very blessed by his message this morning. And we're thankful to have the opportunity to hear him now for the sermon. And it was just like kind of reaching down in your pocket to find a $20 bill when Pat Roy called me up and said, hey, if you want to have one of these guys speak. So really thankful. Generally, when I ask guys if they want to speak, I ask them if they're willing or wanting. And I said, well, you can just come preach during the sermon. But if you'd like, we'd love to have you for Sunday school and evening service, too. And he said that he'd really enjoy that. And so if you enjoy the sermon, which I'm pretty confident you will, then I hope you'll come out tonight as well at 7 o'clock for evening service to hear Carl again. So I'm thankful he came all the way out here from Kentucky. A lot of the other speakers flew home yesterday, but he stayed in the area just to bless us. And so give him a warm Woodland Christian Church welcome. Thank you, Carl. Well, quite frankly, I'm the one that's blessed for being allowed to be with you guys. Thanks for the opportunity. How many have heard me speak before? Okay, that means there's a good half of you that don't have a clue what you're in for. and I'm just gonna tell you right up front, it's gonna be weird. But that's okay. God calls us to be a peculiar people, right? Nothing wrong with being weird, just be weird for the right reasons. It's been a really, really encouraging week. I've had the blessing of hiking out to Mount St. Helens and seeing How many of you ever been to the Creation Center up there in Castle Rock? The rest of you need to go. If you're in this area, you really do need to go. They've just opened a brand new section on there, their dinosaur and fossil section. Pat Roy's done a great job, good guy. Pray for him, he's getting ready to transition to a new ministry. And so they're in the process of looking for a new director. So maybe within this congregation right here, there's somebody that's being called to go in and take a established ministry and take it to another level. Their new dinosaur and fossil section is amazing. They did a really good job. And now they want to take the rest of the facility and do that as well. But their tours. go take a tour. It was worth it. It was really, really well done. And so I appreciate the opportunities that we were given. So I stepped on toes this morning in Sunday school, and service is, this is a little bit nicer than Sunday school, so it won't be quite as hard. Tonight is fun. Tonight is fun. So it's really, It's a fun presentation, we're dealing with all kind of design features on animals, and so please don't feel like you're gonna come back and get beat up. It's a good one, it's a good one. I'm blessed, I really am. I get to travel quite a bit, even in the midst of crazy, get to travel. And one of the neat places that I got to go to is Molokai, Hawaii. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. You're like, yeah, that's a boondoggle. No, that was a great ministry. I had a blessing over there. And that was a nice place too. I'm not going to lie about that. But it was a church that I'd gone in and set up everything, got my equipment all set up. The worship team was warming up. So I walked out the front door of this church. And when I walked out the front door of the church, I had to take this picture. It was just like, wow. My assistant was with me and my wife and her, my assistant's husband, they were there. So I walked back in, I showed this picture to him and my assistant looked at that picture and immediately said, what a great picture of the cross. Oh, yeah. No, I didn't. I didn't see the cross when I took the picture, just being honest with you. My focus had been on the rainbow. Now, why do I show that to you? Because there is a purpose. What I've learned is that things can be right there in front of us and we can miss them. I mean, it can be just right there and we just miss it for whatever reason. That same year, I got to go to Saskatoon, Canada. Have you ever heard of Saskatoon, Canada? I had not, but when I got there, it was really great ministry, and it was just a blessing that people were so sweet, but when I got back from that trip, I was watching the news one night, and on the news, there's a police car chase in Saskatoon, Canada on the news. Do you guys remember seeing that a few years back? You don't remember seeing it? I got it on video, you gotta watch this, it's awesome. You didn't see that on CNN You should have because it's fake news. It's not really a Saskatoon, Canada police coach. It's actually a Canadian Midas Tire commercial. Now, why would I show that to you? If by now you don't understand, this is gonna be a little bit different day, because Carl is just not quite right, okay? My mind just works differently, all right? I saw that because here's what hit me. Police officers' job, man, they need our prayers, they need our support, do they not? Make me feel like I'm Baptist and give me an amen, come on now. They need our prayers, they need our support. But this is an easy day at the office. Bad guy's stuck six foot in front of you. All you gotta do is, you're under arrest. He didn't do it, he got out and he pushed his car. So guys, here's my two points when it comes to becoming bold. Number one, things can be right there in front of us, we can miss them. Number two, things can be really quite simple, but we make them more difficult than they need to be. So let's take that and approach that with this topic of becoming bold. James 1.5 says this, that if you lack wisdom, what are you supposed to do? Hello? Ask who? This is a key to understanding how you can have over 400,000 churches across the nation of America. Over 400,000 churches across the nation of America. We are by far the most Christian, quote unquote, nation on the planet. We have more Christian shirts, Christian shoes, Christian wristbands, you name it, we got it, it's Christian. And as we talked about at Sunday school, though, every day America is becoming less Christian than before. How can that be? I'm going to suggest to you that one of the key reasons is because we're not asking God when we lack wisdom. Who are we asking? Go to the Christian bookstores, as I said, in Sunday school. You'll see very quickly who we're asking. It's not God. And by the way, why aren't we asking God? I think the next verse gives us a key. Nothing wavering. Doubt. Doubt is the tool that Satan has used from the very beginning. He doesn't need a new tool. The only thing that changes are the questions that are asked. doubt is the tool that's being used. And watch, verse 8 tells us this, that a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. And I'm going to suggest to you to get 400,000 churches in Christianity as invisible as it is, is we've got a bunch of people sitting in pews that are trying to put one foot on the world's wisdom and one foot on the Word of God. And those two foundations are not the same. And by the way, if a Christian isn't willing to put both feet firmly on the Word of God and allow that to be your standard, your authority, your foundation from which you start your thinking, why should the lost want anything to do with it? They see us when we say one thing and we live another. It's called hypocrisy, and it's one of the number one attacks against Christianity. Questions, as I identified in Sunday school, are a key to understanding how you can get to where we are today. Now, we do a series of short videos that are called Debunked. Have any of you ever seen any Debunked videos? Yes, they're extremely popular. Two people have seen them. You're gonna see one as well, but we take on issues like, well, there's no evidence for God. In the course of a conversation, somebody says, well, you believe in God, there's no evidence for God. Really, I got a short video, can I show it to you? I'm not gonna show you the debunked on, there's no evidence for God, though, because I wanna show you a different one, and I can only show you so much in a given talk, right? So I'll show you what else I do. Again, I love getting out on the street, engaging people in conversations. Evangelism is a conversation, not a presentation. And when you're just conversing with people, it's amazing what you could, even if they're antagonistic, just in the course of a conversation, discussion is amazing. So, when somebody tells me, oh, there's no evidence for God, I say, hey, I got a short video, can I show it to you? So let me ask you guys, I got a short video, can I show it to you? Are you ready for this? No, you're not. You really aren't ready for this, and I mean that, because this is what I do with people out on the street. Tostitos, how'd you think of these Scoops chips? It was the 1990s. Dips had become extreme. Layers of intense ingredients. It was too much. No! I was a broken chip, and I needed to change. But how? I wandered the world looking for answers. I looked at stuff. Then it hit me. I changed my shape. Now I'm ready for any dip. Even this big old dip? Booyah! Bring it! Bring it! Booyah! Booyah! Booyah! I wish you could see your faces. One of these days, I'm gonna get a camera on the audience just to capture some of the looks, because some of you are like, it really, I'm telling you, I saw one of them doing that. It's like, because you're like, somebody's asking you for evidence for God, and you're gonna show a Tostitos commercial? I am that guy. I'll ask you the same questions that I asked them after showing the Tostitos commercial. Is there anybody in here who honestly, genuinely believes that a bag of chips can talk? Okay, one hand. Let me be honest with you. Those folks are really hard to have conversations with. And more and more of them are showing up on college campuses today, okay? Most of you are saying, that's ridiculous, Carl. Chips can't talk. Okay, how about this one then? Is there anybody who honestly, genuinely believes that a chip, just because it doesn't like the way that it looks anymore, can change its shape all by itself? Anybody? Another hand, okay. Most of you are saying there is no way a chip can talk and a chip can't change its shape. That's just ridiculous, Carl. Oh, really? It's ridiculous to think that a chip can talk or a chip can change its shape, but this is not ridiculous? Over the course of 14 billion years, hydrogen gas transformed itself into mountains, butterflies, the music of Bach, and you and me. Yeah. So guys, it's ridiculous to think that over the course of 14 billion, or I'm sorry that, you know, it's ridiculous to think that a chip can talk, but it's science to teach that over the course of 14 billion years, hydrogen gas can transform itself into mountains and butterflies, the music of Bach and you and I. You fundamentalist hicks, you ridiculous Christians, how can you argue against evolution? We got gas. Some of you got that. Yeah. See, you either got God or you got gas. If you got gas, Beno's going to help you. But I'm not going there, guys. And yes, I do that to the people out on the street. You see, these folks, they think they know Christians because they've seen them on all these television shows, these movies, and Christians are close-minded, intolerant, bigoted, opinionated hicks. At least that's the way that they're depicted, right? So you better believe that I'm gonna overcome that stereotype. I'm gonna jab, gonna poke fun, gonna challenge. Because this generation needs to know that true Christianity, we have nothing to be ashamed of. We have 50 to 88% of our kids walking away from the Lord Jesus Christ that are raised in the church and they're going after this? You see, I want this younger generation to not only know what they're walking away from, but they're walking to. And when you know that, This is bad. As a matter of fact, this is how bad I think it really is. If you think hydrogen gas, which by the way, where did it come from? Oh, that's a different talk. We did that one last night up at the Creation Center. Because do you understand that it is not in the beginning, gas created, the big bang exploded, uh-uh, uh-uh. Nothing turned into something, according to the evolutionary model. And you think we have a bad position? But that's a different talk, I won't go there. If you think that over the course of 14 billion years, this hydrogen gas that came from nothing turned itself into everything that we see, I have one word for you. Inconceivable! You know, I was actually kind of afraid to use that, because I said, they're not going to get this. but I saw somebody that got it, okay. How many have seen The Princess Bride? Come on, oh, all right, all right. Can I be an honest moment right here? I was like, man, they're not gonna get this. This is gonna go over bad, okay. It is inconceivable to think that hydrogen gas could transform itself into everything that we see. It truly is. And by the way, I found this guy's baby picture. Dude looks the same today as when he was a baby. Okay, now, after I've gone after this individual, and sometimes you get them back and they're thinking, they're like, okay, well, all right, if there is a God, think about it, if there is a God who created everything, then who created God? Hello? Anybody ever thought that? Everybody been challenged with that? Anybody, anybody? Ah, would you like me to address that one? One head nodding. It's obviously a very important topic to you guys. Would you like me to address that? Well, here's how I'm gonna address that one. I'm gonna show you another video, but this time I'm gonna show you a debunked video. Mature generation, bear with me. Debunked is geared for this younger generation that has a 2.2 second attention span. Do you know what I'm saying? Younger generation thinks different, whether you and I like it or not. They have a 2.2 second attention span, which, by the way, according to some people, is less than a goldfish. How'd you like to be the scientist doing that research? All right, here's your stopwatch, here's some goldfish, see how long they can pay attention. To what, bubbles? I mean, ooh, ooh. But anyway, somebody figured out that goldfish have a three second attention span. If you think I can go after that generation, with a very monotone approach, and it's not going to work. So I'm coming after them in a different way. Will I compromise the Scripture? No. Will I compromise who Christ is? No. The doctors? No. But the way that we deliver the message, you better believe I'm going to get creative in the way that we put it out there, because we have a generation that just flat things different. So mature generation, show me some grace. Pray for me. But this is the way that we go after this generation. Well, if God created everything, then who created God? Hey, thanks for asking. I've got a short video. Can I show it to you? You know, people misunderstand all kinds of things about the nature of God, which leads them to say interesting things like, if everything begins new to beginner, then so does God. Or, hey man, if every effect has to have a cause, then God has to have a cause. Or even, if God created everything, then something or someone had to create God. There it is, a boom, mic drop. no mic drop pick it up because those statements don't merit such a thing and here's why basically we got three french hens two hurl above the far ridge as i tear free what yep shooting them down nice and easy one ultimate question kind of spun is three bumbled briefly by bub because brevity bespeaks benevolence benefiting belabored beholders and pull Statement a moon as no one from France would say but I ain't French if everything that begins needs a beginner Then so does God and that would be a great point if God began but the statement says everything that begins needs a beginner Not that everything needs a beginner. God didn't have a beginning. So he doesn't need a beginner He is as the Bible declares eternal and everlasting on to el statement. Tabo a de dos Oh, which probably doesn't mean what? If every effect has a cause, then God has to have a cause. Well again, that would be a good point if God was the effect of something, but he wasn't because nothing caused God. He's the uncaused cause who causes all other causes. This means he's the only necessary uncreated anything. All other things are created and contingent, therefore in need of said cause. And so we're here at La Statmentanto De Finale. As once spoken by nobody from Italy or anywhere else I imagine, if God created everything, then somebody or something had to create God. Well that doesn't really follow because again God is eternal and unmade. Sorry to be repetitive but nobody or no thing created God and he certainly didn't create himself because that would be well absurd. He is the one who created all things. Colossians 1 16 puts it this way, by him all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible and we all actually know this just by looking around at things. That's why Romans 119 and 20 says, For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. This means if you pondered the world and the universe, you'd come to the common sense conclusion, at least at minimum, an immaterial, powerful, personal, intelligent, spaceless, and timeless being created the universe. Whoa! Now hold on a cotton-picking minute. Why would I come to that conclusion, you might ask, with fervor? Well, because we know the universe began to exist, and that means it had a cause. So then, what caused it? Well, you've got three choices, really. You've got nothing, you've got an abstract, or you've got a being with the aforementioned qualities. Unprovable multiverses or crystals on the backs of turtles won't do. Now, it seems to me that Billy Preston dismantles the first option when he's saying, nothing from nothing, leave nothing. Yeah, I know, don't quit the day job. But what he spins is true, my brothers and sisters. You get nada from nothing because nothing is, as Aristotle asserted, the thing rocks dream of. So what about an abstract something, say like the number four? Well, last I checked, the number four can't talk, can't eat, can't think, can't do much of anything. So that leaves us with the being with the same characteristics described in the Bible that we'd expect if we never read the Bible, and that being his God, the creator and sustainer of the universe. He was not made, he was not caused, he was not created. He had no beginning, he had no end, he had no superior, he has no equal, he has no boundaries, he has no limits, he has no weakness, he's infinite, he's eternal, he's all-powerful, he's the Alpha and Omega, he's all-knowing, he's spaceless, he's timeless, he's spirit, and unlike Visa, he's everywhere, period. Might be nice to drop that mic now. And there it is, this unfounded claim that God needs a beginner or a cause when the somebody made God has been, as it were, hitherto and henceforth debunked. Adios. So, I need to get the camera on the audience faces. Because you're like, man, that was way too much information too fast. Intentionally so. So, I'll ask you a question. Was it done well enough that you would watch it again to try to glean some more information from it? Anybody? Oh, okay, a few of you. Was it done well enough that you're in the course of a conversation with somebody and they make that statement, well, if there's a God that created everything, then who created God? You would say, hey, I got a short video, can I show it to you? You'd be willing to show it to them and not be embarrassed? Two people, okay, great. How about if I give it for free, would you take it? Anybody? Oh, a few of you took it there, okay. How many of you guys have a smart device? Anybody got a smart device? I'm shocked, hands didn't go up. Take your smart device out. It's okay, I have a special dispensation. I'm gonna show you how to get it for free. It's okay, it's okay. Go to your messaging software. For you iPhone folks, this is what it looks like. You Google Play guys, I can't help you at all. but it looks like this on an iPhone. There it comes back up. It looks like that. You go to the messaging software, you hit that, and then it'll take you to this really cool little icon. You hit the pencil and paper thing, and then you send a message. And the message is very simple. The recipient is 51555. That's who you're sending this message to. And the message is simply adios woodland. Put a space in between adios and do not put a U in adios. Adios is not spelled with a U, it's A-D-I-O-S, space, woodland, okay? When you send that, you're gonna get a message back, okay? So 51555, adios woodland. And when you send that, you're gonna get this link right here. Now, this is very important. It's not gonna work unless you do this. You hit that link, it takes you to a form. When you fill that form out and submit it, you're gonna become a debunk defender, all right? And what I mean by that is you're somebody that I'm giving you all the debunks in the future, the new ones that come out, you're gonna get them early. In the next three weeks, we're releasing one on God doesn't love me. And I think it's the most powerful one that we've done. I really do. It's dealing with God's love and how much he does love us. And so when we release that, whoever's signed up on this, you get it at least a week before we release it to the general public because you're a debunked offender and I want you, it's totally free. Well, no, there's a cost. There's a cost. Number one, I want you to pray for us. I'm asking you to pray for us. That's one of the costs. Number two, please share the videos. Please share the videos. That's the cost. But then you take it and you put it to use, okay? Now, those of you that like to talk to people in your workplace and all that sort of a thing, and you'd like to have access to all the videos that are currently done, go to your app store while you got your smartphone out. Go to your app store and search Reasons for Hope. reasons for hope, and look for the blue asterisk on the black background. And when you download that, there's gonna be a bunch of tabs on there. The full gospel, three and a half minute animated presentation of the gospel. There's a tab for the debunked videos, mic'd up, man on the street interview stuff. Long, LFT is long form teaching. If you go to that, those of you that are wanting to see this presentation, If you go to Long Form Teaching, look for my name, the whole video is up on there. I'm in the process of every video that we've ever produced is going up there free of charge. I'm getting out of the whole DVD sales business, man. It's like, look, you want the information? Here it is. Put it to use, OK? So take advantage of that. And here we go. I use these because I do a lot of man on the street type stuff. So I thought I'd share some of that with you today. Because when you get out and engage people, it's very interesting to see the types of responses that you get. And so what do we do with it? Here's the interview. Cordero is a young man from Ann Arbor, Michigan. And the young person that did this one was Adam. I'm actually in the process of trying to get out of the business of doing the man on the street interviews. I'm old. It's creepy, old dudes coming up and talking to us, right? So get the younger generation, train them, teach them, I'll be the cameraman. I'm very happy to not be on film anymore. So Adam was the young man that did this. He asked Cordero, Cordero, do you read the Bible? Cordero responded with, yes I do. So we're gonna get a good interview here because we got us a Bible reader. Cordero, how do you believe we got everything that we see? There's ultimately only four options, guys. God who created young earth, God who created old earth, intelligent design, or naturalistic processes over millions of years. Those are the four options that every worldview is gonna come from. How did Cordero respond? Well, I would definitely say that the Big Bang Theory definitely doesn't cover it to me. As far as what I've learned throughout my lifetime, I just basically go along with the six days of creation thing. Isn't this great? Cordell reads the Bible. Cordell believes God created in six days. Isn't that great? Hello? That was horrible. Didn't you hear the hesitancy in the way that he responded? Please, think about this. I'm being genuine here. We're training a generation to go out into this culture, to impact this critical, nasty culture, and our approaches, well, the way I was raised, I just kind of go along with, I believe, what do you think the response is that they're going to get? What makes the way that you were raised any better than the way that I was raised? What makes what you think any better than what I think? What about that child over in Africa that's never heard about? What kind of a loving God would allow such death and suffering? Are you hearing me? It's an aggressive, nasty culture for the most part now. And if you think that we can send out a generation to be, well, I think, and I was the kind of race, we're done. We're done. And I'm not trying to be disrespectful. I'm just trying to be as straightforward, honest with you as I can. When you spend as much time as I do with younger generation, you're going to see real quick, they think different. How about this? How about this, Cordero? Do you believe the Bible contains mistakes or errors? This is rubber meets the road. This is about bottom line right here. I'd say... There's confidence. There are definitely some things that I read that seem kind of shaky to me, yeah. Guys, we're done. Honestly, honestly, we are done. Because as we talked about at Sunday school, if you cannot trust Genesis, if Genesis 1 is shaky, why should I trust John 3, 16? We've got to understand there's a direct connection. If I get you to doubt any part of the Scripture, you will never fully sell out for the rest. Where do you stop? How about this? How about this? Cordero, how do we get so many different races if we all go back to one man and one woman? You don't think that's an issue in this culture? That, I honestly don't know. I'll never forget when I got engaged. My wife and I have been married for 40 years. And when I sent the information of my engagement back to my grandmother, thank you very much, not grandma, grandmother, I got a very interesting letter back from her. She and I will never be friends. You come to my house, I'll be the perfect hostess, but she and I will never be friends. Why would my grandmother dislike someone so strongly that she had never even met? My fiancee, now wife, worked in an orphanage, took care of unwanted children. Why? You know, if my grandmother should have written a letter to anybody, she should have written it to her and said, you don't want this guy, he's a dirtbag. I wasn't a Christian, I was a wreck. But she wrote me, why? Next line said, because your children will always have those eyes. My wife is Japanese. You don't think the race issue is a big deal? It's a huge deal. And especially with all the craziness we're dealing with right now. And Christianity is the only one that has an answer to it. Jesus Christ is the only one that has an answer to that issue. But if we won't stand firm on it, you're not going to answer it. How about this? Another question. Science has proven the Earth is millions of years old, Cordero. Everybody knows that. The Bible teaches that there was no death before Adam sinned. So if the Bible is true, how do you explain fossils that are 100, 200, 300 million years old? Let me rephrase it for you, make it a little simpler. Fill in the blank. The wages of sin is? Huh? You're joking, right? Where'd they dig you up from? You can't believe the wages of sin is death. Come with me. Let's go down to your local museum. I'll show you fossils that are 100, 200, 300 million years old. Adam didn't live 300 million years ago, so therefore that's dead. Fossils are dead things. That's dead things living long before Adam ever came onto the scene. I don't believe that. But that's a tool that's being used to get a generation to doubt the Word. How do we deal with that? Cordero, what do you think? It's really hard to say. Like I'm saying, my personal opinion, just from the way I was raised, I go along with the biblical definitions of most things, but I guess I really couldn't answer that question. I'm not trying to attack, mock, or ridicule Cordero. This is the typical Christian that I run into when I do a street interview. It truly is. Matter of fact, you know, before I, when I first started doing these things, what I did is I sent all the questions out to the youth group in the church and said, go to people in your church and just ask questions, get them on video, send them to me, and then I'll use their video in my presentation. So it's, you know, it's local, it's your group. How well do you think that went over? Yeah, not very good. And I'm not trying to mock. I'm not trying to ridicule. But this is the typical Christian that I run into. We don't know how to give an answer, why we believe what we say we believe. We believe, but we don't know why or how to give answers for it. Lighten up, man. Come on, Carl. It's a Sunday morning. We came to church to get rah-rah and excited, and you're killing us here. Okay, okay, let's do an easy one. Cordero, how'd they get two of every seven of some 10 billion species of animals on a wooden boat? How'd they make all those animals fit, Cordero? Once again, sorry if this doesn't help much, but no clue. We need to teach a generation how to have a clue, and it is not that difficult. But if you're gonna do it, you're gonna have to think outside of the box. Here's what I do with the younger generation a lot. I try to challenge them to think. Simple question here, Christian, non-Christian, do we have the same stars? Hello? Do we have the same rocks? Do we have the same people? Why do we explain the evidence so differently? Christians and non-Christians, same stars, same rocks, same people, but there's two totally different explanations about the exact same evidence. Why? Here is my illustration. How do they get the balls to roll uphill? Now, I'm a nice guy, so I'm gonna help you out here. There's no reverse photography. There's no air blowing them up. That was a really good suggestion. There's no magnets pulling them up. There's no strings pulling them up. How do they get the balls to roll uphill? And the first thing that I teach younger generation when I get them for that week of camp, or even if it's a one-day thing, you better question the question. Because when people ask you questions, they can ask them in such a way that you cannot give a correct answer. And the question we should be asking is very simple. are the balls rolling uphill? And that's a great question. And it depends on your perspective. The average time this younger generation spends in the school system is 900 hours a year. That same young person spends 1,064 hours a year watching television and 936 hours a year playing video games. Did you hear those numbers? Guys, that's a lot of time. And by the way, what's the average time a child spends a meaningful conversation with their parents each week? Less than 10 minutes, according to Southern Baptist Research. And we wonder why we're losing 50 to 88% of the kids. 900 hours a year being taught to look at the world through the lens of man's opinion, slow gradual processes over millions of years, reinforced with the television, reinforced with the video games, reinforced with all the stuff going on. What we need to do is teach them how to look at the exact same evidence from a different perspective. Let's take the evidence and just twist it. And when you start looking at things from a different perspective, you're going to come to different conclusions. And that's the way the Word of God needs to be used. Let me teach you how to start from the only one who's always been there, who knows what happened, who told us what happened. Here's what he said. Here's what we see. You guys are living in one of the prime spots. What did God say about judgment, global flood? What should we expect to find? This type of thing. Let's go see if there's actual evidence for it. Go to Mount St. Helens. As I sat there yesterday, we were walking that one, the Toutle River, the North Fork of the Toutle River, and you're walking there and you see the rapid erosion, the rapid deposition, the layering. The forest, have you gone up there and seen the forest? 31 years ago, there wasn't jack. It was barren. You walk through there now, it's a rainforest in some sections. It's gorgeous. 31 years. Oh, how could they survive a global flood? Wouldn't be able to survive a global flood. The plants wouldn't be able to survive. You want to talk about rapid regrowth? Bang! Go to Mount St. Helens. It's there. Guys, when you teach a generation how to apply their faith in the real world, man, it gets exciting. Go dig, oh, I'll talk about that later. I'm gonna tell you, it's just, it's there. Let me give you simple illustrations. In church, do we learn about astronomy, biology, geology, anthropology, chemistry? Most Christians are gonna say no, but I'm gonna tell you we absolutely should be. You see, we send our children, for the most part, to the world to be trained by the world, a history of astronomy that undermines the word of God. But I'm telling you that when you start with God's word, it also deals with astronomy. God said, rally and cry of every Christian, Sunday schoolers. How many times is that simple phrase used in the Scripture? By Jesus? Eleven. God said. God said He created the earth on day one. God said He created the sun, moon and stars on day four. Does that deal with astronomy? Yes, it does. By the way, what we see in the world, is it consistent with what the word says or with what man says? Let me give you a simple illustration here. How many observable stars are there in the sky? I'm talking about the stars that we can see using the greatest technology that we have. Anybody wanna venture a guess? It's a big number. It's a seven followed by 22 zeros. I'm like, who invented counting that high? Seriously, we're going to go back in the day. Carl, you've got to invent counting. OK. 5, 10, 15, 20. 20. We don't need any numbers bigger than 20. 20. How many people are here? 20. A 7 followed by 22 zeros? Do you know how big that number is? That number is greater than every grain of sand on every beach and desert on our planet. There are more observable, thank you very much, stars than grains of sand, and you're not impressed. This is a tough audience, man. You shouldn't be impressed, because it's actually 10 times more stars than grains of sand. And by the way, there is no known mechanism to make a single star from naturalistic processes. You think Big Bang explains star formation? I'll give you all the gas you want, blow it up. You're not making a star, you're making a mess. Oh, by the way, the total number of stars, including the ones that we cannot see, according to the non-Christian, says ... What's that word say? I almost went charismatic when I read that. I did. I almost raised my hand and said, amen. When you know my background, that's charismatic. You do not raise your hand above your head in church unless you're swatting a fly. That's just the way that it is. You can blink every four seconds, but you better not be doing that double blink, okay? All right? Forget about it. Amen. It takes an infinite God to create an infinite number of stars to speak them into existence from nothing. And by the way, he knows them all by name. And what's so amazing to me is he also says that he knows you and I more intimately than anybody ever could. And I'm not talking about the facade we can put on here, do game face at church. I'm talking he knows us at our core. And he still loves us enough to die for us. It's unbelievable. What about this? What about this? Does the Bible talk about biology? World does. Given enough time, right? Circumstances. You got this ape-like creature that evolves into the black folks in Africa. Some of those black folks in Africa ate fish. Bird brain development. Some of them got smart, moved north, turned white. You're laughing? That's what evolution teaches. You don't believe me? I'll show you the videos. That's how we got the different races. Because some smart black folk moved north and turned white. Now first of all, eating fish makes you smart. Then I gotta be honest with you, I should be dumber than a brick. Because me, when I eat, stab, cut, chew. I do not want to spit bone. And this is a bad problem when your wife's Japanese. Because she likes fish, man. And I'm not just talking fish, I'm talking those little tiny nasty smelling fish. She's cooking them, you're driving home, I'm a block from the house, she is cooking fish. I had to lay down the law. I am the man of the house. I wear the pants. She tells me which ones to wear. But I'm going to tell you right now, you cannot cook that fish in the house. Didn't work, but I sounded good. I sounded real good, I'm going to tell you. Guys, you think squeezing toothpaste in the middle or the end is a big deal? Try coming home smelling fish when your wife loves fish like that. Guys, you've got to understand. If you don't have a biblical answer to this stuff, this whole cultural thing will drive you apart. What did God say about biology? God said, one man, one woman. What does science quote unquote show? Do I really need science to back me up? No, but it does and it's interesting. Why chromosome passed from the father to the child? Guess what? Every person on this planet, I don't care what you look like, we now know beyond a shadow of a doubt, we all go back to one man. I could have saved a lot of time and money on that research. Mitochondrial DNA is passed from the mother to the child. Guess what? Every culture on this planet, I do not care what you look like on the outside. We now know beyond a shadow of a doubt, we go back to one woman. God's been telling us that from the beginning. 1 Corinthians 15, 45, first man, Adam. Genesis 3, 20, Eve is called Eve because she is mother of all living. Acts 17, 26, we are all of one blood. There's only one race. The Bible never talks about race other than running a good race. Tribes, nations, cultures, yes. It's real, but guys, we have the answer to racism. But the skin color, I can only do so much in a given talk. It's easy, but I just can't do it right now, okay? If you want to get the answer, come to me. Here's something I found. I had to get a conservative source to give you this because this is an amazing piece. So Huffington Post had this. Nobody got that? Okay, we'll keep running. We now know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, we all go back to one man and one woman and wait for it, wait for it. They lived at the same time. Can I get a collective duh? It's not going to work any other way. I'm just saying, okay? And by the way, that's what God said at the very beginning. But geology, oh, geology proves slow gradual processes, millions of years. I'll tell you what, come dig dinosaur bones with me next July. You want to see if the rocks cry out? long, slow gradual, or long ages and slow gradual processes, come dig dinosaur bone. No, you're low, you don't have to even go that far. Just go up to Mount St. Helens, take a look at it. Go down the Grand Canyon. I'll put you in touch with people. I don't run those trips anymore. Used to. Too old. I can't handle it anymore. I was struggling this week. When you go look at the geologic formations, the features, the folding that scream rapid catastrophic, not slow gradual, Guys, the rocks literally cry out that God did what he said that he did the way that he said that he did it. Slow gradual processes does not explain it. Here's my problem, though. Astronomy, biology, geology, for the most part, the church turned it over to the world to teach. And then we got relegated to teaching Morals. We're Christians. We've got morals. We've got to put a focus on that. Hey, we don't smoke, we don't drink, we don't chew, we don't date girls that do, and we don't like that long-haired stuff piercing, and we're definitely not going for those tats. Thank you very much. We've got our morals. Hold up. Don't you understand something? These morals, these biblical morals, these godly morals are based in the history. If the history is not true, why are the morals true? This is why we talked about the marriage issue in Sunday school. This is why we talked about the abortion issue in Sunday school. If the biblical history isn't true, why is that the way that it says to be? If every man can do that which is right in their own eyes, and you're just nothing more than chemicals, and this is the way that you've been wired, we want to impose biblical morality on a foundation that won't support it. And that's where the battle really comes down. Because I see a generation that's trying to get people to act a certain way on the outside, but not recognizing that until you get inside, you're not going to get the outside for real. You might get it for temporary when they're around you, but as soon as they get out of eyesight, life's on. And then more importantly, the biblical eternity. If you can't trust the history, why should you trust the future? And this is where Satan has been so smart. Let me teach a generation a history of astronomy, biology, geology, the facts, to get them to believe that. And you can teach your little fairy tales and fables. You can teach your little Bible stories. We're okay. Where do you think a generation is going to go to people that are giving them facts or people that are giving them fairy tales and fables? I know where I went until I was 26 and somebody challenged me and then showed me how to use the Word of God as an authority. And I believe it's that simple. It's right there in front of us. You see guys, this picture of the rinky dinky little boat of Noah's ark, I showed this picture in a big church and they will never let me come back. I didn't realize it. I showed the picture, and I said, look, we paint these little arcs. I've not been through your facility. I don't know if you've got these pictures. If you do, it's an illustration. The whole audience went quiet when I showed this picture, and I'm standing up on the stage. You got big old bushes and everything. I can't ... And they all turned and looked to their left, my right, and I'm like, that's a weird response. So I leaned out. Oh, I'm in trouble. I did not know pastor's daughter had just painted that picture on the wall. He chewed me up and spit me out. I diminished him and I'm not mocking. But when you give this image to a generation, you are communicating something very clearly. It's a joke. My friend, Dan Leath, I'm blessed to work with him at AEIG. I got him working with me now, and he made a comment, or a comic on this, a little satire thing. You see, guys, I wanna suggest you that by doing this and not teaching reality, we're setting a generation up for failure. He did this. He said, oh, look, he loves the story of Noah's Ark because it's about a cute boat full of animals. Fast forward 20 years. Oh, look. He rejects the story of Noah's Ark because it's a cute boat full of animals. Noah's Ark was not a cute boat full of animals. The fact that we can't answer how they fit two of every seven of some ten billion species of animals on a wooden boat plays into the hands of the skeptics. Can we answer it? Yes, we can. There's now a wonderful place. Y'all can go to, that's where I live, Kentucky. Go to the Ark Encounter. Absolutely worth it. I'm not with that, I was with that ministry. I was on the board for the first 10 years. I was the guy whose, my job was to raise the funds to build a creation museum. I love the place. Go to the ark encounter. Absolutely there's answers on how to fit the animals on there. It is not a joke. It is not a fairy tale. But when we give these images to our kids, we're doing them a disservice. And by the way, if you don't want to fly all the way to Kentucky, we got a debunked on how you can fit all the animals on the boat. Just watch the video. But it's better to go to the ark to see it for yourself, because it's mind blowing. You see, guys, some of you are like, you need to really mellow out, Carl. You need to tone it down just a little bit. You're a little too ate up. Here's what I've seen for a long time. Been doing youth for a long time. They go out and they get chewed up and spit out because of all the questions. Why would a loving God allow death and suffering? What about carbon dating? What about continental drift? What about, what about, what about, what about, right? The world's knowing all those whatabouts. They don't know how to deal with them, so they come home to mom and dad. Mom and dad are like, hey mom, hey dad, how about, how about, how about? And mom and dad are like, I don't have a clue. Go ask the Sunday school teacher, go ask the pastor, and then you just communicated a very clear message to your child, it doesn't matter. Because when I was a child and I asked my parents something, if they didn't know it and it was important, they got an answer. Or they took me with them and found out how to get an answer. All those questions have been used to destroy, but I think that they can absolutely be used to be lights in the darkness. Here's the question. Let me deal with it. And by the way, here's a question that I want to ask back. Why do we have to be on the defensive all the time? We do not have the problem. But you need to understand their worldview in order to be able to ask good questions. And this is what I'm doing right now as a result of 12 years ago, my son coming to me. I'm in the biggest creation ministry on the planet. And my son coming to me and telling me, Dad, you're going to be a grandparent. And that's my grandson. I had the blessing of taking him on the dinosaur dig with me this last year. He's 11. But when my son told me for the first time that I was gonna be a grandfather, my heart fell through the floor because I was afraid. I really am. I see what's going on in the culture. Guys, you know over the last 10 years, this world has changed in 10 years. And I've been seeing it for like 10 years before that. It was like you could just see it, you could see it. Who's gonna have the biggest impact on my grandchildren? It's the current 20s and teens. So I made a decision 12 years ago, I'm going after that generation. Some mature generation, you're just gonna have to show me some grace, man. We have to reach them. Satan is. Now, there's a reason you show grandbaby pictures. I've said all these hard things, and you're like, man, that guy's a jerk. And then you show the grandbaby picture, oh, grandbabies. when they come back up, they're cute, right? And they forget about the hard stuff. Don't forget about the hard stuff, please. I could show you video after video after video. I have got videos of man on the street interviews, engaging people. I mean, people laugh at this guy here, Elby. I don't laugh at Elby. It was 11 o'clock in the morning, PhD candidate, walking down the street. He's at the University of Michigan. PhD candidate, drunk, 11 o'clock on a Saturday morning. Elbie, where do you place your hope? Hope? You live, you die, you rot. And that's all there is to it. Do we have something better than that? Are we willing to tell people like that about it? Or is it, eh, I don't talk to those people. Jesus did. I love apologetics. I really do. Been doing it for a long time. But here's the point I want to make to you. If the apologetics doesn't lead to the preaching of Jesus Christ, we got nothing. You'll never argue anybody into the kingdom. It's not going to happen. It's that the name of Jesus, every knee is gonna bow, and every tongue is gonna confess. So I use apologetics as nothing more as a way to open a door, to have a conversation, because my goal is to see this happen. I'm finishing this short video. I went long, sorry, forgive me. But this is ultimately what I wanna see happen. I will live my life according to these beliefs. God does not exist. It's just foolish to think that there is an all-knowing God with a cosmic plan. that an all-powerful God brings purpose to the pain and suffering in the world is a comforting thought. However, it is only wishful thinking. People can do as they please without eternal consequences. The idea that I am deserving of hell because of sin is a lie meant to make me a slave to those in power. The more you have, the happier you will be. Our existence has no grand meaning or purpose. In a world with no God, there is freedom to be who I want to be. But with God, life is an endless cycle of guilt and shame. Without God, everything is fine. It is ridiculous to think I am lost and in need of saving. And that's how I felt before Christ opened my eyes, changed my heart, and reversed my thinking. I am lost and in need of saving. It is ridiculous to think everything is fine without God. Life is an endless cycle of guilt and shame, but with God, there is freedom to be who I want to be. In a world with no God, our existence has no grand meaning or purpose. The more you have, the happier you will be is a lie meant to make me a slave to those in power. Because of sin, I am deserving of hell. The idea that people can do as they please without eternal consequences is only wishful thinking. It is a comforting thought, however, that an all-powerful God brings purpose to the pain and suffering in the world, that there is an all-knowing God with a cosmic plan. It's foolish to think God does not exist. I will live my life according to these beliefs. Thank you very much Carl, that was a blessing. So here is the D6 video. All those animals couldn't fit on the boat. So if you weren't able to keep up and put all that stuff into your phone to be able to download this app, then this will be on Sermon Audio just like our other Sunday morning sermons. And the Sunday school, there won't be a video for it, but also Evening service will be recorded as well, so you can find those on Sermon Audio. But coming out tonight anyway, we'll have fellowship after the service. But if you did miss that, you can watch the sermon from this morning and catch all the information that Carl gave you to be able to get this. I'm excited about watching this debunked video and some of the other videos with my kids. So Father, we thank you for... Having the privilege of Carl speaking to us this morning and him being able to share these truths and just to be reminded of what you've done for us and the emptiness and darkness there is out there in the world apart from Christ, to be reminded about the Creator and how thankful we should be that you desire to have a relationship with us, Lord. It's been a busy week for Carl. We pray for your blessing on his trip home tomorrow. Give him a restful afternoon. He'll be coming back out tonight. We thank you for his investment in the congregation this morning. And we thank you more than anything for your son, Jesus Christ, and that you have created us. And even though sin's been introduced into the world, You have introduced the gospel, and that through Christ's sacrifice we can be reconciled to you and have a relationship with you, Lord. I thank you and pray that you'll plant these truths in our hearts and mind, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.