1. TBN
  2. Programs
  3. The Winning Walk with Dr. Ed Young
  4. Episodes
  5. Ed Young - How to Make Decisions
The Winning Walk with Dr. Ed Young

Ed Young - How to Make Decisions

January 5, 2025 | S25:E4

Ed Young - How to Make Decisions
Ed Young - How to Make Decisions
#Faith #Visions/Dreams #Choices #WordofGod #Miracles #Patience #inActive #Earth #Transformation #WorkofYourHands #EdYoung #Hebrews11:1 #TheWinningWalkwithDr.EdYoung #Noah'sArk

Closed captions

Show Timecode
The Winning Walk with Dr. Ed Young | Ed Young - How to Make Decisions | January 5, 2025
  • ...
  • 00:00:00.633 --> 00:00:01.914
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:00:02.214 --> 00:00:20.499
  • Ed young: noah was a man of faith, the bible tells us,
  • 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:26.538
  • And he had a wife.
  • 00:00:26.538 --> 00:00:27.906
  • His sons married wives and they had a household, a family
  • 00:00:27.906 --> 00:00:33.345
  • Of faith, which was countercultural, going
  • 00:00:33.345 --> 00:00:36.982
  • In the opposite direction of everybody else on the planet,
  • 00:00:36.982 --> 00:00:39.818
  • So judgment came in the form of a flood.
  • 00:00:39.818 --> 00:00:44.089
  • The flood waters came and destroyed everybody,
  • 00:00:44.089 --> 00:00:46.592
  • But they had at least 120 years.
  • 00:00:46.592 --> 00:00:50.996
  • Genesis 6:3, 120 years to turn back to god.
  • 00:00:50.996 --> 00:00:55.400
  • Oh yeah, 'cause that's when god said to noah, "go build a boat."
  • 00:00:55.400 --> 00:01:07.813
  • Now that's crazy.
  • 00:01:08.247 --> 00:01:09.882
  • He was 100 miles from any body of water.
  • 00:01:09.882 --> 00:01:12.851
  • Nobody had ever seen it rain.
  • 00:01:12.851 --> 00:01:14.953
  • Moisture came from the earth.
  • 00:01:14.953 --> 00:01:16.522
  • The first rain that was recorded in history was with the flood
  • 00:01:16.522 --> 00:01:20.092
  • Waters that came those 40 days and 40 nights.
  • 00:01:20.092 --> 00:01:22.928
  • Here he is building a boat, this righteous man, this god-fearing
  • 00:01:22.928 --> 00:01:26.532
  • Man, this worshiping man, and you can imagine
  • 00:01:26.532 --> 00:01:29.701
  • The ridicule.
  • 00:01:29.701 --> 00:01:31.537
  • Well, noah, what are you building there, man?
  • 00:01:31.537 --> 00:01:35.340
  • Large proportions, isn't it?
  • 00:01:35.340 --> 00:01:37.743
  • By the way, you remember the dimensions of the ark?
  • 00:01:37.743 --> 00:01:42.381
  • A hundred and fifty feet long, a football and a half long, you
  • 00:01:42.381 --> 00:01:46.151
  • Know, onto the super bowl.
  • 00:01:46.151 --> 00:01:47.486
  • I'll give you that most measure.
  • 00:01:47.486 --> 00:01:48.820
  • A football and a half long field long, 25 yards wide, 15 yards
  • 00:01:48.820 --> 00:01:54.860
  • High.
  • 00:01:54.860 --> 00:01:56.228
  • It wasn't for going anywhere.
  • 00:01:56.228 --> 00:01:57.563
  • It was for existence.
  • 00:01:57.563 --> 00:01:59.364
  • Now, people have studied the art for many years and some scholars
  • 00:01:59.364 --> 00:02:03.435
  • And people who're supposed to know about boats said, you
  • 00:02:03.435 --> 00:02:05.337
  • Know, "that boat wouldn't float.
  • 00:02:05.337 --> 00:02:07.372
  • It couldn't possibly inhabit two of every kind and keep people
  • 00:02:07.372 --> 00:02:11.443
  • Alive for all those 40 days, 40 nights, et cetera."
  • 00:02:11.443 --> 00:02:15.247
  • But now, go to branson, missouri, you can see a replica
  • 00:02:15.247 --> 00:02:18.784
  • Of the ark.
  • 00:02:18.784 --> 00:02:20.719
  • Go to other places on the earth, you see the ark has been exactly
  • 00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:24.756
  • Reconstructed.
  • 00:02:24.756 --> 00:02:26.124
  • And now there is common belief that what is reported
  • 00:02:26.124 --> 00:02:29.428
  • In the bible that many people just said, "oh it won't work,"
  • 00:02:29.428 --> 00:02:33.098
  • Now they see exactly how it could have worked and it did
  • 00:02:33.098 --> 00:02:36.435
  • Function.
  • 00:02:36.435 --> 00:02:37.936
  • Amazing, isn't it?
  • 00:02:37.936 --> 00:02:40.239
  • Noah built that big ol' ark by faith.
  • 00:02:40.239 --> 00:02:43.742
  • He got in, the rains came, then he floated out there a million
  • 00:02:43.742 --> 00:02:52.484
  • Miles from nowhere and his boat ended up on mount ararat.
  • 00:02:52.484 --> 00:02:58.190
  • Remember, we climbed up ararat a few months ago?
  • 00:02:58.190 --> 00:03:01.660
  • And i can imagine that noah walked out of that ark and he
  • 00:03:01.660 --> 00:03:04.830
  • Looked around.
  • 00:03:04.830 --> 00:03:06.164
  • There was nobody, no people, no inhabitants, no landmarks, no
  • 00:03:06.164 --> 00:03:09.368
  • Nothing.
  • 00:03:09.368 --> 00:03:10.702
  • He started over from zip.
  • 00:03:10.702 --> 00:03:13.272
  • A lot of people think that noah exercised more faith
  • 00:03:13.272 --> 00:03:18.143
  • After the flood than he did before the flood, because what's
  • 00:03:18.143 --> 00:03:22.414
  • The first thing noah did when he got off the boat?
  • 00:03:22.414 --> 00:03:25.951
  • The bible says he built an altar.
  • 00:03:25.951 --> 00:03:30.756
  • He worshipped in thanksgiving.
  • 00:03:30.756 --> 00:03:33.558
  • The ark was salvation, the altar was transformation.
  • 00:03:33.558 --> 00:03:40.299
  • You can be saved and not be transformed.
  • 00:03:40.299 --> 00:03:44.603
  • But that's the transformation that took place as noah had
  • 00:03:44.603 --> 00:03:47.639
  • A new chance to begin life on this earth by faith.
  • 00:03:47.639 --> 00:03:54.546
  • Noah.
  • 00:03:54.780 --> 00:03:56.548
  • Noah.
  • 00:03:56.782 --> 00:03:58.750
  • Let me ask you a question.
  • 00:03:58.750 --> 00:04:01.153
  • What is faith?
  • 00:04:01.153 --> 00:04:04.222
  • How would you define faith?
  • 00:04:04.222 --> 00:04:07.492
  • How do you get faith?
  • 00:04:07.492 --> 00:04:10.762
  • How do you continue to live in faith?
  • 00:04:10.762 --> 00:04:15.167
  • Does faith grow?
  • 00:04:15.167 --> 00:04:17.736
  • Can it grow?
  • 00:04:17.736 --> 00:04:19.104
  • Does faith decline?
  • 00:04:19.104 --> 00:04:22.074
  • What do you do when you lose your faith?
  • 00:04:22.074 --> 00:04:24.042
  • Can you get it back?
  • 00:04:24.042 --> 00:04:25.377
  • Is there such a thing as lose your faith and then reclaiming
  • 00:04:25.377 --> 00:04:29.047
  • Your faith?
  • 00:04:29.047 --> 00:04:30.382
  • We have a lot of questions about faith.
  • 00:04:30.382 --> 00:04:33.585
  • You go to hebrews chapter 11, there's a whole chapter
  • 00:04:33.585 --> 00:04:36.388
  • On faith.
  • 00:04:36.388 --> 00:04:37.756
  • It's the centerpiece in the bible on faith.
  • 00:04:37.756 --> 00:04:41.593
  • It gives us in the opening verses sort of a general
  • 00:04:41.593 --> 00:04:45.697
  • Definition of faith.
  • 00:04:45.697 --> 00:04:47.065
  • Look at hebrews 11:1-3, "now faith is the substance of things
  • 00:04:47.065 --> 00:04:54.139
  • Hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
  • 00:04:54.139 --> 00:04:58.543
  • For by it the elders obtained a good testimony."
  • 00:04:58.543 --> 00:05:01.947
  • And by the way, this is the rest of hebrews.
  • 00:05:01.947 --> 00:05:05.117
  • You have a general definition of faith, and then the rest
  • 00:05:05.117 --> 00:05:09.254
  • Of the chapter tells us men and women in history who lived
  • 00:05:09.254 --> 00:05:12.491
  • By faith in all kinds of circumstances.
  • 00:05:12.491 --> 00:05:16.228
  • Then he says a key verse in verse 3, "by faith we
  • 00:05:16.228 --> 00:05:20.031
  • Understand."
  • 00:05:20.031 --> 00:05:21.366
  • "understand" there means something you come to believe
  • 00:05:21.366 --> 00:05:25.003
  • By evidence, by proof.
  • 00:05:25.003 --> 00:05:27.105
  • "by faith we come to believe we understand that the world--
  • 00:05:27.105 --> 00:05:31.977
  • The worlds were framed by the word of god, so that
  • 00:05:31.977 --> 00:05:35.847
  • The things which are seen were not made of things which are
  • 00:05:35.847 --> 00:05:40.786
  • Visible."
  • 00:05:40.786 --> 00:05:42.154
  • In other words--by the way, the scientists came
  • 00:05:42.154 --> 00:05:44.189
  • Up with the big bang.
  • 00:05:44.189 --> 00:05:45.524
  • Remember the big bang?
  • 00:05:45.524 --> 00:05:46.758
  • Said bang, the world came into being.
  • 00:05:46.758 --> 00:05:50.662
  • There it is right there in hebrews, is it not?
  • 00:05:50.662 --> 00:05:53.899
  • The world was made by god out of things that were not
  • 00:05:53.899 --> 00:05:58.503
  • Seen, and boom, there's an explosion and now there are
  • 00:05:58.503 --> 00:06:02.240
  • Things that are seen.
  • 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:04.543
  • And this gives us understanding.
  • 00:06:04.543 --> 00:06:08.547
  • Let's talk about faith.
  • 00:06:08.547 --> 00:06:12.284
  • Three levels.
  • 00:06:12.284 --> 00:06:14.352
  • Three levels of faith.
  • 00:06:14.352 --> 00:06:16.288
  • Now, they're all sort of subsets here, but let me tell you
  • 00:06:16.288 --> 00:06:20.492
  • A basic understanding of faith.
  • 00:06:20.492 --> 00:06:22.794
  • First of all, faith is reason.
  • 00:06:22.794 --> 00:06:26.598
  • It's reason.
  • 00:06:26.598 --> 00:06:27.966
  • It's understanding.
  • 00:06:27.966 --> 00:06:29.301
  • It's reason.
  • 00:06:29.301 --> 00:06:30.669
  • And then on top of reason, faith is belief.
  • 00:06:30.669 --> 00:06:34.339
  • And on top of belief, there is commitment.
  • 00:06:34.339 --> 00:06:37.909
  • And then you have faith is reason, and then reason leads
  • 00:06:37.909 --> 00:06:41.446
  • To belief, and belief leads to commitment.
  • 00:06:41.446 --> 00:06:44.382
  • And then with those three, you have certainty.
  • 00:06:44.382 --> 00:06:48.820
  • You see a lot of people try to move from reason
  • 00:06:48.820 --> 00:06:52.624
  • To certainty.
  • 00:06:52.624 --> 00:06:53.959
  • I'm goin' to figure all this out.
  • 00:06:53.959 --> 00:06:55.527
  • I'm going to work through it, then i'm going to be certain.
  • 00:06:55.527 --> 00:06:57.863
  • It never works like that.
  • 00:06:57.863 --> 00:06:59.231
  • Reason is the base.
  • 00:06:59.231 --> 00:07:00.765
  • It moves to belief, then it moves to commitment, and then
  • 00:07:00.765 --> 00:07:05.403
  • Hopefully it comes to certainty.
  • 00:07:05.403 --> 00:07:07.239
  • Up 'til that point, it's all tentative.
  • 00:07:07.239 --> 00:07:09.741
  • It's all, "i hope."
  • 00:07:09.741 --> 00:07:11.076
  • It's perhaps.
  • 00:07:11.076 --> 00:07:12.444
  • It's experimental.
  • 00:07:12.444 --> 00:07:14.379
  • Let me tell you something.
  • 00:07:14.379 --> 00:07:16.248
  • Except in math, every decision you make, every decision i make,
  • 00:07:16.248 --> 00:07:21.987
  • Comes by way of faith.
  • 00:07:21.987 --> 00:07:24.422
  • Therefore if somebody might say, "well, you know, i don't need
  • 00:07:24.422 --> 00:07:26.958
  • Faith.
  • 00:07:26.958 --> 00:07:28.293
  • I don't--i don't think about those things," every
  • 00:07:28.293 --> 00:07:30.495
  • Decision, every choice we make about everything on the planet
  • 00:07:30.495 --> 00:07:34.399
  • Comes by the way of faith.
  • 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:36.835
  • You say, "well, is it practical?"
  • 00:07:36.835 --> 00:07:38.136
  • How practical is that?
  • 00:07:38.136 --> 00:07:41.473
  • If we can't do anything, accomplish anything, make any
  • 00:07:41.473 --> 00:07:45.243
  • Decision without faith, that's pretty practical, isn't it?
  • 00:07:45.243 --> 00:07:49.814
  • So let's seek to understand faith from the very, very
  • 00:07:49.814 --> 00:07:54.352
  • Beginning.
  • 00:07:54.352 --> 00:07:55.687
  • When you decide who you want your plumber to be, it's a faith
  • 00:07:55.687 --> 00:08:00.058
  • Decision.
  • 00:08:00.058 --> 00:08:02.260
  • You decide who you want to marry, faith decision.
  • 00:08:02.260 --> 00:08:09.234
  • You decide, if you need surgery, who your surgeon is going to be,
  • 00:08:09.234 --> 00:08:14.506
  • A faith decision.
  • 00:08:14.506 --> 00:08:17.442
  • Pretty important, wouldn't you say?
  • 00:08:17.442 --> 00:08:19.778
  • Well, how's this work?
  • 00:08:19.778 --> 00:08:21.112
  • Let's take a plumber.
  • 00:08:21.112 --> 00:08:22.480
  • Alright, you got pipes that are rusted all over your house.
  • 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:24.816
  • Need to get a plumber.
  • 00:08:24.816 --> 00:08:26.151
  • So you go and use what?
  • 00:08:26.151 --> 00:08:27.619
  • Reason. reason.
  • 00:08:27.619 --> 00:08:30.855
  • Try to find a plumber who can do this.
  • 00:08:30.855 --> 00:08:32.958
  • You use your mind, you use understanding, reason, and then
  • 00:08:32.958 --> 00:08:38.163
  • You move to belief.
  • 00:08:38.163 --> 00:08:40.131
  • Then you say, "you know, i believe enough, i've
  • 00:08:40.131 --> 00:08:42.634
  • Investigated enough, and i have reason that this would be my
  • 00:08:42.634 --> 00:08:46.605
  • Plumber.
  • 00:08:46.605 --> 00:08:47.973
  • Now i believe he will do it."
  • 00:08:47.973 --> 00:08:49.307
  • And then you commit and you give him the job.
  • 00:08:49.307 --> 00:08:51.977
  • And once it is completed, all those process is sorta
  • 00:08:51.977 --> 00:08:57.048
  • Tentative.
  • 00:08:57.048 --> 00:08:58.383
  • It's sort of, you know, i don't know, but when it's completed
  • 00:08:58.383 --> 00:09:00.885
  • And it works, you have certainty.
  • 00:09:00.885 --> 00:09:04.756
  • Picking a mate.
  • 00:09:04.756 --> 00:09:06.491
  • A lot of people are not married.
  • 00:09:06.491 --> 00:09:07.859
  • You know why?
  • 00:09:07.859 --> 00:09:09.194
  • They think they moved from reason to certainty.
  • 00:09:09.194 --> 00:09:11.496
  • Oh, i'm going to figure all this out.
  • 00:09:11.496 --> 00:09:12.998
  • She's the right one.
  • 00:09:12.998 --> 00:09:14.332
  • He's the right one.
  • 00:09:14.332 --> 00:09:15.700
  • Bang, bang, i'm certain now.
  • 00:09:15.700 --> 00:09:17.035
  • No, no, no, it started with reason, then you go
  • 00:09:17.035 --> 00:09:19.137
  • Through a belief.
  • 00:09:19.137 --> 00:09:20.505
  • You begin to put it together.
  • 00:09:20.505 --> 00:09:21.840
  • And then you make a commitment, which may be engagement.
  • 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:24.809
  • And then when you say, "i do," and he says, or he says, "i
  • 00:09:24.809 --> 00:09:27.746
  • Will," there is the certainty that comes.
  • 00:09:27.746 --> 00:09:31.583
  • Faith has three basic steps.
  • 00:09:31.583 --> 00:09:34.753
  • You don't move from reason to certainty.
  • 00:09:34.753 --> 00:09:38.657
  • Let's take a surgeon.
  • 00:09:38.657 --> 00:09:41.192
  • Your gp says you need surgery.
  • 00:09:41.192 --> 00:09:43.695
  • You go and try to pick a surgeon.
  • 00:09:43.695 --> 00:09:46.464
  • You use reason, right?
  • 00:09:46.464 --> 00:09:47.899
  • Good idea.
  • 00:09:47.899 --> 00:09:49.801
  • You use reason.
  • 00:09:49.801 --> 00:09:51.169
  • And then reasonably you think, "this is a person that can
  • 00:09:51.169 --> 00:09:54.739
  • Do it."
  • 00:09:54.739 --> 00:09:56.074
  • Then you have a certain belief about methodology and how it
  • 00:09:56.074 --> 00:09:58.043
  • Will be done.
  • 00:09:58.043 --> 00:09:59.044
  • And then you make a commitment.
  • 00:09:59.044 --> 00:10:01.446
  • In that commitment, you lie on the table.
  • 00:10:01.446 --> 00:10:06.017
  • Put that thing over.
  • 00:10:06.017 --> 00:10:08.820
  • Count backwards to whatever.
  • 00:10:08.820 --> 00:10:13.458
  • That's pretty committed, isn't it?
  • 00:10:13.458 --> 00:10:14.926
  • Huh? huh?
  • 00:10:14.926 --> 00:10:16.528
  • Commitment.
  • 00:10:16.528 --> 00:10:18.129
  • And then following the surgery, things go well, and then you
  • 00:10:18.129 --> 00:10:21.866
  • Have what?
  • 00:10:21.866 --> 00:10:23.201
  • Certainty. certainty.
  • 00:10:23.201 --> 00:10:26.604
  • So faith isn't just something, well, pie in the sky over there.
  • 00:10:26.604 --> 00:10:31.176
  • Faith isn't something that we say, "well, christians have
  • 00:10:31.176 --> 00:10:34.179
  • Faith and non-christians don't have faith."
  • 00:10:34.179 --> 00:10:36.548
  • No, we all have the same amount of faith.
  • 00:10:36.548 --> 00:10:39.918
  • The difference is what you put your faith in, what i put my
  • 00:10:39.918 --> 00:10:42.921
  • Faith in.
  • 00:10:42.921 --> 00:10:45.557
  • For example, let's look at--go back through and talked
  • 00:10:45.557 --> 00:10:48.827
  • About reason, understanding.
  • 00:10:48.827 --> 00:10:51.496
  • That's where we start.
  • 00:10:51.496 --> 00:10:53.031
  • Scientists normally operate by faith.
  • 00:10:53.031 --> 00:10:57.335
  • Scientists do not discover a whole lot of things
  • 00:10:57.335 --> 00:11:00.238
  • Through inductive reasoning.
  • 00:11:00.238 --> 00:11:02.140
  • What is that?
  • 00:11:02.140 --> 00:11:03.475
  • They don't say, "well, i see this over here and i see that
  • 00:11:03.475 --> 00:11:05.610
  • Over there, and i understand that molecule over there,
  • 00:11:05.610 --> 00:11:08.346
  • And this works over here," and they put all this together
  • 00:11:08.346 --> 00:11:11.549
  • Inductively and they come to a conclusion, something that
  • 00:11:11.549 --> 00:11:15.954
  • Works, something that's accurate.
  • 00:11:15.954 --> 00:11:17.021
  • Normally that's not the way science works.
  • 00:11:17.021 --> 00:11:19.891
  • Science works with a faith assumption, with a thesis,
  • 00:11:19.891 --> 00:11:25.930
  • With an idea and a concept, and then this is deductive
  • 00:11:25.930 --> 00:11:31.503
  • Reasoning.
  • 00:11:31.503 --> 00:11:32.837
  • They begin to deduce from that evidence as to whether or not
  • 00:11:32.837 --> 00:11:35.640
  • That faith assumption is accurate.
  • 00:11:35.640 --> 00:11:37.776
  • Science operates by faith primarily.
  • 00:11:37.776 --> 00:11:41.746
  • And so we look at the universe.
  • 00:11:41.746 --> 00:11:45.016
  • Godless people say, boy, the universe came together
  • 00:11:45.016 --> 00:11:48.586
  • By chance.
  • 00:11:48.586 --> 00:11:50.221
  • It just all came by accident, by atoms coming together,
  • 00:11:50.221 --> 00:11:54.125
  • Like in some primeval moment billions of years ago.
  • 00:11:54.125 --> 00:11:57.362
  • It just evolved.
  • 00:11:57.362 --> 00:11:59.664
  • Let me tell you something.
  • 00:11:59.664 --> 00:12:01.332
  • To say this universe came together by chance is
  • 00:12:01.332 --> 00:12:05.804
  • Like saying there was an explosion in a print shop
  • 00:12:05.804 --> 00:12:10.408
  • And out produced the webster's unabridged dictionary.
  • 00:12:10.408 --> 00:12:15.547
  • Man, what are the odds of that?
  • 00:12:15.547 --> 00:12:18.049
  • Explosion in a print shop and you have a dictionary
  • 00:12:18.049 --> 00:12:21.319
  • Perfectly put together, what are the odds in that?
  • 00:12:21.319 --> 00:12:23.922
  • Ladies and gentlemen, the odds of that happening are less than
  • 00:12:23.922 --> 00:12:28.059
  • The odds that this universe would come together
  • 00:12:28.059 --> 00:12:30.495
  • Without a designer.
  • 00:12:30.495 --> 00:12:33.598
  • Abraham lincoln--i said it recently.
  • 00:12:33.598 --> 00:12:35.433
  • Abraham lincoln says, "you go to outer space, you look back
  • 00:12:35.433 --> 00:12:38.937
  • On the earth, you may be an atheist."
  • 00:12:38.937 --> 00:12:41.105
  • He said, "you stand on the earth and look at outer space," he
  • 00:12:41.105 --> 00:12:44.576
  • Said, "you can't be an atheist."
  • 00:12:44.576 --> 00:12:47.178
  • So the idea that all of this came--for example, decisions
  • 00:12:47.178 --> 00:12:51.149
  • In your life, faith choices that we make, what if you think that
  • 00:12:51.149 --> 00:12:55.119
  • You came into being by chance, that all human beings are here
  • 00:12:55.119 --> 00:12:58.590
  • By chance?
  • 00:12:58.590 --> 00:13:00.058
  • We came from some primeval mud puddle there.
  • 00:13:00.058 --> 00:13:04.329
  • We came here by chance.
  • 00:13:04.329 --> 00:13:06.297
  • By chance something that was inorganic became organic
  • 00:13:06.297 --> 00:13:10.635
  • By chance.
  • 00:13:10.635 --> 00:13:12.003
  • If you believe that you're here by chance or if you are here
  • 00:13:12.003 --> 00:13:16.574
  • Because you have been designed by a designer, what
  • 00:13:16.574 --> 00:13:19.777
  • A difference.
  • 00:13:19.777 --> 00:13:21.145
  • By design or chance?
  • 00:13:21.145 --> 00:13:22.647
  • That makes all the difference in the world on how we make
  • 00:13:22.647 --> 00:13:24.682
  • Decisions every day of our life.
  • 00:13:24.682 --> 00:13:27.285
  • What's right, what's wrong, what will work, what will not work,
  • 00:13:27.285 --> 00:13:31.356
  • And these are faith decisions.
  • 00:13:31.356 --> 00:13:35.360
  • So faith is reason.
  • 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:37.695
  • Reason.
  • 00:13:37.695 --> 00:13:39.597
  • The idea to say, "well, you know, i don't have faith that
  • 00:13:39.597 --> 00:13:43.134
  • You have in the church."
  • 00:13:43.134 --> 00:13:44.936
  • People here who are not christians, somebody stand
  • 00:13:44.936 --> 00:13:48.106
  • Up and tell how jesus christ came in their life and changed
  • 00:13:48.106 --> 00:13:51.509
  • Everything, gave them a fresh new beginning, a new outlook
  • 00:13:51.509 --> 00:13:54.946
  • On life, and there's a freshness there they'd never had.
  • 00:13:54.946 --> 00:13:58.116
  • Somebody who's not a christian say, "boy, you know i wish i
  • 00:13:58.116 --> 00:14:00.218
  • Could believe that, but i don't have enough faith."
  • 00:14:00.218 --> 00:14:04.956
  • If somebody from mars came down to this earth and we
  • 00:14:04.956 --> 00:14:10.128
  • Explain to them about procreation, how we
  • 00:14:10.128 --> 00:14:12.964
  • Cooperate with god and produce life, and the martian would say,
  • 00:14:12.964 --> 00:14:18.536
  • "i can't even imagine that.
  • 00:14:18.536 --> 00:14:20.438
  • We procreate by the exchanging of earwax."
  • 00:14:20.438 --> 00:14:24.442
  • They have no frame of reference.
  • 00:14:24.442 --> 00:14:27.979
  • You see, we think people who see someone who comes to christ have
  • 00:14:27.979 --> 00:14:32.450
  • A new life, they back up and say, "i have no frame
  • 00:14:32.450 --> 00:14:35.119
  • Of reference for that.
  • 00:14:35.119 --> 00:14:36.487
  • I wish i had faith like that."
  • 00:14:36.487 --> 00:14:38.923
  • We all have the same amount of faith, ladies and gentlemen.
  • 00:14:38.923 --> 00:14:42.327
  • It's just what we put our faith in.
  • 00:14:42.327 --> 00:14:44.762
  • And when someone puts their faith into something other than
  • 00:14:44.762 --> 00:14:47.732
  • Jesus christ, and that occupies the core and the center of their
  • 00:14:47.732 --> 00:14:52.837
  • Life, therefore it's no wonder that they have trouble
  • 00:14:52.837 --> 00:14:57.075
  • Believing.
  • 00:14:57.075 --> 00:14:58.409
  • We all have the same amount of faith.
  • 00:14:58.409 --> 00:15:00.345
  • All, we have the same progressiveness.
  • 00:15:00.345 --> 00:15:04.115
  • This is development from reason, to belief, to commitment,
  • 00:15:04.115 --> 00:15:09.620
  • And then to certainty.
  • 00:15:09.620 --> 00:15:10.488
  • That's how it works.
  • 00:15:10.488 --> 00:15:11.823
  • Someone who says, "i just--i just need more faith," let me
  • 00:15:11.823 --> 00:15:16.394
  • Tell you something.
  • 00:15:16.394 --> 00:15:17.762
  • Let's talk about security of believers, for example.
  • 00:15:17.762 --> 00:15:22.633
  • Once saved, always saved.
  • 00:15:22.633 --> 00:15:24.135
  • Oh, we baptists love that one.
  • 00:15:24.135 --> 00:15:26.704
  • Why do we believe that?
  • 00:15:26.704 --> 00:15:28.072
  • It's taught in the bible.
  • 00:15:28.072 --> 00:15:29.340
  • But let's say it another way.
  • 00:15:29.340 --> 00:15:31.342
  • Let's say, for example, how are we saved?
  • 00:15:31.342 --> 00:15:33.478
  • If we're saved by doing good and not doing evil, we can lose
  • 00:15:33.478 --> 00:15:38.750
  • Our salvation, couldn't we?
  • 00:15:38.750 --> 00:15:40.051
  • If that's how we're saved, it's because when we begin to do evil
  • 00:15:40.051 --> 00:15:43.121
  • And not good, we'd be lost.
  • 00:15:43.121 --> 00:15:44.856
  • We were saved by doing good and not evil.
  • 00:15:44.856 --> 00:15:47.258
  • Now we can be lost by doing evil, not good, right?
  • 00:15:47.258 --> 00:15:50.895
  • But we're not saved by doing good, by works.
  • 00:15:50.895 --> 00:15:53.498
  • We're saved by the grace of god in jesus christ.
  • 00:15:53.498 --> 00:15:55.967
  • Therefore, we are eternally secure.
  • 00:15:55.967 --> 00:15:59.971
  • And we--when we wander away from god in christ and we slide
  • 00:15:59.971 --> 00:16:03.775
  • Back, because we are in christ, we know that, and our faith
  • 00:16:03.775 --> 00:16:08.312
  • Begins to operate, and we feel like someone who is no longer
  • 00:16:08.312 --> 00:16:11.783
  • At home in this life.
  • 00:16:11.783 --> 00:16:14.886
  • We become a bomb.
  • 00:16:14.886 --> 00:16:16.988
  • You know what a bomb is?
  • 00:16:16.988 --> 00:16:18.356
  • A bomb is something that, in the center, in the core,
  • 00:16:18.356 --> 00:16:23.027
  • There is a compound that is unstable.
  • 00:16:23.027 --> 00:16:26.631
  • That's the reason it's a bomb.
  • 00:16:26.631 --> 00:16:29.100
  • And if your life and my life there's a compound that is
  • 00:16:29.100 --> 00:16:31.803
  • Unstable, we haven't blown up, but we will blow up.
  • 00:16:31.803 --> 00:16:37.075
  • We're bombs.
  • 00:16:37.075 --> 00:16:39.410
  • In the center of your life and my life, when there's god
  • 00:16:39.410 --> 00:16:42.246
  • And jesus christ, he gives us stability.
  • 00:16:42.246 --> 00:16:45.750
  • Stability.
  • 00:16:45.750 --> 00:16:47.118
  • And we understand this through reason
  • 00:16:47.118 --> 00:16:48.920
  • And through belief.
  • 00:16:48.920 --> 00:16:51.289
  • You see, as christians, we look back on the facts of history.
  • 00:16:51.289 --> 00:16:55.526
  • You and i can believe that christmas is real.
  • 00:16:55.526 --> 00:17:00.098
  • God visited this earth in human flesh, incarnation.
  • 00:17:00.098 --> 00:17:03.634
  • You can believe that.
  • 00:17:03.634 --> 00:17:05.169
  • We can believe that jesus died on the cross for all your
  • 00:17:05.169 --> 00:17:08.272
  • Garbage and my garbage.
  • 00:17:08.272 --> 00:17:09.640
  • We can believe that, our substitute.
  • 00:17:09.640 --> 00:17:12.276
  • We can believe that god raised him from the dead.
  • 00:17:12.276 --> 00:17:16.080
  • We can believe that, the resurrection, easter.
  • 00:17:16.080 --> 00:17:18.950
  • But you can believe that, but it really doesn't become yours
  • 00:17:18.950 --> 00:17:23.287
  • Until that which happens in the past affects how we live
  • 00:17:23.287 --> 00:17:26.991
  • In the present.
  • 00:17:26.991 --> 00:17:29.494
  • In other words, we have to live on the basis of our--
  • 00:17:29.494 --> 00:17:32.029
  • Of the gospel, on the basis of what jesus has done.
  • 00:17:32.029 --> 00:17:36.667
  • Now, peter and paul were brought up as jews, right?
  • 00:17:36.667 --> 00:17:43.074
  • And they were taught that a gentile--and a gentile is
  • 00:17:43.074 --> 00:17:46.344
  • Anybody who's not a jew in the bible.
  • 00:17:46.344 --> 00:17:48.112
  • If you--you're either a jew or a non-jew.
  • 00:17:48.112 --> 00:17:50.414
  • If you're a non-jew, you're a gentile.
  • 00:17:50.414 --> 00:17:52.617
  • And peter and paul were taught that gentiles could never know
  • 00:17:52.617 --> 00:17:57.555
  • God.
  • 00:17:57.555 --> 00:17:58.422
  • Why?
  • 00:17:58.422 --> 00:17:59.757
  • Because their pedigree and because of their practice.
  • 00:17:59.757 --> 00:18:05.062
  • Their pedigree, a gentile is not from abraham.
  • 00:18:05.062 --> 00:18:08.699
  • A jew's pedigree is from abraham.
  • 00:18:08.699 --> 00:18:11.435
  • A gentile's practice is not keeping the law, a jew's
  • 00:18:11.435 --> 00:18:15.606
  • Practice is keeping the law.
  • 00:18:15.606 --> 00:18:17.375
  • Therefore, gentile could never know god.
  • 00:18:17.375 --> 00:18:19.443
  • But you read the book of acts, there is peter over there and he
  • 00:18:19.443 --> 00:18:23.781
  • Gets with cornelius who was a gentile, a centurion.
  • 00:18:23.781 --> 00:18:27.652
  • And he tells cornelius about god in christ, and zip, cornelius,
  • 00:18:27.652 --> 00:18:32.590
  • A gentile, accepts jesus christ and becomes a christian.
  • 00:18:32.590 --> 00:18:36.561
  • There's a problem.
  • 00:18:36.561 --> 00:18:39.030
  • Peter had no problem.
  • 00:18:39.030 --> 00:18:40.298
  • He saw that this gentile had become a christian.
  • 00:18:40.298 --> 00:18:44.235
  • He saw that the performance of jesus was put in his life,
  • 00:18:44.235 --> 00:18:49.640
  • The pedigree of jesus was put in his life, so he was
  • 00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:52.577
  • A christian.
  • 00:18:52.577 --> 00:18:53.945
  • So peter went over there and loved eating breakfast
  • 00:18:53.945 --> 00:18:56.113
  • With him, and he fell in love with bacon.
  • 00:18:56.113 --> 00:19:01.118
  • He lies to jesus.
  • 00:19:01.118 --> 00:19:03.321
  • And peter just loved the way the gentiles ate, but some big
  • 00:19:03.321 --> 00:19:06.891
  • Shots from jerusalem came.
  • 00:19:06.891 --> 00:19:09.393
  • Some of the family of james there in the strict judaism, who
  • 00:19:09.393 --> 00:19:12.163
  • Believe you had to take all the practices of jew after you
  • 00:19:12.163 --> 00:19:15.499
  • Receive christ as messiah, and they saw that peter was
  • 00:19:15.499 --> 00:19:18.803
  • Eating with the gentiles.
  • 00:19:18.803 --> 00:19:20.538
  • They heard about it, so while they were there, peter didn't
  • 00:19:20.538 --> 00:19:23.274
  • Eat with cornelius anymore.
  • 00:19:23.274 --> 00:19:25.710
  • He did without bacon.
  • 00:19:25.710 --> 00:19:28.679
  • Paul, in galatians chapter 2, he faced peter with this hypocrisy.
  • 00:19:28.679 --> 00:19:35.553
  • He said, "pete, if these gentiles are really christians
  • 00:19:35.553 --> 00:19:40.658
  • And you've been told that everything is clean, don't
  • 00:19:40.658 --> 00:19:44.161
  • Change how you live, because those who come who haven't
  • 00:19:44.161 --> 00:19:47.832
  • Yet caught up with what it means to be born again and a child
  • 00:19:47.832 --> 00:19:51.469
  • Of god."
  • 00:19:51.469 --> 00:19:52.803
  • He looked in peter's face and pointed it out to him.
  • 00:19:52.803 --> 00:19:56.574
  • This is what happens to us, ladies and gentlemen.
  • 00:19:56.574 --> 00:19:59.210
  • We know all these facts historically, but we have
  • 00:19:59.210 --> 00:20:02.146
  • To take them and incorporate that into our lives and discover
  • 00:20:02.146 --> 00:20:05.416
  • This is how we then live.
  • 00:20:05.416 --> 00:20:08.619
  • Oh, i'm burdened with my sin.
  • 00:20:08.619 --> 00:20:10.288
  • I can't handle this.
  • 00:20:10.288 --> 00:20:12.757
  • We have to live on the basis our sin has been covered
  • 00:20:12.757 --> 00:20:15.126
  • By the blood of christ.
  • 00:20:15.126 --> 00:20:16.460
  • We are forgiven.
  • 00:20:16.460 --> 00:20:17.828
  • Don't let that beat you down and keep you down.
  • 00:20:17.828 --> 00:20:20.498
  • Live on the basis of that.
  • 00:20:20.498 --> 00:20:21.899
  • That's a part of the belief system that we have.
  • 00:20:21.899 --> 00:20:25.102
  • And then finally, look at the last thing we see here.
  • 00:20:25.102 --> 00:20:28.939
  • Yeah, we're talking about faith, reason, belief, doctrine, what
  • 00:20:28.939 --> 00:20:34.045
  • We have.
  • 00:20:34.045 --> 00:20:35.146
  • Then there comes commitment.
  • 00:20:35.146 --> 00:20:37.315
  • Commitment.
  • 00:20:37.315 --> 00:20:40.451
  • You walk on the edge of a cliff, slippery rocks, and you slide,
  • 00:20:38.683 --> 00:20:45.489
  • And you start falling down that cliff hundreds of feet below.
  • 00:20:45.489 --> 00:20:49.960
  • And as you're sliding down, you see ahead a branch sticking
  • 00:20:49.960 --> 00:20:54.131
  • Up out of the cliff.
  • 00:20:54.131 --> 00:20:55.766
  • You're going to slide right by that branch.
  • 00:20:55.766 --> 00:20:59.637
  • How much faith is going to take for you to grab hold of that
  • 00:20:59.637 --> 00:21:02.173
  • Branch?
  • 00:21:02.173 --> 00:21:03.908
  • Huh?
  • 00:21:03.908 --> 00:21:05.443
  • "oh, it's got--" no, it's gonna take--no, it's not gonna take
  • 00:21:05.443 --> 00:21:11.315
  • Hardly any faith, is it, when you're sliding down that cliff,
  • 00:21:11.315 --> 00:21:15.052
  • To grab that branch.
  • 00:21:15.052 --> 00:21:16.754
  • But once you grab that branch, that's a little faith that you
  • 00:21:16.754 --> 00:21:21.592
  • Have, but that branch, in its strength, will hold you
  • 00:21:21.592 --> 00:21:25.563
  • Up and save you.
  • 00:21:25.563 --> 00:21:28.699
  • When we extend our hand to jesus christ, we extend our hand
  • 00:21:28.699 --> 00:21:32.536
  • To him, he grabs us and he puts in you and me his pedigree.
  • 00:21:32.536 --> 00:21:37.441
  • He's the son of god.
  • 00:21:37.441 --> 00:21:39.009
  • Is that a pretty good family to be in?
  • 00:21:39.009 --> 00:21:40.745
  • He puts in you and me his practice, a life of perfection.
  • 00:21:40.745 --> 00:21:44.115
  • Is that enough for you and me?
  • 00:21:44.115 --> 00:21:45.950
  • And therefore that gives us salvation.
  • 00:21:45.950 --> 00:21:50.755
  • Faith. faith.
  • 00:21:50.755 --> 00:21:54.625
  • Faith.
  • 00:21:54.625 --> 00:21:57.161
  • It works everywhere, when we're on top of our game, when we're
  • 00:21:57.161 --> 00:22:00.831
  • In the bottom of our game.
  • 00:22:00.831 --> 00:22:02.533
  • Faith.
  • 00:22:02.533 --> 00:22:03.968
  • What is it?
  • 00:22:03.968 --> 00:22:05.936
  • Faith.
  • 00:22:05.936 --> 00:22:07.705
  • How do we get it?
  • 00:22:07.705 --> 00:22:09.373
  • Faith.
  • 00:22:09.373 --> 00:22:10.975
  • We can't lose it.
  • 00:22:10.975 --> 00:22:12.943
  • Once we're in christ and christ is within us, and then we can
  • 00:22:12.943 --> 00:22:16.781
  • Handle whatever life puts in for of us on our plate.
  • 00:22:16.781 --> 00:22:20.818
  • And that is the certainty of our faith.
  • 00:22:20.818 --> 00:22:24.054
  • We see it works.
  • 00:22:24.054 --> 00:22:26.390
  • It applies.
  • 00:22:26.390 --> 00:22:28.692
  • It keeps us going.
  • 00:22:28.692 --> 00:22:30.261
  • It sees us through.
  • 00:22:30.261 --> 00:22:32.696
  • Chicago fire was in, i think, 1871.
  • 00:22:32.696 --> 00:22:36.200
  • I'm not sure.
  • 00:22:36.200 --> 00:22:38.335
  • In that fire, horatio spafford was a lawyer, owned property
  • 00:22:38.335 --> 00:22:42.907
  • In chicago, very wealthy, and everything he had was
  • 00:22:42.907 --> 00:22:45.810
  • Wiped out.
  • 00:22:45.810 --> 00:22:47.178
  • He sent his wife and four little daughters to london to go
  • 00:22:47.178 --> 00:22:52.550
  • To a d. l. moody crusade,
  • 00:22:52.550 --> 00:22:55.252
  • To try to have a moment of getting over their
  • 00:22:55.252 --> 00:22:58.489
  • Tremendous loss.
  • 00:22:58.489 --> 00:23:00.958
  • On that voyage from new york to london, middle
  • 00:23:00.958 --> 00:23:04.929
  • Of the atlantic, the ship went down.
  • 00:23:04.929 --> 00:23:08.265
  • All four daughters were lost.
  • 00:23:08.265 --> 00:23:11.302
  • Anna was saved.
  • 00:23:11.302 --> 00:23:13.637
  • Somehow she was on a board, and when she regained
  • 00:23:13.637 --> 00:23:16.774
  • Consciousness, she looked around, all four of her
  • 00:23:16.774 --> 00:23:19.543
  • Daughters had drowned.
  • 00:23:19.543 --> 00:23:21.779
  • When she found safety there, was rescued, she sent a telegram
  • 00:23:21.779 --> 00:23:25.983
  • Back to her husband who was coming over later to be
  • 00:23:25.983 --> 00:23:29.186
  • With them.
  • 00:23:29.186 --> 00:23:30.921
  • And it said simply, "saved, alone.
  • 00:23:30.921 --> 00:23:37.661
  • What am i to do?"
  • 00:23:37.661 --> 00:23:40.397
  • Horatio spafford went over there, joined his wife,
  • 00:23:40.397 --> 00:23:44.635
  • And they saw and were led to believe that god had
  • 00:23:44.635 --> 00:23:47.538
  • A special calling for their life.
  • 00:23:47.538 --> 00:23:50.040
  • And so they moved to jerusalem, and they bought this house,
  • 00:23:50.040 --> 00:23:54.678
  • Which is now a hotel, and they began to take in orphans.
  • 00:23:54.678 --> 00:23:58.916
  • They began to take in street people.
  • 00:23:58.916 --> 00:24:00.951
  • They began to feed, and love, and share with those people,
  • 00:24:00.951 --> 00:24:04.321
  • Jews and muslims, the lord jesus christ.
  • 00:24:04.321 --> 00:24:07.024
  • And they did that for the rest of their life.
  • 00:24:07.024 --> 00:24:12.963
  • And on the way over, horatio spafford asks the ship he was
  • 00:24:12.963 --> 00:24:17.101
  • On to stop over the spot where his four little daughters had
  • 00:24:17.101 --> 00:24:22.606
  • Drowned months before.
  • 00:24:22.606 --> 00:24:25.042
  • And there he wrote, "it is well with my soul."
  • 00:24:25.042 --> 00:24:31.715
  • "peace like a river, attendeth my day."
  • 00:24:31.715 --> 00:24:34.451
  • Good things.
  • 00:24:34.451 --> 00:24:35.986
  • "sorrow when like sea, billows roll."
  • 00:24:35.986 --> 00:24:38.856
  • Bad things.
  • 00:24:38.856 --> 00:24:40.724
  • Said, "whatever, whatever, whatever the cost, thou has
  • 00:24:40.724 --> 00:24:46.830
  • Taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul."
  • 00:24:46.830 --> 00:24:55.039
  • That, ladies and gentlemen, is faith in action.
  • 00:24:55.039 --> 00:25:00.578
  • Ed: have you ever tried to read a historical novel out of order?
  • 00:25:01.812 --> 00:25:06.517
  • It would be hard, if not impossible, to understand the
  • 00:25:06.517 --> 00:25:09.320
  • Plot, wouldn't it?
  • 00:25:09.320 --> 00:25:10.955
  • And yet, we read and study the bible in much the same way.
  • 00:25:10.955 --> 00:25:14.458
  • Like a novel, the bible tells a story
  • 00:25:14.458 --> 00:25:16.860
  • With a beginning, a middle, and an end.
  • 00:25:16.860 --> 00:25:18.963
  • And when you read it in chronological order,
  • 00:25:18.963 --> 00:25:21.198
  • You will see history unfold in a new and understandable
  • 00:25:21.198 --> 00:25:24.768
  • And memorable way.
  • 00:25:24.768 --> 00:25:26.570
  • Listen, in this new year, i want to challenge you
  • 00:25:26.570 --> 00:25:29.440
  • To read through the bible in 52 weeks.
  • 00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:33.177
  • When you give to the winning walk this month,
  • 00:25:33.177 --> 00:25:35.245
  • We want to send you a one year chronological bible.
  • 00:25:35.245 --> 00:25:39.183
  • It's arranged in daily readings that will take about 15 minutes
  • 00:25:39.183 --> 00:25:42.987
  • To read each day.
  • 00:25:42.987 --> 00:25:44.555
  • At the end of 52 weeks, you will know and understand
  • 00:25:44.555 --> 00:25:47.057
  • Like never before the full story of the bible.
  • 00:25:47.057 --> 00:25:52.730
  • Male vo: to get your copy of the one year chronological bible,
  • 00:25:52.730 --> 00:25:55.499
  • Call the number on your screen or go online at winningwalk.org.
  • 00:25:55.499 --> 00:26:00.571
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:26:00.871 --> 00:26:14.852
  • Ed young: the story of noah reminds us that the time to obey
  • 00:26:16.020 --> 00:26:19.657
  • God's instructions and genuinely walk with him is before the rain
  • 00:26:19.657 --> 00:26:24.028
  • Begins to fall.
  • 00:26:24.028 --> 00:26:25.629
  • Noah obeyed everything god commanded him to do.
  • 00:26:25.629 --> 00:26:29.733
  • He was consistent in his walk with the lord and he trusted
  • 00:26:29.733 --> 00:26:33.337
  • God's timing.
  • 00:26:33.337 --> 00:26:35.105
  • Listen, walking with god is a daily thing.
  • 00:26:35.105 --> 00:26:38.676
  • When you apply his timeless principles to your marriage,
  • 00:26:38.676 --> 00:26:41.912
  • Your family, and your everyday life, you will discover
  • 00:26:41.912 --> 00:26:45.482
  • The favor that comes to those who walk with god.
  • 00:26:45.482 --> 00:26:49.620
  • Are you experiencing this daily walk with the lord?
  • 00:26:49.620 --> 00:26:52.956
  • If not, we would like to help.
  • 00:26:52.956 --> 00:26:55.559
  • Call the number on your screen right now and men and women are
  • 00:26:55.559 --> 00:26:58.996
  • Standing by to talk with you and help you have a deeper walk
  • 00:26:58.996 --> 00:27:03.801
  • With the lord jesus christ.
  • 00:27:03.801 --> 00:27:05.836
  • Let me personally thank you for watching today.
  • 00:27:05.836 --> 00:27:08.338
  • Please join us again next time as we take another step together
  • 00:27:08.338 --> 00:27:12.176
  • On "the winning walk."
  • 00:27:12.176 --> 00:27:15.546
  • ♪♪♪
  • 00:27:15.846 --> 00:27:29.960