Well, happy new year to everybody. I am so glad you're here and I am super excited for 2025. And okay, a movement starts today. The culmination of what I believe to be the ministry of this church long before I got here with two great pastors who were before me and now my opportunity to be here and all the investment that people have made in the past that God has made in our church, that elders have made, that people who serve our church have made.

This is the first day of the rest of our church's life. And in these next 10 years, which you're going to learn over these next eight weeks, folks, we're going to change the world. We're going to change the community in the valley, but we're going to change the world. In John chapter 18, verse 36, Jesus is before Pilate, and Pilate is questioning whether or not Jesus is claiming to be a king. And Jesus finally responds by saying, "'My kingdom is not of this world.'" If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders, but now my kingdom is from another place. You are a king then, said Pilate. Jesus answered, you say that I'm a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. What is truth, retorted Pilate. With this, he went out again to the Jews, gathered there and said, I find no basis for a charge against him. When you're young and you're preaching, You don't mean it to be, but it's all about you. You want to know how you did. You want to know if people liked you. It's just natural. It doesn't mean you're selfish or a narcissist. It just means you're young and you're trying to find your way in the world and you're nervous. In middle age, you settle down a little bit. You study, you read. And then one day the beauty of age hits you. You get old and then you could care less about how you did. It's a beautiful thing.

Because you change from what did they think about me? You mature if you're walking with Jesus. And now it's this, uh-oh, what is my responsibility before God? You see the difference? So I can entertain you, which is what I did in my 30s and 40s. I thought that's how you preached. I got to tell you funny stories. I got to tell you jokes or you won't like me. But then you get older and And you're not even thinking in those terms anymore. You're thinking, I'm going to stand before God one day and give an account for everything I said on this stage. And what is he going to hold me responsible for? So we start a movement. And as you being part of that movement, this is going to be hard sermon. I'm just going to get it out there. You're going to have to think. Now, I could just come out. I tried to associate this. I tried to rearrange it. But there's no easy way to do this, which means you're going to have to lean in.

especially the first two out of the series. You're going to have to think. And now why would I do this? Well, because something very special is happening around our world right now. It's happening in the United States, in post-Christian Europe, in China, in Russia. There is a renewed spiritual hunger around the world. There's an emptiness and a searching. This year alone, Bible cells surpassed 14 million in the first 11 months. The closest competitor to was the book Spare by Prince Harry that sold 1.2 million copies and it's 416 pages of whining. There's another book called It Ends With Us. I haven't read it, so I don't know, but it sold 1.29 million copies. That's the closest competitor. The Bible, 14 million and counting. This has been true every single year in the modern age. No book has ever outsold the Bible.

And usually when something increases 10%, we call that an epidemic. Well, Bible cells are up 20%. So there's an epidemic of spiritual hunger. Now the question is, and people are asking why, and some say, well, it's because of COVID. People recognize their own mortality. So now that they know there are no guarantees, they're looking for something to anchor their life to. Others say it's the death of trust.

because of what happened with politicians and the World Health Organization and the CDC during COVID. Other people say that now we can't trust the politicians, we can't trust the political world, we can't trust our leaders, we're being lied to, manipulated. Where is there some kind of objective source that we can trust? Evidently, truth does matter. And the current generation may not be able to put all this together, but they are smart enough to know that there is an incoherency in a worldview that denies God and then claims hope and meaning are real. Are you listening? There's an incoherency of a worldview that claims there is no God and then turns around and claims there is objective hope and meaning. They're smart enough to know that you cannot have objective hope and meaning if there is no God.

And they yearn for truth, meaning, purpose, and a sense of direction. So they're looking for an objective source, something that will guide them to tell them what is real, what is true, what can be trusted. Something that is not manipulation or a power play. Something that is just truth. Now, what does this mean for us? Well, first of all, it means that we live in a time of great opportunity. We have to take seriously the scripture that says you and I are supposed to be ready to give a hope or give a reason for the hope that was within us.

How many of you can explain why you believe what you believe in this room right now? If you were asked something more than I just feel this is true, which won't get you very far, this is a time that we speak the truth in love into culture. But it means that we have to understand how culture is thinking in order to contextualize the good news of the gospel into the current generation. Listen, folks, for me personally, I got a second wind about 10 years ago. I just got my third wind. I've been waiting for this moment all my life, what's going on right now in culture. I just spent, as I said before, the early part of December in a studio in London, answering questions for two hours, just one after the next. And as I sat there on that stool and faced those difficult questions that I was not given ahead of time in hopes to give a response quickly, to a new generation seeking spiritual truth, I sat there on that stool and I thought, this is the reason for my life. Everything that's happened to me before this point is because of this time and this season, which means that if I am God's servant here, this is his church, not mine, I get it, but if I am his servant here, you're coming along this journey with me. Second, we live in a time of great ignorance. We do. I'm not, I don't want to to clobber you over the head with guilt. That is not my purpose. Because in the past, whatever happened in the past, I don't really care. What matters now is where are we going in the future? You and I must get to the point where we know what we believe and why we believe it. We must know what the central tenets of the gospel really are. And we must lead the way, not merely in experience, but in intellectual understanding, because this generation is going to ask you What makes Christianity different than any other religion? What makes Jesus unique? Why should I believe the Bible is anything special? Can you answer those questions? Third, we live in a time of the counterfeit gospel. Here's the problem, the human tendency is to travel the road least resistant. So there will be many who begin to read the Bible, but without understanding they will gravitate toward that which makes you feel good. It's just human nature.

And the most popular form of Christianity in America, our unfortunate export, is that this good news of the gospel grants you everything and requires nothing from you. But that's not the gospel. Now, you've been around long enough to know that what I try to avoid ever mentioning names of anyone because they're not here to defend themselves. I am torn. What do I do when a guy like Joel Osteen is the most popular pastor in America with the largest church and who doesn't believe in sin, hell, judgment or salvation. Do I not have a responsibility to the young generation to say that's not where you're gonna find what you're looking for? When the gospel is summarized by telling you God wants everything good for you and it's all about you and he wants you to have wealth and riches and don't worry about sin, don't worry about judgment, don't worry about salvation, just do good things, in heaven's name, I've been trying to do good things all my life, I still haven't been successful.

This should deeply concern us. So as we have this massive return to spirituality and a massive move back toward the Bible, there must be a concerted effort to what we call discipleship. What is discipleship? It's telling the truth about Jesus to everyone. It's what Jesus told the church to do During his ascension in Matthew 28, Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. So our job is to teach the world everything Christ has commanded us. The question is, do you know what it is that Christ has commanded you?

We'll say, well, Pastor Jeff, I would, but you haven't done a very good job of telling me. That's why we're doing the series. I take full responsibility. If you don't know, it's you haven't heard it here. So lean in for these next eight weeks because in these days, you've got it. Listen, if I would have given anything, had my pastor preached a sermon like this when I was young, we don't preach sermons like this because they don't feel that good.

And when you come to church, you want to have a spiritual high, and I'm all for that, and I want you to. But this is a season where you're going to have to engage your intellect just for a while. Here's what you're going to learn. When you engage your intellect and you really start to learn the truth, then it does impact the heart and the emotions. For a longer period of time, a movement begins today. And it all begins with a simple concept. Dirt Road Discipleship, step one, is the whole idea of truth.

Because you and I find ourselves in a culture that does not believe in objective truth, that truth is relative, that everyone has to discover their own truth, and then without any kind of outside interference, you just live your truth and I'll live my truth. Now, if that is your definition of truth, you will not be able to follow Jesus. When you come to something that's difficult or counterculture, and you believe that you can determine your own truth, then you will deconstruct and reconstruct Whatever Jesus teaches to fit your preferred worldview. That's your truth. And this is what it means to create Jesus in your own image. You tell Jesus what he ought to be like rather than asking the question, what is Jesus truly like? And as we disciple the next generation, it has to begin with you and I affirming that we believe, one, that truth is objective, that there are things that are true whether you believe them to be or not.

Two, that truth is discoverable, that there is a way to discover what is true and what is false. And ultimate truth, origin meaning morality, destiny, are discovered in Jesus Christ and the gospel. This is the reason Jesus said in John 14, 6, Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Now, this thought just came to me. I know this is going to be some heavy stuff, so what I'm going to do, I'm going to put this on the app. I'm going to put the full manuscript on the app, Michael, so that anybody who wants to read word for word can go back. But right now, stay with me. First, truth is objective. I don't know if you were watching. Did anybody watch any of the debates, presidential debates? Did anybody watch like Fox and CNN and MSNBC as they talked about the presidential debates? Well, I watched...

And there was one particular debate that happened on CNN between three Democrats and one token Republican. And so, come on, that was funny. It's a little bit funny. So the token Republican said to the three Democrats, said, well, I was going to vote. Now, this is, election's gone. This is just an illustration. Chill out. So in the debate, The token Republican said, well, I can't go with Kamala Harris because she keeps talking about my truth and your truth and their truth. And as soon as I heard her say that, I could not follow her because there's no such thing as your truth and my truth. There's only the truth. And the person debating her immediately quipped in, and I had to laugh, and said, that's not true. Oh, you get it. That's great. You've been with me long enough now. You just affirmed what he said. Because as soon as you say truth, That's not true. You're affirming an objective truth. The absence of category truth makes life unlivable. Think about it. If there is no God, objective moral values don't exist. If you can live by, listen now, if you can live by your truth and I can live by my truth, who are you to tell the Hutus that they did the wrong thing when they slaughtered a million Tutsis? Who do you think you are to tell Hitler that he was wrong in slaughtering six million Jews? Who are you to tell anybody that slavery is wrong if you live by your truth and I live by my truth?

Without objective truth, life is unlivable. We assume God when we assume anytime you tell somebody that they ought to do something else, you assume God because you assume absolute moral law to give you absolute definitive categories of good and evil, and only God can give you that kind of moral law.

What do we mean then when we say objective truth? We mean this, a truth exists independently of individual perception or opinion and is true for everyone regardless of their beliefs or perspective. In other words, if it's 78 degrees outside, it doesn't matter that you feel it's 50. It's still 78. It doesn't matter if you feel the earth is flat. It's still 78.

The earth is round no matter what you feel. Sometimes I'll be playing golf with my buddy Rick Reed and I'll say to Rick, "That felt like a birdie." And he'll remind me, "It might have felt like a birdie, but it's a par." I'm going to ride forward out on the scorecard. Imagine a pilot who says, "I know these are laws. There are laws of aerodynamics, but I just think a plane should be able to fly without wings." You're going to get on the plane? We call that insanity.

What one thinks or feels does not correspond to reality. So for some reason, many people will admit that objective reality exists, but as soon as they begin discussing the topic of God, faith, religion, and especially Christianity, suddenly objective truth goes out the window. Why? Because of two misconceptions. You with me? Come on. Number one, the misconception that religion is totally based on feeling and is no way related to anything factual.

Faith, the way they defined it, is blind belief. Nowhere in the Bible is faith defined as blind belief. In fact, the most famous passage describing faith, Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the substance There's something real of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Not enough sermons are preached on Hebrews 11.1, but basically what the writer's telling us, based on the substance of thing I know to be true, I can trust things in the future for what I am not presently certain. Based on the substance of what I see here, the fact of what I see here, I can trust things for which I do not have certainty.

Second, if objective truth does exist, we're told, concerning God and his son Jesus Christ, this culture, this generation will tell us that such truth is unknowable because God is not knowable. So they will say, okay, Pastor Jeff, objective truth exists, but you'll never know it. You'll never know what it really is. All right, here lies the rub. When you began to open the Bible, you do so, this next generation does so, to discover truth.

They're looking for something to anchor their lives, something that will give them certainty regarding origin, meaning, morality, destiny, and hope. And that's exactly what the Bible does. The Bible claims to be the revelation of God to us. Now stay with me. I'm not going to answer every question. You have to stay with me. Romans 1, Paul says, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all nations.

The godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse. Paul is saying we don't merely feel that God exists. His existence is based upon facts and And the number one fact is the logic of first cause, which means something doesn't come from nothing. You look out and you see the wonderful creation, the vastness of the galaxies, the depths of the oceans. And this is not something that can just appear without a first cause. Atheistic evolution is an objective falsehood. Something coming from nothing is not science.

It is a doctrine concocted by those who deny the objective truth of God's existence. And it's downright ridiculous, no matter how many letters come after your name. Christianity is not based on feeling, but reality. What reality? The first reality that God exists is He is the only plausible explanation for the universe. And the second reality that he has chosen to reveal himself in creation, general revelation, the invisible qualities, his eternal power. And then particular to the Christian faith, God has chosen to reveal himself in the person of Jesus Christ. We call that special revelation validated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You with me?

Which is why the writer in Hebrews, we'll get to some of the questions you're thinking right now. I can just feel it. Minds are spinning. In Hebrews chapter 1, in the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom also he made the universe. So what we're being told...

is that the way God has chosen to reveal himself is not only through creation, general revelation, but through special revelation. Emmanuel, God with us, his son Christ coming to planet earth and to validate, to affirm that this is the son of God, he did something nobody else did, he rose from the dead. Now, according to the Christian faith, The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical reality. It happened in real time and space. It is not metaphorical, it is actual. And the belief is since the resurrection of Jesus Christ is historically true, we can now affirm that God has revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ is truth. You see how valuable this is? If Jesus Christ did rise from the dead, then he is true.

the Son of God, therefore everything he says is true. He is the way. He does not show you the way, he is the way. He is the truth regardless of what you feel. When your life contradicts his word, you're the one in the wrong.

He is the life. Life is found in him. Now, here's what someone says. The skeptic says, oh, yes, Jeff, I hear, but here's the problem. How can I know that Jesus rose from the dead? And by the way, while we're at it, how can I even trust that the Bible is true? You see? Fair enough. Because everything we know about Jesus primarily comes from the Bible. Now, there are outside resources that corroborate, but not a lot.

And everything you know about what Jesus taught and what he did comes from the Bible. So if you can't trust the Bible, game's over. So the question is, now that we agree that objective truth exists, how can we know with a level of certainty the truth about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit and our lives? So first of all, what do we mean by truth? Let's go back to this.

Truth is understood in terms of reality. So a proposition, now this is the point of the message, right here, right here's the point where I might lose you. So lean in, and then I promise you I'll pick you up again. I keep going back to truth because when we talk about truth, truth is understood.

is understood in terms of reality. A proposition is said to be true if the statement reflects what actually happened. Got it? So a belief is true if it matches up with the way things actually are. A few simple examples. It is safe to lay down on the 210 during rush hour traffic. Now that's not true, and it's not true because it doesn't conform to reality. How about this one? The Raiders are the best team in football.

That is not true because it doesn't conform to reality. How about this? The angels won the World Series in 2002. That's a true statement. Some of you can't fathom that, and you probably wouldn't believe it had someone not written about it, right? But it is true. Many of us were not present when the angels won the World Series. Therefore, how do we actually know they won the World Series? Now we're getting to the core, and it is we ask a simple question. Where does the evidence point?

See, where people get in trouble is they think they can't believe in something unless you can believe it without the slither of any doubt. An exhaustive understanding is limited to God. We're finite creatures. But what we do ask is where does the evidence point? Our legal system uses that every time there's a court case. We ask the simple question. They use the phrase beyond reasonable doubt, right?

They assume that you're never going to know 100% what actually took place because you weren't there. But through eyewitness accounts and circumstantial evidence, you can make a wise deduction that the evidence seems to point here. When determining the truth or falsehood of someone's guilt or innocence, prosecutors often present oral testimony, eyewitness accounts, and forensics to the jury to challenging each person to pronounce guilt or innocence based on the direction the evidence points. Which means that truth, remember we live in a generation that says, okay, truth may exist objectively, but it's impossible to know it with certainty. Truth is knowable and discoverable through knowledge learned and knowledge given. So what we're saying is that there is a way to determine truth.

And the first thing is there's what we call propositional knowledge. Knowledge that something is factual because it's beyond reasonable doubt. You may not know it with absolute certainty, absolute exhaustive certainty, but something can be true and you can know that it's true because the evidence is overwhelming. Now second, then you have testimonial knowledge. And testimonial knowledge is when we discover through the testimony of others who already know these truths. So...

Going back to a court of law, what we call legal historical proof, when we're trying to determine whether or not something actually happened, we employ two things. Eyewitness testimony. Of course, you have to ask the question, can these eyewitnesses be trusted? And two, what we called already, what we termed as circumstantial evidence. So the question concerning testimonial knowledge is, again, do we have testimony to the workings of life, the ministry of Jesus, and the resurrection? It is an effective way of determining whether or not something is true. So now here's the big question.

Believe it or not, now stay with me. They've got this little section here, and then we're going to hit the home run. Believe it or not, people who study books of antiquity, historical books, apply five basic tests. And the first test is this. They ask the question, whoever wrote the book? Now, we're talking about the Gospels. We're talking about the story of Jesus. We're talking about the New Testament and the Old Testament as well.

But the first question historians ask, not Christian historians, all historians, okay? The first question they ask is, was it their intent to be historians? Or did they sit under a tree one day and say, hey, I think I'll write a good story? Well, one of the great texts of the book of Luke is right from the get-go when Luke writes and he says, many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us.

Just as they were handed down to us by those who were first eyewitnesses and servants of the Lord, with this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you've been taught. So Luke says, yes, I'm writing history. Two, I've carefully investigated everything. Three, this is an orderly account. Four, I wanted to present the truth.

and present historical accuracy so that you can have certainty about the identity of Jesus. So step one, step two, question two, is there a level of consistency between Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four gospels? Now, all of my life and traveling around in apologetic conferences and taking all kinds of questions down in Australia, New Zealand, and now London, I can tell you that I've heard these accusations all my life. And I call these questions by some people as pseudo-historians.

They want to be, but they know just enough to be dangerous. And they give examples like this. They'll say, well, you can't trust the Bible because they contradict each other. And one of their favorite examples is Matthew says that the centurion came and asked Jesus to heal his servant. But Luke says the centurion sent the elders to ask permission. So is this a contradiction? Well, if you were to read a news headline today, you might read something that said, the president today announced. Now here's my question. Who really announced?

Was it not a speech written by a speechwriter? Was it not a speech delivered maybe by the press secretary? Emissaries have always been part of our world and the ancient world. So even in the days of Jesus, a centurion had so much power, he could either go himself or he could send a messenger. But either way, it was the centurion who's asking for help. The question is, was the servant healed or not? It's amazing how we get bogged down in the weeds forgetting the primary message.

Second, if the gospels would have been identical to each other, would we not have raised a little suspicion that maybe one wrote and the other copied? We don't all write the same way. We tell our stories differently. You know, if Rick and I have a round of golf, my story will be that I won by 10 or 15. His may be that I barely beat him. Now, the thing is that I did win, but we all don't write the same way. We emphasize different details. We express ourselves differently, but the basic data is the same.

Again, the fact that the data agrees is the test to authenticity. The books were written on different... We're not living in a time when you've got Xerox machines and email. We're living in a time where guys were separated by time and place and distance. They're recording and writing. Their differences actually show their uniqueness. Their similarities show their accuracy.

So number one, was it their intent to be historians? Two, is there a level of consistency between the accounts? Three, did the author stand to make great gain? This is a huge one. With a lot of secular scholars, historians who have converted to Christianity. Because when they wrote their history, did they stand to gain? This is called the bias test.

Did they have a vested interest in skewing the material and making it say something that really didn't happen? In other words, by writing this, did they make money? Was it a career-making endeavor? If you know anything at all about the history of the disciples, they were criticized, ostracized, and ultimately martyred, killed. They certainly did not have anything to gain financially.

History shows that all but one of these men died horrible deaths and all they would have had to do. I mean, okay, I'm just kidding. He didn't rise from the dead. That's all you had to do. They were stabbed, crucified, dragged, beaten to death, and they had nothing to gain. And according to the world, everything to lose. And our knowledge, remember our knowledge of past events is based on testimony. For instance, let's go back. Do you believe that Napoleon lived? How do you know you weren't there?

You see my point? There's a lot of things that you don't prove scientifically. You prove them by legal historical proof, eyewitness and circumstantial evidence. How do you even know that a Rwandan genocide occurred? You weren't there. How do you know that World War I and World War II occurred? You weren't there. And there are people actually who deny these things, and we call them insane. How do you know? You rely on two things. Let's go back. First, you rely on the testimony of those who've written the account.

And that applies to the Bible in the sense that can we trust the authors who wrote the history of Jesus and to the circumstantial evidence? Folks, I'm having to speed up here to make sure that we finish on time. So let me start summarizing a little bit. One of the things, the greatest arguments made is that those who were responsible for writing the New Testament...

They believed them to such a degree that they were willing to give their lives for it. And a skeptic may say, hold on a minute. So what? A lot of people have died for a lie. That's true. But they thought it was the truth. People have died for a lie. They believed to be the truth, but not for a truth they knew to be a lie. And where the disciples are concerned, they would have known whether or not Jesus would have risen from the dead because they're the first ones to break the story.

So first, eyewitness testimony. Second, you rely on circumstantial evidence. This goes back, if Jesus truly rose from the dead, what kind of things would we expect to see in culture? Do you understand? And the problem is, and this is a guy like Rodney Stark, all the things you expect to see happen in culture that would have happened had Jesus truly rose from the dead happened. One of the ones that really were convincing to me in my mid-20s was, you've got to understand Jewish culture, it is steeped.

Tradition. Did you see Yentl? Did you see Fiddler on the Roof? Tradition. You don't move from tradition, man. And yet almost overnight, 15,000 Jews stopped worshiping on the Sabbath and started worshiping on the first day of the week because that's the day Jesus rose from the dead. That's huge. And then the upturning of the Greco-Roman world where women start to be valued. That was unheard of before Jesus.

We're slaves. We're told, don't be slaves. Let your slaves go. Treat your slaves fairly if they decide to stay. And we're talking about indentured servants. The Bible did not promote slavery, but it did promote treating those who chose to remain as a brother in Christ. Four, did the authors try to manipulate the material? So to avoid things that would be embarrassing. Have you read the New Testament? Do you know how many times Jesus calls them hardheaded? Do you know how many times they act like little children? Was it Mark?

Yeah, Mark was Peter's traveling companion. He's the one who wrote the gospel of Mark. And if you notice, he consistently makes Peter look foolish. Peter rebukes Jesus. Peter says, I'll never leave you, although all the other disciples leave you. He did not even know Jesus three times. The point is this. Dr. Craig Bloomberg says, in the historical reality of the gospels, the disciples look like a bunch of self-serving, self-seeking, dull-witted people most of the time.

Now, here's the point. At the end of John chapter 21, we're told that Jesus did many other things as well. And if every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. So if they could pick and choose what they would write and what they would leave out, why put in all the embarrassing stuff? And the reason they included that is suggests a strong compelling by the disciples to record what they'd seen and heard, even if it was difficult or embarrassing.

Dr. Craig Bloomberg, who studies historical work, says if they did not feel free to leave out stuff when it would have been convenient and helpful to do so, is it really plausible to believe that they outright added and fabricated material with no historical basis? And the fifth test, and I can't go into it, it'd take much time, but I gotta get to the end. The fifth test, how trustworthy is the author concerning people, places, and events about which he writes? Let me just summarize this for you. Luke is always right.

And every time archeology or those who study literary works of antiquity have questioned Luke about any topic and they have, he always proves to be right. Every single time.

Just quickly in Luke chapter 3, Luke claims that Licinius was tetrarch of Abilene in AD 27. For years, scholars said, wrong, Licinius was not tetrarch, but rather the ruler of Chalcis half a century earlier. Luke got it wrong. But then archaeology uncovered an inscription from the time of Tiberius from AD 14 to AD 37, and it names Licinius as tetrarch in Abilene near Damascus. I could go on and on. There's so many examples. I got them all here, and I love them all, but I can't read them.

All right, truth is objective. How do you discover it? Propositional knowledge, is it beyond a reasonable doubt? Testimonial knowledge, can you trust what the historians wrote to be accurate based on their character and integrity? And three, there's experiential knowledge. And by experiential knowledge, we simply say, can you experience the risen Christ? Now, this is the end. Can you experience him? Now, you can't determine truth only by experience.

But when experience accompanies objective reality, it's powerful. Lives get changed. I know a lot of facts about Tiger Woods, but I can't say I know Tiger Woods personally. My wife has a different story. And we're told in Psalm 34, 8, taste and see that the Lord is good. For some of you, you're going to fight this intellectual battle all of your life. And for most of you, I would just simply say to you, taste and see if the Lord is good.

Paul speaks of his desire to know Jesus, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of sharing in his suffering. Experiential knowledge is knowledge by acquaintance. And surely, if this thing is real, when you and I come to Christ, we should have experiences in Christ. There should be lives that are dramatically transformed and changed. When I was in New Zealand, stay with me. Let me finish. Come on. What else are you going to do on a... What are you going to do? What are you going to do?

I'm almost done, but come on, come on. Thank you. There was a lady in New Zealand, her name was Sheila, and she's very educated, taught at one of the most well-respected private schools. And in a conversation with her one Sunday afternoon, she goes, you know, Jeff, I might could believe, but it's only uneducated people who believe in Jesus. So I just started down my list. You ever heard of Blaise Pascal, the father of the computer? Carried a little note in his pocket that said, Christ in me, the hope of glory. You ever heard of James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform?

The first lady who had chloroform during her pregnancy was so grateful she named her child Anesthesia. You ever heard of Sir Isaac Newton? He wrote 1.3 million works on Christianity. John Polkinghorne, the professor of quantum physics at Cambridge University, who at one point held the Location Chair. 30% of the most well-regarded scientists today believe in Jesus. You say, well, what about the other 30%? They're undecided. What about the other whatever's left? Not everybody's going to believe.

Christ followers from all walk of life, from great athletes who've encountered Jesus to everyday blue collar workers. They are transformed by Christ. Gangsters like mafia boss Michael Franzisi. Have you ever read that story? Hollywood stars like Jim Caviezel, Denzel Washington, who just became a pastor, by the way, at the age of 70. Poets, artists, George Frederick Handel, Florence Nightingale.

If something is true, it should be accompanied by an existential reality. Truth brings conversion. True conversion brings transformation. And anybody who's walked with Jesus for a time and gone through a difficult time in life and then tried to apply the truth of Scripture into their life at that moment has been transformed. Come to me, all you who are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Okay, finally, what's your action point? Well, if truth is objective and it's discoverable, and we can trust the word of God, and that Jesus rose from the dead, and that the general revelation tells us the existence of God, the special revelation tells us that we are saved by grace through faith, then if you're going to be a follower, listen, this is the end, this is important. If you're going to follow him, if you're going to choose, here's what it means. First, dirt road discipleship means that I believe that the objective truth exists in and is discovered in the life, words, and teachings of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible. If you're gonna follow Jesus, it means you believe in objective truth, and it means that you believe that truth is discovered in Scripture. And sometimes when you might feel that something should be true, your objective source is Jesus, whose words are discovered in Scripture. So if what you think is true doesn't conform with what Jesus says is true, you're wrong. And if you're gonna follow him, You change your ways. Otherwise, you're just a fan, but not a follower. Okay? Second, dirt road discipleship means that I commit to seek the will of God and the truth of God for every area of my life is revealed in Scripture. The Bible says all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. There will always be pseudo-scholarship that attempts to undermine the authority of Scripture. Always. Always.

People in the world will look around and say, I know the Bible says this, but it must be mistaken because this doesn't just seem right to me. Do you know the serious scholarship that has gone into the Bible for hundreds of years? I've heard this over the course of my entire life. I've heard people say, the Bible's been changed. And I'll say, can you tell me how you know that? I remember I had a great conversation years ago with a Muslim that became a friend of mine. And we used to talk, actually next door neighbor.

And one day we were talking, I mean, he didn't get angry and I didn't get angry. We just went at each other all the time, but we became great friends. Their last name was Habubi. I thought that was a cool name. One day we were talking and I said, can I ask you something? I said, isn't it true that you believe in Islam that a prophet cannot lie? He said, no, no, a prophet cannot lie. Okay. But don't you also believe in Islam that Jesus is a prophet? Yes, he is a prophet. He's not the greatest prophet, but he is a prophet. So what you're saying is Jesus, the prophet, cannot lie.

But Jesus said, "I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." And his comment was, "Oh, the Bible's been changed." How do you know that? And we had a great conversation and I took them through the whole thing that I almost took you through. Here's how I know the Bible has not been changed. The journey of a disciple, dirt road discipleship means that the Bible for you is objective truth. And when it contradicts you, you're the one that changes, not the Bible.

Third, dirt road discipleship means that I become involved in a relationship with Jesus based on truth, not mere feelings. So if you come to me and say, God is telling me to leave my husband and kids and go to Africa to be a missionary, I'm going to say to you, no, he's not. You may feel that way, but God's not going to ask you to contradict one part of his word to keep another. God is telling me to date this non-believer. No, he's not. I feel that God is telling me that same-sex marriage is okay. No, it's not. Now we're getting into culture, aren't we? See, you got to choose now.

God is telling me it's okay to take what doesn't belong to me because I need it. God is telling me I can sleep with her because I love her and eventually we'll get married anyway. God is telling me that I don't need to tithe because I give my time instead. Oh, it was okay until that. You know what all these things have in common? They're direct violations of scripture. You may feel this way, but truth is objective and it's time for you and me to stand up in love and tell the truth. That's all. Fourth and finally.

And I'm only 12 minutes over. Fourth and finally, dirt road discipleship means that I love the Lord Jesus with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. He becomes the primary pursuit of my life. He becomes the Lord of my life. He has preeminence in my life. Now here's the thing. Every single one of us in this room are sinners. All of us. And if there's no grace, we're lost. We got no hope. Sometimes we do good. Sometimes we don't do so good, do we? Except for pastors, they're perfect, right?

No, sometimes they're the worst. Just ask my buddy Rick Reed. He'll tell you. We are flawed people, man. But the good news of the gospel is we are saved by grace through faith. And if you call on the name of Jesus, he will save you. But when he saves you, you at that point make a decision in your life that now he's the Lord of your life. And you're going to follow that guy. Now, you're not going to be perfect in it.

But you're not going to let culture dictate what you believe because this guy has the objective truth. I'm going to follow him. Once you start down that path, you say, well, this sermon was too heady. Okay, here's your heart. If what I'm saying is true, you've got eternal security. You're never going to die. Now, what's going to make you feel better than that?

If Jesus rose from the dead, if the Bible can be trusted, if God has revealed himself in creation, if God has revealed himself through the person of Jesus Christ, if he died for your sins and rose from the dead, and every word he says is true, you're never going to die. Where's the better news than that? There is no better news. Today is the beginning, folks, of a movement. And this is only step one. Father, thank you for, first of all, we pray for our brother. Pray that your healing hand would touch him.

Pray, Father, if he has any kind of feeling in him of embarrassment, that you would remove that and get him back into this place. And when he comes back in, we'd all look at him and give him a big hug and love and just grateful that he's okay. Please don't let the evil one keep him from coming. And then, Father, I pray that everything that's been said, anything I said that is consistent with your word would be remembered. Anything I said that is shallow would be like the seed that falls on the path and forgotten.

And I pray as we begin this journey that we would do so with a heart and a passion to seek Jesus above and beyond all things. And in doing so, understand that the abundant life that Christ came to bring is ours. And even in the midst of pain and suffering, we know this world has fallen, but you are redeeming this world and you will restore all things. In Christ's name, everybody said.

We hope you enjoyed today's message. If you want to know more about what it's like to be a Christ follower, I want to encourage you to go to oneandall.church.com to get more information, as well as to reach out to us to walk alongside you in this step.

I also want to encourage you to download our One and All app as we have so many resources there for you, like our daily devotionals, our conversations, podcasts, as well as the sermons, and to know what is happening here at our church so you can get plugged in. We hope you have a great rest of your week, and we'll end as we always do with one hope, one life in Christ.