Prayer Works Bible Study: August 24, 2025

"Prepare To Defend Pt 3 - Common Objections,Misunderstandings,Half Truths And Mistruths About Christianity"

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Heavenly Father, we come before you and we thank you for this day. We thank you for your mercy and your grace this day. Thank you for this fellowship. Thank you for the word that you've given us and we will be obedient and be willing vessels for your Kingdom to use us in the way that you see fit Father.  

We thank you for all those that will be on call, all those that will hear the recording and we pray that your spirit lead them and guide them through this word, helping them to understand and apply this word in their daily life for your glory.  

So thank you, Father, for this day. Thank you for the words that you will give Vee. I pray Holy Spirit now descend and provide leadership and guidance for this meeting and it's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. 

Amen, Amen welcome, Cynthia welcome, Cynthia looking cool, looking cool, looking good, alright. Alright so our Calvin is gonna take care of letting people in and actually we are continuing our series, always prepared to defend.  

So Calvin is going to start with a quick overview of what we talked about last week. You’re sharing? Oh, sorry, I'm not sharing at all, so you can't see my screen ok. Alright ok, so from last week we talked about how Jesus modeled being prepared to answer. 

And some of the things that we observed in last week's study was that first that the baptism by John the Baptist. How God was pleased with Jesus as his son for that step and everything that he had done in his life, walking faithfully up until that point. 

And as we brought out last week, he didn't do anything in the ministry up until that point but he was sinless and then in the wilderness how he was tempted by the Devil three times and how he responded.  

And then how he responded to the Pharisees, the chief priests described when they were trying to test and question his authority and misunderstanding the heart of God's word and laws themselves.  

And then we talked about Nicodemus and how Jesus made it clear that in order to follow him and to see the Kingdom of God, we needed to be born again, and then to the Samaritan woman he spoke to her, even though that culturally wasn't something that was done.  

He broke that cultural bondage and talked about how salvation is through the Jews and where this salvation comes from and what the meaning of true worship is. And then he spoke to the Sanhedrin, who falsely accused him of blasphemy.  

And he didn't say very much, and it also goes to show us how sometimes we need to be quiet and let the spirit lead us also to Pilate. He spoke to Pilate, even though he was innocent.  

Pilate approved his torture and crucifixion nevertheless, and if you recall, even pilot's wife had had a dream that she begged Pilate to have nothing to do with his case, but nevertheless he was handed over. 

And then finally the thief on the cross that came to repentance and belief that Jesus was the son of God, standing in defense of Jesus's innocence. So these are just how Jesus, modeled while he was walking on Earth in his ministry.  

In addition to everything else that he did, all of the miracles and the healings. But again, it was at times where the defense of the Kingdom, the defense of God's word needed to happen. 

And in last week's discussion, we got to see how Jesus responded, and so we also need to be ready and prepared to respond to questions about what we believe and model after what Jesus left for us to do.  

Ok so today we're going to look at common objections, misunderstandings, half truths and mistruths about Christianity. Is everyone seeing my screen? Can you see the words on my screen? Ok, I just wanted to be sure.  

And there's a lot to cover here, and we're not going to have time to go into a whole bunch of detail about every objection and how you might respond to them, we're going to focus on one objection in particular. 

But I'm going to encourage you to continue to study and find out and know for yourself. If someone approaches you with some of these questions, so before we dive in, I do have a question for anyone.  

Why should Christians know about objections, misunderstandings, half truths and mistruths regarding Christianity? Why should Christians know about these things. Anybody have any thoughts that come to you about why should we even need to know these.  

And you can unmute. That's what you're looking for, but this is probably just my opinion is that we should know about these things because so many people are misinformed. And they speak things like that are not true.  

Like I know y'all some, I don't know if it was Pastor Zee, he mentioned a few weeks ago about why it's ok for women to be pastors, and why I think Paul was talking about why they at that time, why they shouldn't be.  

But people carry that on as if that is a legitimate truth, and that is what I mean, that women cannot be ministers and pastors and things like that because they believe in the past. I guess that's the way to put it. 

But we should know. We should know what's true so that we can be a testimony and explain it to people so they can get the true understanding of what Christianity really is. 

Yes, we need to know the truth as Pilate said to Jesus, what is truth and that's what we're facing. We're facing generations of people who just don't speak the same language as we do. 

And we can't assume that what we grew up knowing basic information that we grew up knowing about God, that this generation understands. All right, so we're going to look at some of these things. Thank you, Miss Mary, for that.  

So as Christians, we are related to and are living amongst different groups of people, so we have believers and we have unbelievers and in those two groups we have strong believers and we have believers who are starting to have doubts.  

And under unbelievers, we have atheists who are starting to have doubts about their atheism, and we also have strong atheists. So strong believers are people who are totally pro God, God all the way.  

I don't have any question about who he is, but on the same side, we have believers who are starting to have doubts, and these are often children of strong believers. How many testimonies do you hear about former Christians who are no longer Christians?  

And then we have strong atheists like I'm totally anti God, I don't want to hear anything about what you have to say about God. And then we have atheists are kind of like, you know what, this atheist and this non belief in God is now working for me.  

Something's missing in my life, in my heart. And God is working on their hearts. They don't realize it, but God is working on their hearts. So what do you do as a believer when you're encountering these different groups of people?  

So we're gonna look at begin to look at that tonight. So hang on just a second so common objections, misunderstandings, half truths and mistruths about Christianity that might lead believers to doubt and unbelievers to feel justified in their disbelief, their lifestyle, their choices and rebellion against God.  

So here are a few things that come up. Why would a good God allow evil and suffering? And that's the question we're going to focus on tonight. Other questions that may come up. How can we trust the Bible when it's been so corrupted and changed over the centuries?  

Who knows what it really said? And if you, if you're nodding your heads because you've heard this, didn't the Bible support slavery? Why is the Bible against homosexuality? Love is love.  

All religions lead to God. Well, shouldn't a sincere Buddhist or Hindu go to heaven? I'm not trying to answer these questions right. Ok, just drop them into your ear to here, continuing on. 

Oops, there's no evidence that Jesus even existed. None of these are true, by the way. I'm just telling you what people will say. Which you might hit. How could a loving God allow bone cancer or other diseases in children?  

You're only a Christian because you were raised that way. If you were born in a country like Iran or India, you'd be a Muslim or Hindu. Where does this work? Yes, me too. Every religion has truth it's wrong for you to force your morals or your religion on others. 

 It's arrogant and intolerant to think that you're right and everyone else is wrong. Ok, let's go on. The Bible was written by bronze age shepherds and that it teaches the Earth is flat. If two people love each other, they should be able to express that love.  

Because people don't have any choice about being born, God's judgment of non-believers and sending them to hell for not believing in him doesn't seem fair. The beliefs of different Christian religions don't completely align, so you got the Jehovah's Witnesses.  

You got the Baptists, you got the Catholics, you got the Protestants, you’ve got the Mormons. We've got so many different religions you all don't agree anyway. And then we don't need Christianity teaches values.  

Kind of scary, isn't it? And here's a few other things. There's no proof that God exists. I don't personally sense or feel a God. I sort of feel like, once you're dead, you're dead. Evolution and science serve as an alternative to religion in terms of explaining why we exist and why certain things happen.  

We're basically animals trying to exist, just like every other animal, and when people are struggling to exist, they do bad things. Religion just gives people another way to differentiate and divide themselves.  

People have to do what works for them and that helps them get through life. So these are the kinds of beliefs that if you haven't encountered them yet you will, especially if you are serious about fulfilling what Jesus asked us to do and what was that? 

Go out into the world. Stop preaching to the choir of believers. We are called to go out and it's something that Calvin and I are wrestling with. So as I'm speaking to you, I'm speaking to ourselves as well, but time is serious now.  

My brothers and sisters in Christ we are called to go out and when we are facing God, our Father and he shows us the record of our life, the recording of our lives. And he shows us all the missed opportunities we had to share the good news to someone who didn't believe or was in the cusp of unbelieving, and we didn't do it because of fear, 

How will we feel then and I'm not saying it's easy because I know it's not, but just something to think about. These kinds of questions. We need to be able to respond to in some way ok.  

And we're not going to try to get into that today, but I want to look at a couple of questions. So why don't people believe? Here's a few thoughts, people can't understand why God doesn't do something about all the evil in the world.  

Their turn off by the hypocrisy of Christians they've known, they don't want anyone, especially God, to interfere with the way they're living. And they don't know, they know that if they were to believe in God, they'd have to change their lifestyle.  

So these are some of the things that are behind why people don't believe we're going to go a little bit deeper into that? What does the Bible say? The fool says in his heart there is no God.  

Now, when the Bible says fool, they're not talking about a dummy. They're talking about someone who, despite knowing in their heart there is a God, refuses to believe and accept that God exists.  

So what are the characteristics of a fool? Let's look at a few characteristics. A fool is one who hates knowledge, who takes no pleasure in understanding who enjoys wicked schemes, who proclaims folly.  

In other words, they they're they talk foolishness loudly. They spurn a parents discipline. How many foolish children do we see around us, how many Christian parents are raising foolish children?  

They speak perversity. They're quick tempered. They get the fool, gets himself in trouble with his proud speech. Now we all make mistakes, none of us are perfect. But a fool habitually does this and relishes in these things. 

Let's look at a few more characteristics of a fool. A fool mocks at sin. They're deceitful, they despise. Their mother and Father, we can even add into that they bring grief to his or her parents.  

Now this is a big one Fools commit sexual immorality. But what do we see all around us in the world, glorifying. All of sexual morality anything goes that's foolish. A foolish woman tears down her own house.  

And finally, fools do not learn their lessons from the mistakes they make. They continue to do the same foolish things over and over again to their destruction. So those are the characteristics of a fool.  

And how many of us walk once did all these, if not all of them, we did at least some of them. And we know people who are still behaving foolishly. So why doesn't this make any sense?  

Why does the Bible say a fool says in his heart there is no God? For since creation the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, all of this have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made. 

So that people are without excuse. All of this didn't just evolve on its own, there was a creator who made you and I and everything on this earth. Who put this earth in this solar system? The only planet of its kind capable of sustaining life, made built and made and created for us. 

And God surrounded us with a bunch of planets that cannot sustain life, that because they're either too close to the sun or too far away from the sun, cannot sustain life. So he puts this all around us.  

Look, you're special but what do you want to do? We want to go out into the solar system and prove that the Earth's not the only planet out there. Foolish when it's clearly here for us to see you're special. 

You were created. You didn't just you. You didn't just evolve from nothing. There is a beginner. There was a designer for all of this that you see around this, and let's continue on.  

Why won't people believe so we see some spiritual lessons people don't believe because of their foolish hearts. But why do people? Can I ask you a question? Yes go ahead ok, so actually I'm not doubting you.  

I'm just saying that so when you were talking about them going out in space trying to find other beings to make sure there's life and other things on other planets. So you're saying that God created Earth strictly for man to live and not out in space. 

I'm saying God created a perfect place for us as human beings to live. He didn't say that we couldn't go out and explore. Oh no, I'm just saying that that this is our home. Yes, this is our home, yes that's what I'm trying to clarify, this is this is our home.  

Yeah and, you know, even though they're going out in space trying to find other life and all this stuff, but this is our home until we transition. Yeah, exactly this is our home until we transition right.  

He didn't go tell Adam. Go out, you're gonna, I'm paraphrasing here. Take care of the land. Tend the land, be a steward of the land, be of this land. Yes, yes, that's the point I was trying to make that this is our home right now. 

Our home. Yes, exactly we have no other home manufacture. Yes, that's what that's the point I was trying to make. Yes, Amen, Yes. This is our home. All right, so why won't people believe?  

Why do people choose not to believe? So going back to Genesis, what God said, the Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. That hasn't changed.  

We are consistently and totally evil and we have to accept that and the thing is, we’re like this from birth from birth. You come out of your mother's womb this is how you are. You begin to manipulate, you cry, and you learn that all you need to do is cry to get the attention.  

Whatever it is that you want. You open your mouth, you act out, and you become from birth, from birth. Something like what we're seeing here so yeah. Isn't it amazing how you don't have to treat to teach children to be bad. 

Where did you learn that? Yeah. How? What? You've been around, kindergartens? Oh yes, Oh yes. I'm like wait a second. Holy word. You’re exactly right Calvin. You don't have to teach them anything, you don't. 

You don't have to teach the bullying in school. I mean from an early age, what? Ok, maybe not you know, so why won't people believe another scripture once you that means all of us, were under God's curse doomed forever for your sins you went along with the crowd.  

And we're just like all the others full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty Prince of the power of the heir, who is at work right now in the hearts of those who are against the Lord. And this translation is the living Bible translation.  

I just liked how it, I just liked it's interpretation of it. You went along with the crowd. Wasn’t that all of us? You went along with the crowd. We went along with the crowd and behind it all. So we're talking about what we know that what a fool is and the characteristic of a fool. 

But what is behind that? It's what's in the heart and it's that they don't unbeknownst to them, they're being controlled by the enemy. And here is a little blurry but there's a bunch of livings. 

 Going off the side of the cliff and one is saying I don't know where they're going, but from the look of this crowd, it's gotta be good. Isn't that what? Oh, how many? Oh, that person got 1.5 million followers. They must be speaking truth. Alright again, another scripture. Why won't people believe? You want to read? 

Sure so all of us used to be just as they are our lives, expressing the evil within us, doing every wicked thing that our passions or our evil thoughts might lead us into. We started out bad being born with evil natures, and we're under God's anger, just like everyone else. 

So, lest we Christians remember back going back to the four types of people we deal with. Less we Christians forget and end up drawing people away from the faith because we forget where we were and if anyone ever tells you, oh I'm this, I'm that I'm no longer, you know. If anyone says they're not a sinner, they're lying, run away. 

Because one of the most important things that we can do as believers is remember that we were once sinners, and it's only through the grace of God that we are out from under the influence of the world.  

We have to remember that that that's what will help our testimony. That's what will make us more effective because we remember from where we came, it brings into our testimony as sense of compassion.  

That people can relate to and help us relate to other people because we're not saying, oh, if only this, and if only that and I never this and I never that we say oh you have no idea let me tell you have no idea. 

Let me tell you where I came from and what I did. Let me tell you where I came from in case you think that you can't be saved, let me tell you where I came from. That the testimony that can lead people to salvation, so the consequences of unbelief. Let's look at some of the consequences. 

This is a long scripture passage. Can you help me read it? This is Romans 1:18-32. I think it's important that we just remember what are the consequences of people who choose unbelief?  

So when you see the walking dead, I call them the walking dead because they don't realize that they're dead. They're walking in sin and they haven't been renewed. They haven't been born again. So when we see people choosing to be unbelievers, these are the consequences of their unbelief. 

So 18 the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all godliness 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.  

For although they knew God, they never glorified him as God, nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being, birds and animals and reptiles. 

So here we see the beginning consequences of unbelief. The suppression of truth and we are living in such a dangerous age of perilous time right now where people just can't distinguish what's true and what's false.  

What's good is what was good is bad and what's bad is good. You even have deep fake AI videos running rampant. All designed to shake us up and get us out from understanding what's true and what's not. 

And our poor children, our poor young people, are growing up in this. And then, as Calvin was reading. The consequences of choosing unbelief is that eventually you begin to create idols for yourself, right. 

It's interesting because I heard a pastor today was summarizing how Paul was speaking to the Corinthians and he basically asked them a question that then turned their way of thinking around and that was you worship what you don't know.  

And he went on even further to say that if you are worshipping what you have created yourself how powerful, then, is what you've created? How can you say that that is a God if it's less than you, because you created it.  

You should be looking to something that is all created, that has the power to create everything, including you, not subject yourself to something as a God that you yourself have created.  

And I thought that that was such a marvelous description of how we can fall prey to our own idols. Amen, Amen. I continue on with Romans 1:18-32. Therefore, now this is a biggie, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts.  

And what did he give them over to? So when you see somebody living sexual, sexually impure lives degrading their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served like how Calvin was saying, created things rather than the creator who is forever praised, Amen.  

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts and aren't we seeing that right now? This is serious, even their women exchanged natural sexual relations from unnatural ones. But we're seeing generations of young people who, as I was reading the questions before, love is love. 

No, Bible says the type of love you're talking about is God giving you over to something that's shameful and not in accordance with his will. Women exchanging natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, in the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.  

Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their era. This is such a big challenge for the Christians, you are going to be confronted with people who are going to say I can't believe in God and I can't believe in Christian because I can't understand why God would be against love. 

Not truly understanding that love is not defined by us. Love is not defined by what we lust after. Love is not a feeling. Love is ordained by God, it is modeled by God. It is modeled by Christ.  

We can't redefine it. Try as we might. We can't redefine it and God has a better definition of a godly definition of what love is. Open your hearts to that leaning. It's beyond what you feel and what is burning in your body. Yeah so, but that's for another issue continue on. 

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity.  

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful, they invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents.  

They have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death. They not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them. 

So fasten your seat belts. This is us right now. So when you see all this behavior, understand what the influence that at least people are under, and we likewise ourselves. We have to check ourselves because as Paul said, examine yourselves where you are in your faith, are you greedy?  

Say, well, I'm not sexually immoral. I'm not engaging any of that, but are you greedy? Are you envious you may not have murdered anybody, but are you causing strife anywhere? Are you deceitful? Do you have malice in your heart against someone, do you gossip? 

So read those words. Uh, have you slandered anybody with your words? Oh, let me tell you about so and so. Oh so and so hmm. So it's not just about sexual immorality. It's all these other things.  

Arrogance, boastfulness. So when you see these things beware. Beware of both in yourself and in others. Ok, so going on so we've looked at the consequences of our belief. Let's look at what is at the heart of these objections, misunderstandings, half truths and myths mistruths about Christianity.  

Let's look at a couple of these things. At the heart is what we worship. What we worship is at the heart of the choices we make and how we live. What we worship and some people say I don't worship anything, really? 

Ok, let's look at some of the things that people worship. What we worship without God. Self, your pleasures, what makes you feel good, money, power, the works of our own creation.  

We worship others, heroes, idols, the rich and famous. We worship things and acquiring things. So this is what happens when we worship without God. Some people say I don't worship anybody.  

If you can point to any of these things that they that occupy their time, occupy their mind, what they, what they do with how they spend their money, what that tells a lot about what they really worship. 

Their physical health, their strength, you know how they look. It all boils down to these basic areas is what can happen when your worship turns away from God. So we're going to read a couple of scriptures here about this. 

1 John 2:16 for everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life comes not from the father but from the world. So that's just something you have sons, grandsons, daughters, granddaughters, nieces, nephews. 

The lust of the flesh. They need to understand how this is not light stuff. Anyone in their circle that is tempting them into lust in their body, with their eyes, what they're looking at. And the pride for and being proud.  

You know, pride is pride is a good word in the world. But pride is not a good word in the Kingdom. So this is just a warning to those who have young men, young women in their lives. 

We need to figure, we need to inoculate them from the world. Because the world is going to come at them through what they lust through their flesh and through their eyes, and through what makes them proud of themselves.  

And James 3:16, says with all of this lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Where you have envy all this stirs of envy, selfish ambition. There you find disorder and every evil practice.  

Ok I know this is kind of a heavy message for the night. But so important, because these times call for soldiers of the Kingdom who are equipped and are and are equipping those in their family, those in their circle to understand where we are and what is at stake. 

Ok, so I'm continuing on, now I'm going to look at one of those questions. But if God is good why does evil exist? Why does he allow evil and suffering? And how many of us have struggled with that question?  

Secretly, even secretly, and maybe even be struggling with it now, maybe you're going through something. And you're like, I pray to God, I believe in God. I worship God, you know.  

But why? Why is this happening to my child? My niece, my grandchild, to me, to my home. Why? Why God? And I'm not going to pretend to have the answers. I don't but I have some things for you to think about.  

This video I thought was really well done. It's really an animation. It's very short and it's someone asking the question is God good? So let me stop sharing because I don't think I'm sharing my audio, hang on a second. Let me just make sure I'm sharing my audio.  

Ok, share sound. Ok, I'm going to play. Someone gave me a thumbs up when you can hear this speaking of this is God good? If he is, why is there suffering and evil? Let's assume for the moment that God is all powerful.  

This means that God can do anything that is logically possible, so he can create galaxies and subatomic particles and rainforests and you. But God cannot do what is logically impossible.  

He cannot make a square circle or a one ended stick. So can God make a rock so big that he can't lift it? No. So what if when God created human beings, he wanted them to be free? Freedom is a good thing, but if humans are to be free, they cannot be forced to obey God because freedom without choice is like a square circle.  

It's a logical contradiction. No choice, no freedom. God didn't want robots. He wanted real people. The first humans endowed with the awesome power of free choice, abused their freedom.  

The tragic consequences of their bad choice and our bad choices ripple across the world. God is responsible for the fact of freedom, but humans are responsible for their acts of freedom.  

But let's remember, we don't suffer alone. God will put an end to suffering and evil, and God became a man to suffer with us. God is good and he wants real people like you to know him but the free choice is yours. 

I just thought that was just so concise and a perfect and a great conversation starter. Just a moment and a good conversation starter. I was getting my screens together here ok. So a few things to think about.  

Why does God allow evil and suffering? So we know that God is all wise and he's all knowing. He sees the beginning and the end. He sees how it all works together, so I'm not going to sit here and say that you know suffering doesn't hurt.  

Suffering isn't horrible. I'm not going to say that ever. But I'm going to leave a few things in your heart to think about. We trust God and we believe God is the almighty. What does he say about himself?  

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  

And then perhaps one Joseph, as an example of someone who suffered so much. At the end of his suffering, faced with his own brothers, who were the cause of his suffering. When he could have had them killed on the spot.  

What he say, he came to the realization. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. In order to bring about this present result to keep many people alive. So is it possible that our suffering can keep someone alive?  

We can't even comprehend that thought. It's beyond us. But nevertheless we live in a fallen world, so we'll have natural disasters, will have moral evil. We all fall short. There are things that are going to happen, but things to think about.  

If God did not allow evil, none of us would be alive. Because we are all evil in nature. But God can bring good from evil, even when we don't see it. Even when we don't see it and we don't live long enough, we don't have eyes that can see far enough.  

We don't have ears that can hear far enough to know how God can possibly turn evil into good. Joseph had no idea when his brothers sold him into slavery. He had no idea that he would become second in command to Pharaoh.  

How? How could he see that God gave him a dream that people will be bowing to him, but he didn't know that what was in between that coming to power, he had no idea the suffering he would have to undergo.  

So few other scriptures to think about. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing, James 1:2-4.  

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose, Romans 8:28. So I can't sit here and tell you that any of this is easy. I know it's not.  

How you can't see it? How can all things work together for good? I can't tell you how. But I know that as believers We trust. God is calling us to trust and believe him. We also glory. This is what Paul said. 

We also glory in tribulations, glory in tribulations. What? Why? How knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character hope and that's what we have hope. 

We have hope, without God, there's no hope. With God, we have hope. Even when all around us is falling apart, we have hope. So knowing and growing in God often requires pain, Jesus told us about it.  

This life is not going to be easy. This walk is not going to be easy, but if we didn't have Jesus, if we didn't have the Holy Spirit, there's no way. We'd be losing our minds just like the others people who are outside of the faith are losing their minds.  

And these are a few things that I was listening to someone named Doctor Frank Turek. And he offered a few other things to think about. Sometimes you only look up when you're at your lowest. 

Everything's going fine. Sometimes we forget to pray. Sometimes we forget to look up to God even just to say thank you, Lord. But let something happen to us. Oh God you know. And sometimes we only do that when we're on our backs.  

And we're often not interested in God until something goes wrong. And he said so a few other interesting things we need difficulty in our lives. We need obstacles. How many crazy people in this world in this government, in positions of power. 

Who have never faced difficulty in their lives and have not had any obstacles, are making all kinds of foolish decisions and selfish decisions, not mindful of anyone because they have not had difficulty in their lives, so they have no compassion or understanding or empathy for the impact of their decisions and their words.  

If we got everything we wanted every time we would become spoiled. And if you want to ruin a child, give them everything they want. And I'm sure we have seen many, many spoiled children.  

We're not doing our children any favors by giving them everything they want. And something else, he said. Suffering makes us become more like Jesus and not like a demon. Whoa demons don't want to suffer.  

They don't want to suffer. They want the pleasures they want the power. But they know their end, their end is coming. Their end is inevitable. So they're trying to take down as many of God's precious children as they can.  

And here's something else, he said. Some virtues can only be developed through evil and trials. Isn't that something? Just think about that. Some things can only be developed when we go through, such as, no courage without danger.  

No perseverance without obstacles. No compassion without suffering. No patience without tribulation. No character without adversity. No faith or trust without need. So we need difficulty, we need trouble. And he said, you know, there's a saying, no pain, no gain.  

He said he wanted to change it. It should be more pain, more gain. Now let me not sit here and tell and then let you think, oh, this is all hunky dory. No, it is terrible. It is terrible to suffer. 

It is so difficult and I'm just going to use my spiritual daughter as an example. God showed me what is possible through suffering in my spiritual daughter and he allowed me in a conversation with Nadia one day, which is one of the deepest, darkest times in her life.  

He allowed me to experience for half a day you're pain, Nadia I never told you. He allowed me to feel it and the weight of it was it took my breath away. And I spent most of the day in tears and feeling. I felt in that moment such a connection.  

And just an inkling, he gave me just a glimpse of your pain and to see you now, my precious daughter, I needed you just as much as you needed us. We needed you because the power of your testimony is evidence of the goodness of God.  

That's surely, surely God sees us, God loves us. That he would connect us with his African pastor, who was in Boston, went to Alabama. Here we are in New York here about Alabama, come to Alabama, meet pastor Zee and through pastor Zee meet you and we become a family.  

How is that happening? And God wanted it to happen that way because he needed you and he needed us to understand. The only way this is happening is because of me. No, nobody else can get the credit because we weren't thinking about ever, never crossed our minds at all. 

But surely so through this suffering, you're our shared suffering God grew us and he grew you, and he's continuing to grow us. So I just wanted to share that. So beginning to wrap it up, what is God's solution for evil? Jesus.  

Jesus is God's solution for evil because at the heart of Christianity is the cross. As believers and this I listen to a lecture from John Lennox and I'll give you all these slides. You all can kind if you're curious, you can begin looking up some of these people and what they have been teaching.  

John Lennox said as believers, we know that God sent Jesus to ultimately suffer and die for humanity on the cross. God didn't and doesn't remain distant from the problem of human suffering, but has himself become part of our suffering.  

So God understands our suffering, but God is a God of compensation. He will ultimately bring justice and an end to all pain and suffering. He will, if we could see what God has done and will ultimately do with suffering our questions would stop.  

In the meantime, we have faith. We can't see it, but because we know the character of the God we serve, we trust and believe that he is indeed going to work all things together for our good.  

So our faith gives us real and enduring hope and in sharing Christ the cross and the resurrection we can offer a glimmer of hope to others. Atheism offers no hope. So my brothers and sisters in Christ, we are charged with offering the glimmer of hope through our testimonies.  

And Calvin, can you read this and this is the last scripture. It is written, I believe, that therefore I have spoken since we have that same spirit of faith. We also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.  

All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal. 

Therefore, because of all that we as believers, we must know God and make him know. And that is going to be the focus of next week. We have two more, two more weeks in this series and next week we're going to look at something that the Holy Spirit dropped into my heart.  

The peaceful approach to defending your faith because there will come a time when you will be called to defend your faith. Why do you believe what you believe? Where do you get this hope from? 

Why do we believe what we believe? So, Nadia, you know Miss Jones, Miss Mary, Debbie, Cynthia, Pastor Zee. And 206, I can't, I don't know who 206 is, but everyone on this call Calvin, me.  

There will come a time when someone is going to ask you, how could you possibly believe? What would you say? And one the greatest source is going to be your testimony. So we're going to have some practice in sharing our testimonies.  

So in week five, Week 5 will be the time where I'm going to ask you all to prepare to share your testimony. Doesn't have to be long, just enough. The key here is if you think in 1/2 hour where you might be at work, or you might be in the grocery store. 

Or someplace that time doesn't permit a full on, you know, testimonial of your life, but just basically why you have the hope that you have and what you believe in. That in and of itself would be your testimony and how you are able to present that in the shortest period of time that's basically what we're looking for. 

Yes, ok, do you have any questions about that? Ok, you have a choice now we're giving you a choice because I understand some of us are a little shy. Right, you have a choice. You can share your testimony in Week 5, not next week, but Week 5.  

You can share your testimony here just a few minutes, take like maybe 2 to 3 minutes to share your testimony. Or you can send your testimony to someone. Ok, you can write it up. I would like you all to write your testimonies, but you have a choice of whether you want to read it and speak it or send it e-mail it to somebody.  

You have your choice in week 5. Alright, it'll be fine. It's important, I'm not just doing this to torture you or to you know, because honestly, if you can't do this amongst the brethren, how can you do this in the world? 

It's not happening. We've come to realize that and believe me, as pastor Zee always says, you know, people ask, well, does it take all that, they say that's not the question. It’s how deep do you want to go?  

And believe me, once you start on this road and say you know what God, I want to go deep with you. Don't ask me what you're don’t want. Don't ask for what you don't want because God will give. He is an answer of prayers. 

Oh yes. He is, he is, he is. So we thank you all I'm going to stop sharing. Thank you all for listening and participating. Pastor Zee, can you unmute? Close this out and close us out. 

Hold on, can you hear me? Yes. Alright, I'm trying to find the you know now Mother Jones you see I struggle too, are you on your phone? Oh, no, you are, right, yeah. Yeah, you know what this is an important teaching and I think I don't know if you guys can make it.  

I know it's already like you should kind of make it in a teaching form. So that it's something that at some point we put on the website so people can, you know, kind of like in a notes comes that if somebody comes across it, can read it and kind of capture the essence of it.  

And that the testimony part right, it's important guys. Because the scripture is specifically say we overcome by the words of our testimony. So if you want to overcome there are certain things.  

Not to labor the point, there are certain, you know, there's certain things that we are dealing with. Some comes out by prayer and fasting. That's why you know, Jesus says this kind comes up by praying, fasting, some kind comes out by testimony.  

Some kinds comes out by prayer by just simple prayer or some kinds comes out or by giving and the reason why he says we overcome, right is that is the totality of overcoming means we're getting over something.  

So we overcome challenges of life by the words of our testimony. So there's certain things that will probably chase you until you overcome by the word of your testimony. So this idea of testifying, it's so important so that somebody gets to believe.  

It's as simple as that, because when you see a person sitting there. You know when you see Calvin, when you see Veronica sitting there. You could possibly think, Oh my God, it's all great.  

And shares you like? Yo, I have been hell and fire and back and went back to hell and came back and went back again and came back and then ran in the desert and I'm here. Right, mother Jones, same thing you know.  

So Heavenly Father, who blesses your people. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for this community. We thank you for what you are doing in our lives. We thank you, Lord for what's coming and we thank you for where we stand.  

We perfectly know that is your hand that has guided us this far. And it's your hand that will take us further. So in your hands, we continue to commit ourselves, knowing that we are feeble.  

That we are just clay and ashes but the very essence that makes us alive is the true nature of our souls that comes from you. So we pray that as you continue to equip us, grant us favor with men, with angels and may you continue to make a way for us.  

Even in things and times where things are difficult, challenging even in these days. So I thank you for holding us and preserving our lives. So that we can see another day where we can raise our hands and surely God is beautiful.  

Now be with us as we prepare for another week. Bless our children as they go back and forth from school. We send angels on assignment to guide them in everything they do. Father we pray, Lord, that the things that are chasing this generation.  

May they recognize them so they can try to step out of harm's way for what this world is throwing at them. Quench in their souls the very essence that is destroying them, which is screens and phones and all this language that is being thrown at them to cause them to be addicted.  

And I pray for your spirit to govern our children and we continuously dedicate them to you. And we pray now that as we go into this week, bless us. Open our eyes and walk with us and we pray this prayer in Jesus name, Amen.