A Defense of Christianity | Nabeel Qureshi in Louisville

I want introduced you guys a speaker today he is new to us at southeast but he's not new to students his name is Nabil he travels all over the country and all over the world talking to students about who Jesus is and so he's going to come talk to us today and I'm just going to be honest we obviously first service I got to hear him and I'm going to tell you if you're out in the crossing you can hear my voice if you're in hearing you hear my voice you guys are in for like something real special today it was a super powerful time for me and I know what are we powerful for you so I'm gonna pray for Nabil and then we're gonna get rolling I dear Lord Jesus I just thank you so much for this time I thank you so much for what you've put on to Bill's heart I thank you for the journey that you've brought him on from a very young age until now and how that journey impacts all of us God thank you so much for using people who are willing and I pray right now that you using the veal in ways that you've even never used him before I pray that your spirit I'll move into this place they don't like it always does and it transforms our lives and God you are so good we are so not but thank you for using us and Jesus now pray amen amen thanks brother how you guys doing this morning good a little bit more away from the first service you guys remember to change the clocks right my phone hasn't gotten the memo yet it's still an hour behind today is like the official get out of church for free day because everyone's just like oh I forgot to change my clock sorry so really glad you guys made it glad you guys are here this is not actually I'm not really new to Southeast either I've actually been coming to South East once a year at least for the past six years so first time I was in Louisville was in 2007 ministry in the gospel so I'm really glad to be back always excited to come back here I heard that you guys are doing a series called comeback you just started last week this is the second week and I think that this got the Christian God Jesus is a God of comeback and it sounds like cliche until you hear the stories you hear what he does with people's lives you hear what he can do with your lives it's unbelievable now my story if it followed itself to its logical conclusion if there hadn't been an intervention from God I certainly wouldn't be here so my story is kind of a comeback story too because I was raised as a Muslim I was born as a Muslim here in the United States raised according to devout Islamic principles and what does that look like well the average Muslim I don't know how many guys didn't know any Muslims around here quite a few of you there's a lot of Muslims in Louisville and the way a Muslim lives his life is by following the precepts of Islam by following the teachings of Sharia so what does that look like well we prayed five times a day we read the Quran regularly we memorize portions of the Quran just so you get a little bit of context here we weren't kind of nominal Muslims in our family my mother was the daughter of a Muslim missionary okay so she was a missionary kid even though she was Pakistani we're Pakistani and by our heritage she was born in Indonesia because her father was preaching Islam in Indonesia that's what he did with his life and so he was devoted and she was a missionary kid and actually my grandmother so my mom's mother same thing she was born in Uganda because her father was a Muslim physician and a Muslim preacher so he's preaching and healing in Uganda in the name of Allah so I come from this line of Muslim missionaries very very devout practice there that's my mom's side my dad he's one of 10 which is kind of normal from where we come from and just to let you know kind of his background when he came to the United States in the 70s he actually arrived the day that Elvis died so I don't know if he knows but Elvis was called the King and when he lands he opens up a newspaper and it says the king is dead he's like I thought the US had a president apparently they had a king got to learn this one all over again and so my dad comes with that kind of little knowledge about the states but he came for a lot of reasons part of it was for religious freedom I don't know if you know this but the u.s. is an awesome place and in parts around the world even in a Muslim country our sect of Islam couldn't practice Islam because the rest of the sect's had turned against it and so you know it was partially for religious freedom that my father came to this country as well just to give you a picture then we're tight-knit family my dad comes and joins the meal pterri here in the United States my mom's a devout Muslim my dad was too and so when I'm being raised then it's not just a matter of hey I happen to be Muslim no Islam was kind of very much who I was I loved Islam my parents had taught me Nabil you look like a Muslim when you go out in public people are going to see your face and the first thing they're going to see is look that's a Muslim so it doesn't really matter how good a student you are be the best student you can be of course but you're always going to represent Islam so that's how my parents had kind of raised me as an ambassador for Islam those were the words they would use and what I noticed very early on was that when I would go to meet my friends in middle school in a high school as I grew older my friends would call themselves Christian or they would go to church regularly but they never embodied their faith it was kind of strange to me and actually in a way I kind of understood it because I thought the Christian faith was ridiculous I had been taught to see the Christian faith as ridiculous because the average person I connected with who was a Christian couldn't even explain to me what they believed if I asked a Christian about their faith they would you know kind of give me some words and say you know this is kind of what I was taught to believe let me give you an example in my my junior year of high school I was taking a Latin class and we had one girl in our grade who was kind of the token Christian like she was the one that everyone knew was the Christian she was kind of weird so he just kind of stayed away from her she was the one who was on fire for the Lord you know we didn't know it was being on fire for the Lord I just thought she was crazy but that's what she was and so one day in Latin class she asked me a question she says Nabil can I ask you a question and I said you just did but you can ask another one because I was a jerk don't I mean don't judge your Christians so so she says to me Nabil do you know Jesus you see I had been trained with the response to this question I I knew an answer to give to her I said to her actually that's a yes I do know Jesus I know according to the Quran that Jesus is virgin born the Quran teaches me as a Muslim that Jesus was able to do miracles that he was the most miraculous man who ever lived healing the blind cleansing the leprous raising the dead the Quran tells me that Jesus is the Messiah and I know he's going to come back at the end of time I must have gone off script because she had no idea what to say next so I finished it for her I said but Betsy I also know Jesus is not God and she said no Nabil that's the most important part Jesus is God I said you really believe that and she said yes I said is it important for you to believe this and she said absolutely without this I can't be saved and I said all right Betsy I will grant you for the time being the four Gospels I think the Bible has been changed I don't see it as trustworthy I don't know why you would trust this book but let's just say for a moment that the Gospels haven't been changed how do you know Jesus is God where does he claim to be God in the Gospels and she thinks about it for a moment and she says well doesn't Jesus say the father and I are one so yeah of course he does but that doesn't mean he's the same being as as if he's God you know he prays for the disciples to be one just as he is one with the father that's what he says so he's praying for them to be one just as he is one with the father obviously they're not one being the unified and spirit just as he's unified in spirit with the father Betsy if you really want to see what Jesus says why not go to the book of Mark where Jesus is walking through a crowd and he's trying to heal people and it says he could not heal people because of their lack of faith you're telling me God cannot heal what kind of sense does that make or how about when he's walking through a crowd and somebody touches him he says who touched me you tell me God doesn't know something that's simple or how about when Jesus is talking in mark chapter 13 he tells people when the end of times is he says he doesn't know when the end of times is not the Angels nor the son but only the father he's separating himself from God here he doesn't know something God knows how can you possibly say he is God when he says God knows something he doesn't know if you really want to quote the Gospel of John how about the verse where Jesus says the father is greater than I so I looked her in the eyes and I said Betsy I believe Jesus when he says the father is greater than he is I think you should believe him too if you want to know who Jesus really is ask me about Islam and so I took the one girl who was in our class on fire for Christ and I turned her around her attempt to share the gospel with me just by asking some questions I did my own invitation to Islam I invited her to Islam and noticed I wasn't trying to be mean I wasn't trying to be critical of her or anything I just thought she was sincerely misled I thought Jesus is just a man and God is God and if you worship a man you're committing blasphemy and so I was trying to help her same thing with the Trinity you know I'd ask a Christian what's the Trinity and they'd be like Oh eggs you've got a yolk and you've got a white you've got a shell that's what the Trinity is I'm like really that's the Trinity all right let me try again it's like water water can be a vapor and it can be a solid and really gods water now this is getting weaker what is the Trinity oh it's a mystery really the only mystery here is how you could believe this stuff that's how I was taught to see things and it wasn't like I was asking trick questions these weren't peripheral matters these are sensual matters oh man you get me talking about the age of the universe or start talking about things like evolution and you can run circles around the average Christian because they hadn't thought about these things and that's why I thought that my faith was something every time I had a conversation with the Christian that confirmed me in my Islamic faith and I thought everyone else was kind of silly for believing what they did well long story short when I got to college things began to change because when you get to college I'm how many of you here are well how many of you are seniors okay you're quiet how are Jr swear the juniors some of you got the hint some of you got the hint but it doesn't count after I say you're quiet that was fake sophomores all right some clapping some amens is this a Baptist Church I'm not hearing any amen freshmen we're the freshmen I love it praise the Lord all right when you get to college you are going to find out that everyone around you is questioning what they've always been raised with you're going to start wondering what you were taught whether or not that's actually true whether or not that actually applies to you and it's going to come to a point where sometimes even your professors people you respect people whose knowledge you're trying to learn from they're trying to break you away from the Christian faith I have a friend who studied sociology in the University of Toronto she said she walked into her sociology class the first day the professor said how many of you are Christian and people raised their hand and he said I'm going to give you an opportunity to leave my class right now because if you don't leave my class as a Christian today I can guarantee you you won't leave my class as a Christian at the end of the semester this was from a state professor this was in a private school there gonna be people trying to pull you away from your faith so the question is why do you believe what you believe do you have good reason to believe it or do you actually believe it or not do you just say you do because it's easier is it like the path of least resistance and your parents will be happier with you and the people around you the people at church and if the people at church really knew what you felt like they wouldn't like you anymore when you get to college you're going to start having the opportunity to start addressing these things and at that point you're going to need to know the answers you're going to want to find the answers anyway and if you're not grounded you're going to be shaken I wish I could talk to you about the tons of stories of people I know but I just have a little bit of time here with you guys so I'm gonna tell you my story then as I got to college I was very very confident in my faith and I was shaking the faith of Christians all around me there was one Christian I came upon who was different this guy had actually grown up as an atheist he didn't become a Christian until he was 19 years old and his story is amazing I mean he was a theist atheist growing up like not just kind of a who's totally atheist he would ask his dad about God he'd say dad who is God and his dad would say I'm God leave me alone so that's what he was raised in um but he became a Christian and then he started studying the Bible he had to it wasn't just one day hey I feel like following Christ it was how do I know this stuff is true and once he realized it was true he's like how do I know this Bible is the Word of God and then he started finding answers to those questions he started studying the Bible how could he trust it why should he lean on it stuff like that so I saw him but I saw him one day he had been praying he had seen me he's like there's a Muslim in my class he's like God if you want me to talk to this Muslim please open the door for me to share the gospel with him and I looked at him like hey David are you a Christian and he's like hallelujah thanks Scott it's like he's like open the door God and I'm like hey come on in so I said David I see that you read a Bible do you realize that Bible you're reading is not trustworthy and he says go on which should have been a sign for me if anyone ever says go on you know you're walked into some I said the Bible you're not you're reading is not trustworthy because Jesus spoke in Aramaic did he not you have words like Talitha koum and and Eloi Eloi Lema sabachthani in the bible does jesus speaking in aramaic but the earliest church was in jerusalem so they must have spoken Hebrew and by the time the New Testament was actually written it was written in Greek so you've got a translation of a translation before you actually have the New Testament written and then before it comes to English it spends a thousand years in the Latin Vulgate so goes to Latin first before it goes to German and then it comes to English in the KJV so you got a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation and that's why you have so many different version of the Bible you got the KJV the NIV the NRSV the NES P the who knows what V you got so many versions of the Bible how do I know which ones actually the Word of God I've used that this argument on so many Christians before and none of them really had a response but David like I said didn't just say hey I believe the Bible one day he looked for real and so he had to lose reasons to share with me he said Nabil when they ask you a question just a moment ago I saw you speaking on the phone with your mother was that in English I said no and he said but then I asked you what your mom said you told me in English did you give me a bad translation no looking to be like your multilingual and so were the disciples when they talked to Jesus and Aramaic they could accurately translate that message into the Greek and that's exactly what they did when they wrote the New Testament and of that New Testament the Greek we have over 5500 New Testament manuscripts today from which we can reconstruct the entire New Testament many times over so we have some New Testaments that go back to the 300s whole Bible so you can't say it's been chained we have it from the from the 300 we have some manuscripts that go back even further to within a hundred years of Jesus so if we lost all those Greek New Testament manuscripts guess what we have ten thousand Latin Coptic Syriac translations of the New Testament from early times with which we could reconstruct the entire New Testament many times again and if we lost all those in the first hundred and fifty years after Jesus there are people writing sermons and letters to one another where they quoted the New Testament and so just from those letters and sermons we can reconstruct virtually the entire New Testament many times over again the bill we know with certainty what the New Testament originally said and I looked at and I said David you're making this up I've talked to hundreds of Christians not a single one has said this before he said you think I'm making this up I said I think you're making up just bring it I'm like it's been brought let's go and so from that point on we were just talking about our faith now I understand David it was a man of faith and I was a man of faith and even though I was a Muslim and he was a Christian we connected on that level and so we became best friends we signed up for courses just to keep arguing with each other and he would study at my house I would go to his house we became close friends long story short through the course of this friendship I wasn't about to hear it from someone else who didn't care about me I needed someone who cared about me to share this information with me through the course of this friendship I was able to see the evidence for Christianity I didn't need someone to tell me jesus loves you I had enough love in my life I didn't feel any lack of love I didn't need someone to tell me hey Nabil you need the gospel in order to be saved no I was a Muslim I I had I had a separate message that I believed was true I felt absolutely fine I felt like I was worshiping God I was worshipping my Creator I was doing the things he told me to do and as long as I did enough good deeds at the end of my life I'd go to heaven so I felt secure in my faith what I needed was someone who's able to show me that Christianity was true I need to know it was true because we can't both be right Muslims believe Jesus was just a prophet Muslims believe Jesus did not die on the cross the Quran says in surah 4 verse 157 well mark at the loo Who am I sellable who Alec and should be hello whom he was not killed nor was he crucified but so it was made to appear is what it says Christians believe Jesus died on the cross Matthew Mark Luke John Paul it says it everywhere Jesus died on the cross so you can't give me the stuff about both religions being true they contradict each other either one of them is true or neither of them so I needed to know which one it was I studied the evidence it took me four years but I got to a point where I realized that evidence for Christianity was very strong very strong and the evidence for Islam was far weaker than I originally thought far weaker I wish I could go into the details but I don't have time but I want to convey this to you I had a family that I loved and that loved me I was the only son in this family and understanding Eastern cultures sons are very important in their families the son kind of carries the name of the family forward and I was the only one and so my family had all its hopes kind of on me and I was the one out of all my cousins my dad was one of 10 my mom was one of 6 I have a ton of cousins I was the one who kind of carried the banner of Islam and Here I am thinking about following Christ this would cost me everything and so I said to myself I need more certainty just evidence isn't going to do it God I need an encounter with you and so I started asking God for visions and for dreams and I'd like to go into that stuff but like I said don't have time but in our culture dreams and visions are very very common it's what people ask for God for direction for the future there's actually type of salat there's a type of prayer that Muslims play called pray called salat Estacada it's designed specific specifically for Muslims to ask God to give them a dream or a vision so that's what I did I asked God for a vision and dreams and God gave me a vision and three dreams over the course of a few months which showed me that Christianity was true but that wasn't quite still enough because if you're a Muslim and you're thinking about accepting Christ like I said you may have to lose your family but you might have to lose your life itself there are places around the world where Muslims believe that if you leave Islam you can be killed for it and that's actually what Islam had originally taught and of course the Quran teaches that if you worship anyone other than Allah you will go to hell chapter five of the Quran verse 72 specifically names Jesus if you believe Jesus is God you are one of those who create who commit and your place is the Hellfire so it's a matter of am I really willing to lose my family potentially this life and my afterlife for the sake of following Christ I needed some time to think it over and the evidence was really strong and God had given me visions and dreams I knew I was at a point where I had to accept Christ I knew I was but the cost was really high and one day I just said God I need your comfort I need your comfort to show me what what is true and what I should do here because I know what I might have to give and so I was kind of out of it this is my second my first day of second year of medical school so I met David in my first week of college I went all the way through up through college now I'm already in my second year of medical school and I'm sitting there with the Bible and the Quran opened before me asking God to show me his comfort and I start going through the Quran and I look and I realized for the first time in my life because up until this point I had used the Quran is a book of laws and rules to follow now I'm looking to it for comfort and there's nothing in this book to comfort the hurting man there's nothing and so I put it away I said god I don't even know where to start with the Bible I'll just start with the New Testament open it up to Matthew chapter 1 saw a bunch of genealogies so I skipped them and I kept reading and it didn't take me long to get to Matthew chapter 5 blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted you may have heard this before you may have read the Beatitudes before so it might be old news to you but to someone who has thought their whole life hey I have to perform in order for God to accept me I have to jump through these hoops I have to pray five times a day I have to read the Quran regularly as to fast during Ramadan I have to do all this in order for God to love me when you read this message and it says blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted that blows your mind why would God comfort me for mourning and I start reading it and blessed are those who thirst for righteousness I thirst for righteousness I know I'm not righteous I keep sinning whenever the door is closed and no one's looking I'm sinning but blessed are those who thirst for righteousness that's what the Bible says what kind of God is this and so my heart is just transformed when I start hearing this message and I start going through and I start asking God questions and my friend David had given me a Study Bible so I'm reading all the footnotes I'm going through all the cross references I'm following everything and I'd be like I'd ask question to God if I God how do I know you can even hear me and read the footnotes say if you want to know God hears you go to first round five sweet boom first John five and so that's kind of how it was going it took me forever to get to Matthew chapter 10 but this is what it said in Matthew chapter 10 if you confess me before the people of this world I will confess you before my father in heaven if you deny me before the people this world I will deny you before my father in heaven look I had all the evidence I needed most people don't even have that because I haven't looked and then I had all the spiritual guidance I needed most people don't have that because they haven't asked but it wasn't enough unless I proclaimed Christ and I remember thinking to God God this would mean I have to give up my life I have to give up my parents this is Matthew chapter 10 by the way verse 32 I should have to give up my parents you know what the next verse said he who loves father or mother more than me does not is not worthy of me I said god I'm gonna have to give up not just my parents but also my life no the next verse says if you do not pick up your cross and follow me you're not worthy of me so this is a message that demands our entire life I accepted Christ and everything I had was gone like that my mother who and I'm kind of a mama's boy it's just kind of the way it is don't judge she has never stopped crying since that day every time I see her she immediately breaks into tears cuz I was her son and now she sees me as someone who's betrayed her my father has not once told me he's proud of me since that day my ambitions in medicine I was a very ambitious person I continued to finish graduated medical school but everything slowly started changing my desire is my heart my passion started changing while I was in medical school because you cannot encounter the Gospel message and not be changed I know that sounds like a cliche but I know it because I've seen it in my life and I've seen in other people's life let me break it down for you and then we'll pray together and we'll close the Gospel message is unlike any other message okay because I had been taught like I said before to perform and God would love me here's what the Gospel message says this God who created the universe same God who can create the Stars just by thinking it I'm talking about the most powerful being ever imaginable that God decided to enter into this world as a baby unbelievable I don't even allow myself to be humbled for a moment that God entered into this world as a baby and then to whom was he born two kings no he's born to Mary and Joseph a young probably teenage about your age couple who had been accused of an illegitimate relationship so Jesus is born as an illegitimate child what was his lineage his lineage was one full of prostitutes and sinners and idolaters yeah Jesus could have been born in any lineage he chose that one why because God loves us so much he wants to know that he relates with you regardless of your lineage he loves you regardless of what your parents have done or what their reputation is like and then he goes and he works with his hands for thirty years he could have he could have been rich he could have done anything but he chose to come and work with his hands and bleed and sweat why so if that's you working hard every single day you know that's what your God did and then he gets 12 men and he invests in them every day every night they live together they do everything together and then they betray him so that if one of you feels like someone you loved and who said they would love you forever has turned their back on you you are not alone god knows what that's like to be betrayed Judas betrayed him with a kiss he just washed his feet and Judas betrayed him with the kiss and then he goes and he's willing to be flogged and placed on a cross do you understand what the cross is the cross was designed to be the most painful death and humiliating death ever devised sure they could torture you but they'd much rather torture you and put you up on a cross so everyone can see how humiliated you are that's the point people's skin was hanging off in ribbons in the flogging process that's what Cicero tells us Cicero tells us let no Rowman even hear the word cross because that's how terrifying it is you realize I had to invent a word to describe the pain of the Cross excruciating ex crus out of the cross that's how painful this is some people have their intestines fall out while they're being flogged because the whip would reach around and pull the skin off of their stomachs arteries and veins were led bare when Jesus was nailed to the cross he had no skin left on his back every time he took a breath he had to push up off his feet that were nailed with a seven-inch nail scrape a skinless back on splintered wood why in the world did he do that I know you've heard that he did that but why did he do that we should remember these words when we see him on the cross as I have loved you so loved one another our salvation that he gave us by dying on the cross was not so weaker then go and live and be happy and just kind of get fat and die that's not the purpose for which he came he came to secure our salvation to secure this life so that we could then have meaningful lives ourselves and pour our lives out for others okay when Christ says don't worry about your food don't worry about your clothes why does he say that so that you can then give your food and your clothes to others read the same passage if your enemy is hungry give them something to eat if they're naked give them something to wear that's why he says don't worry about your clothes your food and your clothes don't worry about this life why so you can pour it out for the sake of others so you can live this life for the sake of others just as Jesus lived his life for the sake of you even though we were all sinners against him he was willing to live and die for us so we could follow him you are a Christian are you and if you take the title Christian that means you're a little Christ what is first John say anyone who calls himself a follower of Jesus but does not obey Him is a liar if you follow Jesus are you willing to suffer and die for the sake of others here's the vision here's the vision when you get transformed into Jesus image when you become more and more like him when you start living yourself your life for others you will transform this world one thing that pains me so terribly much is that we buy into these lies all I'm here to do is to watch the Oscars all I'm here to do is to scroll down this Twitter feed all I'm here to do is to buy this iPad or purchase that music that's what I'm here for I'm here to consume that is not what you're here for God who created this universe had you in mind before he created it he knew what you would use your hands and feet for and he knew that it would involve sin but he gave you those hands and feet anyway why so that you would be a world changer so that you would be a world changer God put you in this place he designed you he designed your heart in your mind in your desires so that you would change this world not be a consumer a world changer I a lot of you're probably looking at me thinking the veal you don't know my life you don't know me you're just kind of saying this to the people around you no I'm saying it to you you are designed to change this world I don't care what you've been through I don't care what you've done God lived his life and died on the cross for that purpose this message will change the world if you follow Christ yes I stand up here eight years after becoming a Christian eight years after saying to my parents seeing the love in their eyes for the last time after giving up my medical profession I graduate Medical School in 2009 I gave it up to preach the gospel I stand here looking at all that telling you no matter what you have to give up to follow Jesus it is worth it you'll have a normal life which all of a sudden is transformed into a God awesome eternal life if you follow Jesus let's pray God I thank you so much that you're not a God who said do this do this do this do this and maybe I'll be happy with you god you're a God who said I love you so much that if you even turn to me I'll run to you that you're a God who said I have already secured heaven for you now live for the sake of others and let me show you what that looks like you actually embodied it for us god I thank you that you're a God who gives it comes to bring life in life to the full that we can be full of real true joy not this momentary stuff that we get when we do things we know we're not supposed to do or when we have a quick flirtation with temporal joys no true lasting peace and joy and purpose and a passion that carries us God thank you so much that you've given that to us and I pray today for my brothers and sisters here god I know that they're constantly under attack yes by the images of by this and by that but also by the lives so many sisters here are caught in this lie of poor self-image that they're not beautiful enough or they're not skinny enough or they're not crazy enough God thank you that you've made them beautiful and you've made them in your image you've given all of them value regardless of what the world says I thank you for my brothers who are here Lord and I pray that they wouldn't be anesthetized by the temporal joys of video games and cars and all this Lord I pray that they would know true and lasting masculinity and manhood which is suffering for the sake of those around them and being a leader of the downtrodden I've got to thank you that you've equipped us with this not just by telling us by living it and God I pray that we would live it as we follow you we would do what you did and become transformed into your image God twelve men changed the world because they had been with you here we have hundreds I pray we would be so close to you that people would see us and say they have been with Jesus and that the world will be transformed through us for your glory by your grace we pray this in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Sydney Olivia

Views: 84,952

Rating: 4.8687363 out of 5

Keywords: Christianity (Religion), Nabeel Qureshi

Id: zfeI3pSoKRk

Length: 34min 39sec (2079 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2016