What does it mean to be human? - Dr Ravi Zacharias

well it's a real honor to be here and delighted to be back at D UMC we were all together in Manila for that great conference that Daniel referred to a world conference on discipleship and actually Doris Daniel and my colleague Matt and IO travels Matt travels with me we flew back together late last evening I've been I'm on a six country trip starting off in China and then in the Philippines and now here on Monday on to Indonesia and then to Singapore and on to the UK at Oxford to speak at a graduation there and then back home for three days and then on to Bangalore India after that so I was writing to somebody and they asked me where are you I said just traveling til the Lord calls me home because that would be the nice last trip and I won't have to pack my suitcase again but you know one of the great thrills about travelling around the globe and I don't say this lightly and this because your pastor Daniel introduced me as a friend it's really that blessing you do have of building brand share friendships I've been an itinerant now for 41 years and we've covered well over 70 plus countries and to have friends all over the world is a wonderful thing and Daniel and his wife Doris have just become very dear friends to me I'm very grateful to the Lord for their friendship their encouragement and their affirmation as we travel Doris I consider that genius of one-liners you know we'll all be sitting around the table amusing and philosophizing and all of a sudden she'll just come out with one line that meant more than all of our other protracted paragraphs over the period of time that we chatted so always grateful for your contribution to her Doris it's wonderful to have that nice to see how wonderful it is you just come forward and put it into the box that's great I was at a conference in Belgium years ago when they were having a hard time meeting their budget and so they asked Luis Palau to come and plead the people and get the money in and Luis Palau said there are two ways I can do this I can do this the hard way or the simple way and he looked at the audience and he said I can make sure the budget is met if I do it the hard way and it'll only take me one minute and they're all sitting forward and here's what he said he said this what I'd asked you to do everybody stand up and then the person behind you leans forward and takes the wallet out of the pocket of the person in front of you and always give what you wanted to give but never did empty it out from the air you could see everybody going for their wallet all of a sudden and then he said no I'll do it the easier way and do it with a free will do you hear the minister on a plane that got into trouble and was in heavy turbulence they were afraid it was going to crash and so the one lady ran up to him and she said mr. minister mr. minister would you please do something religious so he stood up and took the offering that's what people think of religious activity but thank you for doing what you did is a remarkable expression of your love that will touch all across the world well your pastor asked me to speak on a particular subject and so as I was reasoning with him and talking to him about it I said we'll do it some other time and I hope we can he feels it is important to address the subject of faith and reason how these two interact in a world of materialism and science also with the world of spirituality and your commitment to transcendent notions of truth and of course ultimately to God himself so I hope we can do that some time instead I told him I'll take some subject that I hope will make this a worship experience for you and drive you to answer a very important question a few months ago I heard quite a funny story coming out of India and the story went this way this guy had gone for an interview and for a job and an engine in India generally when there's about ten positions available about 5,000 will apply and then they go through the exams and then they do the interview and all of that so this group of young guys had been selected for the interview from whom the final bunch was going to be approved for designated as qualifying for the position so this one guy goes for the interview and comes back and as often happens in India I wouldn't be surprised if it happens here too one guy went up to him and said dad did he finish the interview said yes he said what were the questions what were the questions he said well they told us that the questions are going to be identical for everybody so not to dare share the questions with anybody so he said I'm not allowed to share the questions he said okay don't don't give me the questions just give me the answers so when the guy who had gone in the first question they'd asked him was when they did India get its independence and this fellow said you know it's not right to just spin one day when so many things took place so many activities so much action so many meetings so many discussions so many legislations and negotiations and all but it all finally came together in 1947 so that's good so then they asked him what is the who's the father of the nation he said you know it's not fair to just pick one particular person when there are so many people involved in this kind of thing why do you just have to pin it on one person many people were involved in this so that was his answer so they said the third question to you is this is corruption India's major problem and he he gave them the answer he said you know the Prime Minister's appointed a committee and it is going to research all of this matter and finally after all of the research is done and they come to their conclusion will have a definitive answer to your question so they were very impressed with this young guy but he went out and the fellow asked him what the questions were he didn't tell him the questions but he gave him the answers so the second fellow walks in a little later and they look at him and they are going over the forms and the interviewing committee says to him by the way your form is not complete what is your date of birth and he says you know it's not right to just pick one day when there were so many day the negotiations and discussions and dialogue and all this that went on but finally the date was in 1947 so they look at him and said really they said yeah I said what was your father's name he said you know it's really not fair to pick one particular person as my father when there were so many people involved in this coming down the aisle and so on and so forth so one of the interviewing men said have you lost your head he said well the Prime Minister's appointed a committee a them once the research is done we'll be able to come out of the definitive answer your own apologetics it's very important not only to listen to the question but also to the questioner it is critical that when a question is raised you answer it not only with the component of truth which is indispensable but with the fact of relevance so that the answer stand on the twin feet of truthfulness and relevance that is what the gospel is all about it is built on truth and dispensed with relevance it has a practical application for your life it is not so theoretical so abstract so esoteric so obtuse or way out and the clouds philosophically that it doesn't filter down into where you live by day to day day to day and so I want to take a simple question for you this evening and I hope it will be meaningful obviously one cannot exhaustively deal with such a question but I think one can meaningfully deal with it and the question I want to answer tonight is who is God who is God because once that term is defined and understood then all of the other questions that you face and answers that are given are hung on the peg of the way you have answered this particular one in my library books of my personal possessions one of my favorite possessions is a 52 volume series called the great books of the Western world it was compiled I think sometime in the 1950s and the editor-in-chief of that was a Jewish philosopher by the name of Mortimer Adler who actually became a later comer to Christ and was a tremendous author in many many fields there are ten philosophical mistakes and so on a great profound thinker in in jurisprudence and so on but here he was when he produced this book fifty-two volumes the first two volumes are called this sin topic on it was the contraction of two words synthesis of topics how you bring the topics together and this is how it works if you want to know for example what a great thinker like Plato said about justice then you will turn to the sin topic on and you will look the subject of justice and then you will see all of the bibliography on the other 50 volumes what Plato said about it what Gibbon said about it what Aristotle said about it or any great writers like Dostoyevsky in more recent times so the synthesis of topics tells you where you will find one particular author on one particular subject and the essays are given at the end of which you find more references the longest essay is on God [Music] they have subject like history philosophy law all of these important questions of Western philosophy are dealt with and the longest essay is on God and Mortimer Adler when he was being interviewed I saw that interview he was asked why did you give the theme of God the greatest volume of space in your multiple volume set Mortimer Adler's answer was in one line here's what he said because more consequences for life follow from that one issue than any other issue you can think of here what he said in your life how you view God has the most direct and exhaustive bearing on what else you believe and how you live so this subject of God is an extraordinary theme you already either have an answer to it or you're looking for an answer to it the great British exposure to Charles Haddon Spurgeon made this comment he says the proper study of the Christian is the Godhead it is the highest science the loftiest speculation the mightiest philosophy which can engage the attention of a child of God it is the name the nature the person the doings and the existence of this great God there is something exceedingly improving to the mind in the contemplation of divinity it is a subject so vast that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity so deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity other subjects we can comprehend and grapple with in them we feel a kind of self contentment and go on our way with the thought behold I am wise but when I come to this master science finding that our plumb line cannot sound its depth and that our eagle eye cannot see its height we turn away with the thought I am but of yesterday and know nothing powerful statement from a great biblical expositor there's a great prayer in the Old Testament you can just make a note of it you can look at it in detail when you get back to your rooms second chronicles 20 and it is a war that is looming and King Jehoshaphat says the problem is too daunting we don't have an army big enough for this and like many people in history when you face an army bigger than yourself you resort to getting on your knees before God many of you may recall in studying history with the great war that came upon Russia when Napoleon was invading them you know the Tsar in Russia at that time had purposely appointed a hedonist for the archbishop a man who didn't really believe in God and the Czar wanted to have that kind of a person supporting him and all that he did and yet as Napoleon's army was closing in in Mon Moscow and the spires of Moscow were burning Czar Alexander Pavlovich knew exactly what the problem would be and the Tsar went into the church and st. Petersburg and fell on his knees before God and prayed and begged him to protect his nation and as one writer says it God answered by sending a minor minor prophet the winter and Napoleon's armies were stopped you know it's ironic that when Marxism took over in Russia they converted that church into a museum of atheism they had forgotten that their own leader fell on his face before God in that very church to plead for its protection so here is Jehoshaphat facing this army I just want to take three questions in his prayer normally prayer deals with please hear the plea is prefaced in an inter interrogative form here it is it comes to us in Chapter two a second chronicles 20 verse six and he said in his prayer O Lord God of our fathers are you not the God who is in heaven in verse seven did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before us and verse 12 will you not judge them as this enemy comes upon us are you not did you not will you not in these three questions I want to answer for you who God is in biblical terms first question are you not how do you answer that if you were given a sheet of paper and asked to fill in the blanks who is God what would you say are you not dot dot dot dot dot I was mentioning to an audience recently when I was doing my doctrinal examination after my graduate work for my denomination in the United States they told us that the answers needed to be brief and you could not consult anything but the Bible in your answers so I spread out the sheet it was going to be of a protracted thing I could stay in my apartment where I was a student at that time and the first question was God is perfect explain that one so I turned to my wife and said the only more difficult question I could think of would be to say define God and give two examples God is perfect explain fortunately twas this smaller space in which to do the explaining because I think the longer the explanation the greater the possibility of heresy so I answered in one line he's the only entity in existence the reason for whose existence is in himself every other entity in this world has the reason for their existence outside of themselves so in that sense God is a perfect being he is uncaused undefended the reason for his existence is in himself for all of us the reason for Isaac's existence is outside of ourselves I didn't hear back so I assumed it was okay who is God you know if you talk to people purely on the basis of feelings and experience you'll get a diversity of answers many years ago Life magazine had on its front cover a marvelous picture of the heavens and in big white letters it said who is God and they started to interview we answer most questions in America with surveys and if the people liked the surveys then the answer is held if they don't like the surveys it doesn't really matter whether what you believe is true or not so in this survey they went around asking people who is God and one woman talked about the fact that she found God to be her healer her Redeemer she had lived in known Christ for all her life and in her seniors had contracted cancer and she told a beautiful story of how she'd found Christ to be that sustaining source and strength the next answer was from a minister of the gospel he testified to the fact that he'd lived a duplicitous life and that he contracted some dreadful disease and was now living with AIDS and as duplicitous as he'd been now in his years suffering in his body he said I have found what a forgiving God I have and even though I've lost so much in the process his grace and his forgiveness is in my heart and I treasure the grace of Christ and my forgiveness as you were reading this your heart was deeply moved and then they came to one person who said I don't believe God is a person at all God is really an idea a fourth person said my God is not created man man has created God and then the editor himself said it all depends on whichever realm of spirituality you actually want to believe in it's okay for you what do you conclude at the end of that that if you only go on the basis of an emotional some kind of existential response you will come out with a variety of different answers and you never know which one is actually true experiences an important thing but it ought not to be the final arbiter of what it is that is ultimately true that's why we have a revealed Word of God and a propositional word if you remember the Apostle Peter Peter was given one of the greatest experiences ever given to the human eye Peter James and John walked up to the Mount of Transfiguration and saw the body of Christ transfigured so profound was that experience he didn't want to go down from the mountain and what is it what is it he said let's pitch some tents and let's stay on here and Christ told them to go back into the places where people needed to hear this Peter says in his epistle we ourselves were eyewitnesses to his majesty but now we have a more sure word of prophecy he went beyond the experience to the Word of God which was written propositional II true so if you come to experience you don't really have a coalescing answer if you come to go then to the philosophers you begin to find out most of their arguments you don't even understand I'm a philosophy major it was reading philosophy that made me a prayer because I didn't understand most of what these people were saying my professor of philosophy dr. Norman Geisler who got his PhD from Chicago he's written volumes and volumes of books he was my professor when I studied in Chicago and his wife Barbara has quite a sense of humor she edits all his book he had finished one 5,000 page manuscript just one book 5,000 pages I don't know if I know enough to write 5,000 pages and his wife looked at him and said norm tell me the truth I promise I will never tell it to anybody else do even you understand what you have said here do even you understand what you have said here because it climbs the ladder of concepts where most people do not comprehend I find it utterly fascinating that when Jesus was asked to give an illustration of the Kingdom of Heaven he did not go to a philosopher he did not go to a high intellect he to local took a little child and placed a child in the middle and said of such is the kingdom of heaven and unless you become as one of these neither will you enter that kingdom powerful absolutely powerful I don't think God is glorifying ignorant he's just glorifying the simple and the sublime and the teachable spirit that he wants you and me to have if you go to experience you get a diversity of answers you go to philosophy you get a diversity of answers so then you go to theologians and what do you get you get some wonderful stuff but you get some pretty big words as well God is sovereign God is holy God is omnium Nishant God is immutable all these words God is holy God is sovereign God is omnipotent God is immutable God is omniscient he knows everything all of these things are really wonderful to know let me ask you something do they always bring you the answer that you really want at times that are most critical I remember reading an essay and I on article in an Italian newspaper when I was traveling there once and is a story of this truck driver who lived a life of no boundaries morally every city he went to he would visit the brothels and so on there's a front-page story and so on one of his trips back to Rome he was stopping outside a brothel a brothel he'd never been in but somebody told him there was a wonderful new person in there who would cater to his needs and that next time he was there he should go there that he had been there visited this particular person as her client and he said you should go there sometime this was a true story on the front pages of the paper in Rome so the guy is making his journey back and he stops outside this brothel and he pays the money and he goes into the room waiting for this woman to come when the door opens to his utter shock and horror he finds out it's his wife and the paper said he nearly strangled her to death as she yelled and screamed and happy had to end and was rescued and I thought to myself incredible isn't it it was okay for him but not okay for her you see we are very comfortable when we can use holiness to judge others we are very uncomfortable that same holiness judges us and here we've got Almighty God who is pure in his judgment and holy in his character and there are times where you and I are terrified where because he knows everything because he is all-powerful and because he is holy that you and I will have to stand before him these are truths but these are truths that come to us in a troubling way that we are not sure how to incorporate so you've got the emotional side you have got the intellectual side you've got the revelational and proposition propositional side so now we come to the most important disclosure of all I want you to understand and listen to me very carefully ladies and gentlemen this is critical this is critical in understanding what the Christian worldview is all about think of the Apostle Paul who was a Hebrew by birth who was a citizen of Rome and who had studied in a Greek City Tarsus Hebrew Bible citizen of Rome studied in a Greek city the three great cultures of his time the Hebrews gave to us our our moral categories the Romans gave to the West their legal categories and when you think of Greece they gave to the West their philosophical categories moral categories legal categories and ultimately the philosophical categories Hebrews the Greeks the Romans that shaped the Western world the Apostle Paul was a product of the three if you'd gone to a Hebrew person to ask for a metaphor of that which was quintessentially ultimate you know what they would have said light light is that ultimate metaphor that's why they say that the peoples who sat in darkness had seen a great light the Lord is my light and my salvation for the Hebrews light was the ultimate for the Greeks it was knowledge they're the ones who created the universities if you go to Greek universities today that one stood and see the pillars that are fallen you will still see the words Epis taemi which is the word to know they wanted to know for the Hebrews light for the Greeks knowledge for the Romans glory the glory of the Roman Empire here's what the Apostle Paul says God who caused the light to shine out of darkness has caused his light to shine in our hearts to give to us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus our Lord light knowledge and glory in a face what do you think of that [Music] when I was growing up in Delhi I know many of you probably speak Tamil because some of you look like me although my mother was two million my father was Kara like I was raised in Delhi so I'm to deliver ahead I come from Delhi I speak Hindi Tamil Kannada Telugu you know and so with this we had a servant call aarumugam you know you know what that means in Tamil six phases are mahkum are Magan was a wonderful loyal servant for many many years he had never been to a movie and one day my mother said we'll buy you a ticket it's your birthday we'll let you go and see a movie he was oh he was so excited about it so he puts on his best shirt his best trousers puts on his shoes polishes them my mother gave him the money and he's walking over to the stadium the cinema in Delhi to buy a ticket and see it and he lost his way and he got in late and when he came back we asked him how was it he said are you yo-yo he goes on to describe what happened he says he got in late and he went into the middle door and he said I didn't know the whole room was built dark black and I was looking at a wall and all I saw was light beams coming out of the back wall and he thought why have I paid money to see these light beams coming out of the back wall and all of a sudden he hears the voice and people are dying to sit down and he turns around and he looks at a screen and he lets out a scream when he sees the faces on the screen he thought he'd paid to go and see the beams till he could see the face on the screen many many systems of thought may have a beam sending you in a certain direction when you come to Christ you see the face the full expression the unique expression of the Godhead who offers himself to be your Savior very son of God who are you God when you see that he's the expression of the light and the knowledge and the glory here is the point take a look at this face in the garden when he's praying for you and for me and what does he say three times he refers to God as Holy Father Holy Father Holy Father I've been telling the story for some years of a young man who lives not far from where we live in Atlanta as a matter of fact he lives very close to our home now the first time I read this letter I didn't even know who he was but his grandfather gave me this because this boy was only 12 years old when this happened the year was 1989 his father's name was Greg Simmons a lot of people knew about Greg Simmons he was a huge success in the business world he had five children the oldest was twelve McKittrick the youngest was a babe in arms and he bought a beautiful property not far from Atlanta Georgia and Highland's North Carolina which is an identity he bought this home in Highlands just to have another home and a home they could visit on weekends or maybe even retire in so this 44 41 year old magnet his wife's name is Kristy Simmons his oldest born McKittrick 12 says dad can I come and see that home we haven't seen it so he took four of his kids oldest 12 youngest 3 left the babe in arms with his wife and took another friend of his and I think my friend's son or somebody so they all journeyed on not a long drive a few hours Turks Highlands and they're walking around the property and the kids are just loving it and then the son says dad there's a waterfall here right he said yeah I said can we see the waterfall so the father takes all of them and as he's approaching towards the waterfall he puts his arm out and says stay right here because I've never walked up to this this close to it let me make sure it's safe for all of you to come so he starts taking 1 2 3 and about 3rd or 4th step the soil underneath was very soft and it couldn't hold him anymore and he came cartwheeling 1/4 of a mile to his death and this 12 year old son and his other three children and his friend saw Gregg Simmons tumble down to his death this little boy wrote a letter to a family friend by the name of Wieland's the Weiland family is also quite prominent in Atlanta he is a big builder and here's a 12 year old boy writing to mrs. Wieland dear mrs. Wieland you don't know how much your family has helped produce my father he admired your husband and you a lot he would talk about how good and strong your faith was with God he tried to be very generous as you all have been to the church and to many other things since his death the true friends have been revealed your families at the top of our list you know miss Weiland you are a great source of energy for my mother and I my father loved you very much and was always trying to be like you my father was like one of the three men in the Bible who are given the talents by Jesus one went out and invested them and multiplied them one took some stock that failed and came out with nothing the last one buried them and did nothing with them all of them returned in a few days and the Lord was pleased with the two who had tried to multiply them but with the third man who had come back with the same amount the Lord was disappointed because he didn't even try my father multiplied and lost many things but he was always trying to please the Lord he got that from your family my dad was a risk taker that's just how he was Genesis 1:1 says in the beginning is God that was the most important thing for my father in the beginning of my dad's life he was something special and a risk taker that's why I was so brilliant and successful miss whelan no one will understand how or why my daddy fell into the waterfall please do yourself a favor and don't try to figure it out my daddy died for his children he was making sure it was safe for us to come you may hear different things but only six people saw it and only three understand or understood what really happened that day I am one of those my mom has lost her treasure chest her husband most of the others have lost Greg you have lost a best friend my grandparents have lost their son Forrest John and Barbara have lost their brother but miss Weiland it is very different for me totally different for me because he was my best and my idol when I got my last glimpse of him falling down the Falls I lost my most prized man on earth he was my father he was my one and only dad I had a dream three nights ago but it wasn't a dream my daddy is all right he told me himself thank you for being a true friend I love you a lot Gregory mitrik mitrik McKittrick simmons a 12 year old boy who knew what it was to love his father in the pain of losing a father I know some of you well enough in this audience to know at least one family that has experienced that I was talking to some audience in China last week my mother died when I was in my 20s and her birthday's on May the 19th and that was her birthday as I was thinking about it speaking on that day you never get over losing a parent who has truly loved you and given themselves to you imagine being in a creation in a world where there is no father no one who loves you to really take care of your well-being who is God he is your holy father holy in the distance father in his proximity to care for you and love you and to be protective of you I go into some dangerous situations in the world somebody asked me once how I pack for every trip and I'll be honest with you one of the things I pack for is the contingency that all kinds of things may happen that may extend my trip which I may not be able to return home so we're back but I always backed with the certainty that I'm in God's hands always back with that that I am totally secure in the comfort of his protection we've been through some harrowing experiences in life harrowing experiences I'll never forget in the 1980s my wife was about 15 feet away from me terrified by what was happening Moscow had become a totally lawless city and in the dead of winter as I was walking to speak at an engagement and the military general walking about ten steps ahead of me and I'd paused to take a look at some building my wife also had and a man totally bare bared body till his waist with a huge machete in his hand mad as anything waving this machete waving this knife and he comes and stands one feet in front of me brandishing this knife staring at me eyeball-to-eyeball [Music] what do you do you do the only thing you know dear Jesus stand right here with me standing right here with me I'm sure my brother Daniel will tell you the same thing as wife Doris any one of you who travels the world in these matters or carries on I risk situation you can be certain of one thing that if you know your Lord he is the heavenly father who will guide and guard and stop your steps he's your holy father that's who God is he's not an idea he's not merely an emotional component he's not just a philosophical argument he's not just a propositional revelation he's a very being who's fashioned you in His image if you know that once you know that deep in your heart you are dealing with the person of the Living God who is your holy are you not secondly and quickly did you not did you not protect us in the last battle did you not rescue us the last style when we were facing this you know ladies and gentlemen it is very important in your experience to have that time where you remember the moment of your commitment to him that you may it doesn't have to be the day and the time for everybody but it has to be a moment that you know in your heart you have turned your life over completely to him did you not rescue me at that point when we were in Manila this last week my colleagues were with me mat was there with me at that time and a prominent personality stood up at a gathering and in a question/answer time and basically said he'd blown it blown it big-time and was living now with all kinds of total meaninglessness and he wanted to know what my answer would be to him and having come to Christ myself on a bed of suicide when any young person stands up and voices things like that I take a very serious note of that question and I gave him the answer the next morning he writes an email to us and has picked up this relationship in friendship now and he says my answer is going to have to be I suppose in total surrender he's right that's one of the things I said to him until you're totally surrendered to Christ you will always live with this gray zone of not knowing what life is actually all about so I'm asking you this have you given yourself to him completely can you look back and say I did that such in such a time one of the most powerful stories Reader's Digest ever told was a story called it happened on the Brooklyn subway it happened on the Brooklyn subway I'll give you this and move to my final thought and I promise to keep that brief it's a story of a man who went into a certain train every day in New York on his way to work but one of his friends was critically ill and rather than enter into that train he got on to another one going in the opposite direction and in the middle of the day on the Brooklyn subway he took another train to go back to work he'd never been on that train at that hour of the day ever and as he got into the train it was very crowded because it was lunch hour and you didn't know if you'd get any room but he had to make it to work and as he squeezed himself and one man sitting there suddenly realized this was his stop and he jumped out and took off and so this man by the name of Marcel stone burger who writes the story blent himself into that one spot but he said the man sitting next to me was very inconsiderate he was reading a newspaper like this where arms wide and he said there hardly any room he said but then I noticed he was reading a Polish newspaper and I can read polish he said so he started reading with him and he noticed he was reading the classified ads so he says to the man are you looking for a job sudden polish and he looked at him he said no I'm not he said but I see you're reading classified ads he said actually I'm looking for my wife he said who you're looking for a wife and a newspaper I said no no no he said my name is Bella Baskin I lived in the Brecon in Hungary during the war when I was taken away to the Soviet Union to bury the dead and when I went there by the time I came back the Germans had launched their assault taken most of them and de Brecon into Auschwitz and by the time I returned my wife was gone I didn't know where to find her but there but the Allies had come in and delivered and rescued even those from Auschwitz I was hoping my wife was among them and that somehow she was brought to America and so I have come to America and all I'm doing is reading the newspapers every day placing an ad to see if I could find my wife and Marcel stone Berger said what is your wife's name he said my wife's name is maria pascal stone Berger remembered he'd been at gathering some nights before and the woman sitting next to him at this gathering was a woman from de Bracken whose name was Maria Pascal she said her husband was taken over and the story and then he said you know you and I can get together sometime give me your phone number I'll call you sometime so I've written he'd written her name put in a piece of paper and into his wallet so he covertly takes out the wallet and sees if that piece of paper is still there and it was so he says Tamar says he says temerity to me develop askin get off this train with me at the next station I want to see if I can do something for you so Stern Berger gets off with Bella Peskin and they go over to a telephone booth and he tells Bella Paz can stand a few feet away please I need to make a phone call so this strong burger starts dialing the phone and a voice picks it up hello woman's voice and he says Who am I speaking to and she says this a Maria he says do you remember me my name is Marcell Steinberg she said yes yes our mama meeting you said can you tell me what your husband's name was she says my husband was Bella Pascal he said Maria you are about to witness a miracle and he takes the phone and gives it to Bella Peskin who comes and picks it up and all he starts saying is after he says hello he sobs and sobs and sobs uncontrollably Stern Berger gets him into the right place to deliver him to her wife and you know to his wife here's the way the news the article ends in Reader's Digest brilliant it says this skeptical persons will no doubt attribute the events of that memorable afternoon to mere chance but was a chance that made stone burger suddenly decide to visit his sick friend and hence take a subway line that he had never been on before was a chance that caused the man sitting by the door of the car to rush out just astern burger came in was a chance that cause Bella Peskin to be sitting beside stone burger reading it's not pure polish mistake Hungarian reading a Hungarian newspaper was it chance or did God ride the Brooklyn subway that afternoon did God ride the Brooklyn subway that afternoon so here's this Hungarian couple from the Brecon he's reading a Hungarian newspaper Sternberg assets behind him beside him ultimately bringing husband and wife together separated for many many years was a chance or did God write the Brooklyn subway that afternoon I have a question for you do you think it's chance that has brought you here today do you think you're here by accident what do you think God has ordered your steps maybe you didn't want to come some friend just dragged you along do you think you came here by accident I want to tell you when God intervenes in your life you will remember and you will say did you not did you not I came to Christ on a bed of suicide I'm a Christian philosopher I engage in argument after argument after argument hopefully legitimately but I'll tell you what the most powerful argument in my own mind is the day I was 17 and for the first time a Bible was read to me and I gave my life to Jesus Christ I met him in that hospital bed in New Delhi some of you may know the name the name of that man was Fred David structure of Delhi Youth for Christ the only reason I mention it is Fred David passed away a couple months ago in California I spoke to him a few days before he died his daughter's name is Tammy she phoned me and said go Ravi you know what dad does every day he sits down and so much a pain but he turns on the television and most of the day he just watches you on YouTube and I called Fred you know the first question he said to me was can I help you can I do anything for you I said I'm fine Fred and here's what he said to me he said you know Ravi sometimes I think God brought me into this world just to bring that Bible to you you're my Timothy he said I said this at Princeton University and I didn't know his daughter Tammy was listening she wrote and asked if she could put it as a memorial to her father on the website after he passed away did you not meet me at Wellington Hospital Lord Jesus when I was 17 years old have you met him do you know him you can you get are you not my holy father did you not deliver me and he says will you not will you not lead us in this warfare and protect us who is God he is the god of the past he's the God of the present he's the god of future he's the same yesterday today and forever he is our holy father who gave His Son for you for your Redemption and your salvation and as promised to take you into his presence when your life on this earth has ended that's who God is and your heart will be restless until you find your rest in him you know I want to tell you the truth probably shouldn't say it this way but even coming from where I did I was asked to stay on long before the date came to speak out there but I came here something in my heart that such the last time I came and spoke here watching your young people lead in worship music and all of that I came here on my way to Indonesia and what I want to say to you is I believe God guides our steps this way he takes us into the future and I know whenever my last breath is breathe it'll be by divine appointment that that moment has come and I just pray that I will be ready to meet him when that moment finally comes will you not will you not protect me way out into the future and so I close this message and say to you the hope that God gives to you and gives to me is that he provides for you and me care over the past over the present and the future my book the Grand Weaver I make this statement the older you get the more you see the design the younger you are the more you see the wrong side of the design you wonder if there's a design but the older you get the more you see the right side of the design I had a run rough youth I had a youth that failed repeatedly but I do know this much everything that God allowed to happen he allowed to happen for a purpose and I'm just grateful he never gave up on me and he won't give up on you either I want to close with this illustration before I close I want to say this to you personally are you troubled tonight are you unsure about the future is something really on your mind that builds you with fear or uncertainty or are you wracked by the past I don't know in an audience like this they have to be people like that but I believe if God's brought you brought you here on purpose he's brought you here to meet you and to talk to you and to have an encounter with you there's a parable told some time ago which I think is powerful you may have heard it not some of you at least it'll be be the first time there's a man who lived in a rich man's home his father was very wealthy not only did his father have a lot of things but his father had one of the greatest art collections anywhere in the globe personal ones and the son of his was a choice young man he would go or along the streets and he would often see a particular beggar that he really grew friendly with and would chat with the beggar and the beggar would say what is it like living in the home of a rich man and so on and so the son would talk to him about the art gallery and all of that and the beggar would just you know wistfully think about it and so one day when the young man came the beggar said Tim you know I I like to draw too I'm not very good but I have drawn a portrait of you because I like you very much and maybe your father will hang this up in his Portrait Gallery so he had drawn this picture and gave it to the Son and the son not wanting to hurt him said I'll make sure I take it home and the beggar gave him the piece of art and left it some years went by and the son stopped coming in the one day one week two weeks three weeks never saw the Sun again so he made his way to this rich man's home and the watchman was standing out there he said there used to be a young man here who often visited me doesn't come anymore he said oh there's a young man passed away he said oh I didn't know that he said yeah and I'm sorry he said yes he said the young man passed away said oh that's that's unfortunate I didn't know that and some days went by he found out the father passed away as well and then he heard a rumor that the art was going to be auctioned and so lot of people coming to home this beggar put on some of his best clothes and snuck in there he only had one goal in mind and he wanted to see if his picture was also going to be there so he got in and he's looking at the gallery and all of that and sure enough the picture he drawn of the son is hanging that didn't compare to the rest and the auctioneer starts off by saying before we proceed the father left in his will one condition this portrait of his son was the first thing to be auctioned and the people moaned and groaned and thought what on earth so he put it up for bidding and know that he bid and the beggar put his hand in his pocket found a few coins and put that out and said I offer this much for that paint for that picture and nobody competed the gavel was founded and he said sold to this beggar so the beggar goes takes it up and he's about to leave when he says nobody leave please there was a second condition in the world the father left this whoever bought the portrait of the son gets the entire art gallery parable yes does have a lot of truth Laden in it yes when you get the son you get the full riches of the father and what he has given to you and to me do you know his son have you received the Saviour you

Channel: dumcMY

Views: 277,334

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Keywords: Ravi Zacharias, DUMC, sermon, christianity

Id: aRChfvNYEqI

Length: 69min 14sec (4154 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 05 2013