Many psychologists are saying that today's generation has begun to show more narcissistic (Having an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy (compassion) for others) traits than any previous generation. This change has caused our culture to make decisions based on outside influence, rather than morals or convictions (seeking praise and popularity); has caused a high level of materialism and pleasure seeking (because what I want is all that matters); and has caused us to have much less concern for the needs and wants of others around us, or God. This has grown to such a level, that it is common for people to be offended and even attack any pastor who simply has the audacity to tell what God's Word says if that Word doesn't approve of their lifestyle or stroke their ego.

There are a number of Christians today, who have a problem quite the opposite—they have constant, and unshakable feelings of unworthiness. They have lived such a bad life before coming to Christ, or made such bad decisions thus far; because they keep falling and failing in their Christian walk, and feel God is always dissatisfied with them; because their life, "doesn't amount to much", and they don't seem to have the skills and the intelligence to be used. These people usually take every lesson to heart, and often interpret the lesson as one more way they are falling short until they feel overwhelmed and defeated. Many times suffering in their relationship with God, staying in sin, because they feel it's hopeless anyway, and living in a guilty or upset state. These people often see themselves in the eyes of God, as one big walking "mess-up" who will spend their life as the one, "passed by" in God's Favor, and as the one who may slip into the Gates of Heaven unnoticed, at best.     

It's to these people, that I would like to speak today; and my first comment to you, on the way you feel about yourself is that:

"It grieves God to see you feeling this way, and it is not the life He died to bring to you.”
1 John 4:18-19.

Have you ever felt like God just wasn't paying attention?  Like He was far away from what was going on?  You aren't alone.  Today Pastor Doss addresses this pattern of thinking and uses Scripture to reassure us that He is much closer than we think.  Listen by clicking the button below.

ur world has gone nuts—we knew it would happen...  God's Words says it will in the last days—but I never dreamed it would happen this quickly. Protesting everywhere, safe zones from free thinking, sniper attacks against cops on the streets, entire States being governmentally and socially shunned over bathroom etiquette, pastors being ordered to turn in their sermon material, loss of businesses, jobs, finances and even imprisonment for following your religious beliefs, major division over race and gender identity everywhere, churches everywhere declaring that God's Word is not inerrant… And trapped in the middle of all of this mess are Christians who are hurt, attacked, misled, and scared, and a world of lost people (who unfortunately are treated the same). People led to believe they are worthless accidents, people led to believe they can find happiness in lies, people who have no idea of what Jesus is really like, or what it means to truly love Him. It seems like everyone has been infected with the, "You'd better agree with me, or I'll silence you!" mentality. And, for those that do actually get to hear and understand God's Unaltered Word, it seems that every time it isn't exactly what they want in their life, they are ready to write off the pastor, the church, and God, rather than listen to the love, reasoning, and wisdom behind what God says (which I do not understand, when the world's wisdom surely doesn't seem to have brought anyone peace or joy).

A special sermon addressing Christian and non-Christian alike.  Put on your big boy britches as there are some hard truths here...

The Bible is not a science book, but if God is real, then science should yell His Name in Glory; after all, He should be the One who has made the very laws and principles that make up science in the first place. We will only investigate what the experts say, and most of those will be atheists or agnostics... *Sorry, if this is a bit technical, but, if you never get to hear these powerful truths from the education system or media in general, where else will you ever hear them?*

Last week we started our lesson with this quote from renowned atheist Richard Dawkins: “Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence." Many Christians live in self-doubt or embarrassment because the media and education system often make them feel uninformed or weak to believe ‘fairy tales’. By the end of last week's lesson, we saw that according to many atheistic and agnostic scientist's own words, it is the secular world that has to hold onto faith, in spite of, and in lack of evidence today.

Christians are so often accused of being close-minded when it comes to our faith, not wanting to even consider other possibilities; and yet listen to the narrow-minded, biased, angry, and even cruel comment of one of the major supporters of Evolution today, Richard Dawkins.

This is his description of anyone who does not share his belief on the theory, not fact, of Evolution: "To claim equal time for creation science in biology classes is about as sensible as to claim equal time for the flat-earth theory in astronomy classes. Or, as someone has pointed out, you might as well claim equal time in sex education classes for the stork theory. It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that)." "Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence."

Some amazing discoveries in science and technology over the past decades have given us powerful evidences to consider, evidences which solidly, objectively point to our Creator, so much so, that it takes a conscious decision to believe against the evidence to continue an atheistic view of life. There are only two possibilities for the entire Universe's existence: 1) it has always been, and there has never been a time when there was nothing (called, "Static" or "Infinite" Universe) 2) there was a time when there was nothing, and then from nothing there was everything. Both present extreme problems for scientists today, with discoveries through advances in technology and knowledge.

This is part one of a series designed to demonstrate that you don't have to "check your brain at the door" to believe in the Biblical account of the world.  Pastor Doss will walk us through the many ways that science actually supports what the Bible has always declared to be true - our world (and all that is in it) has been awesomely created and designed.  It could not have "just happened."

Today we look at space and learn how scientific discoveries support the creation account.

Colossians 3:1-4: God tells us to set our sights on the realities of Heaven—we don’t do this nearly enough. We have learned to be caught up in and live for the moment: “YOLO”; which keeps us from getting and keeping the big picture and understanding what life is truly about. It keeps us from having a ‘Kingdom Perspective’ in our attitudes and actions.
Revelation 21:1-4: imagine what the new, perfect Earth in all its originally intended splendor, mystery and creativity will be like; imagine the places to explore, things to do; imagine an entire Universe that has been created for us to wonder over and discover; imagine the joy of knowing we are loved, safe, secure and living an adventure for eternity. Imagine countless years into this phenomenal life, we meet over there one night, in the middle of one of our exploration trips for a glorious campfire with lost loved ones and we decide to reminisce about our few hard, critical days on this old earth. At that moment—what will your thoughts and feelings be, about how we have lived this life? How we are living right now, how we treat people, how we spend our time, what we thought was important… Will it be important what you pour countless hours into being better than anyone else (sport, hobby, work); that you made sure you were never taken for granted or advantage of—putting people in their place—with no concern of what is important in a relationship? Will that obsession to look the most intelligent, successful or toughest see so important to your ego? Will you feel like it was so imperative that you got your way (even against God’s Will) in selfish acts? Will you feel smug about yourself when you think about the people you were rude, impartial, condescending to in your life? We think we are Kingdom Minded, but we must change things if we are truly to become so.