Istrouma Baptist Church (ASC)
May 21, 2023

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May 21 l This Way to Happiness
Welcome! We're glad you've joined us today for our Sunday morning worship service! For more information about Istrouma, go to istrouma.org or contact us at info@istrouma.org.

We glorify God by making disciples of all nations.
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"This Way to Happiness"

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭6‬‬
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

1. Two Paths


2. Two Pictures


3. Two Destinies

Istrouma Baptist Church (ASC)
May 7, 2023

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May 7 l Kingdom Culture
Welcome! We're glad you've joined us today for our Sunday morning worship service! For more information about Istrouma, go to istrouma.org or contact us at info@istrouma.org.

We glorify God by making disciples of all nations.
==========

Connection Card
https://istrouma.org/myinfo

Is Science Opposed to Faith?
Hebrews 11:1-3

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11‬:‭1‬-‭3‬‬
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

“Let us be blunt. While it may appear open-minded, modest, and comforting to many, this conciliatory view is nonsense. Science and religion are diametrically opposed at their deepest philosophical levels. And, because the two world views make claims to the same intellectual territory — that of the origin of the universe and humankind’s relationship to it — conflict is inevitable.”
Norman Hall & Lucia Hall, Is the War Between Science and Religion Over?


“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)”
Stephen Hawking, The New York Times, April 9. 1989.

“The world needs to wake up from the long nightmare of religion. Anything we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done, and may in fact be our greatest contribution to civilization”
Stephen Weinberg, New Scientist, Issue 2578, 18 Nov. 2006.

1. The nature of explanation


I have in mind such questions as: “How did everything begin?” “What are we all here for?” “What is the point of living?”
Peter Medawar, Advice to a Yong Scientist.


2. How did the universe begin?

The Kalam Argument
If something had a beginning, it must have had a cause.
The universe had a beginning.
Therefore the universe had a cause.

The Cause Must Be
Outside of time
Outside of space
Non-material
Incredibly powerful
Intelligent
Personal

3. Anthropic Fine-Tuning (design)

"It would be very difficult to explain why the universe should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us.”
Stephen Hawing, A Brief History of Time.

Alan Sandage, is considered the father of modern astronomy. He discovered quasars. He said, “I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery but is the explanation for the miracle of existence –why there is something instead of nothing.”
Alan Sandage, New York Times, 12 March 1991, p B9.


65% of Nobel Prize Winners (1901-2000) Identify as Christian
78% in Peace
65% in Physics
62% in Medicine
54% in Economics
49% in all Literature awards

Baruch Aba Shalev, 100 Years of Nobel Prizes (1900-2000), 2005.

4. Objective Moral Law


"Everyone knows certain principles. There is no land where murder is virtue and gratitude is vice.”
-J Budziszewskie


“You are right in speaking of the moral foundations of science, but you cannot turn around and speak of the scientific foundations of morality.”
- Albert Einstein

5. Love and Beauty

6. The Faith of Atheists


"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing,”
- Stephen Hawking, The Grand Design.


“They produce no events: they state the pattern to which every event ….must conform, just as the rules of arithmetic state the pattern to which all transactions with money must conform – if you can get hold of any money."
- C. S. Lewis, Miracles.

"Why is there something rather than nothing? If not God, then what?"
Martin Heidegger, ISIS December 2007, 815.


John 1:1-4 ESV
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

John 1:14 ESV
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:12-13 ESV
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Istrouma Baptist Church (ASC)
Apr 30, 2023

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April 30 l Kingdom Culture
Welcome! We're glad you've joined us today for our Sunday morning worship service! For more information about Istrouma, go to istrouma.org or contact us at info@istrouma.org.

We glorify God by making disciples of all nations.
==========

Connection Card
https://istrouma.org/myinfo

God’s Design for Marriage
Matthew 19:1-8

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭19‬:‭1‬-‭8‬‬
Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

1. How does Jesus respond?

2. How does God define marriage?

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭1‬:‭27‬-‭28‬‬
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2‬:‭24‬‬
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

3. What are God's purposes for marriage?
a. Procreation
b. Companionship
c. Picture his love and faithfulness to us

Istrouma Baptist Church (ASC)
Apr 23, 2023

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April 23 l Kingdom Culture
Welcome! We're glad you've joined us today for our Sunday morning worship service! For more information about Istrouma, go to istrouma.org or contact us at info@istrouma.org.

We glorify God by making disciples of all nations.
==========

Connection Card
https://istrouma.org/myinfo

That Day
Acts 2:36-41

‭‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭41‬‬
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

‭‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭36‬-‭41‬‬
Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

‭‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭37‬‬
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

1. What did they hear?

‭‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭22‬-‭24‬‬
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

‭‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭29‬‬
“Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

‭‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭32‬‬
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.

2. How did they respond?

‭‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭37‬‬
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭38‬‬
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

‭‭Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭41‬‬
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

April 16 l Kingdom Culture
Welcome! We're glad you've joined us today for our Sunday morning worship service! For more information about Istrouma, go to istrouma.org or contact us at info@istrouma.org.

We glorify God by making disciples of all nations.
==========

Connection Card
https://istrouma.org/myinfo

Can I Trust the Bible?
Hebrews 10:23-25

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭23‬-‭25‬‬
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

1. The Bible is RELIABLE. 2 Peter 1:21
* The UNIQUENESS of the Bible.
* The HISTORICAL ACCURACY of the Bible.
* There are HISTORICAL SECULAR writers that confirm the events of Scripture.

2. The Bible is INSPIRED by God. 2 Timothy 3:16
* The INERRANCY of the Bible.
* The PROPHECIES of the Bible.

3. The Biblical church was ESTABLISHED by God!
* Hold to the HOPE we PROFESS.
* INSPIRE one another to LOVE & GOOD DEEDS.
* Congregate to ENCOURAGE one another.