Almost True: Week 1

How intelligent does those snowbirds seem? Now it's been bad.

I'm so glad to see you here today. It's so

good to get out and about, she said February second,

and all of a sudden it hit me that is

let's see, thirty two years ago, I started dating my

wife in eighth grade. She wasn't my wife then, but anyways,

it's been a long time. It's been a great time.

Where she is, she in here, she will be eventually.

But anyways, uh, you know, thirty two years. I'm getting old.

And speaking of getting old, you will know. So I'm

using my glasses a lot more today because Thursday, when

I went to look over my sermon, I couldn't see it.

So anyways, so I'll be using my reading glasses a

lot more. But it's okay, I'm getting old. You're getting old.

We'll deal with it, okay. But anyways, you know, I

had a good vacation season and then just went right

into Christmas, and a lot of people have asked me,

you know, how has the Lord been speaking to you

and especially during your time off. And let me tell

you just the image that as I've been praying, that

just keeps coming to my mind when I think about

our church in the future, and it's been unique, but

I've been getting this image of when people drive by

our church building that to them it's almost like Indianapolis's

version of the Statue of Liberty, you know what I mean,

kind of like where it says, give me your poor,

give me your tired, give me your huddled masses, give me,

you know, for those who are seeking to be free,

who want to breathe. And I'm thinking about like how

when people drive by our church that they will know

that this is a place where people can get freed

up from addiction. People can get freed up from oppression,

people can get freed up from the pain and the

brokenness of their childhood. People can get freed up from

the things that are holding them down in life. Where

they can be freed up financially, where they can be

freed up from just the pain of a divorce, the

pain of abandonment, the pain of abuse, and that we

are we are kind of like this, this beaming place

that says, whoever you are, if you're in need, if

you're hurting, this is the place to come, This is

the place to be. And you know what I just

I'm just seeing as becoming more and more of that place.

If you think about this next year, what we're launching.

We're launching here soon celebrate Recovery. We will be the

only church in the region that has this, and we're

going to see a lot of lives change. We are

going to continue to hopefully add days to our neighborhood market.

We're so we can feed more people and encourage more

people and love on more people. We're hoping to. We

got some people that are training right now because it's

so hard to move along in your you know, immigrant

status to become an American citizen, that that we're actually

going to be having a ministry here that's going to

help people significantly. Now. Matter of fact, it's the same

ministry that our pastor Isaac from the Brick Church just

went through. And by the way, let's give him a

big hand. Pastor Isaac and his wife just became American

citizens in that cool and by the way, he knows

so much more about America than probably any of us,

Like what it takes to become an American citizen is insane. Uh.

And also, you know, we have Passport to Employment, which

has helped over two thousand people get jobs, new careers.

It's been a uh, you know, kind of like a

life preservative people. We're actually launching one for the Spanish

because as they come in they want to get a job,

but they can't read the application, they can't do all

these things, and so it's just such an amazing thing

where we're just trying to go out. We're looking at

the needs from the community. We just launched a homeless

ministry a few months ago. We're just simply looking at

the needs of the community and saying, all right, can

we meet these needs. Let's meet these needs. Let's be

the hands and feet of Christ. And so I want

you to continue just to prepare your heart. God, Where

are you having me? God? What do you want me

to do? How can I join us? And the best

thing that we can do to be the church that

people come too to receive healing is for us to

continue to walk in our own brokenness, be a humble people,

be a people that loves people. To be a people

that stays brokenness, understanding that everything we have is because

of Jesus. Well, I just want to share that that

that's what God's been stirring up in my heart and

I pray that soon or maybe it has already that soon,

that God starts to give you that same type of vision,

that same stirring in your heart. All right, well, today

we're going to get into a message series called Almost True.

And if you are not, you see your toes being

stepped on. I might want to bring some bandages over

the next few weeks, but we're gonna get right into it.

And let's pray and ask God to speak to us today. God,

we call on you today and we want to honor you,

we want to bring you glory. But God, mostly today

we want for you to speak your truth to us,

and God help us to adjust our life to your

truth in Jesus name. Amen, y'all want to start out

with a gang today. Let's start out for a game today.

All right, here we go. We're gonna play two truths

and a lie. Now, I know we're not supposed to

lie in church, but this is for the glory of God.

And so what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna tell

you three things and one of them is a lie. Okay,

here we go, and you gotta here. At the end,

we'll go around and we'll take a vote and see

if you can figure out where I'm lying. And those

of you here Thursday don't cheat. All right, here we go.

In high school. Number one, I studied the Japanese language.

Number two, I have gone up into the Eiffel Tower.

Number three, I let's see about two days after one

of my birthdays, my birthday by was stolen from the

front yard. Okay, do you hear those? All right? Very simple?

I study Japanese in high school. I've been up in

the Eiffel Tower and not talking about the King's islande okay, uh,

we've allD uh. And also I had my bike stolen.

So let's go ahead and vote. Which one of you

don't think that I studied Japanese Raise your hand, all right,

You guys just don't believe in me much. Okay, no, no, no, no,

you can't figure that out. Okay? Uh? Number two, how

many of you thinked online about going up into the

Eiffel Tower, even though I've been to Paris, okay and

talked about it like six times? All right? Number three,

how many of you all don't think my bike was stolen?

All right? Well, let me go ahead walk you through these. Uh,

my bike was stolen two days after my birthday, my

pat Pol said to me, don't leave it out in

the front yard or will be stolen. And then it

was stolen. And I really thought my Papal took it

from me just to teach me a less until until

my dad took me to the police station that I

was like, Okay, maybe Papo isn't the thief. During high school,

I took three different styles of martial arts, and so

even though I didn't take a class on Japanese, I

had to study Japanese like crazy Ishnie, Shan, Shigo, and dom.

I got the all right, So anyways, so you have

to study you know, all the moves or are Japanese.

But even though I've been to Paris, I have seen

the Superman movies and know that going up into the

Eiffel Tower can be full of the terrorists. So I

did not do that, and I just hung out at

Eiffel Tower while the rest of the group went up

in it. So all right, so very simple, But did

you notice what I did? What I did was I

told you guys stuff. You guys know I've been to Paris.

You guys have heard about my childhood. But what I

did was I just told you things that were were true.

But if you listen to my language, I didn't take

a class in Japanese. That would have been a really

good one for you to say you didn't do that,

because they don't offer classes of Japanese in Middletown, Ohio.

They don't. Okay, But studying versus taking a class on

something's different. And see, here's what goes on in this world.

Sometimes things are almost true. They feel like part of

it is true, and so therefore we will accept it

as a truth or more likely, if I believe it,

if I feel it, if I think it, then it

must be true. And so today we're going to be

talking about what is truth. And so let's just start

out today by looking at a famous passage in scripture.

And this passage of scripture has been quoted over and

over again through the out the generations. Here we see

this interesting thing where Jesus is on trial, and the

Jewish leadership says, you know, let's send him off the

pilot's let's have the Roman government put him to death.

That way our hands are clean. Well, Jesus hangs out

of pilot and pilots like, I don't see what you

guys are seeing. So let's just check out because at

the end of this conversation he has with Jesus, we

see the big question of the day. All right, here

we go, says Pilot answered, Am I not a Jew?

Am I your own nation and chief priests delivered you

to me? What have you done? So He's like, Jesus,

what have you done? It so horrible that they want

you killed? And then Jesus said, you know what, listen,

my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom

were of this world, then my servants, by the way,

would be fighting so that I would not be handed

over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom

is not of this realm. Therefore, Pilot said to him, so, okay,

you are saying that you are a king, and that

Jesus answered, you say correctly that I am a king.

For this I have been born, and for this I

have come into the world to testify to what the truth?

And everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.

And then Pilot says this famous quote that has been

quoted over and over and o again throughout the centuries,

what is truth? I think that'd be a good place

for us to start out today, let's start with a

working definition of truth. That way we're all on the

same page. And this, by the way, is broadly accepted

as a working definition of truth. All right, So truth,

first of all, it's absolute, okay, it's constant. It's true

for everyone, not just for some people. And it's true everywhere,

not just in one country or another country all the time. Okay.

So truth is absolute, it's constant, is truth for everyone everywhere,

all the time. But here's the problem with truth. People

confuse truth with what their perspective. That's the problem we have,

especially in America today, is we confuse truth with perspective. Okay,

And here's the thing. Truth is absolute, but our perspectives,

well they're different. All of us have a perspective. So

here's the problem today. If we confuse truth, which is absolute,

which is constant, which is true for everyone everywhere, with

our own perspective, then four things gonna happen. Number one,

truth becomes subjective. And what does that mean if it

becomes subjective, Well, first of all, it means that if

I feel something, if I have an opinion about something,

if if I'm emotionally driven by something, or maybe I've

grown up with some prejudices or some biases. If I

have these things in me, well then that's truth. It's

truth because I feel like it's true. And just because

something feels like it's true doesn't mean it's true. Have

you ever met someone from Texas? They might hear from Texas.

All right, hold on, cowboy, listen. If you meet someone

from Texas, they'll tell you Texas is the best state.

Some of them will even tell you that Texas is

the best country in the United States. And let me

tell you, I've been to Texas a whole bunch many,

many times, and let me tell you, Texas is not

the best state. A couple of reasons. Number One, they

have rattlesnakes, and a rattlesnake is a descendant of Satan,

and any any state that has rattlesnakes cannot be the best.

When I was there about a month ago, I was

hanging out and we're about ready to get all of

our stuff put away on this hunting trip, and a

person who was in charge of the hunting trip said, hey,

before you go to bettych Night, make sure you look

under the covers, and in the morning, make sure you

empty out your boots, you know, because you know scorpions,

any state do you have to look for scorpions cannot

be the best state. But you know, again that's just

my opinion. I believe that to be true because why

I hate rattlesnakes and I hate scorpions. But people who

live in Texas they believe that is the best stake

because they believe the rattlesnakes and scorpions keep other people

out of their stake. Well, anyways, so we all have

a perspective. Also, we could confuse our perspective. And when

that gets confused with truth, well, guess what truth can

change over time. What's true when you're eighteen might not

be true when you're thirty. What's true when you're twelve

might not be true when you're sixteen. How many have

you ever been out in the woods with the compass?

You got in the woods of a compass, And then

you know how a compass works. It leans towards a

magnetic field, It leads towards a magnetic field, and it

always has this thing where it points to true north.

No matter where you're at, you look at your compass

and guess what you could tell where true North is Well,

what happens if you're out in the middle of the

woods and you look down and true North starts going

a few degrees here, a few degrees here, few degrees here.

It starts going all over the place. Guess what's gonna happen.

You're gonna get lost, You're gonna get disoriented. And that's

what happens whenever truth can change all the time. If

truth can change all the time, we get lost, we

get disoriented. We don't know what truth is, and so

therefore we wander off and we get off the right path.

Number three. A third thing that can happen if our

perspective gets confused the truth. We start saying stuff that

you know, if it's true to you, that doesn't mean

it's true to me. So we all have our own truths.

That means the worst thing is that number four, truth

can be determined by you. So the logic goes it

sounds right, if it feels right, if it's what I've experienced,

then that's truth. So that's where we get all these

sayings today. I don't know if you guys heard these sayings.

Speak your truth, you know, live your truth, own your truth.

Your truth is your power. Your truth is who you

really are. But I raised a question, what if your

truth based on your opinion or feelings is a trap.

Let's go back through history and see how this has

worked out. Go back to nineteen in the middle of

the nineteen thirties. If you remember the huge part of

the Germans, they believed that the German people were a

superior race. They were better than all the other races,

and the other races were inferior races. And then when

they thought about the Jews, they thought the Jews were

the lowest of all racists. And when they looked at

the Jews, they said, you know what, all the problems

in society, it is because of those Jews. So if

we have all these problems in society, our goal as

a government, as leadership is to get rid of all

the problems. And if they're the ones who calls the problems,

then it equals logically that we do what we get

rid of the Jews, as there is a nation that

actually did this less than a one hundred years ago,

and we came about the darkest period probably in human history,

the Holocaust. Now I know that's one that people have

used for years. Both think about you know, Lava's watch TV.

Lavas are familiar with the mafia. You guys wanna talk

about the mafia for a moment. Let's talk about the

truth to the mafia, all right, Let's think about the

truth to the mafia. Mafia has their own set of rules, okay,

and so they've bade up their own rules. And the

number one thing you could do is be you know, loyal.

The worst thing you could do is betray them. But

truth to the mafia lies with power. Hey, So whatever

the captain are, the underbass or the don tells you

to do, that is the truth. Because power determines the

truth in the mafias. So you think about this. Somebody

owes them a lot of money. They loan shark, they

owe them a lot of money, you know, and they're

having a conversation at their little clubhouse and they're, you know,

playing canasta and drinking some Shirley Temples, and they're sitting

around talking and they're saying, you know, what should we

do about this person who owses fifty thousand? Well, do

you think we should send them a letter in the

mail and tell them that we would like for them

to start making payments? Do you think we should go

to the law offices and see if we could start

some procedures against them. No, they say, all right, first

of all, here's our three choices. We're gonna kill them,

We're gonna beat them, are we gonna extort them. We're

gonna take over the business and run their whole life.

And here's the thing. That's the way it goes. Because

the truth of the situation is what the person with

power says to do. And if you don't do what

that person and power told you to do, now you're

in trouble. See their truth. And I'm gonna say this,

because I don't think the mafia is too far off

from the rest of the world. I'll stay with me

on this, and don't let that be your only quote today.

The mafia, when it comes to truth, is all about

self preservation. It's about what's best for them. It's about

what serves them at that moment. And when truth becomes

about what serves you, serves your interest in that moment,

then guess what. Then your perspective serves you and you

know what, You cannot follow that because that is not true.

Just because you believe something, just because you feel something,

just because you want something, does it mean it's true?

And here's the thing. The Mafia and Germany and all

these people in the world who had come up with

their own truth they do why because, honestly, to be

one hundred percent honest, they believe this is what seems

right to them. This is what seems right to them.

But what does the Bible say about that? The Bible

says in Proverbs fourteen twelve, it says, there's a way

which seems right to a man, but in the end

it is a way of death. Again, just because something

seems right doesn't make it right. All right? Uh? Are

you okay? We're just warming up. Okay, we're just warming

up them. Now. I want to switch and for the

rest of the message, I want to talk about two

truths about truth, okay. And the very first truth about

truth is just because you believe something doesn't make it true. Okay.

First of all, can we all agree on that, okay?

For example, for centuries, everyone believed, for many, many centuries,

everyone believed the Earth was flat. Don't raise your hand

if you believe the Earth is flat. All right, I'm

pretty sure I think we can mostly agree in this

rude that the Earth is not flat. I remember my

first ministry. There is a man who we just had

to be talking to one day, and he says to

me and my buddy West and passer David, he says,

you know that the earth is flat, and I can

prove it by scripture. Really, so here's what I'm gonna

show you. The scripture he showed us. It's very fascinating.

He went to Revelation, which by the way, is apocalyptic language. Anyways,

we'll go on, and he says, after I saw four

angels standing at the here it is his interpretation, four

corners of the Earth holding back the four winds of

the earth, so that no one would blow on the

earth or on any sea or any tree. And so

he said to us, and he stuck his finger in

the Bible and point at four or five times four

corners of the earth. The earth is flat. Like man,

we have pictures. But here's the thing. I was maybe

only into my second ear of hermeneutics, and I understood

that when you're looking at that scripture, more likely it

probably just means north, south, east, west are very foreign distances.

He was taking something that was poetic, something that was

a different genre, and he was claiming it to be

his truth, and because it's his truth that he could

back it up, and therefore it must be true. Just

because you believe something doesn't make it true. Imagine you

are a better you get on a flight, think about

the person that you've hung out with for many years.

You're better to get on a flight with him. And

as you get on the plane, your friend says to you,

I really feel like a pilot today. And you're like,

have you ever flown before? No, but I really feel

like a pilot. See. I stayed at holiday in Express

last night, and I feel like I can fly this plane.

I feel like I'm a pilot. I believe I'm a pilot.

So therefore, because I feel it or I believe it,

therefore I must be a pilot. Now would you let

that person fly your plane? No? Of course not. Of course. See,

just because you believe something or can this is something

or feel something that doesn't make it true. Now, okay,

can I just stop for a moment. I want to

be very pastoral here. I want to say this clearly,

your perspective matters, what you've experienced, what you have went

through in life, it matters. It's real it's valid. Everyone

has a story and your story is important. Okay, Yet

what you experience and what you feel doesn't equate to

absolute truth. Okay, what you experienced, what you feel doesn't

equate to absolute truth. And you're like, oh, hold, second, held, second,

I was told Homy was told this growing up. If

you have a hard decision to make and you want

to know what to do, follow your what follow your heart.

Your heart's not going to messle for you. Your heart

always knows the truth. Your heart knows what to do.

Follow your heart. What's the Bible say about your heart?

Let's look at this. Let's look at this. Jeremiah seventeen

nine says the heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked.

Who can know it? That's not good. Don't follow that. See,

without God, our heart is wicked. But we need to

redeem heart, a heart that has been purified by the

Holy Spirit, a heart that is dedicated to the Word

of God. And then allow your heart.

To conform to the Word, which is truth, and then

you can move forward. You know, it's not good to

determine on our feelings when we come to truth. Why

because our feelings lie to us do you know that

our feelings lie to us.

They're deccept that they lie to us all the time.

Let me tell you how I just recently experienced this again.

We were down in Texas and we were boar hunting,

and the second day they separated us in two groups

and we were walking through the fields looking for bores,

and then it got to the one spot that, you know,

the only last place the bores could be. And so

what they did is they put all the men in

a row with AR fifteen's shotguns and rifles, and they said,

the boys must be here. We're going to walk towards them,

and we're gonna get some boar. And I thought this

looks crazy, and so I said, you know, one, here's

what I'm gonna do. You know, I'm gonna go about

one hundred and fifty yards over here, because that's what

I felt. I felt like this. I needed to be

safe in this situation, and I did not feel like

it was safe there, and so I said, you know

what I'm gonna do it. So I'm gonna about one

hundred fifty yards over here. I'm gonna sit by this pond,

and if any of the boys get away from your maniacs.

I'll get it, I'll get it. So I went over

there and I sat by the pond and opened up

my water, and I felt very proud of myself for

you know, you know, doing you know, doing what I

felt like was best. Well here in a few minutes,

you just you just heard something that sounded like the

Fourth of July fireworks. And then all of a sudden,

I heard something that sounded like a miniature helicopter going

right over my head and just leaning it right there

in a dirt A slug from a shotgun hit a

rock and then came about one hundred and some feet

over right over my head. About took me out. About

took me out. And let me tell you something. I

you know, I felt as though I was doing the

right thing. I felt as though I was being smart.

My feelings told me this is the one safe place.

But my feelings lie to me. The only truth in

that whole scenario was that I needed a new pair

of underwear. Okay, just because you feel it doesn't make

it right. And here's what I want you to do.

I want you to pay careful attention, follow me logically. Okay,

It's easy to believe in our own unique truth. But

it's very, very dangerous because our truth isn't constant. Our

truth can change, and it can lead us down a

very slippery slope. If I believe that I'm the source

of truth, well what's true to me? You can't question

my truth. And by the way, Paul Warren does about this,

two thousand years ago, by the Holy Spirit, Paul looked

into the body of Christ and he predicted something that

was going to happen in the body of Christ. And

I'm afraid to say this, but two thousand years later,

even though it was a warning to me, it seems

like a prophecy by Paul that has been fulfilled in

this age. Check this out, Paul says, preach the word,

be prepared in season and out of season. Correct rebuke

can encourage with great patience and careful instruction for the

time will come. And I think that's today where people

will not put up with sound doctor, in other words,

with what's just truly believing what the Bible says. Instead

to suit their own desires. They will gather around them

great number of teachers to say what they're itching ears

want to hear. And this, my friends, is what the

church world has done, but in the last ten to

fifteen years, never thought what happened like this. Here's what

people do if you talk about the morals of sex

that I don't agree with or maybe kind of rubs

our family wrong, or or if you talk about what

to do with my body, or if you talk about

any of these things, if you say you know these

things and I don't agree with them, yeah, I know

the Bible says this, but you know what, the Bible

is an old book. You start looking at the Bible

like it's just an old book. Here's what they do.

They get up and they leave your church, and they

look around this little town here, and this is the

same thing happening in every major city. And they go

to another church that will tell them exactly what they

want to hear, like, hey, yeah, it's your body. God

just wants you to be happy. The main goal of

God is to make you happy. So do whatever you

want and so people will lit you. And we've had

this here. People will leave our church and they will

go to another church just because another church says sin subjective,

it's relative. Just the main thing is we want you

to be accepted. And this is happening in every single

church in America because our culture has shifted towards I

don't want to hear the truth. I want to hear

something that agrees with me. And here's the problem. Okay,

they just want to go somewhere that it's easier to stomach.

But here's the thing I want you to understand right now.

God's truth doesn't change based on your ability to handle it.

Is he mine a church? Know how to amen? I mean,

have you guys ever heard of that. I'm gonna say

this again. We're gonna try it again and we're gonna

practice today. I know Second Service won't get it, but anyways,

you guys can do it. God's truth doesn't change based

on our ability to handle it. I hope you believe that.

I hope you believe that, because here's the thing. The

world wants to hear things. But if what they want

to hear is not what they need to hear. See

the world they want to hear that when somebody wrongs me,

I could go after them. But what they need to

hear is Jesus teach us about forgive one another, love

one another. The world wants to hear. Hey, it's my body.

I could do whatever I want with my body.

Oh.

Really, what they need to hear is the scripture from

First Cristians that says this, or did you realize that

your body is a sacred place, the place of the

Holy Spirit. Don't you see that you can't live however

you please squader. What God pays such a high price

for the physical part of you is not some piece

of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God

owns the whole works. So let people see God in

and through your body. In other words, Jesus Christ came

to this earth, and Jesus Christ lived a perfect life,

and he became our sacrifice, and he took our punishment

on his body. Our body was supposed to receive his

for our sins. He took places with us, and he

took upon the punishment. So therefore, with his sacrifice he

redeemed our bodies. In other words, when we follow Christ,

we belong to God. Not just the spiritual part of us,

but all of us belong to God. Every bit of

us belongs to God, every part of our dna, every adam,

and our body, everything belongs to God. So therefore, since

it's God's body, no, you don't get to make choices

like it's my body, I could do whatever I want. No no, no, no, no, world,

it's God's body. And so therefore when it comes to

the use of your body, you look at God's word

and the Bible says it, whatever we do with our body,

we do with our body things that what will bring

glory to God. See, there's that false conception out there

in the world. The world wants to hear it's your body,

do what you want. But the Bible teaches us the

truth what it's God's body. You know, a lot of

people want to hear. You know what. We may not

be legally married, but we're married in our hearts. Therefore

we can do whatever we want sexually. No no no no

no no. Sex is a gift from God between a

man and a woman and a covenant of marriage. The

world wants to hear. You know, I'm just looking at

porn a little bit. I'm not hurt anybody. I'm not

touching anybody. It's not that big of deell. No no no, no, no,

no no. But the world needs to hear the Scripture

talks about be holy as God is holy, that we're

supposed to do everything we can to get the lost

out of our life. The world wants to hear, Hey,

it's not my fault. That's the way I've always been.

I've always been that way. That's why I do what

I do is because that's just the way I was made.

And you know what, I'm gonna tell you something right now.

You are not what someone did to you. You are

not what someone said about you. You're not even what

you say about you. Here's what you are. Let's look

at this right here. It's tewod Corinthians five. It says, therefore,

if anyone is in Christ, the new creation is calme

the old has gone, the new is here. If you

are in Christ, that means you have been made new.

So therefore you can't use the language I've always been

like that, or oh that's just me. No, no, no, no.

You were redeemed by God, bye by God, purchased by God,

saved by God, annointed by God, sactified by God, and

therefore you are a new creation. Therefore you can become

like Jesus, and you don't have to be that way anymore. No. No.

Now you might be like, oh gosh, you sound like

an old old preacher, but The truth of the matter

is what we need to hear or what we want

to hear is different than what we need to hear.

All right, That was the first point. Just because it

seems true to you doesn't mean it's true. Here's our

second truth about truth. That truth isn't something we just believe,

but the truth is someone we follow. We come across

this passage where Jesus is talking about going to heaven

someday and he's talking to his disciples. He is this

kind of weird language. He's like, my father has prepared

many rooms for me, and I'm gonna go see my father.

And so the disciples are a little bit confused, and

so Thomas ask him a legitimate question. But when Thomas

asked this question, he literally throws Jesus like the biggest softball,

because Jesus like he knocks it out of the park.

Check this out. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't

know where you're going, so how can we know the way? Softball?

And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and

the life. No one comes to the Father has said

through me, So who is Jesus. He's not a way,

He's the way. He's not a life. He is the life.

He's not a truth, he is the truth. And people

get upset when Jesus says that no one can come

to the Father except through me. And here's the thing.

People love Jesus in this world. They love the Jesus

heals people. They love the Jesus who loves the poor.

They love the Jesus goes down the field and spends

around with little kids. They love that Jesus. But they

don't like the Jesus of exclusisativity. Okay, well, Jesus is exclusive.

They don't like that Jesus. What Jesus says the only

way to the Father is through me. Oh, now, Jesus

is a persecutor. Don't like his exclusivetivity. They don't like

it at all. They don't like it when Jesus says

I am the only way. They don't like that. And

here's the problem. We don't like it when God sets

rules that we don't like. But here's why. Let me

tell you why God gets to set the rules. He

created the world, He created the universe. He created the atom,

he created matter, he created time, he created your body,

he created DNA, he created everything. So here's my question today, says,

he actually created everything. Could we would we allow him

to make some rules? I mean, is it okay for

God to tell us what truth is and what's right

or wrong? Says he actually created us. Yeah, he's the creator,

so therefore he gets some these rules. And see the

Bible says this that it says that Jesus is the

Word may flesh, that he is the truth of God,

may flesh. I love what my seminary professor told us

in graduate school. He says, you know what, if you're

trying to figure out who God is and you're confused

about who God is, you don't know who God is,

Here's what I want you to do. Go and read

the four Gospels. And when you read the four Gospels,

you'll find out who God is because you simply look

at Jesus. And when you look at Jesus, you see

who God is. So if you want to know what

God is like, look at Jesus. Jesus will tell you.

And let me tell you that the Bible says over

and over again that he is the Word, that he

is truth. Let's look at this scripture. He says in

the beginning talking about Jesus, what was the word this

word here talking about Jesus and the word Jesus was

with God, and the word was God. He was with God,

and beginning through him, all things were made. Without him,

nothing was made. That has been made. In him was life,

and that life was a light to all mankind. Then

it skips down to verse fourteen, the word talking about

Jesus became flesh, talking about how he came here and

he made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory,

the glory of the one and only son who came

from the Father. And here it is what is Jesus,

full of grace and truth, grace and truth. He isn't

a truth, he is the truth. God's word is a truth.

God's word is our true north. And I know that

was a long introduction. Don't get worried because the application

is only one sentence here. It is just one sentence.

And what I'm about ready to tell you this sentence,

I believe is a good mark for membership around here,

because if you can't agree with this sentence, then down

the road there's going to be conflict. Okay, So this

is kind of like, hey, if we're going to take

this journey together, this is a sentence that you've got

to say, all right, I agree with this. I'm all

in on this. And here it is. Here's the application.

If Jesus's truth is different from what you believe, then

die to your truth and live according to his truth.

I'm gonna say that again. If jesus truth is different

from what you believe, than die to your truth and

live according to his truth. If you have anything in

your life that is different, if your truth is different

from the truth of God or the Word of God,

than die to that. Matter of fact. Paul talks about

this in Romans. He says this, for if you live

according to the flesh, you will die. But if by

the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your body,

you believe, you will live. No, no, no, I want you

to pay attention to this. Here. Here's what he is saying. Here,

he's saying, talk hi about those peop people who have

received the Holy Spirit. They are saved. And once you

become saved, you live according to the spirit. In other words,

of the Spirit of God is directing you and leading

you to live a certain way. And how do we

know how to live well? The Spirit of God wrote

the bib before so we look at the word of

God and we adjust our life to what the Bible says. Now,

this word body here, this word flesh here in this

text isn't talking about our physical body. It's using the

Greek word sarks say r x sarks. And what it's

talking about there, the sarks is your sinful nature. It's

your old nature. So it says this that those who

live according to the spirit, those who live walking in

God's ways, those who please God, they adjust their life

to the word of God, to the Spirit of God.

And anything that contradicts that is well, it belongs to

your old sinful nature. So what do you do. You

put it to death. You put it to death. You

put it to death. So your old sinful nature might

tell you it's okay to have sex before marriage, but

the Bible says no, that sex is something for marriage.

What do you do? What should you choose? You put

that to death. If your simple nature says's okay, just

look at poorn a little bit this evening. Well, the

Bible says to me, holy as I am holy. And

if there's any lust your life, do you ever think

you can't get it rid of that? That's what the

spirit of God says, but your simple nature says, it's okay,

what do you do? You put that to death? If

the spirit is saying, all right, you shouldn't gossip about

that person, but you're thinking, you know what, what if

I tell a story about what they did, and then

at the end of that story, I can say something like,

let's pray for them, because that's Christian gossip. That's how

we do it. Youngins. I don't know if you know

that yet. So basically, if you want to trash somebody,

you just trash them and then you say, let's pray

for them. That's Christian gossip. It's still a sin, but whatever,

all right. So anyways, so if you're feeling tempted to

do that, what do you do? You say no to

you put it to death. You put it to death.

And so the choice is easy, okay, And that's what

we do. We put these things to death. Now here's

what I want to do, is we close up today.

Okay again, if anything is contrary to Jesus truth, I'll

put it to death. We cover a lot of ground today,

and here's how I'm going to close out. I want

to go back to ponscious Pilot and there's more power

in this story. Again, ponscious Pilot. What he's trying to do.

He's trying to make everybody happy. He doesn't want her

to be upheaval. He doesn't want Rome to get upset.

So he tries to please the Jewish crowd. But here's

the problem. He interviews Jesus and he doesn't see the

big deal, so he goes out to them. He says,

listen to the crowd. He went back outside to the

Jews and he told them I find no guilt in him.

In other words, Jesus is innocent. But then he remembers

that there's this tradition that they had on the Passover

where they release one of their prisoners. So he says,

I know you have a custom that I should release

one man for you at Passover, So do you want

me to release to you this Jesus. So he's found

a loophole so he doesn't have to kill Jesus. But

then what does the crowd do? They said, not this man,

give us Brabbas. Now Brabbas the Bible says was a robber.

But let me tell you, as we studied and we've

learned more about Brabbast Brabas was probably not only a robber,

but he was a liar. He was a thief, likely

a murderer. And the crowd said, we don't want Jesus

the truth, give us Brabbas the liar. And so the crowd,

the culture chose not the truth but the liar. Matter

of fact, we see that Brabbas is likely a murderer,

a thief and a robber and all this other stuff.

But let's look at how the Bible describes or how

Jesus described Satan. It says, you are the father of

the devil, and your will is to do the father's desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning talking about Satan.

Satan does not stand for the truth because there's no

truth in him, and talking about Satan, his purpose is

a still kill and destroy. So think about this. Brabbas

is a thief, he's a liar and a murderer. Satan

is a thief, he's a liar, and he's a murderer.

And so in many ways, it's at this moment in history,

one of the most important moments in history. You have

someone who stands and who represents the characteristics of Satan,

and then you have Jesus, the Truth, who represents the

goodness and the love of God. And then they stand

before the crowd and they say, who do you want?

Who do you want? And what does the crowd Jews?

They want the lies, they want anything that does not

make them want or have to change their life, you see,

because when you encounter Jesus, you have to change your life.

Because here's the other thing too. The last thing I

want to say today is a truth. It steps on

your toes. This steps on your toes. So here's how

we're going to close out today. If going back to

that statement, if anything that you feel or believe is

different from Jesus truth, then you must be willing to

put it to death. And so I want to give

a moment here in service. We're going to close our

eyes about our head and I'm gonna give you a

couple to do a couple of things. One is is

maybe you've been struggling and you've been like believing your

own truth and all that. But today's a day where

you say, you know what, Jesus, I am going to

fully follow your word, and if your word teaches it,

I'm going to follow it no more having my own truth. Secondly,

maybe that's not a problem with you. Maybe there's a

sin in your life that you haven't put to death.

Maybe it's lust, maybe it's pornography. Maybe you've been flirting

a little bit too much with a coworker. Maybe it's

it could be all kinds of things, gossip, it could

be who knows pride in the But there's something in

your life that goes against the truth that Jesus speaks.

I want you to start those steps today to put

it to death. Let's just take some time to pray. God,

we come to you now, and Lord, we want your

Holy Spirit to be at work, speak to us today

your truth. So i'd encourage you right now, just take

a moment, check your heart, and speak to your Lord.