Truth must resist lies

Man, well, good to see you guys.

Welcome to Church at the Grove.

My name's Russ.

If I hadn't had a chance to meet you, and I want you to know I am so pumped after this weekend with the students, and I'm just gonna be really honest with you.

It's hard to adjust and come back to you old people that sit here like lumps on a lock.

I'm just gonna be honest with you, man.

The kids are fired up about Jesus.

And so it's like I'm just having to, you know, come off this high, you know, and and readjust.

And so just pardon me in my excitement for what God is doing.

Okay?

I'm just I'm pumped.

And so I want you to be pumped with me, and I want the Holy Spirit to work in you like he's working in the lives of our kids.

Because listen, some of you, it's your kids that we've been ministering, pouring into.

And if it's not your kids, your kids are in children's ministry and they're gonna be in student ministry before you know it.

I mean, you're gonna wake up and they're gonna be graduated, and they're gonna be gone.

And you're gonna you're gonna look back and say, man, I I wish, or I, I, I, I, if I could go back and do it over, I would do something different.

Let's get it right, church.

Amen.

All right.

Let's pray.

That's enough sermon, isn't it?

No.

I'm gonna, I'm not done yet.

Um, it's so good to have you with us.

I am fired up.

Good to have everybody online with us if you're at home or maybe a guest uh checking us out online.

We're so excited.

Um I want to tell you a little bit about something I've been reading about.

Diedrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor that was significant during World War II.

Um, when the Nazi Party and the nationalists begin to form and rise up, and as they begin, as Germany began their assault and invading Poland, which would launch World War II, much of the German church aligned themselves with the Nazis and the nationalists.

They partnered with those evil leaders.

In the middle of that, Diedrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor that stood up to resist this move in the church.

And so another famous theologian, that's the one of the most significant theologians of the 20th century, Karl Barth, they wrote and they signed what was called the Barman Declaration that said this, that their allegiance was to Jesus over any nation or any political ideology.

And not only did Bonhoeffer sign this declaration, he started an underground seminary.

When I say underground, it had to be secret, it had to be hidden from the German leaders, it had to be hidden from the Nazis.

And so in this town, um this rural town called Finkenwalde, he started this seminary in a large house.

And so he brought pastors and he said, we're not just gonna teach information, we're gonna model what the church should be.

And they begin to develop rhythms and habits around what they believed: meals, prayer time, worship, learning how to walk with Jesus on a daily basis.

And so some of these other German theologians heard about it, and one of one of Bonhoeffer's friends, his name was Wilhelm Niesel, he heard about these strange Christians that were that were um known for their uh their spirituality.

And he comes to check Bonhoeffer out.

And Bonhoeffer invites him.

He said, Hey, come go for a ride in a boat.

And they got into a little small boat and they went up into what's called the Odor Sound, and they walked up the bank outside of off that river, and they stood on a hill where they could see two things at one time.

On one side, there was an airfield and a Nazi comrade, a Nazi uh part of the Nazi army, and there were planes taking off, and there were planes landing, and there were soldiers scurrying around as they were involved in war, in a physical war.

And then he pointed to the other side of the river, and they could see the house where the underground seminary existed.

And Bonhoeff said to Wilhelm Niesel, he said, Listen, he said, There's a physical war being fought over here.

He said, There's a spiritual war being fought over here, and the church hangs in the balance.

And he pointed to the house where the seminary was, and he said, This must be greater than that.

And so today we begin a series called Beautiful Resistance, where we're talking about how the church has to rise up.

It has to rise up in an age, an age that is quite different than the 20th century World War II age, but really not that much different.

The times have called for a beautiful resistance.

Pastor John Tyson writes in his book titled Beautiful Resistance.

And in some ways, what Bonhoeffer was saying, it was laughable.

It was ridiculous.

As a matter of fact, his seminary didn't last that long.

In 1937, the Gestapo closed it down.

But the influence of Bonhoeffer's idea still applies to today.

Why do we want to talk about this?

It's because we live in a culture.

And listen, the last several years, the last couple decades, but even more in the last two and a half years, things have changed and they're changing so fast.

And I know about you, but but it's been disorienting to me.

It's hard to keep up.

Ethics and morality are changing so fast.

And see, I love the church.

I love the big church, Capital C.

When I say church, I'm not talking about just church at the grove.

I'm not talking about a denomination.

I'm talking about believers all over the world.

And I love the church in America.

And as weak and feeble as she is, she is still beautiful.

And there is victory that we are promised, regardless of how things look.

And I want Church at the Grove to be a church that is part of a beautiful resistance in our culture.

I want to see the church guided by and into truth.

And I know about you, but it doesn't feel like we're playing on home field anymore.

We are in a war and we are outnumbered.

What is asked of us in this day, in this time.

What we're pulled into from the culture is to sacrifice what is sacred, what is holy, for what is more culturally acceptable.

And so here's, we've got to figure out how to resist, but how to do it in a beautiful way.

But what good is salt if it's lost its flavor?

Can you make it salty again if it will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless?

You are the light of the world.

Like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.

No, one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket.

Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house.

We, the church, were meant to stand out to resist, but to be beautiful in how we confront cultural compromise.

What does this look like in a world full of confusion, disorientation?

What does it look like in a world that's ruled by ambiguity?

Ethics and truth are fuzzy rather than clear.

What does it look like?

We're going to look over the next several weeks at several different ways that the church can be that beautiful resistance.

And today specifically, we're looking at how truth, truth is the resistance to ambiguity, confusion, and the lack of clarity.

Truth must resist ambiguity and confusion, but we've got to figure out how to do it in a beautiful way that represents the character of Christ.

It has its challenges.

How do we live compassionately and courageously in a culture where people who shout the loudest win the arguments?

Everybody has a voice today.

Everybody has the ability to proclaim something.

You know how they have that?

I mean, they've got it right here.

You can be a podcaster.

You can be a Looney Tune that has lost your mind, and people will listen to you and think you have some type of authority to speak about something.

Just because you say it the loudest, or you say it with some authority.

So you've got to be able to discern, church, how to how to sift through the loud noise and determine what truth is.

We live in a time where ambiguity and confusion are seen, listen to this, as virtues rather than problems.

If you're clear about things and you offer truth and convictions about things, you're seen as narrow-minded.

As a matter of fact, if you proclaim absolute truth, it's considered culturally a sin to do so.

So we've got a challenge that faces us.

How do we live during a time where Christianity is openly being remade and reformed in a way that just makes it more comfortable in a secular world?

And so we've got to go back to Scripture.

We've got to go to the Word.

We've got to look at the life of Jesus.

We've got to, we've got to, we've got to be willing to stand on truth.

We cannot sacrifice truth on the altar of peace.

And here's what we're talking about when we talk about the church being a beautiful resistance.

Followers of Jesus in America have two clear options.

Option one is to retreat.

Option two is to risk.

And I say we should take some risk.

Retreat is to resign into pessimism, cynicism, to point our fingers at people, to condemn them and to judge them, to isolate ourselves, to build walls around our community and become a monastery.

We've got the truth and nobody else is allowed in.

That's not what we're called to do to retreat.

We're called to risk.

It means that we love people that don't believe the same as us.

It means we engage with people.

We don't compromise our convictions, but we are willing to love the unlovable.

Now here's the big idea for today, and we're going to dive in for a few minutes on a topic that is so tough to handle in 30 or 35 minutes, but it's this this truth.

Truth is not a proposition to believe.

Truth is a person to follow.

Truth is not a proposition to believe.

Truth is a person to follow.

Now, if you understand truth, truth, the definition of truth means means something that describes reality.

Something tangible that describes reality.

And if there is such a thing as truth, on the opposite side, there is what?

Say it, say it out loud.

Lies.

If there is such a thing as truth, then there is on the opposite side lies.

Jesus said, John 10, 10, he said, the thief comes, this is how I memorize it, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

I have come that you'd have life and have it abundantly.

The New Living Translation says, the thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.

My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.

So he comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

There is an enemy.

One of the lies that the enemy wants you to believe is that there's not an enemy.

One of the lies that the devil would love for you to believe is that he doesn't exist.

He's a figment of our imagination.

He's not real.

No, listen, if truth exists, lies exist.

If God exists, there is an enemy on the other side.

That's what Jesus is talking about.

He's talking about steal, kill, and destroy.

I don't think he's talking.

Now, obviously, the believers of the day of Jesus and the early church, they faced physical threats.

But I think Jesus is talking about something that goes beyond physical.

He's talking about the war of the ideas in our minds that can control our hearts.

And so he says, I'm the good shepherd.

We hear his voice.

We know who he is.

We follow him.

I love what he says in John 14, 6.

And when the disciples are talking about, Jesus says, you know the way, and they're talking about how do we know the way?

He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.

So Jesus explains the enemy's desire to scheme and take away your hope, meaning, significance, and to chip away at truth.

Now let me tell you this: truth matters.

Truth matters.

The enemy wants you to buy into lies.

Truth matters.

Your kids' lives are at stake.

The next generation is at stake.

And so when we read through the gospels, we've got to pay attention to what truth, what truth says.

John 18 is where we're going to camp out here for a second.

John 18, we're going to be in John 8 and come back to John 18.

This is where Jesus is standing with Pilate, who is a Roman governor of the area in Judea at the time.

And so Jesus has already been arrested and he's been beaten.

And he is standing in a courtyard with Pilate, having a conversation.

And Pilate pulls Jesus into a little private area a couple of times and he brings it back out publicly.

And he has been flogged.

He is covered with blood.

And Pilate is trying to decide what to do with Jesus.

Then Pilate went back into his headquarters, verse 33, and called for Jesus to be brought to him.

Are you the king of the Jews?

He asked him.

Jesus replied, Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?

Am I a Jew, Pilate?

retorted.

Why?

What have you done?

Pilate asked Jesus.

Jesus answered this.

He says, My kingdom is not an earthly kingdom.

Now listen, I mean, you need to let that resonate.

Jesus is saying, My kingdom is not physical.

It is not what you see here.

My kingdom is not an earthly kingdom.

He's saying there's something else.

If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders.

He's saying, listen, if this was a physical war, we'd be fighting.

We'd be fighting right now.

But my kingdom is not of this world.

Pilate said, So you are a king?

And Jesus responded, You say I am a king.

Actually, I was born, listen, and came into the world to testify to the truth.

All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.

And so the question is, can we say with Jesus that we love the truth?

Jesus says, My kingdom is not in this world.

Now John 8, 31 and 32, Jesus said to the people who believed in him, You are truly my disciples.

Listen, if you remain faithful to my teachings, and he says, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

So what is truth?

It's important because Jesus talked about it.

He said, That's why I have come to testify to the truth, to bear witness to the truth.

All who love truth will recognize what that what I say is truth.

Going back to John 18, then Pilate said to him, So you are a king.

Jesus answered, You say that I am a king.

For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.

Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.

That's out of the English Standard Version, same verse that I read earlier.

So let me let me talk about Pilate and what's going on right here.

Pilate, he's a Roman governor of Judea, which includes Jerusalem, and he finds himself in the middle of a controversy over this Galilean Jewish rabbi.

And people have recognized there's something special about this man.

He can cast out demons, he can heal people, he can teach with an authority like nobody else has ever taught.

There's something special about this man.

He's different, but Pilate doesn't want to get in the middle of this conflict.

What we often overlook is that Pilate's wife, the night before all this is happening, his wife has a dream about Jesus.

And his wife says, she encourages him to have nothing to do with this righteous man.

And so Pilate feels this pressure.

He feels the pressure from the Roman leadership regarding how he should handle the tension of the circumstances.

And he feels the pressure from the Jewish leadership and the population in Judea about this dilemma with what to do with Jesus, crucify him, they say.

And Pilate says, or asks, what is truth?

And he had said this, he went back, after he'd said this, he went back outside of the Jews and told them, I find no guilt in this man.

So a man who doesn't even understand the scriptures, doesn't understand the spiritual community of Israel, doesn't understand, he recognizes this man is righteous.

There's no guilt in him.

But instead of taking bold leadership, Pilate gives in to his personal preference and he does and takes action on what will bring the Least harm to him and his power.

And the question is, what will the church do in response to the same understanding that we know truth?

And truth is not a proposition.

Truth is not just an idea.

We are in a war over ideology and ideas.

Truth is a person, and his name is Jesus, and you can know him.

And by knowing him, you can know truth.

And are we going to follow the leadership of Pilate?

Are we going to follow the example of Pilate and give in to the cultural pressure?

Or are we going to stand up and say, yes, yes, Lord, we want to be the beautiful resistance in this culture.

We want to be salt.

We want to be light.

We want to stand for truth.

Truth definition is what is the actual definition of truth, is what is in accordance with fact or reality.

It's like one plus one is two.

Now you can say one plus one equals three, but it doesn't make it so.

But we live in a culture where people see it as a virtue for you to define truth in a way that benefits and reflects your own chosen reality.

Even if it's as irrational as saying one plus one is three.

Truth is a person.

Truth is personified in the person of Jesus Christ who gave his life as a ransom for many.

Truth is the centerpiece of the Christian faith.

We live in a culture where if you, listen, if you say Jesus is my personal savior, nobody's going to argue with you because that is your truth.

But if you say Jesus is the only way to heaven, you'll be canceled.

And so the challenge for us, we're going to look at it over the next several weeks, how do we as a church stand without compromising the truth, but do it in a way that is compassionate and loving at the same time.

It's what you are facing if you're raising kids or grandkids in this world.

They'll be told that there's no such thing as absolute truth.

Or they'll be told that it's unknowable.

Post-truth culture is a culture in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than emotions and feelings and personal preferences.

This is why politics plays to your fear.

Because the war is up here, the battle is over thoughts and over ideology.

Let me give you an example.

Vladimir Putin.

Most of us would say he is an evil leader that has physically assaulted a country without any provocation.

And we're focused on the Ukraine.

But let me tell you, Putin is battling two wars at the same time.

While they're physically assaulting the Ukraine, he is controlling the thoughts and the minds and the lies to his own people.

And so he's fighting a war of ideas on the home front while they're assaulting a country physically as a neighbor.

And he's controlling, he's telling them what he wants them to know, what he wants them to believe.

It's the same thing the enemy, Satan, the deceiver, does with us.

He wants to control us.

And listen, if he can't steal your salvation, if he can't keep you from Jesus, then he wants you to be depressed.

He wants you to buy into lies that you can't share your faith.

He wants to control you emotionally.

And he wants to lessen your influence.

We live in a world that says it's, hey, it's like Burger King.

Remember the Burger King commercial?

Have it your way.

Have it your way.

Burger King?

And God says, This ain't Burger King.

He said, You can't have it your way.

But we've got to learn the way of Jesus.

In a post-truth world, truth is determined by the agenda of the one who talks the loudest and has the most power.

Let me give you an example.

Two years ago, this week, two years ago, this week, a microorganism changed the landscape of our land, of this world.

We came off United Weekend, had 15 kids baptized, 300 kids part of that weekend, and we our staff came in that week and we were celebrating.

And then on Tuesday, we realized, man, if the NBA cancels their things, we need to cancel them as well.

And this war of ideas began.

Where did this microorganism come from?

Did it come from a bat?

Did it come from a lab?

Is this an act of biological warfare?

And we all were gripped with fear.

All the information we're inundated with.

Fear, fear, fear.

Now listen, I let me tell you, I am not making a political statement by using this pandemic as an illustration.

Do not email me about anything I say, okay?

I'm not taking a side on anything I'm talking about.

I'm just talking about the facts.

Do you wear a mask or not wear a mask?

Do you get vaccinated or not getting vaccinated?

Don't email me.

I'm not answering it.

But if you respond this way, you are an idiot.

If you respond this way, you don't trust God.

I mean, it's it's it's been crazy, pandemonium crazy.

And listen, all of us, all of us, this is how we kind of came to making decisions.

All of us thought this way.

Well, my cousin or my niece is a nurse.

And she told me, that's how some of us has made our decisions.

We called somebody we knew.

And somebody over here gave us facts about how to handle it, and somebody over here gave us facts.

They told us opposite things, but both of the things that they told us were backed up by facts from the CDC.

Am I lying or what?

That's the reality.

Everybody has had a truth in the last two years.

And I still don't know if we understand what the truth is.

And we can't even see it.

I'm spitting it out right now, and you're not scared.

So, what can we be sure about?

Here's what I'm sure about.

It's Jesus.

I'm sure about Jesus.

Jesus is the truth.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

He's so much more than an idea, he's a person.

See, he came into our existence to rescue us.

And we don't understand the significance of the state that we are in before Jesus or outside of Jesus.

Many of us who are believers, we feel like, hey, before Jesus, we were in sin, but we were in a kiddie pool.

We were in a kiddie pool.

Jesus came and rescued out of us from a kiddie pool so we don't drown in the little kiddie pool.

No, let me tell you, your situation outside of Jesus is so much worse.

You are in the Atlantic.

And you don't, and you, you're, you have no floating device.

You are in sin.

You are desperately in need of somebody rescuing you and saving you.

And Jesus helicopters in like the Coast Guard or a Navy SEAL.

And he comes and rescues out of us, out of the depths of despair.

He is the truth.

And he is what we need.

So what am I sure about in a world where we can't even see our enemy?

I'm sure about Jesus.

Jesus and his followers are the beautiful resistance in a post-truth world.

Jesus' people, the body, the church, when authentically living out his character and his conduct, his attitudes and his actions, we embody the truth.

Not because we are perfect, but because we have been introduced to the living truth.

And sometimes the church, we don't know what to do.

And so our natural response is to point our finger at the people who are living in a different way than what we see that Jesus taught.

And see, we I know hot topics.

I know that there are issues that need addressing.

We live in a culture where people are confused about gender and we want to point our finger, but let me tell you something, before you point your finger at somebody else, we as the church need to repent.

You know why we need to repent?

Because we aren't modeling biblical manhood and womanhood the way God intended.

Listen, I know what the scripture says about biblical marriage between a man and a woman.

But before we point our finger and condemn people that struggle with same-sex attractions, we need to repent and we need to get our marriages healthy and right.

You can't condemn a world and point your finger when the divorce rate in the church is the same as it is outside the church.

And so part of beautiful resistance is for us to repent and say, yes, God, we haven't gotten it right.

And let's learn how to embrace people that are struggling yet to uncover and discover truth.

They haven't met Jesus yet.

So in a post-truth world, beautiful resistance is to risk by living your faith in the compassion and the courage that flows out of us through the Holy Spirit.

So when everyone is going this way, what does it mean to resist?

We go in the opposite.

But we do it, yes, with courage, but with compassion.

What does it mean to beautifully resist?

In a culture of confusion, there is clarity.

In a culture of fear, there is strength to live with peace.

In a culture of hate, there is Jesus in me to love people.

In a culture of lies, there is the Spirit of God in me guiding me into all truth, as Jesus says in John 16, 13.

In a culture of ambiguity and confusion, lack of clarity.

The followers of Jesus resist with confidence and clarity and truth.

See, the beautiful resistance is the beautiful resistance isn't about shouting the loudest.

The beautiful resistance is about being completely different and risking our lives because of our faith in the person of Jesus.

This is what Diedrich Bonhoeffer did.

This is what Daniel Meshach Shatterak of Bednego did.

This is what Esther did.

I could go down the list.

People facing obstacles in the culture, standing for truth, taking risk.

It cost Bonhoeffer his life.

We don't face that risk now.

Some people do around the world, other believers.

And there may come a day when one of us has to face that reality, or your children, or your grandchildren.

The beautiful resistance is not about shouting the loudest.

It's about Jesus.

And here, let me close with this.

Do our life choices and convictions make us stand out from the culture?

Or do they just kind of blend in?

The culture says, follow your heart.

Jesus says, follow me.

Culture says, believe in yourself.

Jesus says, believe in me.

The culture says, discover yourself.

Jesus says, deny yourself.

The culture says, be true to yourself.

Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

I so believe.

I so believe in what Jonah shared.

That there is a flickering of revival.

You can't spend a weekend that we did and watch students respond to the work of the Holy Spirit and not believe that God is still at work.

You can't go to a place like the Georgia Dome and watch 55,000 college and young people join in worship and dismiss it as if God is not working.

God is at work.

The question is, will some of us old people join in or get out of the way with what God wants to do?

Would you pray with me?

Father, can we get it?

Would you lead us into all truth?

God, would you work in our hearts, draw us into a place where we are willing to go in the opposite direction of the culture and compromise?

And God, may we learn how to do it in a way that is compassionate and beautiful, full of salt and light.

God, may we be willing to realize there is a war of lies.

There is a war over our minds and our hearts.

And it is messages and ideology.

And it's a battle over belief.

And that fight and that war is probably even more vital, more important than an invasion, an army invading another country.

Because this battle that's over our minds and our hearts, it is something that affects eternity.

And so the enemy wants to kill, steal, and destroy through lies.

One of the lies is that we can't know truth.

So, Father, would you speak, would you draw people to the truth?

The person of Jesus, truth personified, in a way that would change lives, a way that would spark revival.

God, we thank you for the life and the death and the resurrection of our Savior.

And we thank you for the fact that death, physical death, has been conquered.

And God, we fight over spiritual life.

We fight over hearts and minds.

God, would you call us to be engaged?

Maybe if there's somebody here this morning that needs to take your first step and say yes to Jesus, say yes to the truth.

I'm gonna follow Jesus.

Maybe your decision this morning is to say, hey, I need to be obedient and be baptized.

Maybe your decision is to say, I need to connect with the church.

I need to be a part of this beautiful community that's resisting compromise, but doing it in a way that is compassionate and beautiful.

Father, we celebrate Jesus.

We thank you for him and we ask that you would continue to work.

It's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.