Truth - Part 1

It is so good to be back with you guys.

Um wow.

This is the same table.

This is so cute.

I'm gonna I think my daughter's American girl doll would like this.

This would be great.

Um I absolutely love hanging out with Justin and we do um lunch and breakfast together, and what I love is just how real uh life can get.

I I love how real this place is.

And and and my favorite line of the day already, and he shared that again, was just we we don't pass the buckets, we need them for the rain when it rains, and and that really is just how real this place is.

And this morning, I want to just continue on where I left off last time and just kind of just do life.

And um I gotta tell you it's funny.

This past week I was doing a corporate event, and the president of the company got up to introduce me to speak, and and I just had to laugh because he's like, Wow, we're really fortunate to have Ken here today, and he's gonna share with us um he's coming off a tour, which I was, and he said, but it's really great because he's in town, and I think his son's getting married this weekend or something.

But and then he said, Don't correct me if I'm wrong.

And and then he just kept on with the introduction.

I'm like, Don't correct me if I'm wrong.

I was just like, really?

And uh so I got up, the first thing I said was, I said, I'm I'm I'm not gonna correct you.

Um uh this weekend I am in town for my son, but I gotta give him a call and tell him he's not graduating, he's getting married.

So uh it just one of those words that really is our society.

It's it's this idea of don't correct me if I'm wrong.

But the truth is, is if I want to find the greatest joy in life and my purpose and my meaning, uh I want you to correct me if I'm wrong.

Because I don't want to go down the wrong path.

Yeah, you're not for that.

That's awesome.

And this morning, follow, just join the ride with me because I'm gonna go from here.

I'm gonna go from the universe to us individually and how to experience life to the full.

And it's gonna be a pretty quick takeoff, but really I've been talking to several people over my life, and some are like, man, I'm not a person of faith.

I don't really deal with faith, I don't agree with faith.

And I'm like, well, everybody has faith.

Everybody has faith.

It's just what direction your faith is in.

I totally understand, and and we can talk, and I love to listen to those who I don't have faith in God, and I get that, and that's all right.

And if you're that way this morning, I'm I'm okay with that.

I I would encourage you to listen with your your mind as well as your heart uh to just kind of how to experience that.

Because those who are saying, well, I have I have faith in science.

Well, let me tell you, I do as well, and I'm very thankful for science.

Uh yeah, you can clap for that too if you want to.

Um I'm faithful, I'm very uh thankful for science and the advances of those who study and those who experiment and those who develop.

And that I believe God gives wisdom to those who do that.

But I'm talking about the philosophical side of science uh that that would say, you know what, it's just it's all a big mistake.

And the one of the core problems I have with that, just the idea of evolution, is the concept of it starts out literally going against the law of science to prove science.

And that is simply that there were these gases and there was an explosion.

Well, the number one rule of science is something cannot come from nothing, okay?

Oh, except for the gases, I guess.

And then the gases exploded, and then there was this some kind of mutation plus a billion or million years, and then here we are.

And I'm like, wow, unpack that for me a little bit because that that's a pretty big leap.

And I tell people that say, I believe philosophically in science, you have more faith than I do.

Because to believe that there was this combustible accident that ends in this stunningly complex beings is a faith that I just can't make that leap.

And I said now they said, Well, I have to be able to prove it.

Well, here's the principle of science, which I and I try to find common ground.

They're like, Well, I'm I believe in science.

I'm like, well, I do believe in science as well, and it's very beneficial.

But they're like, I have to, the principles of science, I have to observe it or be able to experiment and reproduce it.

And I said, Well, then you and I are gonna be on the same page here.

I think we can both agree, you nor I was here when it began.

Can we agree there?

We did not observe it.

And then you can blow your mind on several levels of that one.

They're like, well, obviously I wasn't here.

I'm like, great.

Then the experimental part of it, um, I really believe in that process.

And I'm gonna talk about it in a second about how I believe in the experimental process.

I said, but here's the deal: that which you have to prove, it really doesn't make sense because you're missing so many gaps here.

Do you realize that there is zero, zero proof or pieces or uh fossils to any species moving from one species to another?

Zero.

And yet you have faith that that happened multiple times, and now here we are.

I said, that's a faith.

I you got more faith than I do.

I said, but now I I understand that you're like, well, there's not a God, and and okay, uh there's there's a whole different philosophical debate about that, but I'm big into that experimental face.

I want to just mention one piece real quick.

Um how many of you saw Ferris Bueller's day off?

Okay.

Do you remember Ben Stein?

He was the the teacher in the class.

Bueller, Bueller, Bueller.

Did you know?

I mean, the guy's brilliant, actually.

He was actually a speech writer for two presidents before he did that, and he's he's an incredibly uh brilliant man, and he actually was asked to mediate uh a documentary, and the documentary was called Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed.

And the whole documentary, it's not exciting, the ending is anticlimatic, but it was really interesting because he had a very personal desire to go to these world-renowned atheists and Darwinists and says, I want you to explain to me how this works.

Where did we come from?

He says, Because I need to know the foundation of what really was responsible for millions of, and he's of Jewish descent, millions of Jews being exterminated in the name of Darwinism, in the name of progression and this whole concept.

He goes, I want to know this.

And so he talks to them, and they finally get to the conclusion.

These are the world-renowned atheists, and they're like, hey, here's the deal.

Um, there has to be some form of intelligent design.

Some intelligent design, but it's not God.

And that was their conclusion, and it was very anticlimatic.

But he was like, okay, you know, I'm just I'm just mediating this.

And uh I found it very interesting.

So here's the deal today.

I'm gonna be very total and upfront with you that we all have faith.

What is the direction?

And how do we develop that to a point that is meaningful personally?

Now there is the one, you can go with the whole, there was this, uh there were gases, and there was this cosmic fart, and there was just and and it just all merged out plus a billion years, and now we exist on a continuum by mistake to nothing for no reason, with no explanation.

And you can believe that.

And I I would just I would bid you this one concept because I've got to be able to at least prove the process if I'm gonna jump on board with that.

And if that is true, then there's some way to experiment that.

If you and I were to take metal pieces and glass pieces and put it in a box, and we were able to put that with some leather and metal and and glass, and we were able to put it in there, and then we blew it up a hundred times a day for a million years, and then we take the top off.

It's a watch.

Okay, that I can't put my faith in that, and that is infinitely more probable than what is being sold through philosophical science.

But I want to take that same science piece and go, what is observable and what is provable or experiential, because I believe that's where God wants us to be.

Now, to describe this morning, I also have to give you the foundation of who Christ is and what this is and why he is.

And the whole foundation of today is based on John chapter 8, verse 32.

John 8:32

It says simply this, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Now, I that is definitely a truth worth memorizing.

I would say that's a verse, when I get to the memory part, be worth memorizing.

But here's the deal Jesus himself, he came.

And how many of you have ever heard that or seen a billboard or something says, Jesus is the answer.

Have you ever seen that or heard that?

Okay.

The question is, to what?

He's the answer to what?

And that's what we're going to answer today.

Basically, Jesus is saying, I'm the answer to life and freedom and meaning.

And today, I want to get all the way down to personal now.

If you and I will get to where here's where I'm frustrated, here's what I'm confused, here's what I'm dealing with today, and here's what I don't know, Jesus is that answer.

So how does that look?

Follow me for just a second as we go through this, because he says, you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

In John chapter 1, it says, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, Jesus himself.

John 1 · chapter mention

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

He says this in John 14, 6.

Jesus said himself, I am the way and the truth and life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

And he says, then in John 10, 10, the thief comes to steal and kill and destroy.

I came that you would have life and have it to the full.

And he says, that is why I came.

And when you know the truth, the truth will set you free.

Well, Jesus is the truth, and the truth is his word.

If I could put it this way, and then especially for those of you who are seeking faith or where am I going to put my faith, I would put it simply this way.

Jesus says, I came.

He was this word in the flesh.

And he literally lived and he came and died.

And the reason he came was to take our imperfections and the punishment for our sin and die on the cross for that.

Somebody had to do it.

He said, I'll take yours on myself.

And he died.

And it would be much like him saying, Now, I want to give you forgiveness.

And I've heard people say, Well, I thought God's love was unconditional.

And it 100% is.

We can we come to him not fixed at all.

We come to him and say, Here's where I've messed up.

And all he wants to do is accept his forgiveness.

That's all we can do.

That's the only condition is acceptance, opening that gift.

Because God loves us 100% where we are.

And he doesn't excuse sin and he doesn't rationalize it or justify it.

He says, No, sin is sin, but I came with grace and truth.

I'm going to tell you sin is sin, but I'm going to show you ultimate grace.

And I'm going to forgive anything and everything.

God loves us 100% where we are, but he loves us too much to leave us there.

Because he knows the potential of who we are and what he made.

See, because my philosophy, my faith is based on God saying that you are my handiwork, created in Christ to do good, which I have prepared for you ahead of time.

That's where my faith goes.

I can understand somebody smarter than me, bigger than me, a creator that says, This is the way I created it.

But if I could put it an example this way, I feel like the reason why I am frustrated too often and where I fall short again and again is because I've failed to realize.

And the best illustration I can give is this is how many of you have ever seen a Tesla, a Tesla car?

Have you really?

For those of you who don't know that, that's the MacDaddy coolest uh economic, ecology, battery-operated car ever.

And what would you say?

And I'm not, let me give that discredit uh or that disclaimer, what if I say, I've got a new Tesla for everybody here today?

And I'm gonna give you the keys, and you go out and you're like, oh, it's a Tesla, that's so great.

And all your friends are like, man, that's the greatest car ever.

You got a Tesla, that's awesome.

And then you call me three days later and go, Ken, dude, car's a bummer.

What do you mean it's a bummer?

I've had it for two days and it doesn't run.

It doesn't run.

Are you serious?

I mean, have what have you plugged it in?

What do you mean, plug it in?

Well, you you you gotta plug it in.

You gotta you gotta enter, you gotta give it a power source.

And and for you and I, when we come to Christ, he forgives us, accepts us, and we are his children.

But where I fall short is plugging in.

And on and on and on basis, where I ended last time, and for those of you who weren't here last time, I had a heart issue in November where I was literally working out one day.

I go to the doctor, and uh less than 48 hours later, I had open heart surgery.

Um, four arteries were over 99% blocked.

You can go and listen to that message.

But I I am physically thankful for the advances in science and literally here today because God gave some wisdom in that way to those who have developed in great diagnostic equipment, and I'm very thankful for that.

But I can tell you this also that I believe wholeheartedly that the way God meshes that together, he will use that.

And he longs for us to experience his power.

I experience the power of prayer.

Because when you have a thoracic surgeon tell you, I don't know how your heart's beating right now, and I can't tell you you're gonna make it to the surgery much less through the surgery, because you're over 99% blocked in all the arteries, that makes no sense.

I believe in the sustaining power of prayer.

Doesn't mean God answers that that way every time.

But I do know this.

I shared with you that over the past six months, uh, I really got kind of laid on my heart to really dive into his word and learn how to plug in.

I am forgiven, I have eternity, God is with me.

But how do I how do I live this life to the full?

Jesus is the answer to my frustration, he's the answer to my purpose, he's the answer to peace, he's the answer to joy, he's the answer to everything my longing is.

So, how do I get that?

How do I take generic Jesus and make it real?

Well, it comes through the truth.

And the truth, in its purest sense, will set us free.

So if I desire my fullest and God to the full, how do I do this?

By knowing the truth.

And this morning I want us to realize how to know the truth.

First, we need to know the truth in his word.

His word.

Know the truth as his word.

This book, it says it this way in Hebrews chapter 12, verse, I'm sorry, chapter 4, verse 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

And I've got it printed in large print because my eyes are going bad.

And it says this, for the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword.

It penetrates even to the dwelling of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

In the midst of my world, God is saying, Hey, look at my word.

It is alive and active.

This is God speaking to us if we will listen.

This is how we plug in.

And if I'll take that step and realize, okay, God, this your word is alive and active.

How am I supposed to take that?

Well, let me give you different levels of what we can do when we leave here today.

If you're somewhere going, okay, I okay, I believe you now, I've got faith somewhere, but I'm not convinced.

I don't know about the God thing.

I don't know if that's worth my faith.

Here's what I would encourage you to do for the next 30 days.

Find a Bible, grab a Bible, look at the book of John.

It's in the middle.

It's Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.

You can look at the front, it's got the numbers on it.

Read one chapter a day of the book of John and simply pray this simple question.

God, if you're real, show me.

You don't have to talk to anybody.

Just let God speak to you through his word.

And for 30 days, God, if you're real, show me.

And read a chapter, and I promise certain truths are gonna start popping out.

You're gonna go, okay, what are these red letters?

That's where Jesus, the one who said the word became flesh.

That's what he said.

And you judge for yourself and you start dialecting, dialoguing and saying, God, you can use any dialect you want.

God, what are you speaking here?

And if you're real, prove it.

And he will.

I promise.

So, with that, second, I would say freedom comes from knowing the truth.

And I encouraged us to take one of the three, and I've been doing all three since the beginning of the year.

The first one was simply read a chapter of the Bible every day.

Start anywhere.

I would encourage you this.

If there's an issue you're going through right now, one of the most powerful parts of the Bible is in the back where it has a concordance.

And just say, God, will you direct me to what do you say about finances?

And look up some verses and then read that chapter.

Maybe it's relational.

God, what about my wife, my husband?

This.

What about kids?

What about work?

What about whatever it is about?

Find a verse and read that chapter.

And as you read that chapter, say, God, will you show me one verse you want me to get out as I read this and it's going to start happening?

The other one I mentioned was memorize a verse.

Throughout scripture, it gives in Psalm 119, it says, How can a young man keep his ways pure?

By keeping it according to your truth.

And I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Am I hiding his word in my heart?

It says in James, accept the word planted in your hearts.

It says in Colossians 3.16, let the word of God richly dwell in you.

It's not knowing about it, it's knowing it personally.

And to say, okay, well, if I'm doing that, and then maybe the process, and this was the radical one I shared.

And it's this, every day before I turn anything on, I don't look at my phone, I don't look at TV, I don't turn anything on until I've taken the word and I've read it.

It's plugging in.

God, I want you over this.

Now, the the main verse I wanted to take a look at is that John chapter 8, verse 32.

John 8:32

You will know the truth.

Reading it is part of knowing and ingesting it, meditating is knowing.

Because God, there's several of you will look at the verse, go, okay, I got it, I believe it.

That's not knowing it.

I'll put it this way.

How many of you are NASCAR fans?

Raise your hands.

All right, there's several NASCAR fans.

That's awesome.

Now I could tell you, oh, okay, yeah, I know I know NASCAR.

I get it.

Cars driving in a circle, making left-hand turns for a long time.

I get it.

Go really fast.

NASCAR.

And you go, have you ever been to a race?

Well, no.

Then you don't get NASCAR.

You don't understand race.

The power.

And then they start talking about the power and the sound and the fans and babies with mullets.

And just you just, you don't, you don't get to see, you gotta experience NASCAR.

People, people devoted to a driver and a brand, and just the whole the details are overwhelming.

And I have several friends of mine who have never been to a NASCAR race that went to the first one, they're like, dude, I I can't explain it.

Until you experience a race, you don't understand NASCAR.

And I'm like, wow.

See, you can watch it on TV, it's not the same.

You got to experience NASCAR.

Well, here's the deal: we have to experience truth.

Experience it.

Not just read it, not just agree with it, but go, okay, God, what do you want to teach me through that today?

And there's something that happens in Joshua 1.

He says, do not let the word, the law of the Lord depart from you.

Keep it always on your lips.

Keep a verse in your mouth.

I want to get to the point where if you say, hey, what's your verse for the week?

Bam, it's just right there.

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.

That was my verse this week.

And I just I just think, okay, God, what do you mean by that?

See, because I want the word to become real.

And I can tell you this even if the word I'm memorizing, reading, meditating on is not the same, it's it's like plugging into power.

It activates.

The reality of experiencing God in my real world.

My wife and I yesterday, my son graduated.

We have our party today.

It might rain today at some point, the way it already has.

And she said, Well, what about this?

I said, Well, the caterer is doing this.

She goes, What?

And I said, Yeah.

We need to cancel.

I'm like, okay, we can't cancel.

I've already paid hundreds of dollars.

So we can't get.

She goes, Well, I need their number.

And we were at lunch with everybody right after the graduation ceremony.

And she goes, Well, we'll talk about it when we get home.

And now, okay, you're you're how many of you are married?

Raise your hands real quick, all right.

I know none of you do this, but on my way home, I'm gearing up for the conversation, all right?

And and I'm getting my points in line.

I'm like, you're not gonna tell me, you're gonna respect your husband, is what's gonna happen.

And just, and I'm just and I'm doing that.

And you know what God did?

And He started my verse came to my mind.

I'm like, okay, okay, Jesus, I'm sure you are yesterday and later, but today.

What do you want to do today?

Because I'm about to have a conversation, and and I am right on this, and and I'm telling you, it's like plugging into something beyond ourselves because it is.

And what I experienced, God just in that short drive home was like, Ken, be quiet, be still.

You're on the same page.

He started giving me perspective of you're on the same page.

No, you can't, but you're you're in the situation, just listen.

But if I just I don't get to tell my points if I'm just listening.

Just listen.

And I I trust it.

And I get home, and and Heather says, What about this?

And she goes, come outside, because you didn't want to have the conversation inside with the kids in the house.

I'm like, I don't want to go outside.

But I didn't say it, I just followed her out there, and then I listened.

Because I I just listened, and she went through these different options, and I was like, I think that's great.

I agree.

She's like, what?

Because she had driven home preparing her deal as well, and and I'm just like, oh, okay, wow, that all right, I agree.

She goes, really?

And I was like, Yeah.

I said, I think that's great.

And had I gone in my way and not had the truth over the week, on and on, instead just taking a quick devotion, boom, okay, there's a verse, God, I agree, way to go.

What I've started to do is saying, God, I want to plug in, I want to know your truth.

And it's an intimacy, and I know this is crazy, but this is what it actually says.

That word no is the same word that they use throughout scripture.

And it's not an intellectual sense, it is an emotional, physical, um, relational connection.

It's the same word it uses for a married couple having babies, creating it's that no.

When it says he knew his wife, and then there's a baby, that intimacy is the same no.

He goes, I want you to know my truth so purely.

When you know the truth, it will set you free.

And you'll have a freedom you can't imagine.

Once we get to that point where we know the truth and we're ingesting that, and we get this living and active word, we realize in Galatians 5, 13, it says, My brothers and sisters, we you are called to be free, but not use your freedom to indulge the flesh.

Rather, serve one another humbly in love.

That's another one I need to memorize.

But it's like, okay, wow.

So, God, you're about me in my real situations, trusting you and letting you show me how to live this with me.

That's amazing.

Because here's the deal.

Let me go back one second to those of you who maybe are seeking in faith, and and I've heard this phrase several times from friends of mine.

They're like, you know what?

I don't have a problem with God, I just can't stand this.

People, I hate organized religion.

And I said, you know what?

There's another place where you agree.

I hate organized religion.

And they're like, Well, uh, do you went to church?

I'm like, no, I don't go to a church.

I thought where do you go on Sundays?

I said, well, I go to a building, but you are the church.

Not a building.

I said, I go all literally all over the country, all over the world, and the church is there.

It's not a building, it's a group.

It's not an organization.

I despise organizationally religion.

I embrace an organism called the church.

Because it's us, it's living.

Yes.

I'm part of that organism.

And that organism is what is leaving alive and breathing and just nurturing life within the body of Christ.

And once we get to that point, I realize, you know what, this was meant to be for us.

But here's the second part I want us to know.

Not only know the truth as the word, but here's what I'm learning.

I need to know the truth as a person, Jesus Himself.

I've got to know the truth that became flesh and put that together.

If you've ever thought or felt this, and I have, it's an indicator that we are leaning towards that religion versus that relationship.

And that is simply this.

I'm burned out on being a Christian.

If I'm burned out on being a Christian, I'm doing it wrong.

I can put it this way.

I met a gentleman this past week, uh played professional hockey, and he was telling me about this team that he played on when he was uh, I think it was about 15 to 17 years old.

He said, Ken, this team was unreal.

We got invited to play in this Edmonton Classic, which is this world-renowned tournament.

And he said, we did incredibly well.

He says, on that team, every player on that team played either Division I college or played in the NHL.

That's how good we were.

He says, with one exception, the best player on our team.

And I'm like, what happened to him?

He said, after that tournament, he quit.

He quit.

He says, the best player on the team would have been iconic, but he burned out.

Technically, unbelievably, talented, unbelievable, but he forgot to love to play.

He forgot to love what it meant to be a part of a team.

He forgot the joy of why you do it in the first place.

One of my verses that I absolutely love as I was going through this kind of transformation, the person is in Psalm 23:3, he restores my soul.

Psalms 23:3

And he directs me the path of righteousness for his name's sake.

I'm like, Lord, restore my soul.

I want to know you.

Here's what I've discovered there's a direct correlation between the truth and plugging into that truth and experiencing it on a daily basis, that relationship.

I'd been asked to speak at uh couples conferences.

And the first few I did, I thought, okay, gearing myself up.

These are going to be marriages that are in trouble and they need help and they're going to be here.

And I was so wrong.

I was blown away.

Those who come to couples conferences, they're like the happiest couples ever.

And the healthiest.

And not only that, but there were couples that had been married for 30, 40, 50 years, and they're in a couples conference.

I'm like, why are you here?

Because here's the deal: there's a direct correlation to the amount of effort poured into a marriage and those who enjoy a happy, fulfilling marriage.

What I put in, I get out.

What I plug into is what I get power and fulfillment-wise.

If I need that in my life today, I've got to get to the point where I'm like, okay, God, what do you say here?

What are you doing here?

I want to experience your fullness.

It's going to happen when I look at his truth as a word and his truth as a person, and I plug into that.

So my question for you and I this week is simply this: are you plugging in?

And as I've looked at this, I'm so thankful Justin asked me to do two weeks, because there's that's the first step to plug into the word and the person and say, God, okay, here's my reality, here's my frustrations, my hopes, whatever, and here's your truth.

And the more I get that truth in me, the more that those realities I experience God in reality in my everyday life.

I can tell you this, for the past six months, I've been a believer for almost four decades.

I've experienced God in reality on a whole different level based on this foundation and one component.

One component that I'm currently experiencing at a level that I I can't explain with words, other than that one component makes all the difference.

And I alluded to it, but I'm going to share that next week.

So let's pray and then we'll just wrap up.

Father, thank you so much for your truth.

I thank you that your truth is perfect.

And it is proven and it is there for us to plug into and experience that power.

But Father, you are that power.

You became flesh and you sent your spirit to help us, Lord.

And I pray that that truth we would walk out of here going, God, I want to plug in this week.

I know you've given me life and life abundant, but I've got to plug into it to experience it.

So, Father, I pray that we would do that this week in one of these forms.

I pray that we would realize that we are not condemned for anything we have not done.

You are not sitting there disappointed.

You are excited.

You're excited for the very moment.

We say, God, teach me, show me, help me.

And Father, I pray that we would do that this week through your word and your truth.

And it is only through Christ and the power that raised him from the Spirit we get to pray.

Amen.

I cannot wait to see you next week.

Thanks.