Embracing Truth: The Path to Freedom and Love

"That is to say that truth is ultimately defined by God according to his rule. Now, this would be from a Christian perspective that we say that God is the ultimate truth. Now, because we operate in a world that may not know God or does not know God, we have to also recognize that truth isn't just solely dependent on what we believe to be truth, but it also has to be founded and grounded in that truth is objective, meaning that it is not determined by personal desire, feeling, or opinion." [00:35:58]

"So there is no such thing as a subjective my truth. Now, we may hear people using those terms or saying those things in our society. Now, as Christians, we say that our truth depends on God. But you see, there's something that's interesting about the truth is that many people want to claim they know the truth, which is for some reason why conspiracy theories tend to be a big thing." [00:36:48]

"It may not be something that you see as something new you've learned. But what I will say is that this is giving us a time to reflect and to self-evaluate and to be truthful and honest with ourselves as it relates to where we align with God and maybe where we do not align with him. So the challenge is going to be today is to listen to these words, to not just accept truth because you see somebody on stage, but to take a look within yourself and be honest with yourself today." [00:38:31]

"Jesus in speaking to the Jews at the time he begins to explain something and as he's explaining this truth to those who are following him and those who are listening to what the words are that he says he says this if you abide in my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free the truth will set you free how do you know if you're living in truth well the people who heard this they were confused because they said how can you tell us that the truth is going to set us free you're implying that we must not be free." [00:44:08]

"Christ died so that we could have life so that sin does not keep us from him what is life life is in God sin is apart from God therefore leading to death as the scripture says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus and prior to that it says that the wages of sin or the payment for sin is death but we can have life through Christ and you see what happens is a lot of times people are not living in truth that's not having freedom because the truth will set you free because they are trapped in their sin." [00:46:48]

"Love is a foundation for the truth you see a lot of times when we regard truth we sometimes miss the aspect of what God actually wants us to see is that love is the foundation of truth why because God is love and God is truth and if we love him then Jesus says that we will keep his commandments now we can see these commandments maybe from the book of Exodus of the Ten Commandments but what I find interesting is that when the scribes the lawyers as they call them the experts in the law back then the Pharisees the Sadducees they came to Jesus and they challenged them and they said well since you know the truth well what is the greatest commandment." [00:48:40]

"Now we are able to love God because we know the truth of he who he is we love people because we are motivated by truth and we are to love ourselves because we were created in the image of God unique fearfully and wonderfully made now when we continue with John speaking on this about why is love a foundation of truth is because this we have to love others because God is love and also because he first loved us it says this that if anyone says that they love God but hates his brother then they are a liar." [00:50:58]

"You see loving others not only is grounded in truth but we're actually to love in the way that we conduct ourselves the way that we treat people and understanding that we are able to love because we know the truth of who God is to know that we are made in the image of God and to start recognizing that every single other person in our lives was also created in the image of God therefore I am going to love them because God created them unique fearfully and wonderfully made now if you are walking in truth if you're walking in love you also have to understand in God being the very essence of love that God rejoices with the truth." [00:54:55]

"Speaking the truth in love also does not mean me going up to somebody saying that God said, Craig, put on shoes. That is not speaking the truth in love. And sometimes we attach God to what we're saying just to try to validate ourselves of what we want in someone else's life. Can we actually stop for a minute recognize that speaking the truth in love has to be grounded in the nature of our merciful, loving, and gracious God so that we can become more like the son of God who is perfect and who wants us to grow to be more like him." [00:58:56]

"You see, what you have to understand is that being loving and truthful doesn't just mean for me going to you, but it's actually first starting with being able to be loving and truthful with yourself. When the Bible says to love your neighbor as yourself, how do any of you know that sometimes the hardest thing to do is to love yourself? To love yourself and to be truthful with yourself and to be honest with yourself first before you decide to go and do it with someone else." [01:00:13]

"Now, I want to go ahead, and as I continue with this, I want to go ahead and talk about when you are loving yourself, when you're truthful with yourself and you understand this, the Bible says that if we have anything, whether it's sin, a pain, a struggle, a challenge, maybe a desire for your life, we need to address these things so that we can be prayed for and be healed. If we try to act as if we don't have anything wrong, that we have no sin, then what we do is we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us is what it says in first John." [01:00:49]

"i was literally in and out of mental health facilities going in relapsing going back in and you become so far from the truth that i even got to a point where i couldn't even remember who i was couldn't even remember my name you asked pastor craig came and visited me and he was like after the fact he was like i didn't know what was going on and my life wasn't bad i had great parents had an awesome girlfriend had never came from you know hardship of any sort grew up in the church memorized these verses but the problem was is i need you to understand is that this can happen to anybody when you don't walk in truth or when you don't walk in love if you are going to be loving towards yourself you have to start with being honest with yourself where is it that you're struggling where is it that you are failing or falling short nobody is perfect you're looking at somebody who's far from perfect you see you go through those things lying to yourself believing lies even that may have been put on you by someone else maybe it was in your family or a teacher or somebody in your past a friend somebody even in church may have placed a lie over you and the enemy who comes to steal kill and destroy but that says that what jesus came to give us life and give it more abundantly something was put over your life for some of you and you've accepted a lie but today is the time for you to allow that life to be broken off in the name of jesus that lie is not going to hold you down anymore you are going to begin walking in the truth you have to make the decision to address the inner pain the struggle you have to be ready to accept and address that even if things are good maybe i'm in a good place well what does this now mean for me to someone else how do i show love and truth to the people around me maybe you're stuck maybe you have a desire for your life and you're like i don't know how to get there i don't know if i'm even being obedient to god some of us may be stuck in the sin you see for me it was hiding sin it was hiding what was really going on inside but you know what ended up happening was i had people that are in this very room i can look around and see them by faces and they contended with me and spoke to god and said the devil is not going to have my friend he is not going to be in that mental health institution anymore i was not even in a place where i could stand up on the stage and give you an actual coherent speech or a word because i was so far from the truth and i need you to understand life was not that bad but when you don't address the pain and the struggles and the inner things that you're going through lies begin to take precedent and the love and truth of god you begin to suppress it and it does not prevail in your life where love and truth prevailed in my life was having a group of people around me who said we're not going to let you go through this alone my wife my parents my in -laws people in this very room craig surrounded me and said this is not who you are we know who god has called you to be and we're going to love you and we're going to declare truth in your life and for you because god is good he is merciful and he is holy and you are no longer going to be bound by this you have to be in a place where you allow people to speak the truth in love and let god meet with you this morning taking you out of whatever struggle you're going through and taking you into the freedom that he has designed for you the truth will set you free man i'm going to invite you up on stage" [01:03:12]