Finding Truth: Embracing God's Revelation in Life

"What is truth?" What is truth? You see, the answer to this question lays a foundation by which other questions are answered themselves and which their answer is built on a solid foundation or not. And how you answer that question says a lot about what you believe and how you will live and how you will think and what that will look like for you. [00:01:42]

The best way I think I could describe today is it seems as if it is a time of moral relativism. Moral relativism, a time where people are really deciding individually, independent from each other, what they believe is right and wrong. And perhaps, it is not defined just simply based on the individual, but perhaps on a group of people who are deciding. [00:03:06]

See, we're not okay with moral relativist bankers who believe that they have a different number in their mind of what is in our bank account than we have. No, we want objective standards. We want people to respect property and person, possessions, and the idea of how we interact together. [00:05:04]

It is the truth of what we see from God Himself in His Word and illustrated in this world, that there is indeed truth. You see, questions like, "Where did we come from? What is the meaning of life? How shall we live while we are here? What is our destiny? What comes next?" These are questions about origin, meaning, morality, and destiny, all questions that relate back to truth. [00:06:25]

But the Bible doesn't leave us to our own confusing ways. It recognizes this problem, this personal spiritual malware that we all have that is corrupting the hard drives of our life, where our mind and will and emotions and desires are contaminated, corrupted, a virus that has plagued all of us. God describes this condition as sin, these acts of disobedience against Him as rebellion. [00:08:12]

But here is the truth: The truth is when we live here in this world we live in God's house. He created it. He owns it. He has authority over all those in it and He establishes the rules, rules that are not oppressive, rules that are loving and wise, good and right, beautiful and perfect. [00:09:19]

Yet thankfully, God has not left us in this way. He has not left us to our imaginations or unto our own vices, but He knowing our condition even greater than we are willing to admit ourselves, provides a remedy. John chapter 18 verse 38, Jesus Himself is standing before Pilate, a government official at that time in first century Judaism in Jewish land there, in Palestine. [00:11:40]

He creates and He communicates because here is the truth. The truth is that there is God. He created you and me in His image, but then we have rebelled against Him, but He being unbelievably merciful and gracious, kind and patient, that His kindness would lead us to repentance, provided His Son, Jesus Christ the Savior, who would come and be a substitute for us. [00:12:56]

This is truth and this is the lens by which all the world is known and seen and should respond to. Though it is not popular, though it is not believed by all, it is true. Because you see, friends, truth is not a group experiment. It is not a democratic process where we cast a ballot, but it is instead something that we read and respond to, we submit to for being good and wise and right. [00:14:24]

Now I think about, for those of you who are Christians, who think about these conversations, perhaps understandably at the young age of the teenage year that you are at, you maybe feel uncomfortable and maybe incompetent in these kind of discussions, wanting instead to maybe recommend a book to a friend or wanting instead to maybe bring that friend to a pastor to talk to, both of which you can do. [00:15:18]

See, friends, these are the kind of meaningful questions that teenagers can be and should be asking each other. And there are good answers that God provides for His people in His Word. But as you do this, do this with graciousness and kindness. Do this with compassion and love, Represent the character of God as you speak with conviction from the Word of God. [00:17:08]

Let me ask you to do that. Turn down the distractions of life around you. Stop scrolling endlessly on your Instagram feed. Stop checking in on all the friendships on all the social media platforms, and just take a minute and ask some real questions. And maybe open a Bible like you never have before and maybe grab a good Christian friend and say, "Man, help me think through this together. What is truth?" [00:18:53]