Putting On God's Lenses: Truth That Sets You Free

``But these are pretty cool because they help you hear and listen and understand the right things. Now the reason why I have these up here today is I think sometimes we need these type of glasses to hear the spiritual truth. There's so much of the time we're living in a world and in a life that is very spiritual, but is not Jesus focused or centered. And people will say things, and they'll say it's the truth, but it's not the truth of the bible. So today, I I literally wanna talk about the truth today. [00:29:10] (35 seconds)  #TruthWillSetYouFree

Now here's the thing. Jesus said the truth will set you free. So what do you think truth is today? You know, when Jesus talks about it in the scriptures, in the New Testament, first thing, Jesus says, his teachings are the truth. So he defines truth as his teachings. And then he also defines truth as actually himself. He says, I am the word. [00:32:22] (26 seconds)

Now if you think about the opposite of truth, what's the opposite of truth? Well, it's a lie, and the opposite of freedom is slavery. So when I think about church and Compass City, we have people from all different walks of life that come to church. Right? That's what our church is all about, people that are kinda testing the waters of faith. [00:32:48] (20 seconds)

But I know there's a lot of people that come to church and they feel like they're a slave to something. They wouldn't say that they feel like they're a slave to something, but they might say something like, I just feel like something's off in my life. I'm looking for something more. Deep down inside, they're wrestling with something that they're out of control of. That's what I think Jesus is talking about when it comes to slavery. [00:33:08] (28 seconds)

And Jesus is trying to talk about this principle. Right? The principle is that there's something more. Are you really listening to what I'm talking about? And part of Christianity is accepting there's a spiritual truth to this world. That's what we're getting to. How you experience your life, you need to know there's another truth to your life. There's a spiritual side of who you are even though you don't believe that. [00:36:02] (29 seconds)

There's a spiritual part of every part of your life. In fact, everything that's in your life is spiritual even though you may not believe that. And those that spiritual life has effects on everything else. Like, for instance, if you have marital issues or friend issues or job issues or substance issues, it's a symptom of something more. [00:36:31] (28 seconds)

And what happened is what Jesus is saying, you are a slave to sin unless you acknowledge there's other things going on in your life. There's a deeper thing. It's not just a marriage issue. It's probably a sin issue. It's not just a job issue. [00:36:59] (18 seconds)

So next question. And I think this is a really important question. Is your heart truly open to the truth? And I think this is a a really important moment where Jesus says, is your heart open? Do you have space in your heart for me? Are you gonna acknowledge there's a spiritual side to who you are and everything that you're doing? And it's important that we acknowledge and define what the truth is. Right? Because Jesus is talking about the truth. It's gonna set you free. [00:38:03] (34 seconds)

I wanna talk about the truth. And I think there's two different definitions of the truth. We're gonna put them on the screen. The first one is absolute truth. Absolute truth is defined as the principles that are un unchanging and independent of personal feelings. It's important. It's independent of personal feelings. Then we have postmodern truth. We're we're in a postmodern era, and it's truth that is contingent on language, culture, and power structures and is derived from different perspectives. [00:38:45] (36 seconds)

So what that means, you might have heard this phrase, a postmodern understanding of truth is that might be true for you, but it's not true for me. Have you heard that somewhere in the world probably talking with somebody on the news or, you know, in a reel? That might be true for you, but it's not true for me. So this is problematic. And so I I kinda wanna deduct this understanding and reasoning because this is gonna help us understand what we believe. [00:39:22] (28 seconds)

And this guy comes to me, let's just say, and he says, I don't believe that. I said, why don't you believe that? Well and he would say, well, I just don't feel like that is right. God is love. That's not true. I don't I don't feel like that's the truth. I'm like, okay. So if you don't feel that that's the truth, and if your truth is defined on what you feel, then for me, what if in a moment of rage, I feel like I wanna kill somebody? Is that okay? [00:40:13] (30 seconds)

You see how it's problematic when we begin to define truth as anything outside of absolute truth. Well, okay. Okay. It's not about feelings. Well, what do the laws say? Well, what's problematic about our truth being defined by our laws is that laws are constantly changing. So then where do you find your truth? [00:41:08] (19 seconds)

And what you begin to see is when you have conversations with people about truth or what they think is right or wrong, they haven't thought more than the surface layer. And for us, if if you are wrestling with your spirituality, if you believe you're a follower of Jesus, we believe in absolute truth. This isn't a Bryan thing. This isn't a Compass City thing. This is actually a Christianity thing. [00:41:27] (24 seconds)

So we we do believe there is one definition of truth, and it was defined and created by God. And the Bible teaches us that Jesus is our God, and the scriptures were given to us as guidelines. So here's the problem, though, for you and for me. I read the Bible. I'm in my one year Bible. My wife was just talking about how she's reading the one year Bible. The bible is offensive. Have you guys read it lately? It, like, convicts me all the time, and it's annoying. [00:41:52] (35 seconds)

Now if it's offensive to me, should I then say it's not truth? I'm not gonna believe this part of the bible because I don't feel like it's right. So okay. If that's the case, the problem is then my understanding of all the scriptures are beginning to fall apart. So defining truth is in the right way is really, really important. [00:42:38] (23 seconds)

So if I was to reiterate this question, I would ask, are you open to God's word trumping your opinion? And how Jesus would say it and what how he said it is, is your heart open to God's truth? Is there space in your heart open for that? [00:43:01] (19 seconds)

So I think the last question, the probably one of the most important questions is, are you listening? Are you listening? Right? When I was in in Mexico and I put these things on, I went from a conversation I didn't really understand. I would catch about 50% of it. So all of a sudden, I was listening, and I was understanding everything they were saying. It's pretty amazing. [00:43:42] (24 seconds)

So I'll yell upstairs. I'm like, hey, Romes. You gotta unload the dishwasher. Callie, you gotta feed Chase. Not a peep. And then I ask, hey, did you hear me? And they're like, yeah, we heard you, dad. So then I get a little aggressive and I say, hey, get downstairs and do your chores. And guess what? They get up, they go downstairs and they do the chores. See, they heard me the first time. They listened to me the second time. [00:44:49] (29 seconds)

See, listening is this idea, like Jesus was saying, that if you follow him, you're gonna know and listen to the truth. And this whole idea of of truth and the scriptures is interesting. Because as he begins to define truth, it's really not about definitions. When you break it down, it's really about trust. [00:45:19] (29 seconds)

Because our idea of truth is, do I trust God to know that he knows the best for me and the world? Because if I say, no, that's not my truth, that's I'm not gonna believe that part, Then what I'm saying, it's really a trust thing. It's like I don't trust that God really understands all the context. I don't trust that God really, really loves all people. [00:45:48] (32 seconds)