have an adult discipleship class with each Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m.
Good morning. Good morning, Harvest Fellowship. Man, I'm so honored to be here with you guys today, Pastor Ronnie and Angela. Oh, hey, let's go. Pastor Ronnie and Angela are visiting some family this weekend, so just pray for them that they have an amazing trip and a safe trip back, that they have a nice relaxing time. It's good to get away every now and then, amen? How many of you guys know that to be true? Awesome.
For those of y'all who don't know me, I'm Pastor Zeke. I'm the worship pastor here at Harvest Fellowship, and it is my honor to be bringing you guys this last message of 2024. Isn't it wild? We're already at the end of another year. It just, man, I don't know about you guys, those of y'all who have kids, it just starts flying by so much faster when you start having kids, when they start having kids, when they start having kids, when they start having kids. They start getting more and more involved in activities. Everything just flies by. I feel like I blink, and then we're already at the end of another year, but blessed to be here.
You know, Pastor Ronnie is going to begin a new message with the new year, right? A new message series on the importance of scripture, the importance of applying scripture to our lives, and just the weight that that brings us, the advantage that that brings us, the communion that brings us with God. And so, I figured, you know, the Lord works in mysterious ways. He asked us a couple months back, if I were to ask you to preach on a Sunday, can you just pray about what you would preach on, the topic you'd preach on? And I sent him over the concept of truth, right?
And like I said, it's interesting the way that the Holy Spirit works things together, because, you know, then we met, and he said, hey, this is the series that I'm wanting to kick off in January. I feel like this would be a perfect lead-in, perfect segue to that. And I agree. What better way to set ourselves up for success for, I guess you could say, priming us to, and preparing us to apply the word of God to our lives than to take a step back and look at the concept of truth. Amen? I think truth is so important, so important that we are anchored in truth.
So before we dive into the scripture, before we dive into the teaching today, if you would just bow your heads, I like to kick everything off with prayer. So we're going to do just that today.
Holy Spirit, Lord, we know that you are the author and perfecter of our lives. I pray that every word, Lord, is a word from you that we can take and apply to our lives. We love you, Jesus. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Awesome.
So truth. We're talking about the concept of truth. And if you know me, you know that I never want to start diving into a topic before I define what truth is. I never want to start diving into a topic before I define what I'm talking about. I think it's so important to define our terms. I teach an apologetics class every semester for our men and women of valor, Wednesday night discipleship group. And that's a key component, right? Because how can you learn about something if you're not quite sure what the definition of that thing is or what the person who's teaching you is talking about when they use this word, right?
And hey, man, I run into this on a daily basis, being a guy, people just like assume that I know stuff, certain things. Like if you're a car guy, I'm lost by sentence two, okay? Just so you know, okay? The second you start talking about like a spark plug or like I'm out, sometimes I'm lost in the first sentence, if I'm being honest with you. I know nothing about cars. I know that I have one and I know that I drive it. And I know that when the little light goes on that I need help, I cannot, yeah. Sometimes my wife actually can get stuff moving and get the ball rolling there. But when it comes to cars, I'm lost, right?
So just future reference, you car guys that I like to talk to sometimes, you're gonna have to find your terms with me, okay? When you mention words that most men would probably know, you gotta think this is Zeke. I need to tell Zeke what this does or what this is, okay? Cause his imagination is wild. So he's thinking about all sorts of stuff right now.
So with truth, it's the exact same, right? Truth, you would think it's a straightforward concept, right? You would think that everybody has a firm grasp on what we're talking about when we're talking about truth, right? But nonetheless, humor me, okay? Humor me. The dictionary definition of truth is that which is in accordance with fact or reality. That which is in accordance, which means agreement, with fact or reality, okay?
And it's kind of interesting, right? Like I said, this should be straightforward. This should be just easily understood. I shouldn't have had to even read the definition, but we live in a time of perpetual change, right? Everything's changing. Technology's moving. Everything a mile a minute. The way we consume media has completely changed, right? No more Blockbuster. No more movie gallery.
When I was younger, you know, like one of my favorite things to do is I'd save up like 20 bucks and I'd go to movie gallery and I'd try to buy like the cheapest movies that I could buy, right? I'd try to like rack up as many of those discount movies as I could. But we don't do that anymore, right? Everything's digital. The way we get food and even groceries is completely different, thanks COVID, right?
And our speech is constantly changing. I went to college in 2013, right? Left Artesia for NMSU, spent four years there. By the time I came back in 2017 to teach, I was 22 years old, mind you, and the language had completely shifted. Kids were saying things that I like had no, like someone said, one of my kids used the term extra one time and I was like, like gum? Like you want like a piece of gum? Like, you know? And now I say the word extra, right? As a slang term, that's not even used anymore, right? That's obsolete. No one even probably knows what that is and what that means. That's not what it means anymore.
Speech just constantly changes, right? But here's the thing. Here's the reality. Truth is something that will never change. As much as society likes to claim otherwise, right? Now, certain truths about certain things that change, that's a different story. But we're talking about objective truth, right? Overarching truth, the truth of life.
Here are just a few quick examples, okay? Of just, of objective truth, okay? Two plus two equals four. Even that's coming under fire, right? I saw a video the other day where someone like Gen Z or a Gen Alpha person was like trying to explain how that's not, no, it doesn't. Because then you have two of the twos, so then there's another two. Like, yeah, it's wild, right? People even try to change that. The next one, the Earth is orbiting around the sun right now. Okay?
And then the last one, of course, Superman is the best superhero. Just objective. Objective truth. See how I did that? See how I slid that? No, that's an opinion, right? That's a great example of what we're talking about, right? We have these opinions that we try to push to the forefront of truth or claim as truth.
Here's another one. This is my phone. I'm holding it in my hand. And yes, there are adorable pictures of my children on it. One of my son on the screen right there. If you can't see it, man, I'll show you after service. He's the cutest. He's the one running around over here in worship earlier.
But there's an epidemic in our world today. Truth has become malleable. Just like language, right? People try to adapt it. Our society tries to adapt it and mold it to the feelings and desires of each individual or our society as a whole, right? We want something to be true, and so we claim it as truth. And anyone who dissents, who disagrees with us, we cast off, right?
And there are so many problems with this concept. Just to name a few, okay? I could literally spend two hours just talking to you about the pitfalls of this way of thinking. But just to name a few. Humans are limited in understanding, right? We're constantly discovering how wrong we are on basically everything on a daily basis. We are not good sources of objective truth. I'm not. I say things all the time that I'm like, I'm like a thousand percent. I would bet my house on this right now. And then I get pressed on a little bit. And so I look it up. I'm like, oh, I actually was wrong. I was wrong. All the time. God loves to humble us.
Second, this means, right? If everything is game, that means nothing is. Nothing is off limits, right? Every atrocity you can think of would be perfectly acceptable if a society or a person decided it was. If subjective truth is real, right? If relative truth is the truth, that means nothing is off limits. Holocaust, well, it's just your opinion. How scary is that, right?
One of my favorite apologists, Frank Turek, he goes around college campuses talking about this concept all the time. And he gets pushed. He gets pushed back. Like I said, right? And it's not just the younger generation, right? It started well before. But they're the champions of subjective truth, relative morality. It's all dependent on the situation, dependent on the society, the person. And so he always brings that up. Because one thing that everyone can agree upon is the Holocaust was an atrocity, correct? But why is that? It's because there is an objective truth, right? That we're measuring it by. It's not just human opinion. It's not just societal opinion. Otherwise, it would just be Nazi Germany versus the rest of the world, right?
Third, we can't really know anything. Science. What's the point of science if all truth is just relative? If all truth is just subjective? If there's not something more that we're seeking after when we're seeking after the truth of our natural world, right? You can't know anything for certain.
Remember the phone thing? I was talking to my friend, Pastor Luke. He's the youth pastor of the Methodist Church. He came in. We get together on Thursdays. I drink coffee. They don't like coffee. I drink coffee, and they drink their energy drinks and water and tea and stuff. And we just hang out. We just talk. We have some interesting debates. Just really lean on each other in that time. And so one time, it was just me and him.
And we were talking about this concept. And he said, my favorite example of this, because he deals with kids, right? So he gets these questions a lot about truth, about reality. And he said, you know, my favorite thing to do when we're talking about this and they're arguing for subjective truth, right? Truth, truth, according to you and me, your relative truth, is I just take their phone. I just take it, right? Now, he doesn't keep it, okay? Okay, Pastor Luke, if you watch this later, I'm not saying that the youth pastor of the Methodist Church is stealing phones, okay? But he grabs their phone, and he said, okay, cool, this is my phone now.
And they're like, no, it's not. That's my phone. Look. Well, that's just your truth, right? That's just your opinion, man. My opinion, my truth, is that this is my now.
So like I said, you can't know anything for certain, right? If you're going to step into a mindset, step into a worldview, you have to understand the implications of what you're stepping into. So these are the problems, right? But if you know me, you know I'm an optimist. I don't like focusing on just the problems; there's always a solution.
So what's the solution? The solution is to stand up for objective truth and to understand what objective truth is, what it means, and how to apply it and seek after it in our lives because we know that objective truth exists, right? I gave you a few examples, the Superman one, okay? I know it's opinion, but right, it's a very strong opinion. I have a lot of evidence, okay? We can talk about it afterward, but more, right?
Here's some more. You're breathing right now. You are hearing sounds, okay? You're hearing sounds all around you. Another concept: taking what is not yours is wrong, just like the phone example. The taking of an innocent life is absolutely wrong, always. Yes, sometimes we champion it in the name of our rights, right? Treating someone differently on the basis of race, gender, or any other feature or demographic is wrong. We know this. This is inherently within us.
This is why, by the way, when chattel slavery, what we think of when we think of modern-day slavery, this is why first they had to start with dehumanization. It always had to be, well, it's not you enslaving another human being; they were born into this. This is who they are on a DNA level, right? That's why it always started like that. Because objectively, every person knows that treating someone else differently based on any demographic, like I said, is wrong.
Sharing is caring. My kids come from daycare, and when we start talking to them about sharing, sharing is caring, Dad. Sharing is caring. Like, I remember what they're teaching me. Go give some random person at Walmart a hundred bucks. See how many people are mad. I can't believe it! I was having such a good day, and then this dude came, walked up to me in Walmart, gave me a hundred dollars. I can't, oh, I'm so mad, right? Never heard someone complain about getting a hundred dollars. Maybe embarrassed, maybe shocked, right? Never heard someone complain about it.
And when it comes to our lives, here's what I really want to press home to you: absolute truth, objective truth can only be found in Jesus. Jesus is quoted as saying a variation of "I tell you the truth" or "truly I say to you" nearly 70 times in the New Testament. He wanted to be sure that everyone knew that what he was saying went well beyond human opinion or even the religious traditions of the day.
We see this example in the gospels when he and the disciples, he tells his disciples to go pick the grain on the Sabbath day, right? The Sabbath day was the Jewish day of rest. You were to do no work on this day, says the Lord. He would tell, he told his people, right? He decreed it. And so the Jewish leaders of the day, they challenged Jesus on this. Well, why are you allowing your disciples to do this? And Jesus flips the teaching on its head, and he says, the Sabbath day was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, right?
So even the religious leaders of the day, he claims precedence, right? He claims ownership, right, over even the law that they were teaching. But here's the thing: it's not just that Jesus had some truthful phrases or observances. Let's turn to John 14, if you would, for some guidance here. Let's look at what Jesus is really claiming about his life, about who he is, about what he's teaching.
So John 14, starting in verse one: "Your heart must be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If not, I would have told you. I'm going away to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place, I will come back and receive you to myself so that where I am, you may also be. You know the way to where I'm going."
Lord, Thomas said, "We don't know where you're going. How can we know the way?" And Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
See, Jesus claims he's not a way, regardless of what society will tell you, regardless of what other religions try to take Jesus and mold him to fit their teachings. He's not just a way; he's the way. He's not just a truth. He doesn't just give a truth; he gives the truth.
And this is the first point, if you're taking notes today, I want you to write this down: Jesus did not just come, or did not just speak truth. Jesus is the truth. It's John 1:1, where it says, "In the beginning, there was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God."
And it goes on to say that everything that was made was made through the Word and that the Word became flesh, right? There's a hierarchy here. Jesus is exclusive, right? Jesus is the creator of the universe. By him, all things were made, and not one thing that was made apart from him was made, right? He was the catalyst for it all. This is exclusivity, right? There's only one path to absolute truth. All other truth is predicated or founded on this, right? The essence of truth itself is found in Jesus.
You know, JD and I always talk about this. Part of the reason it's so easy to sometimes fall away is because there are a lot of things out there that'll appeal to our desires. And there are a lot of things that are about 90%, 95% true, right? But see, I grew up in Artesia, New Mexico, and I had Mr. Taylor as my science teacher. And Mr. Taylor will tell you, those of y'all who had him, 99% truth is still a lie, right?
We would say, oh, like I'm not, anytime you heard anybody say, I'm 99% sure, you'd be like, so you're not sure. That's what you're saying, right? You're not sure. But Jesus is the essence of truth, right?
And here's the cool part, okay? This isn't just like a mic drop and then walk away moment, right? The truth is applicable in our lives through the teachings of Jesus. In the book of Matthew, Jesus himself brings the importance of his teachings to light. Let's go to Matthew 7. We're gonna start at verse 24. I want you to really, really hear this today.
"Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn't collapse because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. And its collapse was great."
I don't know about you, but I want the solid foundation. That's what Jesus' teachings are for us. They're a solid foundation in our life. I want you to write this down. This is the second point today: Scripture is the anchor that keeps us tethered to the truth, which is Jesus.
He talks about a man building his house right on the rock. And for me, when I was thinking about this concept of truth, I saw it as like an anchor. The winds of life are gonna come. The one thing Jesus promises his disciples, right, is that in this world, you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.
I wanna be anchored to that, to that victory, right? So that when the winds of life do come, when the storms do come, I'm anchored. Maybe I sway a little bit this way, that way, but my feet never leave Jesus. Amen?
And like I said, there's a freedom. There's a freedom in this, right? It's not that Jesus just gave us a few little tidbits and then left everybody. It's not even just this passage of scripture, right? There is true freedom in understanding God's teachings, right? And applying them in our lives.
Let's look at some more scripture today. John 16, seven through 13: "Nevertheless, I'm telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away because if I don't go away, the counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment. About sin, because they do not believe in me. About righteousness, because I'm going to the Father and you will no longer see me. And judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
I still have many things to tell you, but you can't bear them now. When the spirit of truth comes, he'll guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. And he will also declare to you what is to come, right? Jesus dies, he's resurrected, and right before he goes up, he tells them, it's good for you that I should go away, right? The spirit of truth is going to come, and he will lead you into all truth. He'll remind you of my teachings, of my sayings. Isn't that amazing?
Right, you know, I heard a man one time talk about, think about the practical implication of Jesus staying on the earth. Jesus is amazing. Like if he was here, oh my goodness gracious. But can you imagine that waiting line? Because you'd have to go to Jesus, directly to Jesus for your needs, right? That's why he says, it's good for you that I should go away. Why? Because the spirit comes that indwells within us, right? And he's our comforter. He's our peace, right? He's the anchor that keeps us tethered to the truth of scripture. And he reminds us.
And just for some quick scriptural examples, okay, I wish I had time to just do a deep dive, crazy Bible study right now. But I wanna just hit on some examples of the truth that we get to enjoy when we open up scripture and partake of God's word.
We see true giving and selflessness. More blessed is it to give than to receive, right? And I think that the more you step into this concept, the more you find it to be true. You know, we just had the holidays, and hopefully y'all's holidays were a little, had a little less sickness in them than our family. We were dropping like flies, man, leading up to Christmas Eve service and through Christmas. So, you know, but Christmas was always super special in our family, right? It was in the middle of basketball season. My dad was a basketball coach, but you know, even in the crazy tumult, even in the craziness of basketball, you know, like basketball season just starting off, he would always make time to decorate the house, right? He would be up on the roof on his free days, literally putting lights up on the roof. My mom would cook up some amazing food, and it was really just a time of joy for all of us.
And I never, like, obviously you love Christmas as a kid because you get all these gifts and you're happy, and it's just, it's a fun time. But the older you get, you start to realize, you know, like for me, like I start, I'm starting to understand the just the pure joy that my dad had in us opening the presents. So that my mom had, my dad loves to give, right? He's a giver. He'll literally give you the shirt off of his back if you need a shirt. So be careful what you say around my dad. In other words, I'm not kidding. He'll literally like, hey, here, take this, right? I'll throw it at you.
But I start, I'm starting to understand that the older I get having kids, right? That like the joy really is in giving and not just presents, not just Christmas, right? It's not just limited to that. Like if you start a habit of giving, right? Of generosity, of selflessness, your eyes start to get open to the truth of more blessed is it to give than to receive, right? You start thinking of yourself a little bit less.
True humility, right? Just right adjacent to that, right connected to that. Luke 14, eight through 11. It's not gonna show up on the screen, but I just wanted to read it for you guys. When you're invited by someone to a wedding banquet, okay? So he's talking to the Jews of the time. So this is like, this is some customary stuff, but it's very applicable to our mindset as Christians.
When you're invited by someone to a wedding banquet, don't recline at the best place because a more distinguished person than you may have been invited by your host. The one who invited both of you may come and say to you, give your place to this man. And then in humiliation, you'll proceed to take the lowest place. But when you're invited, go and recline in the lowest place so that when...
So powerful message for us in today's day and age, right? That's all about me, me, me. We're consumers, right? So we're always thinking about our consumption and getting the best deal, right? To just really take a step back and understand that it's not all about me. I'm not the most important man in the room. I'm not the most important woman in the room.
True love. No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13. What's one of the most moving things that we can see or experience? Self-sacrifice, right? I think of movies, right? Like the most moving sequences in movies almost always revolve around self-sacrifice. Jack and Titanic, right? Yeah. Yeah, I know. Some people are still hurting from that. Still hear Celine Dion's beautiful, angelic voice singing over me every time I think of Jack. Is that too much? Am I being too much?
Bruce Willis' character in Armageddon. No one remembers his name. Does anyone remember his name? Oscar, do you remember his name? Bruce Willis' guy, the Bruce Willis guy. Dad, his name's Dad. That's right, his name's Dad, right? Yeah, Liv Tyler's dad. I don't remember her name either. I don't know if I remember a single name from Armageddon.
Yeah, but the Armageddon scene, right? I remember watching that as a young kid and like, dude, that hit me. For those of you born in this century, Iron Man, we just watched Iron Man, his sacrifice in Endgame, right? Can't watch that without bawling my eyes out. Like, I was like, I was a basket case, man, when we were, when Ronnie was going over that again. Like, it just hits you, right? Self-sacrifice, the selflessness. Oh, it just hits you.
I don't have time to read this passage, but the passage in Ronnie, Ronnie actually just read it for the love, the love portion of our Advent, right? But 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. Even atheists, right? You walk up to an atheist, you read them 1 Corinthians 13, right? Like, what do you think about these concepts and these attributes of love? Like, you'll get agreement, I think. Unless they know you're reading them in the Bible. Then, you know, some people shut down, right? When you mention that it's the Bible.
True forgiveness, right? A scribe at the time asks Jesus, how many times should we forgive? Seven times? And Jesus tells him, no, not seven, but 70 times seven, right? And remember, if you're counting, if you're doing the math, you're thinking of it wrong, right? It's an idiom. Meaning it's not meant to be taken literally. It's meant to say, you should never stop forgiving, right? You shouldn't be counting your forgiveness. Well, I forgive them. I forgave them last time, but now, messed up again. Or, oh, you know what? You know, I'll forgive somebody. I'll forgive somebody for this, but man, if they cross this line, if they get to this over here, this little no-no spot that I have in my own personal morality and goodness, I can't forgive them. No, right?
And then he goes on to talk about the good Samaritan, right? To just in case anyone at the time was like, man, yeah, okay. I'll forgive like my people, but those people over there, like, I don't have to forgive them, right? Tells them the story of the good Samaritan. And the Samaritans at the time were the look down upon, the less than human class of the area, right? Of the time to tell them you're to forgive everybody, regardless of who they are to you.
And these, like I said, these are all things we know, right? There's a reason that when you open up the word and you dive deeper and deeper into the word, it just continues to resonate with you, right? On a personal deep level. If you really give yourself over to the truth of scripture, you find that you, you find more and more and more that God's teaching you the truth of all these things.
And when we forget, and when we're living our lives contrary to these truths, we can feel it. We know it, right? But the beautiful thing is, like I said, they're just right there. They're right there in scripture waiting for us.
See, the truth will provide more than just practical knowledge for us. Although it does, it does that a lot. If you're writing it down, write that, write down point number three: There is freedom in the truth of scripture. It's freedom.
John 8, starting with verse 30 says, "As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, 'If you continue in my word, you are really my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'"
Once again, though, right? What do we mean by free? Let's define our terms. Let's define our terms a little bit. Free from sin and death, right? That's a big one. But here's the other part, okay? For practical living. Free from the pressure of perfection, okay?
There's a quick video we're going to play in just a second. Don't play it quite yet, but there's a Bible scholar. He's actually, I think he's like a linguist expert, right? An ancient languages expert that I've been sort of digging into a little bit. He's an apologist. He kind of hit the radar a few weeks ago because he got sort of famous, I guess you could say, in a debate with Billy Carson, who's a really famous, I don't really know what I'd call him. I don't know if he's an atheist. He believes some interesting, some very interesting fringe, strange beliefs. And so he got famous in this debate, and he's on this podcast a week or so after just explaining the gospel, right? I think it's on a guy named Julian Dory. It's like his podcast. And so he's explaining the gospel to him.
So just take a look at the screen for the next couple of minutes. Interesting, right? I love that. It sums it up so well, right? We think of the biblical worldview or living biblically as restrictive, right? Well, I can't do this. It means I can't do that. It means, but it's anything but restrictive, right? Like I said, we're relieved of the pressure of perfection.
And God, take one when we're in Christ, right? God sees Jesus in us. He doesn't look at what we've done. He looks at who we are in light of his son.
So we have a choice to make. Are we going to be anchored in truth? Or will we allow the winds and the waves of the world to push us around, to dictate truth to us in the moment? I don't know about you guys, man, but my emotions are a horrible anchor. Every bad thing I've ever done has been tied to being anchored in myself and who I am and how good I am.
You know, I think of this, I was led to the book of Judges. It's probably my favorite book in the Bible. Just because I feel like it paints the picture of humanity so beautifully, right? You have the Israelites who have just been liberated from Egypt, right? They've been led into literal freedom by miracle after miracle, after miracle, after miracle of an ever-loving God who stayed his hand, right? God is so holy and so righteous and so just that the sin of the people is literally incompatible with his existence, right?
But every time he goes to punish them or wipe them off the face of the earth, Moses falls on his knees or Aaron falls, they fall on their knees before God. And he relents, right? For his people, for love of his people. And so they get to the promised land. And then the book of Judges, we just have a cycle repeated over and over and over, right? The cycle of running away from God to pursue temporary worldly pleasure. False truth, right? Near truth, some of it maybe, but false truth. And then remembering the truth of who their God is, right? It eventually gets bad enough that they have to turn back and say, Lord, please, please welcome us back. We're so sorry.
And most of the time it took devastation and disaster for it to happen. And that's us a lot of times. Our emotions will drive the ship if we let them. It's too easy. It's just way too easy to get caught up in the moment and allow temporary feelings to overtake what we know to be everlasting truth.
This is all of us, right? Right? It's not just you. It's not just me. This is what it's like living in the world. But is this what we want for our lives?
So I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna make the choice to stay anchored in truth. Doesn't mean we're gonna be perfect. Like I said, we're freed from the cycle of perfection. Doesn't mean we're not gonna struggle, right? Even Paul says in some of his letters, right? That which I know I should do, I do not. And that which I know I should not do, that I do. This struggle, right?
But Paul's a great example. He openly admits his struggles, but he never wavers in the truth of Christ and who he is in Christ.
So I wanna give you a few quick things, okay? And most of these will be pretty like, okay, dude, like, duh, right? But I don't care. I don't care. Like, sometimes we need to hear it again, right? Even stuff that we know, stuff that we've heard over and over and over, we need to hear it again.
To be anchored in truth, we must, one, stay in the word. The Holy Spirit can't lead us into all truth if we don't have the truth. If you've never opened up the Bible and read the words of Jesus, the Holy Spirit has nothing to remind you of, right? He can still speak to you, and he still does speak to you, he still does lead you. But the way that we grow more accustomed to his voice, the way that we get to know him better, the way that we get to dive deeper into this relationship with him is through the word.
And it's the best way to live. I only touched the tip of the iceberg when I gave you those biblical examples of truth, right? There is so much truth in the reality of scripture. Written thousands of years ago, across thousands of years, 40 plus authors, all with one message of truth that is still applicable to our lives today. It's just amazing.
Number two, pray without ceasing. When you're overwhelmed by what you're feeling, remind yourself of what you know. This is another huge reason to stay anchored in scripture. In your prayer time, you'll find that the Holy Spirit will bring those passages back up, right? When you're feeling fear, he'll remind you that the Lord has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and a sound mind.
When you're feeling rejected, he'll remind you of the prodigal son who willingly walked away from his inheritance and was instantly welcomed back. When you're feeling defeated, he'll remind you that you're more than a conqueror through Christ.
Pray without ceasing. It doesn't have to be long. It doesn't have to be crazy. In fact, the Bible teaches that you shouldn't pray with elaborate words or just to try to sound prayerful, right? I love it. I love whenever I hear somebody, you know, who's either asked to pray or talking about prayer and they're like, well, I just don't know what to say. It's like, just talk. Just talk to God. Talk to your creator. He loves to hear from you. Talk to him like you talk to a friend. That's what he wants. He doesn't have to sound like a prayer to be a prayer.
Number three, seek out godly relationships. We all have moments. We've all had moments in our lives when we've needed a wake-up call from someone who loved us enough to remind us who we are, how we're supposed to behave, and why. Get those people in your lives, okay? Seek them out. It's not just gonna happen. God will open doors, but you have to walk through them.
This isn't a passive life, right? This isn't, Lord, lead me. And then you just start moving, right? No, like that's not how it works. It's a partnership. You have to seek them out.
Would you bow your heads? There are three categories that we all fall into, three categories that I wanna speak to today. There's a new believer who needs the foundation. Maybe they've never heard it put like this yet. But there's a drawing that's happening right now.
And there's the seasoned believer who needs the reminder. And there's a non-believer to whom the Holy Spirit is calling. So I wanna pray. I want us all to pray together. And this prayer is for all three of those categories.
So whether you're a believer, whether you're a non-believer who's never accepted Christ before, the good news is it's super simple. The word says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you are saved.
So we're gonna do that. But for those of us who are believers who just want to start 2025 anchored in the truth of Jesus, let's pray together. Would you just repeat after me? Say, dear Lord Jesus, I confess you as Lord. I believe in my heart that God raised you from the dead. Holy Spirit, lead me into all truth. Anchor me in the reality of who you are.
Lord, empower me to seek after you, to dig into your word, to pray without ceasing, and to seek out godly relationships. We love you, Jesus. In the mighty, powerful name of Christ, we pray. Amen.
Awesome. Hey, I'm so thankful to be with y'all. Let's just end with a few moments of worship together. I think there's something powerful about inviting the Holy Spirit and just enjoying worship with him. So if you would just stand, we're just gonna repeat this bridge and chorus a couple times. So would you just sing with us?
Build upon all the... I trust, come on, just worship him today.
And I will open them, and I will open them. Open your ears, and I will open them, and I will open them, and I will open them. Open your ears, and I will open them, and I will open them, and I will open them. Open your ears, and I will open them, and I will open them, and I will open them. Open your ears, and I will open them, and I will open them. Open your ears, and I will open...
on Dec 29, 2024
