How do I Know What's True?
Notes
Transcript
Handout
In a poll a few years back, 70% of Americans said they were concerned about the decline in moral values in our society. It’s easy to see that there has been a decline in moral values. The LGBTQ agenda that’s being forced down everyone’s throats… pure crookedness in our political entities, and general violence in our neighborhoods.
What is the cause of the decline in moral values? Truth decay
What is the cause of the decline in moral values? Truth decay
Jesus said,
32 And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Freedom comes from truth. The more you know the truth, the freer you are in every area of your life. But the opposite is also true. The more you give up on the truth, the more you forfeit your freedom.
I said truth decay is the cause of the decline in moral values because that’s an accurate picture of what’s happening in our nation and culture for the last 50-60 years. Slowly, little by little there has been an erosion of the value of truth in our culture. We don’t value the truth like we used to and if we don’t stop the erosion, it will be just like our teeth… if you don’t stop the decay, you will lose your teeth.
If we don’t stop truth decay in our culture, all kinds of problems are going to grow up many much worse than the ones we are facing now.
For the last 60 years or so, there has been a departure from the truth as the foundation of our society. 60 or so years ago, people generally agreed on what was right and wrong. If people didn’t do right, they at least knew what was right. They knew they were doing something wrong.
Now today, many people don’t seem to know right from wrong. A lot of people claim that there is no such thing as truth. They would say, “it might be your truth, but it’s not mine.” So there is no right or wrong.
The idea that there is no right or wrong is part of postmodernism or relativism.
The idea that there is no right or wrong is part of postmodernism or relativism.
Here is the idea behind that. What’s true for you, may not be true for me. What’s right for you may not be right for me. Now this is convenient because it means that we can do whatever we want to do. It lets us off the hook by saying there is no objective standard by which we must behave.
When Jesus said John 8:32
32 And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
He was talking about The Truth, not just any truth. It’s not what you believe the truth is that will set you fee, it’s the actual TRUTH that will set you free.
Last Wednesday I spoke about the sincerity myth. It’s the idea that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere. We dealt with that pretty well about how we can be sincere, but sincerely wrong. That’s what I am talking about.
Postmodernism or relativism is built on the idea that there are no absolutes. It’s really a stupid statement, not only because it’s not true, it’s not logical but it’s not possible. When you say that, you are proving there is an absolute.
That statement or idea is not workable because we live and act on absolutes every day. When you get a prescription, you don’t say, just give me anything. You want your prescription. When I was 16, I almost stopped at a stop sign. The officer that pulled me over and wrote me a ticket told me that the sign didn’t say almost stop, it said stop.
If you are playing something like scrabble and someone comes up with a word you have never heard of, you appeal it to an objective standard… a dictionary. If it’s not there, it can’t be used in scrabble.
In postmodernism or in relativism, people now value tolerance or inclusiveness more than they value truth.
In postmodernism or in relativism, people now value tolerance or inclusiveness more than they value truth.
The supreme value in our culture has become tolerance or at least until you disagree with the prevailing opinion. It’s more important to be tolerant or now inclusive than it is to be truthful.
In fact, if you are truthful then you are considered intolerant. And how dare you say that something is always right and something is always wrong. That’s intolerant and that’s being judgmental. We’ve even redefined the word “tolerance.”
Tolerance used to mean we may totally disagree on something but I still treat you with respect because you’re a human being. You’re made in the image of God. Although we may totally disagree on politics or morality, whatever, we’re still going to treat each other politely. That’s real tolerance.
Tolerance has now been redefined to mean, all ideas are equally valid. That’s nonsense. All ideas are not equally valid. You may think the moon is made up of Swiss cheese, but it’s not. Someone may still believe that the sun rotates around the earth, but they are wrong. Some people still believe the earth is flat… There are a lot of things in life that are absolutely true and there are a lot of things in life that are absolutely false. They will always be true and they will always be false.
Truth is not new. It’s been around forever.
If you’re in an accident and you’re laying along the side of the road bleeding to death and I walk up to you and say, “You need a doctor! You’re bleeding to death.” You’re not going to say, “I don’t want to hear that! You’re being judgmental!” That’s not judgmental. It’s just the truth. You’re bleeding to death and you need help.
Today as we do part two in this series on Worldview we’re going to look first at the damaging effect of truth decay in our society, in our families and actually in our personal lives. What it does to our personal lives when we let go of truth. Then we’re going to look at the five ways that you can know the truth.
What happens when we throw out the truth for tolerance or inclusiveness? Bad things happen.
What happens when we throw out the truth for tolerance or inclusiveness? Bad things happen.
6 Signs of “Truth Decay” in Culture
6 Signs of “Truth Decay” in Culture
You can see these in business, personal life, relationships…
1. Immaturity
1. Immaturity
Immaturity happens when we give up on truth and we value tolerance and inclusiveness more than truth. In many ways our society is getting more and more immature. see it in TV shows… how people will not take responsibility for their actions...
When there is no right or wrong, people behave in irresponsible ways. “What I am doing isn’t wrong… I can do anything I want. I can change my mind depending on the situation.” That’s immaturity.
Paul said, when you know the truth...
14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
ie: gossip. You believe one thing until you hear something else.
Do kids keep there rooms neat? No because they are immature.
When society becomes tossed about like the waves, here’s what happens. The Bible says in Pro 29:18
18 A nation without God’s guidance is a nation without order. Happy are those who keep God’s law!
Why? Because everyone is acting immaturely.
The ability to know the difference between right and wrong is a sign of maturity.
This not only applies to society but to us as individuals as well. Ask yourself, where am I being childish? irresponsible? blaming others for your unhappiness? truth is you are as happy as you choose to be. No one can make you happy or unhappy.
Stop Truth decay…
2. Immorality
2. Immorality
When I say the word “immorality” most people think of sexual immorality. But that’s only one kind. Immorality just means no morals. It means I do whatever I want to do. If there is no standard of right or wrong then anything goes.
The Bible tells us back in the book of Judges ...
6 In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.
IOW, they did whatever they wanted. It kind of sounds like our culture today. If there is no standard of right and wrong then people can do anything they want to.
The bible says,
19 They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.
Basically, they are saying we don’t care what God says. There’s no right or wrong so it doesn’t matter what I do. God says sex is for marriage, but I don’t believe it so, I’ll do what I want to do.
Here is how truth decay works. You begin rationalizing things. Rationalizing is really rational lying. You make up excuses in your mind for what your heart knows is wrong. You know it’s wrong, but you want to do it anyway.
How do you know you have truth decay? You begin to rationalize
How do you know you have truth decay? You begin to rationalize
What are you trying to rationalize in your life? You do the yea… but… That’s how you know you have truth decay.
Here is another…
3. Unreality
3. Unreality
Unreality or an alternative reality is a sign of truth decay in a society, in a business … not in touch with reality in my own life. When people stop believing in truth, they’ll believe anything. When they stop believing in right or wrong, true and false, they’re gullible. They become extremely gullible.
Today, people will put their faith in anything other than Jesus… Tarot cards… crystals… tea leaves … horoscopes… We have people today who won’t believe in God, but believe in UFO’s.
Paul said,
12 Since they refuse to trust truth, they’re banished to their chosen world of lies and illusions.
Let me ask you, maybe you’re not into some of the things I just mentioned, but what illusions in our culture have you already fallen for?
How about this? Having more will make me more happy.... more secure… more valuable.
That’s an illusion. But we often buy into lies. You may not be reading crystals or tea leaves, but often we do buy into other illusions our culture pushes. When a culture stops valuing objective truth, people feel free to believe all kinds of crazy things… to make up their own reality.
Today the news does this along with Hollywood. Almost every news agency has at one time or another had to admit that they made up a series of stories.
Does anyone remember the Di Vinci Code? Dan Brown, the author, said it’s a novel. But on the first page he says this novel is based on all these true facts. The truth is every one of those facts is a lie. They’ve been disproved. A documentary on the Discovery channel debunked every one of the things that Dan Brown said was fact. But nobody got upset about that. Why? Because it’s ok to lie about Jesus in our culture. It’s ok to lie about the Catholic Church. It’s ok to lie about Mary Magdalene. That’s not politically correct. You can’t lie about other things but you can lie about Jesus.
In a world that lives in un-reality, they blend fact and fiction, and then when we don’t value truth, we will idolize something or someone more than Jesus.
America idolizes actors today. What do actors do? They get you to believe an illusion. The best fakers are given awards at their worship service… the Oscars.
The real heroes are our school teachers, first responders like medics and police and soldiers. These people make a real difference instead of a fake difference.
How do you know you have truth decay? You find yourself faking it.
How do you know you have truth decay? You find yourself faking it.
Let me get you to answer this question. Where are you faking it?… pretending?
4. Illegality
4. Illegality
If there is no right or wrong, then nothing is illegal. The law is built on the idea that there are some things that are right and some things are wrong. If there is no right or wrong then there is no truth and so there can be no laws.
When people go free because of a technicality or because the DA didn’t want to enforce the laws the Legislature passed, that’s Truth decay.
No one from Enron, MCI or Tyco woke up one morning and said, let’s rip off humdreds of billions of dollars from people. All of those scandals began with a little cheating on the edges and it grew. They began by telling little white lies… a lie is a lie.
When truth goes out the window and there is no standard of right or wrong, then you will go after anything.
Nathan Chapman, who was put in prison for defrauding money from a state pension plan was caught because his 3 mistresses got even with him. The prosecutor had this to say about catching him.
“When we look for white collar criminals we know that if their life is a lie then it’s not confined just to their personal life. If they’re lying to their wives there’s a huge potential that they’re also lying to their colleagues, their board of directors and the auditors.”
Some people fall for the Titanic myth. The Titanic myth was that if we compartmentalize the stuff in our lives, we can’t sink. Until the Titanic came along the ships had one giant hull. If that got breached the whole hull would fill up with water and the thing would sink. So the Titanic was called unsinkable because they compartmentalized the hull. This had never been done before. The theory was we can take on a little bit of water in our ship and still not sink. Because we’ll compartmentalize the hull and therefore some of it could be breached and actually fill up with water but it won’t sink the whole ship. And they were wrong.
If you are compartmentalizing your life you’re in for a disaster eventually of Titanic proportions. You can say, I’ve got this little thing going on over here but that’s compartmentalized. Or I’ve got this little thing over here at work. I know it’s wrong but I’ve got it compartmentalized. It’s not going to sink my ship or my family or my reputation. I’ve got this thing over here but it’s compartmentalized. It won’t work.
If you are doing that, Stop. Your life is integrated and not compartmentalized. One part impacts the whole. Compartmentalization is called a lack of integrity. You cannot have integrity if your life is compartmentalized. You can’t say this is my sex life, this is my family life, this is my work life, this is my church life, here’s my pornography life… No. You cannot compartmentalize and be a person with integrity.
Integrity is “what you see is what you get.” You are authentic. You don’t act different at a party than you do at church or with your family. Look what Solomon said,
18 Where there is ignorance of God, crime runs wild; but what a wonderful thing it is for a nation to know and keep his laws.
It’s interesting that in 1980, they outlawed putting the Ten Commandments in schoolrooms, which are standards of moral truths accepted by Jews, Muslims, Christians and even people who aren’t Christians. They took the Ten Commandments out of classrooms, off the wall and since that time violence against teachers, violence in schools – Columbine, Oregon, Kentucky – all those things have happened since then. Of course there’s “no connection” at all between that.
When truth is given a sideline and there are no absolutes then anything becomes possible. Solomon said when there is ignorance of God crime runs wild. If truth decay is not stopped eventually anarchy happens and we see that today in some of our cities.
Back to you and me.
Ask yourself, am I cheating around the edges? taxes…
5. Idolatry
5. Idolatry
Idolatry is a symptom in a culture of truth decay. Here’s what that means. We idolize the wrong things. When we don’t know right from wrong or the truth from a lie, then our priorities become upside down and we value the wrong things. We begin to value or idolize things like success, wealth, physical beauty, athletic ability, intelligence, popularity, cars, houses, decorations at Christmas, …
We idolize many different things which may not be wrong in and of themselves, but they don’t deserve our worship. They don’t deserve to be your number one priority.
Because Truth decay is taking place in our culture, we have actually flip-flopped our values calling things that are right… wrong… bad is good and good is bad.
We make celebrities out of criminals and give them book deals.
We kill unborn babies. Millions of people are not here in our nation because of abortion. We kill babies while we protect a snail...
Marriage is a good thing, but social media and TV mock it and make fun of people who are faithful in their marriage… except for homosexual marriage on TV… They promote that.
Values are flipped upside down. Paul said this.
25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.
Here is the question.
What have you been idolizing?
What have you been idolizing?
What’s become too important to you? it may not be wrong, but it should not be at the place of importance that it is.
6. Injustice
6. Injustice
Injustice is a sign of truth decay. When there’s no standard of right and wrong, no truth and no falsehood you can get away with anything.
14 Our courts oppose the righteous, and justice is nowhere to be found. Truth stumbles in the streets, and honesty has been outlawed.
If that’s the result of Truth decay in our society, then whats the solution?
We have to reverse this trend. It will not happen through politics or an election. It will not happen through legislation or by court decisions.
Truth decay is defeated when people become people of truth.
Truth decay is defeated when people become people of truth.
The bible calls this being salt and light. We have to be salt and light, standing for truth in a relativistic, postmodern, anything-goes society.
so,
How do we know what’s true?
How do we know what’s true?
The search for the truth begins with being open to it when you see it. A lot of intelligent people are too proud to see the truth. Or the truth doesn’t fit with their agenda. They are closed to the possibility of a real and personal God. If they admit there is a God, then they have to deal with that.
Jesus said in John 7:17
17 Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.
You have to have an attitude of openness to know if it’s God speaking. We have to be open to the truth. A closed mind will never see the truth.
Postmodernism says, Can we really know truth? There may be some truth out there but how can anybody really know it? Is it possible to know truth? Is it knowable? The answer is absolutely. I can give you a full guarantee with a resounding yes! Absolutely truth can be knowable. Jesus said you can know the truth and it will set you free. And you can know what’s false.
Here are five ways you can know the truth.
1. Through Creation
1. Through Creation
You can see the truth just by looking around the world. We learn a lot about God and truth by looking at nature. That’s why real science is important because it helps people to understand how things work… It helps us understand how things work.
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
IOW, we don’t even need the Bible to know the truth. You can learn a lot about God just by taking a look around at nature.
For instance, you can see God likes variety. Look around. None of us are exactly the same. did you know that God created 60,000 different varieties of Beatles…
God is powerful. Volcano… earthquakes… Tidal Wave… tornados … Hurricanes...
God is creative.
God is organized. Earth has an organized ecosystem that he put in place. One plant needs a bee… another needs an animal… It’s organized and highly balanced. I still want to know what the purpose of chiggers or red bugs are.
The angle of the earth - it’s tilted at jus tthe right angle to support life. change it and we either burn or freeze.
Of course, it’s all an accident right? Nope
The more we understand God’s creation, the more we have to thank God for.
When you look at biologists and physicists and you look at the way God wired the world in creation we learn about God. We learn a lot about value and about truth. There is no contradiction between the discoveries of science and faith. None at all. There are contradictions between unproven scientific theories and faith. But there is no contradiction between discoveries and faith because all truth is God’s truth. God thought it up before the scientists did. God designed the laws of physics before any professor of physics even knew about it.
When you drop something, it doesn’t go up, it falls down. why? Gravity.
19 But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is!
It’s all around you. That’s why throughout history up until about the last hundred years almost all of the great scientists were also believers. Many of them were theologians. It was their love of God that drove them to discover why do we do what we do.
It takes a lot more faith to be an atheist than it does to believe in God. Someone had to create this phone… I could wait and watch a million years but it’s never going to just change. Someone created it.
It’s really silly to say that the world just happened by accident without an intentional design. Creation shows a design.
2. Through conscience
2. Through conscience
There are some things that are hard wired in us by God that we know that are always right and always wrong no matter what anybody else says. Our conscience tells us this.
14 Some people naturally obey the Law’s commands, even though they don’t have the Law. 15 This proves that the conscience is like a law written in the human heart. And it will show whether we are forgiven or condemned,
IOW there are people all over who do the right thing even without the Bible.
Say, we take a random sample of one million people from around the planet and we put them out on a corner in New York City, in Times Square, and we’re going to ask them a moral question.
We’re going to say, “Here’s a little old lady, she’s 92, she’s almost blind, she’s walking with a walker. She needs to cross the busy intersection in New York City. Tell me which of these three options is morally right.
One, you can ignore her and just let her go off on her own.
Two, you could help the blind lady cross the street.
Three, you could push her into oncoming traffic. We instinctively know there’s a right thing to do.
You don’t have to be a “Christian” or Jew or Muslim or even a spiritual person. Inside you know that’s the right thing to do.
14 When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. 15 They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong.
Some Criminals have actually said they were glad they got caught because they felt so guilty doing what they were doing. That’s conscience.
The problem with conscience is this is one of all the sources of finding truth that is the least reliable. Because the Bible teaches us that our conscious can be weakened. It can be warped. It can be hardened. Our conscious can be perverted. In fact, it can be killed.
I would say somebody like Hitler had a dead conscious. So the more I violate my conscious, the more out of whack it gets . It just gets easier and easier to do the wrong thing. Just because my conscious lets me get away with it doesn’t mean it’s right.
The point I’m making is there are some things that are hard wired in us around the world that says that we know what is right and what’s wrong.
27 The Lord’s light penetrates the human spirit, exposing every hidden motive.
3. Through Consideration
3. Through Consideration
We know it’s knowable. It’s intellectual. You can observe it. Truth is knowable. You don’t just get truth by faith. You can test it. You can experiment with it. You can prove it. Truth is intelligent. It’s rational. You can observe it. Just like I did with dropping the pen. You can test it. Truth is testable. It’s verifiable. You can examine the evidence.
Maps illustration. After I follow instructions a few times and it gets me where I need to go, I trust it.
For 40 plus years I’ve been following this map called the Bible. I have found it to be true. It always takes me where it says it’s going to take me. It always takes me to where it says it was going to take me. Because of that, I trust it.
God gave you a brain and He expects you to use it. People a lot of the time say, “Why won’t God just write it in the sky?” Why would God do that? He gave you a brain. That is His will. So He says use your intelligence. Use your intellect. That’s how you figure it out. God’s not going to write it in the sky. Like you’re in a café and He says, Take broccoli and not brussel sprouts. It’s not going to happen that way. He says use your mind. Use your brain.
Most people never slow down long enough for consideration. Most people just drift through life. They never think about where they are headed? Don’t just drift through life. Consider whether or not you are on the right path God wants you to be on. Take time to do that.
15 Fools will believe anything, but the wise think about what they do.
Think about what you are doing and where you are going.
33 But anyone who examines this evidence will come to stake his life on this: that God himself is the truth.
Examine the evidence. IOW, it’s ok to be skeptical, but it’s dumb not to do anything about it. If you examine the evidence, the truth will reveal itself. You just have to be open. Most people I have seen over the years don’t really have an intellectual problem with Christianity. The problem is that they don’t want to do what God wants them to do if they admit there is a God.
How do you know someone is teaching the truth?
How do you know someone is teaching the truth?
a. Examine their lifestyle
a. Examine their lifestyle
Does their lifestyle match their words? Is someone telling you to give to the poor, giving to the poor himself?
We have politicians who said to defund the police but spend a million dollars a year on private security. Their words do not match their Lifestyle.
Jesus even said in Matt 7:15-16
15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. 16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
Their words and their life have to match. don’t look for Charisma, look for character.
b. Listen to the Holy Spirit.
b. Listen to the Holy Spirit.
16 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you for ever. 17 He is the Spirit who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you.
When you are listening to someone, ask God, is this person telling me the truth?
4. Through God’s commandments
4. Through God’s commandments
Look what Paul said,
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
What does the Bible say? If it doesn’t agree with the bible, maybe you should not listen to it.
The bible is true and accurate. There is both external and internal evidence that proves it. The external evidence is it’s a historical book that you can rely on. The internal evidence is there is the truth in this book.
External evidence is things like the number of copies of the Bible from around the time that it was written. That’s what historians look for to see if a book is accurate and true.
For instance a book like Homer’s Iliad. You may have had to read that in school. There’s about 643 copies of that. If you look back and see all the copies and compare them and they go, “That’s what that book said.” Or a book like Julius Caesar’s Gaelic Wars. There’s only ten copies of that. The earliest one of those was 1000 years from when it was supposed to be written. But historians still say, That’s probably what the book said.
How about the Bible? How many copies of the Bible? There are 5,366 copies of the Bible from when it was written and just seventy years afterwards.
Let me tell you why that’s important. It’s dispels the belief that is out there that somehow the Bible was passed down from generation to generation and so it got changed as it was passed down translated from this language to that language to this language. That’s just not true. The truth of the matter is when translators translated the Bible they go back to these 5000 copies from right around when it was written to compare them to see how they all match so we know that it is what it is and says what it says. That’s external evidence.
External evidence is also stuff like archeology. The cities are there, the places are there. You can go back and find them. Historians used to say that when the Bible talks about Solomon having all these horses and that was wrong. Nobody had horses back then. But then they dug up a place called Megiddo and guess what they found? Thousands of horse stables. Again the Bible has proved itself to be true. You can do this over and over again.
There’s also the internal evidence of the Bible itself. Internal evidence is the fact that something can be trusted. One of the evidences that people look for is eyewitness accounts. If something is second hand or third hand I can’t trust maybe what somebody has said. If it’s an eyewitness account I can trust them. In a court of law if a prosecutor has two or three eyewitness accounts on something he has a pretty good chance of making his case.
The Bible is filled with eyewitness accounts. Moses was there when the Red Sea split. Joshua was there to watch Jericho fall. The disciples of Jesus stood in that upper room and all of a sudden saw the resurrected Jesus. It’s filled with eyewitness accounts.
The internal evidence of the Bible is also in the fact of how this book tells one story with consistency. This book, the Bible was written over a 1500-year time span. It was written on three different continents by forty different authors. Kings, and shepherds and fishermen and tax collectors. People from every walk of life. Yet it speaks with consistency on the most controversial subjects of the day. It tells one story from beginning to end. God’s salvation and love for man and how He came into this world through Jesus Christ. No human being could account for that. It’s an amazing example of the power of God to write that story for our lives.
As true as this book is the truth of the matter is if it stays on my shelf it doesn’t make much of a difference in my life. The Bible has no shelf life. I’ve got to pull it down off the shelf so it can get it in my life.
5. Through Christ
5. Through Christ
This is the highest and best way to know the truth.
Through creation, conscience, consideration, commandments and Christ. God came to earth in human form to personify truth. The Bible says that Jesus was full of grace and truth. He incarnated truth. He personalized truth. Truth is not a principle. Truth is a person. Truth is relational. Truth is someone you can relate to. Truth is Jesus Christ.
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
Jesus said he was the truth, the way and the life… not a religion, but a relationship. No other religious leader has ever said this.
Mohammed - prophet of truth
Buddha - searching for the truth
Hindu - truth is illusive…
All these other religions are look for truth and Jesus comes along and said, I am the truth. A lot of people think Jesus was a great teacher, but that’s not what he claimed. Jesus was either a liar, delusional or he was telling the truth. He is either conning over 3 billion people, or he is telling the truth.
What are you betting your life on? Whatever it is you better have a good reason for it. Have you examined the evidence? Have you checked it out? Have you seriously given it thought? Or “I don’t have time…” That’s a big mistake. You need to step across the line and say I’m in. Jesus said I am the way. Jesus said,
33 Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true.
What do you do with the truth once you discover it?
What do we need to do with the truth?
What do we need to do with the truth?
1. Believe it
1. Believe it
23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.
2. Do it
2. Do it
16 But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.
Truth is not just an intellectual exercise. It’s something you do. You practice it. You apply it. You live it. You obey it. The Bible tells us, obey the truth that we’ve learned already. Before you start learning any other new truth why don’t you start doing ones you already know.
3. Stand for it
3. Stand for it
16 But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.
Don’t be ashamed in a relational, postmodern world that says it doesn’t really matter. Stand for truth. The Bible tells us our responsibility is to never oppose the truth but to stand for it at all times. We need to be people of the truth in this relativistic age.
4. Spread it
4. Spread it
8 We must support believers who go on trips like this so that we can work together with them in spreading the truth.
We support missions that spread the gospel.
We each are to spread the Good News about Jesus and what he is doing in our lives.
7 And here you yourself must be an example to them of good deeds of every kind. Let everything you do reflect your love of the truth and the fact that you are in dead earnest about it.
Listen, there may be things in our Bible that I don’t understand, but it’s a map we can follow. And it will always take us where we need to go.
Prayer time.
Salvation -
Help us to believe the truth, to live according to the truth, to stand for the truth and to spread the truth…