Stop the Cap 3

Intro

We are going to continue our Stop The Cap sermon series

I have asked every week

Who can tell me what Stop the Cap means

Stop the Cap means stop lying

And my hope with this series has been for us to know the truth of God

Not just that but know how combat so many of lies that we hear around us

How many of you have been lied to before?

How many of you have told a lie before?

We Spent the past two weeks talking about

Lies in the World around us

Lies that we tell ourselves

I want to keep us on the same theme

But instead of lies we are going to talk about the truth today

Everybody say truth

That being said before we get started can someone give me a definition of truth?

that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality.

And so we can see that when we talk about truth it comes to reality right

We have already talked previous weeks about how we live in a world where people talk about their truth.

however scripture explains this as false because there is only THE truth

And so today we are going to talk about what reality is

Whats THE truth

Because my goal for next week is for us to talk about how we can walk in the truth

But before we walk in it. we have to know what truth is right?

Today we are going to talk about the 4 truths of truth

1. The truth isn’t created its revealed

John 1:1–5 “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

Yall remember how the weather was on Wednesday?

Absolutely awful snow

How many of you guys are fans of the snow

I totally hate the snow

When I think about Wednesday

I remember all of got together and made the decision to cancel

Pastor Keith and I both looked outside

And I remember I told him If it only snowed in December I would be happy

And its true that we talk like this very often. especially about the weather weirdly enough.

its funny to me because it something that we literally have no control over.

it is what it is

If it rains it rains

If it snows it snows

And I use this example because it shows us that it is something that is not created but revealed

Like when Meteorologists figure out the weather they don’t just draw where they want all the red and green to be

The truth is revealed to them and then they show it to all of us

This is exactly the same with THE TRUTH OF GOD

I used this scripture because it shows us that from the beginning of time was God

So if that is the case

The reality that we live in came from him

The truth of Gravity

The truth of day and night

The Truth of all the elements on the periodic table

And its not just scientific things its everything that we find in this book.

“In the beginning was the word”

God is forever

We can’t create truth, because God already did

And so the truth is not something that we can create

Because it has already been created

It is simply realeved to us by God

2. Truth doesn’t change based on culture

Romans 1:19–20 “They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”

How many of you guys know who that is ?

That is C.S. Lewis

famous for writing things like The screwtape letters

Mere Christianity

and Most famously does anyone know

The Chronicles of Narnia

C.S Lewis had the amazing gift of making Christian ideas very simple for people to understand

He attended the University of Oxford

Wrote over 30 books

And was known for giving the vast majority of His book income to Charity

Today his books have made a huge impact

And I wanted to quote 1 for you real quick:

“Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might as well imagine a country where two and two make five.”

“If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teaching of the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks, and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very similar they all are to each other.”

C.S Lewis believed this idea

No matter who you are/where you are from

we can see that God is here with us. ]

No matter where you are in the world

It is a good deed to hold the door for someone who has their hands full

It is a good deed to help someone pick something up if they drop something

It is bad thing to lie, or not tell the truth

It viewed as wrong to steal something of value from someone else

Even more so Paul echoes this in our scripture

“They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.’”

Paul is saying everything around us points to the truth of God

Why bring this up

Because for many people they act like Christianity was a “back then thing”

“Well thats just a historical thing”

“Its not relevant today”

Christianity is for everyone.

God is for everyone

Here is what I want you to hear

Because we are made in God’s image we can see the truth of who he is

3. Partial truth is still a lie

Proverbs 11:1 “The Lord detests the use of dishonest scales, but he delights in accurate weights.”

water and food coloring

I want you guys to see something.

I have 1 cup of water here

exactly 1 cup

And so this 1 cup of water represents the truth

But as a go throughout life there are sometimes that I tell a lie

But its not a full lie

you see I asked if I could go over to my friends house

I just tell my mom that we were going to go around town where she doesn’t want me to be

My parents wanted to know how my phone broke

I told them it fell down the stairs when really I got mad and threw it

And so as you see I am not even putting full cups worth

Because they aren’t full lies

But here is the thing

Even though i used part of the truth it uses the same effect

We are still tainted, we still letting sin leave a mark on us

Why say all of this

justifying our lies is a slippery slope

There are all times that we have lied.

100% yes

But when we start to make it right in our head

We fall exactly where the Devil wants us to

What does our scripture say

“Proverbs 11:1 “The Lord detests the use of dishonest scales, but he delights in accurate weights.”

This scripture ain’t just about us

using the fruit scale at the grocery store

or the scale that you have in your bathroom

This is about the scale in our hearts

When we make decions in life. are we living unbalanced?

Where sometimes we say this is okay, and then other days its not allowed

are we telling God I am never going to live like that again

and Then the next day we go right back to it

I don’t say any of this to discourage you

But I say it to remind you to strive for the truth

And don’t fall down the slope of believing in partial truths

4. Jesus doesn’t just teach the truth, He is the truth

John 14:6–8 “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”

I used this scripture last week

And I wanted to use it again this week

Because I wanted us to understand

Jesus is the truth

And when I say is

I mean literally Jesus in the flesh he is the truth of all truths

Why would Jesus say that about himself??????

Jesus is making the point to us that he literally is God in the flesh

And if we as humans

Ever, ever, ever

Want to get close to that God physically

it has to be through Jesus

If we want the truth of God we have to go to Jesus

This is even more powerful when we look at all the othet religons in the world

So many talk about A god that will one day come

Or a god that you have to xy and z to reach

But Christianity rooted in Christ shows that God was and is here with us now

Pray