Vision 3: Value #2—Real Truth
Notes
Transcript
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
B: 1 Peter 1:13-2:3
N:
Welcome
Welcome
Bye, kids!
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for being here today, whether you are here in the room or joining us online through the app, the website, Facebook, or YouTube.
If you’re a guest or a visitor this morning, we appreciate you as well! Thanks for being here today, whether you’re a believer or are just checking out the Jesus and the church, whether you’re in the room or online. We’d like to be able to send you a note of thanks for your visit this morning, so if you wouldn’t mind getting us a little information, it would mean a lot to us. If you’re online, you can jump over to our I’m New page on the website or the app and fill out the contact card at the bottom. If you’re in the room, you can just fill out the Welcome card that you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you. At the close of service, you can either drop it in the offering boxes by the doors, or if you would, you can bring it down to me here at the front, so I can say hello if I haven’t had the chance already this morning, and so I can give you a small gift to thank you for your visit. Thanks in advance for taking the time.
I’d also like to take a moment and say thanks to the board members, administration, teachers, volunteers, parents, and kids of Eastern Hills Christian Academy. The Academy is an important part of the work of Eastern Hills, and it’s a blessing to be able to have such a powerful impact on so many lives through it.
Announcements
Announcements
Today marks the beginning of our focus on the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, which we take up every March and April. Our goal this year as a church is $23,500. Your giving to this important offering to support the work of Southern Baptists throughout North America is more than a gift: It’s an investment. Watch this video to see how:
Video: More than a Gift
Week of Prayer for North American Missions: March 8-15 (Flyers on Get Connected table in foyer)
Mon., March 9, 7:00-8:30 PM—Dessert Prayer Fellowships in homes. List of homes is available on the flyer.
Wed., March 11, 6:30 A.M.-7:30 P.M.—Day of Prayer in Church Prayer Room—30-min. time slots. Sign-Up Sheet for specific times is on the Get Connected table in the foyer. Only X times remaining.
Fri., March 13, 10:30 A.M.-1:00 P.M.—Pot Luck Brunch & Prayer Time at Keith & Donna Treece’s house.
Opening
Opening
We are in our third week of our VISION series, where we are looking at the Mission, Core Values, and desired Outcomes in the lives of the people of Eastern Hills Baptist Church. It’s vital that we take this time to kind of get everyone on the same page as far as what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and where we hope to go in the future. Eastern Hills Baptist Church has been around now for 62 years, and my prayer is that it’s around for at least 62 more, or until the Lord returns (Lord Jesus, come!). So we have established that our mission as a church is (say it with me): People helping people live out the unexpected love of Jesus every day. This is who we are. We considered our Mission statement with Joe a couple of weeks ago.
Last week, we started thinking about our Core Values: aspects of church life at EHBC that are both informational (describing who we are and what’s important to us right now) and aspirational (describing who we want to be and show to be important in the future). Our first core value is AUTHENTIC FAMILY: We have fun and encourage each other through life’s ups and downs. We saw how the first church in Acts chapter 2 were devoted, generous, joyful and sincere, and reflected on where we display those same attributes, and considered the challenge to do so more and more.
This morning, we are moving on to our second Core Value: REAL TRUTH: We dig into Scripture for clarity in a confusing world. We will consider the remaining two: TRANSFORMATIONAL GROWTH: We thrive as we learn to become more like Jesus together. and PRACTICAL IMPACT: We seek to meet the needs of our neighbors wherever we find them. over the next two weeks.
Our focal passage for our look at the Core Value of Real Truth this morning begins at 1 Peter 1:13, and will take us through the first three verses of chapter 2. So if you will, please open your Bibles or Bible apps to 1 Peter 1, and stand as you are able to do so in honor of the declaration of the Word of the Lord, as I read this passage:
13 Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance. 15 But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy. 17 If you appeal to the Father who judges impartially according to each one’s work, you are to conduct yourselves in reverence during your time living as strangers. 18 For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 22 Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly, 23 because you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you. 1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation, 3 if you have tasted that the Lord is good.
PRAYER (Military action in Iran)
Since our Core Values are both informational and aspirational, Real Truth is something that is both highly important for us now, and something that we want to keep in place in the future. What do I mean when I say “real truth?” Isn’t what is true always “real?” Isn’t what is real always “true?” You would think so, but that’s not how the world works, unfortunately.
I suppose that one might argue that by saying that Real Truth is a core value, then we are suggesting that there is “fake truth,” which is an oxymoron. Rather, what we are saying is that the world has so hijacked the word “truth” with fake notions of it that we had to include the word “real” to delineate God’s truth from the world’s subjective idea.
This is why our explanation of this Core Value says that, “We dig into Scripture for clarity in a confusing world.” The Bible is the source of God’s truth in our lives. We believe that the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers will not lead us in ways contrary to the Scriptures. How we view the Bible is the first article of our Statement of Faith:
EHBC’s Statement of Faith Article 1:
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore it, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
In contrast, you could say that the world isn’t only confusing: in many ways, it’s confused. Much of the world believes that all truth is merely a matter of opinion.
In a culture where there is “my” truth and “your” truth and “our” truth and “their” truth, truth seems to be something that we can’t actually pin down, something that doesn’t actually exist, something that we can’t actually put our faith in. Our culture is in a struggle right now over the very nature of truth and, as a result: reality. Many would say that what we feel or believe determines what is real and true, rather than allowing what is real and true direct our beliefs and feelings.
This is why we need clarity about what is true: because just saying that something is true does not make that something actually true. Something is only true when it matches reality—Reality and truth go together. Even our belief or faith doesn’t make something real or true: Faith doesn’t make something real; something real makes faith. This isn’t to say that we only believe real and true things. It means that when we know something is real or true, we automatically put our faith in it.
Think about it: If someone says that they don’t believe that Eastern Hills Baptist Church exists, does that determine the reality of our existence? No. But wait: what if they say that they feel like Eastern Hills Baptist Church doesn’t exist? Does that feeling determine reality? No. The truth is that which conforms to reality: Eastern Hills Baptist Church really exists. This statement is true. To be fair, we really do feel our feelings, and really do think our thoughts. Both of those statements are true. However, the feelings that we feel and the thoughts that we think might not have any basis in reality, so they would not BE true, even though we do truly have them. Likewise, God’s existence is not dependent upon our belief. He exists apart from our belief or unbelief in Him. Our belief should conform to the reality of His existence.
So we need and cling to real truth. We dig into Scripture for clarity in a confusing world. Real truth gives us hope. It frees us to love. And it leads to growth.
1: Real truth gives us hope.
1: Real truth gives us hope.
When I use the word “hope,” I’m not using it in the way of wishful thinking that an event will happen, like, “I hope the Steelers win the Super Bowl next year.” This is not the biblical kind of hope that Peter is referring to in our focal passage. Instead, the hope that real truth brings us is a confident assurance about the future because of God’s promises. Peter tells us:
13 Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance. 15 But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy. 17 If you appeal to the Father who judges impartially according to each one’s work, you are to conduct yourselves in reverence during your time living as strangers. 18 For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Peter admonishes us to have our “minds ready for action,” literally to “gird up the loins of our minds.” I explained this picture back in August when I preached on Luke 12. A familiar contemporary saying that has the same kind of feel might be to “roll up your sleeves.” The idea for Peter is to have your mind prepared to think on what is true, which takes discipline and concentration.
To be “sober-minded” is to not allow our minds to be desensitized or dulled by the world. Our hope—our confident assurance—is to be fully set upon the future consummation of the kingdom of God, when Jesus will return and set all things right in the world.
We, as God’s children, are to be obedient to His will—to be holy because He is holy. Note that this tells us something important—that it is precisely because God is holy that we are able to be holy at all. His work in our lives through His Spirit is what enables us to have that “family resemblance” to Him as His children. We formerly were ignorant of holiness, but we are that way no longer if we are in Christ. We have been redeemed from that old way of living through Jesus’s death in our place, so our faith and hope are in God. The Scriptures tell us that hope is found in Jesus, because Jesus is the living embodiment of the truth:
In John 14:6, Jesus said:
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus is the exact representation of the Father, the very image of God:
3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
And in His word, we find Him and understand Him, and through faith in Him, we are set free from sin and shame and death:
31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
This is why the Scriptures are so important! The Bible tells us about what is ultimately real and true: about how God made the universe to reveal His glory and made humans to bear His image; about how humanity rejected that relationship as His image-bearers by choosing sin; about how God raised up the people of Israel by His grace to bless the world through bringing forth the Messiah; about how Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the prophetic messages about the Messiah, and then how He lived, died, and rose again so that we could have our relationship with God restored by faith in Him; and about what is still to come: that Jesus will return in power and glory and set all things right in the world.
The Bible tells us the truth. It speaks the truth about God, about us, about the nature and source of reality. It reveals God’s love for us, and the proof of that love in the death of Christ. It is His blood that redeems us through His sacrifice.
This is the real truth. We need Jesus. We have no eternal hope apart from Him. The world is broken...this is why it is both confusing and confused. It’s got nothing underneath it—no solid foundation to stand upon. And without a firm foundation, our lives are built on shifting sand.
46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say? 47 I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them: 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When the flood came, the river crashed against that house and couldn’t shake it, because it was well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The river crashed against it, and immediately it collapsed. And the destruction of that house was great.”
Having a firm foundation gives us hope that we will stand when trouble comes. Having a firm foundation gives us hope that the storms of life cannot overcome. Jesus is that firm foundation. He is real truth. Trust in Christ’s death for your forgiveness, and surrender to Him as Lord. If you’re already a believer, be reminded that He is the truth, our foundation, and the source of our hope. Nothing else.
Having this kind of hope—biblical hope—frees us. It frees us to love like Jesus.
2: Real truth frees us to love.
2: Real truth frees us to love.
Love can be a risky endeavor. And I don’t mean the way the world looks at love. This is just another area where the world is both confused and confusing. The world’s idea of love is often really just glorified enjoyment. I like this thing, or this person, or this activity, and so I “love” that thing or person or activity. Until I don’t. It’s self-centered. But Christ’s love is self-sacrificing, and as we stand on Him as our firm foundation through obedience, we are freed to love the way that He loves:
22 Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly, 23 because you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you.
When we are obeying the truth, we will look like Jesus. In verse 22, we actually see three aspects of Authentic Family that we saw last week: devotion, generosity, and sincerity. We don’t have to be afraid to love each other well because we have been born again of “imperishable” seed—the seed of the gospel. The real truth of the word of the Lord endures forever. It’s not going anywhere, and it isn’t going to change. The basis of our hope—the good news of Christ—is the source of our love.
And because that foundation is firm, because we have already received from Jesus love beyond what we could imagine, we can take risks in loving each other well, loving each other selflessly.
34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.
12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.
13 For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.
While these passages (along with our focal passage) are specifically speaking to loving one another in the body of Christ, here’s the kicker: the love of Christ also frees us to love the lost—even to love our enemies. Because this is what Christ has done for us in the gospel:
9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
19 We love because he first loved us.
God loved us by sending Christ when we were helpless, ungodly, His enemies, according to Paul in Romans 5:
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The real truth is that God loved us first, when we were unlovable. How can we withhold the love that He has so lavishly poured out on us from those we are told to love?
Instead, Jesus tells us that we are to go the opposite direction of what the world says:
43 “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
This is where it gets really tough. We can love our enemies because we were loved by Christ when we were His enemies. We can bless others because God blesses even those who stand opposed to Him. God-shaped love always wants God’s best for the beloved. God doesn’t approve of sin and look the other way. Instead, in Jesus God calls us out of the darkness of sin and into the light of His love, calling us to turn away from our sins and trust Him in faith and surrender. And so, the church is called to call people out of darkness and into the light. We know that following Jesus is the best possible way to live, and we want the lost—even our enemies—to have that abundant life as well. God has shown how much He loves the lost through Jesus’s death on the cross, because He didn’t come to be served, but to serve others through His death. So we can serve others because Jesus laid down His life to serve us:
45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
We have Jesus as our example of what it means to really love. And as we walk in obedience to the real truth, we grow to become more like Him, which is our last point:
3: Real truth leads to growth.
3: Real truth leads to growth.
Now, I’m not going to belabor this point too much, because it’s actually what my whole sermon will be on next week. But in the context of this passage in 1 Peter, when we believe the real truth of the gospel, we place our foundation on the rock of Christ. From that secure position, we can love both each other in the church and those in the world well because we have been loved well by Jesus. And as we both experience and express the love of Christ, we join Him in the process called sanctification:
1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation, 3 if you have tasted that the Lord is good.
To be fair, I’m not going to say that this is easy. But I am going to say that this is what the Scripture tells us to do. We are to engage with God in the process of being made into the image of Chris. And while Christ is the author of our salvation, and we bring nothing to the table of being saved except our need for it, the transformational growth that takes place in sanctification includes our submission and obedience.
Sometimes growth involves letting go of some things that keep us from growing—things like malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander—things that can tear at the fabric of the church if they are allowed to remain.
And we need the milk of real truth to grow from the very beginning. My youngest grandson is almost three months old. The entirety of his diet is milk. He needs it. He is nourished by it. He will not grow without it. The word is our spiritual milk, our spiritual nourishment, our spiritual food. We must keep feeding on real truth, church. We must continue to engage the truth, allowing it to infiltrate our thinking and our life.
But just as my grandson isn’t always going to live on milk, but will eventually need solid food in order to grow, so we are to grow up spiritually to the point of needing solid food—being so transformed that we have mastered the basics by no longer having these things in our lives.
Sadly, we don’t always grow the way we are supposed to. We don’t grow because we don’t submit to the truth as revealed by the Holy Spirit:
2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, since you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready, 3 because you are still worldly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not worldly and behaving like mere humans?
See how these things have no place in the body of Christ? As we grow up into the truth, these things should be less and less evident. This is why this core value is going to constantly be aspirational: we don’t do this perfectly!
This is a convicting point for me. It’s so easy to remember the hurts that we experience, especially in the church, and to allow them to fester and grow. Maybe we’ve been hurt, or someone we love has been hurt, by someone else in the church. Maybe we’ve been let down, or misunderstood, or betrayed by a brother or sister. Maybe we have had expectations or hopes that went unmet by our church family. The reality is that we’ve probably been the perpetrator as well as the victim, and so we can grow by forgiving, because we’re all on an even playing field—we’re all in a process of growth, so we should all be willing to have grace. There’s not one of us in the church who is perfect.
Closing
Closing
But we know who is perfect: Jesus is! We’ve tasted and seen that He is good if we are in Christ. He’s the Designer, Creator, Sustainer, and Giver of real truth. He’s not “my truth” or “your truth” or “our truth.” He is THE truth.
It’s in Him that we have hope, in Him that we are freed to love, and in Him that we experience real growth. We don’t have to be confused by the lies of the world. We can build our lives on the foundation of the real truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
If you’ve never believed in the real truth of what Jesus has done for us, then the Bible says that you’re separated from God. I don’t say that to shame you or to hurt you, but because we love you! We want you to experience the real truth—the foundation that you can build your life upon. The truth is that we are all separated from God because of sin, but Jesus the Son of God came and lived a perfect life so that He could die in our place—the perfect for the imperfect—so we can be forgiven. And He rose from the dead by the power of God, defeating death in our place so that we can live forever with Him. We come into that relationship through believing: trusting only in what He has done to save us, and surrendering to Him as the Lord. Trust Christ this morning.
Baptism
Church membership
Prayer
Giving
PRAYER
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Bible reading (Ex 12:22-51; Lk 15; Job 30; 1Co 16)
Pastor’s Study Matthew 5:31-32 (divorce)
Prayer Meeting
Instructions for guests
Benediction
Benediction
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, 15 and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
