Play TELEPHONE (10 people)

he was a flying purple people eater

have you ever started a rumor?

have you ever heard a rumor change and grow?

how many have heard something about someone and that determined how you felt/interacted with them?

your friend says i hate this person. she crazy…u never hung out with that person but your friend said so so that's how you are gonna be.

hannah and me

alot of us do this with our christianity

our christianity is not based on knowing God and having been with God for ourselves.

Our Christianity is a RUMOR

in other words it is based on what PASTOR EMAN says or what our PARENTS say, or what SOCIETY says, or what we THINK up in our minds....but not off our our own real expereince

some of what others say of God may be true. some may not be. it doesnt matter

the point is, is that it still isn't ours.

So tonight I want to talk about rumored reltionships vs real relationships with God

you can title your notes Rumors

Rumors

Jesus asked this question of his friends. He asked who do you say I am?

in other words i know since my ministry is kicking off a lot of people are talking about me and they are trying to figure out am i man, am i God, am i a prophet, am i the promised messiah.....but i want to know not what they say, but what do you say? Who do you say I am?

Matthew 16:13–17 NKJV

13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

yes peter! you know who I am not just because that's what you think, not just because you heard someone in the crowd say it. You know who I am because you have been in relationship with me for yourself, and through this relationship you know who I am.

God is asking us this same question.Who do you say I am?

the answer to this is where we mess up a lot though if we are honest.

Most of us would provide answer to this question by info we got not like peter, in our own relationship with God, but through what others say.

danger when our faith is formed on rumors.rumors hold some truth. thats why they can be beleiveable. its just truth that has been slighlty adjusted.

satan in garden, in desert tempting Jesus. he used scripture aka truth and slightly twisted.

so danger of rumored relationship is i may be forming my relationships on twisted truths

rumors of God:

what youth said God was-

there is a God

God is real

God is what we have created to handle life

God is mythical like gandolf

God is judgemental

God is hate

God is love

God is in heaven

God is everywhere

God answers prayer

God does not answer prayer anymore

God orders our steps

God created us but the rest is up to us

God is a real person

God is energy

God provides

God punishes

But how can God be both love and hate?

How can he be real but imagined

How can he be gracious but judgmental?

If my faith comes only from rumors-if it comes only from what I hear then I run the risk of believing in a confusing God. I run the risk of believing in a God that is misunderstood

think back to telephone. the message easily got changed. so if i take the changed message and choose that to be my guide or my foundation for my relationship with God, my relationship and my God don't actually resemble who they are.

so what makes a rumor Christianity into a real Christianity?

1| truth

head knowledge

right sources

john 8:32 you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

so if we go to the word of God we find truth.

the word is where we spend time with God himself. with his thoughts, where we can learn his character, the plans he has for us.

This is what enables you to to be able to have a real relationship with God because you are finding out the truth for yourself in the word of God.

if you spend time in the word you will be able to know when people speak into your life if this is truth i can add to my understanding/ relationship of God or is this literally a rumor-a twisted misinformed truth or flat out lie.

jesus led into desert by hs (relationship with God). satan used rumors (manipulated scripture) to try and challenge this relationship. but because jesus was in real relationship with God he recognized rumor for what it was and stayed firm in his faith.

2| experience

heart knowledge

takes our head knowledge and cements it

my story: God gives good gifts to all.no respecter of persons; he never leaves me nor forsakes me

summarize job story.God is good no matter what.

Job 42:1–5 NKJV

1 Then Job answered the Lord and said: 2 “I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. 3 You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4 Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’ 5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.

other version says I admit I once lived on rumors of you but now I have it all firsthand

our own experience with God is what reveals truth to us and what provides a strong sturdy faith

we want to be in esm a people who walk by faith and not by sight.

in other words that we have a strong belief that is not dependent on what is happening around us, that doesn't change when people change. a belief that is from our own moments with God.

god wants us to experience him

science true effective expereince happens when we expereince with our 5 senses

God continually cries out for us to expereince him

taste and see that I am good.ps 34:8

he that has ears to hear let him hear. matthew 11:15

let doubting thomas touch is hands to know him jhn 20:27

faith comes through hearing and hearing the word of God. rom 10:17

God has given us pastors and parents to help provide and encourage in truth, but we are in trouble when their words and their experiences become the word.

remember telephone. the person who was most likely to hear right was person at beginning. if we want to ensure we hear right we need to go to the source-we need to hear directly from God.let him show us who he is. let him form our relationship.

We need to check our heart-is my relationship with God because I have spent time with him for myself. or i have i formed a relationship only on what others think about God, what others say, or what others do with God.

so who do you say he is?

Are you in real relationship or rumored?