Get Truth
Notes
Transcript
Today is week 3 of our Collide series. The first week we laid the foundation for standing firm on the word of God, the only truth we can find in this world. Then last week, we talked about the first thing God desires out of our lives once we initially learn to stand firm in our faith, amidst the conflicting values of the world we constantly collide with. We must be renewed and transformed.
Today, we are going to take it one step further, because after God begins to transform us, especially within our minds, we have to pursue the source of truth so that we can ultimately live it out. The word, the truth of God, is powerful and effective.
One day a shoemaker in Meshed, a very religious city in Northeastern Iran, brought home for his lunch some cheese which the grocer had wrapped in a page of the New Testament, which he was using as wrapping paper.
After eating his lunch he picked up a piece of paper and read the story of the man who hired laborers for his vineyard, and at the end of the day paid all the laborers the same wage, whether they had worked twelve hours or one.
The shoemaker liked the story, and the next day went again to the grocery store and bought cheese, asking that it be wrapped ‘in another page of that book.’
Finally, on the third day he bought what remained of the New Testament and showed it to his brother. The two of them then went to a missionary, who gave them a complete copy, and also gave them regular instruction in the Word of God. Both men were later baptized and were among the first believers in that city.
Even when the words of scripture are torn page by page and used as trash, it still has power to redeem.
So, this morning we are talking about the truth - God’s Word and how important it is for us and our life. If you have your bibles with you, I want to read for you one verse that will be our text for today. It is found in the book of Proverbs, chapter 23. I want to read verse 23 to you.
23 Buy the truth and do not sell it— wisdom, instruction and insight as well.
We have already discussed the fact that God’s Word is the truth. The truth comes from the Word of God. But once you have it, how do you keep it? Step one is what the writer of Proverbs makes clear in this verse.
1. Don’t Sell It!
1. Don’t Sell It!
I don’t believe that he is talking about us standing on the side of the road with our bible, attempting to sell the physical Bible to someone. Instead, the writer is talking here about an internal struggle. It is one thing to receive the Word of God. It is another thing to actually keep it as your priority in life.
There are some people who sold the truth in the Bible and we can read about their outcome.
Lot sold the truth for a home in the city. And Abraham had to rescue his family from destruction.
Esau sold the truth for a mess of pottage. His brother became a father of a great nation.
King Saul sold the truth for the support of the people. God took away his kingship and started over with a new family line.
Judas sold the truth for thirty pieces of silver. After betraying the Son of God, because of the overwhelming guilt he hung himself.
Pilot sold the truth for the approval of the crowd and he had an innocent man beaten and killed.
Selling the truth is not worth it. you need God’s Word to be a part of your life each and every day.
There may be people that you know that at one time were on fire for God. They read the Word of God and put it into their life. But then something happened and they started to doubt what they were reading. This happens to people all the time. The things of the world can be seductive. They attempt to draw us in and convince us of their truth, rather than the truth.
Maybe some of you are in a place right now. You feel an internal war going on within you. You feel as if you are being pulled in two different directions, and the direction of the the world is gaining an advantage because we know it will offer a satisfaction that we can see and feel, although it is temporary. Jesus has an external dialogue with a woman about this same struggle in her life. Look at the story in John chapter 4.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?
12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Jesus offers this woman the true source of life. This is one that will satisfy her completely. Before her interaction with Jesus, she was in the middle of being pulled in worldly directions, all the while searching for what would truly satisfy, and then it came walking into her life. The truth incarnate, Jesus Christ, collided with her sin and she was set free. The Bible tells us elsewhere that Jesus is the word of God in the flesh.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Therefore, if we know Jesus, then we know the truth. And how do we know more about the truth? We spend more time with the Word of God. Then, once we know it, and we learn not to lose it, there is a proper response God desires from us next.
We Give it Away Freely!
2. Go Share It!
2. Go Share It!
You can read throughout the bible and see that it was never meant to just dwell within us. Look at what Matthew said in chapter 28.
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This is called the Great Commission. Jesus commands His disciples to go and spread the word of God, the Gospel message about Him to the world.
This same commission is given to us when we accept Christ. When you and I begin to read and study the Word of God, even when we begin to put it into practice, we are then called to go and share it.
And heres the cool thing, when you begin to share the word with others, it will strengthen your own faith as well.
Every time that I stand up in front of your and tell my stories of what God has done in my life. When I go out on the streets and share God’s Word. When I talk to my neighbor about Jesus and tell people about what Jesus has done for my life. My faith is strengthened.
This isn’t just me, or other people that are called to do this. God is calling YOU to do the same! Everyone of us is called to give it away. We are called to share the gospel freely. All of us have a story to tell. If you are living for Jesus right now, and you have invited Jesus to do something in your life, then He has shown up. That is the story that you need to tell someone about. You can’t keep your story to yourself. Share it with someone this week.
As I am closing today, I want you to think about your life. Maybe you are in a place where you are tempted to sell yourself short by following worldly temptation rather than the eternal truth in the word of God. You feel like you have an internal wrestling match going on. The kingdoms are colliding within you and you feel you need to make a choice.
Today can be your day to submit to God’s Word fully. It is the only source of true, abundant life. God’s Word is the only thing that can fully satisfy you.
Would you pray right now that God would soften your heart to His gospel?
And once you have received God’s Word it is your turn to share with someone else so that they can experience the truth.
How do you do this?
It is simple. All you have to do is know what God’s Word says, living it out in your own life, and share your story of redemption with those around you.
Will you pray right now for an open door to share God’s Word with someone close to you?
Each and every one of us need to get ready for the many open doors that are coming our way this week. God has called us to believe, receive, and give.