Speak Your Truth // “Follow Your Heart” And Other Awful Advice // Read
“Some things are better left unsaid.” Have you ever heard that piece of advice? It’s a good one. Especially when it’s applied to other bits of advice we often hear. Phrases like “Follow your heart!” or “Speak your truth!” sound helpful on the surface. But when you actually apply this awful advice in your life, you’ll see the results are not what you hoped they’d be. The good news is, there’s a better way to a better life—far better than living by one-sentence slogans that don’t actually work. Behind every piece of awful advice we can find a timeless truth from God that, when lived out in practice, will change our lives for the better.
Everyone in the world is unique, and with that uniqueness comes unique experiences, insights, and world views. But there’s something else that is ultra unique and one of a kind: Truth. It stands on its own. No personal experiences, insights, or world views can alter it. And the most amazing thing? Truth has a name. The sooner we learn it, the better our life will be.
Message Notes
Cornerstone family man, it is so good to have you guys worshiping with us today. I trust even though you're watching at home, you're still wearing your Sunday best. There's no way that you're still in your PJs or anything? Of course not. Hey, where are you watching from? I want to know where you're watching from, put it in the chat, so we can know where you're watching from. Give your hometown a little shout out today. I also want to give a shout out to our volunteers here today, our staff who are here, our tech crew, for being able to be here and make this happen today, we're all staying socially distanced and masked up as best we can. But again, I just want to say thank you so much to all of our volunteers here today for making this happen, that we can still have church even in spite of this pandemic. And then lastly, I just want to say, as you're praying this week, as you're praying today, just remember to pray for our church, pray for the people who are sick right now, we have a lot of illness going wrong along. And it's not all COVID-19, we have people with various different kinds of disease and illness in our church right now. Just a very hard time for a lot of people in our church family. So again, as you're praying this week, as you're going to the Father, be sure to keep your church family in your prayers that everyone who is sick would have a speedy recovery. Back to 100% health.
So today, as Rachel just mentioned, we are starting this brand new series, "Follow Your Heart and Other Awful Advice," who feels like they've ever gotten some pretty just, you know, shaky advice from time to time? Yeah, absolutely. I want to see the hands in the comments and advice that you hear and you're like, yeah, I don't know about that. I don't know about that. On the flip side, though, sometimes we get advice from people. Sometimes people will tell us, this is what we should do. Well, they'll give us a little motto that they live by, or a slogan or a hashtag that they try to live their life by. It sounds kind of good. Like it sounds good on the surface. But if you dig even a little bit, you realize, yeah, that's actually not good advice at all. Like, just because it rhymes doesn't mean that it's good advice. Just because it has the same letter in it multiple times doesn't mean that it's good advice, necessarily. And that's what we're going to be looking at in this series is different slogans, hashtags mottos, things that we say that sound good, maybe you said, these yourself, maybe these are phrases you've lived by, maybe these are phrases you have tattooed on you, I really hope not. I really, really hope not. And you follow these things, because they've sounded good. But in practice, they just don't work. In practice, if you try to live these things out, they will leave your life in a state of wanting where you won't end up where you know, you need to be.
So if you would, wherever you're at, let's bow our heads together. And let's pray real quick Father, God, I ask that you would go before us in this moment, not just today. But throughout this entire series. As we look at these different ideas, these different ways of living, that can sound so good on the front, but God, we know that if we, if we really live these things out, our life will not be where it should be, that will not be walking in step with you. And we'll be settling for a lesser life. And God, that's not why you created us. For Jesus said He came to bring life and to bring life to the full. And that's what we want. We want a full life, a fulfilling life. And we know that's only found in your truth. So guide us towards that today. Father, help us to be active listeners, to hear from you today, to hear what you would have to say to us so that we can take it and then we can actually apply it into our lives so we can see change. And we can see ourselves become more like your son, Jesus, because that is what it's all about becoming more like Jesus. So help us today, Father, and we'll be sure to give you all the honor, all the glory, and all the praise. It's in your name that we pray and everybody said in agreement. Amen. Amen. Put it in the chat. Amen. Amen.
Well, I want us to start off this is actually kind of funny, because last week was Easter. But I want us to start off in a set of Scripture that's from the Easter story, that's from Jesus's arrest, death, resurrection, that whole a period of time. This is Jesus appearing before Pontius Pilate. So Jesus has been arrested, and he is appearing before this Roman governor. The Jews have handed him over to this Roman governor for him to be put under trial because under Jewish law, they couldn't condemned Jesus to death. So they wanted to approach the Romans to see if they could do it for them. And so we have this discussion that takes place between Jesus and Pilate. And it is so interesting how they talk back and forth with one another. So we're going to look at this is in John chapter 18, starting in verse 33, this is what happens. "Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, 'Are you the King of the Jews?' 'Is that your own idea?' Jesus asked, 'Or did others talk to you about me? Am I a Jew?' Pilate replied, 'Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it that you have done?' Jesus said, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If it were my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders, but now my kingdom is from another place.' 'You are a king then?' said Pilate. Jesus answered, 'You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into this world is to testify to the -'' what? "'Truth'" Truth put it in the chat. "'testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.'" And then here's this question that Pilate asks, that many do as a question you've asked before pilot says, "What is truth?" "'What is truth' retorted Pilate. With this, he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said 'I find no basis for a charge against him.'"
What is truth? put that in the comments what is true, that's where we're going to start today's sermon focusing on this idea of what is truth. My Grandma Young, Audra, she was - to say she was a character is like a massive understatement. This lady. She was incredible. So funny, just one of a kind. We always joke that God broke the mold when he made Audra Young. So many stories about her. One that I want to share with you that I feel like is very pertinent with what we're talking about today, my grandma, towards, you know, the later years of her life, she lived with us at my mom and dad's house. She lived with us in a back room. And there was a period of time where my parents, their house, it sits right on the other side of I believe it's the South course of Firestone Country Club. And Firestone was completely redoing this part of the golf course. They were like completely changing it up. So they brought in bulldozers, and everything, just excavators completely tore everything up, put it in a new pond just completely changed the entire outlook of the area. And it took a really long time that they were working on this to redo of the golf course. And while they were doing it, there was a particular day my grandma was going outside. She was doing something outside. I can't even remember what like I said she's a character who knows what she was doing outside. But she was going outside and coming in quite a bit. And towards like the middle of the day, she comes back in.
And my grandma, I mean, she's like, you've got to imagine what she's looking like at this moment. So she's about 89 at this point. She's got like these slacks on with slippers. She's got like a dress shirt that's like kind of buttoned up. She would take shoulder pads out of her like suit jackets and stuff them under her bra strap to be in her like shirt. So she has the shoulder pads on. She has her hair up in curlers. And so this is the mental image.
Okay, so she walks inside to the the main area where my dad's sitting, my dad's in there working. And she comes in all kind of in a huff just like this. And my dad's like, okay, clearly you're wanting to talk about something but you're wanting me to bring it up and he says Mom, what what's wrong? What's the deal? And she just said those men over there working on that golf course. I just, I just can't with them. My dad's like, what in the world? The men working on the golf course? Like the construction crew, what's, what's the deal? And so he's like, what, Mom, what's what's wrong with them? And she goes, well, they just think they're God's gift to women or something. I don't know what's wrong with them. But it's it's perverse. It's perverse. And so my dad's sitting there. My dad's like, are you kidding me? I'm gonna, I'm gonna have to go out and confront these construction workers to defend the honor of my 89 year old mother. Like what is going on? And so he's like, oh, great. Well, Mom, what? What's going on? What are they saying? Oh, they're not saying anything. It's just I mean, they're, they're hitting on me or something. Because all day every time I go out there, they're honking their horns at me. My dad says they're honking their horns at you? Yeah, every single time I go out there, all I hear is beep beep beep. Yeah, if you're tracking along, they obviously were not honking the horns at my grandma.
And my dad told her, he's like Mom, Mom, look. I'm sorry to you know, take a shot at your sense of ego right now, but they're not really like trying to cat call at you. That's the noise that those trucks make whenever they put it in reverse. And they've been going in reverse all day because they're bringing stuff in and out. And my grandma started cracking up like she started laughing, realizing how ridiculous it sounds, but you want to know what rather than just flat out admitting she was wrong, my grandma just kind of laughed and shook her head and said, well, I don't know. Well, well, I don't know. So in that moment, my grandma, she heard the fact of what was going on. These men weren't cat calling her, they weren't trying to hit on her or anything like that. It was just the beeping sound the safety precaution that these trucks have built in. But she was unwilling to let go of her truth of that moment. Well, I don't know. Well, I don't know. She wasn't quite ready to accept the truth she was owning. She was holding on to her truth of the situation.
And today, what I want us to talk about is this awful advice we get to speak your truth. Speak your truth. I want to say not only is this an issue that my grandma dealt with a few years ago, not only is this an issue that we deal with today, I would wager this idea, speak your truth has been an issue forever. This is something that we have always had to deal with, we've always had to fight with this as an issue in the world. And not just today. And can I just issue this disclaimer, at the start of this series, every single week, we're going to be looking at a different piece of awful advice. And what I want you to know is, this series is not a condemnation of today's day and age. This series is not a condemnation of our culture, it's very easy for pastors to get up and to just completely rail against our modern day culture, how awful it is, and how terrible it is. But guess what, it was also easy for pastors to do that back in the early 2000s. And in the 90s. And in the 80s, and 70s. As long as we have had pastors, we've been able to rail against culture, saying these different things that we're going to be looking at. Because these are sin issues. Our culture does not have the corner, does not own sin. Sin has been around for a long time.
In fact, what we're talking about today, this idea of speak your truth, we see this sin, I mean it's nothing new, we see it back in the Garden. We see it in the Garden of Eden, when the truth that they're holding onto is that you know what? God's holding out on me. God's holding out on me. He doesn't really want me to be like him. He's trying to suppress me trying to keep me under his thumb. And so the truth is, for me to be liberated, I need to eat from the fruit of this tree. This is an issue we have been dealing with since day one. So please understand me, this is not me railing against our modern day culture. This is something we have always struggled with. Speak your truth. You see what we want to do, what we like to do, what we have a tendency to do, and I want you to know, I'm completely included in this today, what we have a tendency to do is to transform truth. So we can shape our situation. We have a tendency to kind of shift and change and modify truth so that it fits us where we're at. And whatever situation we find ourselves in. What I mean by that is this truth, we're pretty firm on it. If it benefits us, right? If something benefits us we are pretty staunch about. Nope, that was wrong. And this is right. We're pretty solid on what truth is, we're firm when it benefits us. But we are flimsy when it burdens us. Right? We are firm when it benefits and we are flimsy, when it burdens, whenever truth is a burden and it may have to change my lifestyle. Whenever truth may change the way that I talk to people, the way that I act in relationships. Well, suddenly, truth becomes very subjective. Suddenly God's truth and what God is calling us to it becomes well, hey, to each their own. Well, hey, it suddenly becomes very flimsy. When it burns us.
My daughter's Eden and Evelyn, I can't even remember exactly why they did this. But a few weeks back, they were out riding their bikes. And I don't know, maybe your kids are like this, let me know in the chat. They just refuse to put things back where they find them. Like they just don't do it. They just don't do it. They get something out. And it just stays wherever they last used it constantly. So they had been out on their bikes. And whenever I got home, I noticed that their bikes were put up, like they were put up and I'm like, okay, well, I want to know if Jessica did this, or if the kids did this. Because if it's the kids, I want to you know, congratulate them I want to build in and like you know, give them a "Hey, alright!" about this habit. So hopefully they start actually doing this from time to time putting things back where they belong. And so whenever I came inside, you know, I'm talking to them. Hey, how's your guy's day? I said, hey, I know you guys were on your bikes today. Did you guys put your bikes back in the garage? And they both got real quiet and just kind of looked at me very like, like I was asking a trick question. I'm like girls, did you? Did you guys put your bikes back. They're like, uh why? I'm like, well, I'm just wondering because that's good. That's good. If you guys put it back there. Oh, okay, then. Yeah, yeah, we put them back. I have no idea if they thought maybe they scratch something whenever the bikes went back, or if they got put in the wrong place. I have no idea why they were so hesitant to give me an answer, but you notice that they waited until they found out what the outcome was going to be before they came forward with the truth. Before they came forward with Yes, we did that. They wanted to wait and find out, hold up, is this situation going to benefit me or burden me? Because if it's gonna burden me, well, maybe I didn't put the bikes back. Maybe the bikes magically rolled into the garage, right? If if something bad happened, maybe it wasn't me. Oh, but it's a benefit. Okay. Yeah, that was me.
You see, we're not so different from Eden and Evelyn. We're not so different from them. We do the same thing time and time again, whenever the truth is a benefit to us. We're firm on it. When the truth becomes a burden. We're very flimsy. We're very subjective, we can change in a moment. It makes me think of, I don't know if anyone else watched, it was very good. Very interesting. There was a documentary or not a docu-series a mini series a few years ago back on FX called the People vs. OJ Simpson. Very good. Cuba Gooding Jr, John Travolta, it was a really, really good documentary not docu-series, mini series on this event in American history.
One of the scenes that was so captivating to me from this show was they showed the moment that Johnnie Cochran joined OJ's defense team, he wasn't on the defense team from the start. It was Shapiro who was his main defender for a long time, but then they hire Johnnie Cochran and he came in, and the scene was so powerful because he comes in, and he's hearing what the defense has already kind of prepared as their argument. And then he just basically says, we gotta tear this all up. We got to do away with this. And the entire defense team was like, what are you talking about? We've been building this case for like months now. And you're just coming in here on day one and trying to rip this apart? He said, no, no, because I, I know what the other side is coming with. The other side is coming with a whole lot of facts, they've got a lot of dates, they got a lot of times, they got a lot of eyewitnesses who are saying they saw X, Y, and Z. And if we try to fight them on that, if we try to fight them with all these facts, we're gonna lose, we're gonna lose. And the room goes quiet. And they say, okay, well, then what do you suggest? And he says, what I suggest is we tell a better story than the one that they're telling. We need to tell a better story. And so that's exactly what Johnnie Cochran did, he built a defense based on a better story than the one that the prosecution was telling. And I think I would wager that if you're anything like me, if you're anything like any other human who has ever lived, you have the same conversation with yourself. You have the same conversation with yourself whenever you know what the truth is. And it doesn't exactly line up with you. Whenever you know what the truth is, you feel God pressing on your heart, and it doesn't exactly line up with where you're at. Suddenly, you start to think I'm going to try to create and craft a better story for myself, so that I can turn the truth into my truth. So I can take what I know God is putting on my heart as his actual truth and make it my truth. Have it accommodate me where I'm at.
I will say this though, it's, it's not like we always change what's true for our malicious reasons because we're trying to get away with something. I'm not saying that at all. Sometimes, maybe you're someone out there who feels like, you know, I can say something like speak my truth, speak your truth. Because the truth, it's kind of subjective, because, you know, everyone has different experiences. Everybody has different backgrounds. Everybody has different worldviews. And so since everyone's unique, and they have their own unique experiences, insight and worldviews, maybe the truth kind of accommodates that. Maybe the truth kind of accommodates it, and it bends a little bit, and it is flimsy a little bit, because everybody is so unique. So whenever I say, hey, I'm speaking my truth, or you should speak your truth, that's what I mean. It's just everybody is unique. And this is an example of that. My background, I can say marriage is wonderful. Because look at my background. I have a great marriage. My wife, Jessica, we have a wonderful marriage. My parents had a wonderful marriage. My grandparents on both sides had wonderful marriages, my family we don't, we don't have divorce in our family. So from my background, I can say marriage is great. Marriage is wonderful. Marriage is fantastic. And that's true. Then you have other people, divorce is all they know. Dysfunctional relationships is all they know, parents constantly at each other's neck is all they know. And so whenever they hear me say marriage is wonderful. They're going, from your perspective. From your view. From mine, it's terrible. For mine, I saw my parents just hate each other. I want no part of marriage. I don't want that at all. And so whenever you hear that, whenever you think of that, you understand why someone may say, well, that's your truth. Your truth is marriage is wonderful. My truth is marriage is awful, maybe truth accommodates.
But here is the fact. Here's the fact that we know this, from God from his word from the example of Jesus. The fact is, there is something else that is unique in the world, not just our experiences, not just our worldview, not just our personalities, not just our own unique situations, there is something else unique, and one of a kind, and set apart. And that's the truth. There really is something as the truth, the truth does exist out there. The truth, it stands on its own. And here is just the fact of the matter and I don't want to hurt you, but I just want to be honest with you. The fact is that the truth is, the truth regardless of your personal experience. The truth is the truth regardless of your worldview, the truth is the truth regardless of your insights or your ideas, or what your college courses told you. The truth stands alone and nothing can alter it. Nothing can alter it.
One of my favorite film classics. I'm sure they study this in film courses, the 1997 Classic Liar Liar, starring Jim Carrey. And if you can't tell there's a recurring theme. I'm trying to get Jim Carrey's entire filmography into my sermons, we talked Dumb and Dumber a few weeks ago. Liar Liar today. We'll see if we can fit in The Mask and The Grinch in the weeks to come. But in this movie, Liar Liar, if you've seen it before, you know that Jim Carrey, he's a lawyer. He's notorious for lying. His son has a birthday wish that his dad for one day couldn't tell a lie. It magically comes true. And so there's this scene where Jim Carrey comes upon this realization that whoa, I can't lie. Like I actually can't lie. And he's trying to. He's trying to as hard as it can. So he's in his office, and he's got a pen, and it's a blue pen. And he is trying for the love to write down to say, this pen is red. This pen is red, like he's trying to say it. And he can't. He just can't. He's like, throwing his body around. He's fighting. He's like going crazy. His receptionist is out there, hears all this like ruckus, comes in. She opens the door, and is like boss, is everything okay? And Jim Carrey is behind his desk, and you see him kind of like, appear, like this. And as he appears, written all over his face is blue pen. He can't do it. He's like losing his mind. Like the pen is blue. The pen is blue. I can't lie the pen is blue. And what I want to let you know, is that is that is how truth is. It's just true. It's just true. We can try to say the pen is red, but the pen is blue. The pen is blue, the truth stands alone. Truth is truth.
So regardless of what she thought, My grandma wasn't hit on. She wasn't being catcalled the truth was the truth, regardless of what Eden and Evelyn thought was going to happen to them by them putting their bikes back if they thought maybe they scratch something, they didn't put it where it was supposed to go. The truth is, they put the bikes back. The truth is the pen is blue. There are certain things in the world, there are certain things that your personal experience, your insight, your background, your worldview, it just doesn't matter. Because truth is truth. Truth is truth, and it stands alone. There is no such thing as my truth. There can be my experience. But there's no my truth. There's no such thing as your truth. There can be such thing as your worldview or your insight. But there is no such thing as your truth. The truth stands alone.
And here's what I want to let you know, that's not a bad thing. That's good. It's good that the truth stands alone, and it exists outside of you. And it exists outside of what you think or what you were taught. That's a good thing that the truth stands on its own. It's a good thing, because we can be tempted to shape the truth, we can be tempted to bend the truth, we can be tempted to make the truth fit our circumstances, but it is a good, it is a positive and it is a holy thing. Truth can't be shifted. It can't be manipulated. It can't be messed with. That's a good, good thing. It's a God thing that truth can't be messed with. Because we need truth. We need truth. I want to let you know this. You were designed for truth. It's in your makeup at your molecular level. You were built to walk in truth. You and I were designed for truth. And so what happens is when we act like truth is subjective, when we act like truth is my truth and your truth and everyone has their own version of truth, when we do that, we are acting out of design. We are acting out of how we were created to be.
I've told the story before, I got stuck in an elevator. I've been stuck in an elevator multiple times in my life, which I don't know, if you see me getting on an elevator don't get on with me. Just don't do it. Save yourself the hassle. But I got stuck in it years ago, whenever I was going to my orientation at the University of Akron, it was a visit. That's what it was a visit with my school. We're going there, we're in the Polymer building. And we were getting in the elevator and we were just, you know, stupid seniors in high school. We're like, let's fit as many of us as we can on here at once. That'll be fun. So we jam packed the thing. And sure enough, the elevator gets stuck, like it starts going up. And then it boom, the lights kind of flicker come back on, and we're stuck in between floors. That took us like an hour to get out of there, which was not fun, like 15 17 year-old boys in one elevator, you can imagine we were like, get us out of this please. Now, the reason that elevator got stuck, it doesn't take rocket science. It doesn't take rocket science. Why did you get stuck? It was over capacity. It was over capacity, there is a sign like as you walk in, there is a sign that has a weight limit, that has a person capacity limit, and we clearly violated it. Not only that, we like snubbed our nose at it, like yeah, right, we're gonna fit as many as we possibly can on this thing. And when we did that, whenever we tried to use this elevator out of its design, when we tried to use this elevator out of its capacity, it didn't work, we got stuck. And what was a fun day turned into a miserable day of smelling just God-awful smells for a full straight hour in a locked elevator. It was bad, it was bad. And it's because we tried to use that elevator out of design.
And I want to let you know whenever you live your life as if there is such thing as his truth and her truth and my truth, you are living your life out of design. So don't be surprised when you get stuck. Don't be surprised whenever things don't work the way that they should work in your relationships and your life and your career. Don't be surprised whenever you do that whenever you try to take something like truth and make it subjective, use it out of design. Don't be surprised when things don't go well. Here is the truth about truth. This is what Jesus says about truth in John 14, whenever he's talking to his disciples, Jesus says, "'Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God believe also in me. My father's house has many rooms, if that were not so what I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place that I am going.' Thomas, one of Jesus's disciples said to him, 'Lord, we don't know where you are going. So how can we know the way?' Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" Jesus says I am the Way and the Truth. You see what I want you to know today, what I want you to walk away from here with today, is that truth isn't a what, it's a who. Put in the chat. Truth is not a what, it's a who. Truth has a name. Truth has a name. Truth is Jesus. Jesus stated it himself. He is the truth. Jesus is the embodiment of what truth looks like. That's why truth can't be my truth. That's why truth can't be your truth or their truth. Truth stands alone, because truth is not a what that can be owned. It is a person that can be known. Truth is a person that we know. And that is the person of Jesus Christ.
And here's what this means. And it means a few really, really good things that truth is a person. First off, this is what it means whenever we know that Jesus is the truth. Jesus is God. Jesus is God and we are made in God's image. So like I just said, that means truth is something we're designed for. If Jesus is the truth, and we're made in God's image, we are to be image bearers of truth. Truth should permeate our every being. It should be how we live, how we talk, how we act in relationships. Truth should be a part of who we are, as part of our design. Like the elevator, we are made to live within the capacity of truth. That's what we were designed for. It's what we were made by. It's what our Creator is known by, and if we are to be his image bearers, we must be known by truth, as well.
You know, how you can know that truth is supposed to be part of your being? It's because you get that feeling every time you lie. Unless you've become so used and so accustomed to it, but even then, there's a part of you that rebels against that lie. Whenever you try to own truth and manipulate it and bend it to fit your will, there's that part of you that cries out and says something is not right here. Something is wrong, and that is because you were acting out of design. You were not meant to bend the truth. You were meant to know the truth. You were meant to embrace the truth. It's part of our design. Jesus is God and we're made in God's image. So that means we must be image bearers of the truth.
Not only that, not only is it us who are designed for truth, we live in a world that is based on the fact of truth. Like the world that we inhabit, the universe that we inhabit, is based on the idea that truth actually exists out there. And it actually has power over our lives. Think about it, the world that we live in is based on rules. There are certain rules that we know that are based on truth that we know things like gravity, gravity, the whole idea of gravity is based on there's a certain truth that we know to exist out there. And we can know how planets move and how things happen, because of this truth, because of this law, this law of gravity, things like time, things like weather, things like physics, all of these natural elements of our world, we can see truth in the midst of them. These things that are just true, and we base our life around them, and they need to be true for our universe to function, as it does. And what I want you to know is that in the same way, there is a fundamental truth that guides gravity, there's fundamental truth that guides the weather, and guides time and guide space, and it guides all of these things. In the same way. There is truth that guides relationships. There's truth that guides love. There's truth that guides life. There's truth that guides our spirits and how we find fullness in them. There is underlying truth, that when we live it out, whenever we live in that truth, we live the way we're we were created to be. Not only are we designed for truth, the world we live in is designed for truth.
And that truth has a name. That truth can be known. That truth is Jesus. And as we just discussed in our last series "613 Ghosts", we talked about the fact that Jesus is alive, like Jesus is active, he is still speaking to us, he's still talking to us. And so that means whenever we want to know what truth is, not only do we have God's Word in print to look at, we have God's Word in person to talk to. Like we can actually go before the throne, we can actually ask God, through the power of the Holy Spirit to convict us to point us to the truth, to point out areas in our life where we are falling short of the truth, to point out areas in our life where we have maybe taken the truth, manipulated it and tried to call it our truth. That's what Jesus does, he can point out the areas in our life where we are not living up to where we should be. Truth has a name, and it can be known. And that's a good thing. That is a good thing that truth can be known as a person.
And you know what I love what we just read John 14, Thomas asked for a way, and Jesus gave him a name. Thomas asked what's the way, what's the way to return a life which whenever we, whenever we hear about eternal life in Scripture, we always think about the someday living off there. But the fact is, and we see this echo time and time again in Scripture, that eternal life starts the moment that we accept Jesus. In that moment, we are already living in this new reality. And so whenever Thomas is asking, how do I live in this new reality, how do I live in the truth of this eternal life way of living? Jesus doesn't give him a way, he gives him a name. He says, it's me. It's me. If you want to live in the way of truth, you want to live in the way of life, know me, know who I am, know, my heart. Thomas asked for way. But Jesus gave him a name. And what I love about that is that means that truth in our life, the truth that we are looking for the truth that we need to hold onto, it's not a list of things that needs to be remembered. It's a person that we can know. Isn't that better? Isn't that so much better that we have a person that we can know? And as we know him, we know what truth looks like, as we know him, we know that truth is not subjective, that it is him. It's Jesus. It's what he looks like. It's what his example looks like. Truth can be known. It doesn't need to be remembered.
I love how these two verses we looked at today just kind of sum each other up. We started off today looking at John chapter 18, where Pilate asked this question, "What is truth?" What is truth? It's Jesus. It's Jesus. That's why I can't speak my truth. That's why you can't speak your truth because you don't own truth. You don't own it, I don't own it. It's not something that I can possess. It's not something that I can change. It's not something that I can alter, but it is something I can know. It's something I can find. It's something I can follow. Jesus is the truth and we can know the truth. Think about this. Not only can we just know it, we have a relationship with it. We can have a relationship With the embodiment of truth, and I want to let you know when you do that, when you realize that truth isn't just something to be remembered, it's someone you can know, whenever you realize that and that you don't own truth, I'm telling you, your life will get better. Your life will get better. I didn't say easier, but your life will get better.
Let's go back to the the analogy of the elevator. The elevator, I guarantee you that that same elevator has had issues from time to time, that same elevator that we got stuck in, it still had issues, it still had moments where it hasn't worked exactly how it should, it still had moments when things went wrong. But if people are abiding by how it was designed to work, if people are following that, that limit that capacity limit, I'll tell you what, that thing is malfunctioning far less than it would if people were just abusing that capacity limit over and over and over again. And the same is true for us. I'm not saying that if you follow Jesus as a truth in your life, that your life will be carefree, and you'll never have a malfunction, you'll never get stuck. I'm not saying that. But you will have far less malfunctions, and you will get stuck far less whenever you are following the design that you were created for. And that is knowing the truth of Jesus. Rather than trying to bend the truth to fit your will in, to fit your situation. Life won't get easier necessarily, but it will get better. Your relationships will get better. You will get healthier. You will get healthier, life will get healthier for you when you live in the way of the truth.
So what's that mean? For us? That means the sins and the habits that we excuse, the mistakes in our relationships that we brush off as not a big deal, the dysfunctions that we just have kind of come to accept, we need to call them what they are. We need to just call them what they are. No more brushing them off. No more whenever truth becomes a burden, we suddenly make it real flimsy. No, we just need to call these things what they are. It's not our truth. It's not well, I know what Jesus says. But my truth is... Oh no, well, I know what God is pointing to me to but the truth of my situation is... No, there's just truth and the quicker we realize that, the quicker we call ourselves on our crap. And we realize that Jesus is the truth, not our our subjective feelings, not our moment by moment situations, but Jesus is the truth. Our life will get better, your relationships will get healthier, they just will. And isn't that what you want? I mean, if you're really looking for some good advice, that's what you want. Because you want your life to get better. You want to live your life here to the full. And you will not do that, you will not do that, if you are just following your own idea of what truth is. You have to come to know truth, you have to come to know Jesus and live in that design.
I want to leave you with this that, the truth is that your truth is shaky. Can we just all admit that? The truth is that your truth is shaky. The truth is that my truth is shaky, it is not a solid ground, it's not a solid foundation, to build your life on, it will not hold up. It will not hold up. Your truth is flimsy. You cannot build your life on that. If you want a life that will weather the storms that come your way, if you want a life that will be able to handle let downs in relationships, let downs in your job, let downs all over the place. If you want a life that can withstand that, it's not going to become anything if you have a life that is built on your truth. You need something better. You need something better. You need a foundation that can see you through. You need something that is steady. You need something that is consistent. You need something that is unchanging. You need the truth. You need the truth. That's the foundation that you want to build your life on. The truth, the person of Jesus.
So what's that mean? That means saying to Jesus in every situation of your life, where you have found yourself trying to bend the truth saying, you know what, Jesus, I agree with you about my situation. I agree with you about my situation, about the areas that I'm sinning about the areas where I am falling short, about the areas where I'm trying to bend the truth. Rather than trying to label all these things, how I want to label them, no Jesus, I'm going to agree with you about my situation. I'm going to agree with you because I know that you are the truth. My feelings aren't the truth, my situation is not the truth, Jesus you are. So please point me to where I should go point me in the way of your righteousness, point me in the way that the truth will lead me. Because I know that that's the way that will lead to a fulfilling life in the here and now. And that's what I want. And that's all it takes. Just honestly coming before Jesus and saying, I want to build my life upon something that will stand, I want to build it on you. And if you do that, Jesus will hear you. If you do that Jesus will follow through. And if you're someone who wants to take that step today, I want to take a moment and pray for you wherever you're at, bow your heads and let's pray together.
Father God, today, we as one church declare that we agree with you about our situation. We agree, and we declare that we do not get to determine what truth is, or is not. We don't get to be firm on truth when it benefits us, and flimsy on truth, when it burdens us. Truth is just truth. And truth is you. Thank God that we can know you. And we can know what truth is by following you. And by listening to your voice. So God, that's what we pray today is that we would become more attuned to your voice and we would become more attuned to the working of the spirit in our hearts. So when he points out deficiencies in our life, when he points out areas where we are falling into our own idea of truth, that we would see the truth for what it is and that we would follow it for who it is: you. Because we know when we do that we are going to be on the path towards a fulfilling life, not just in the life to come, but in the life here and now. And that's what we want Jesus. Please help us to take this awful piece of advice and to see the real truth behind it that you are the truth, the way and the life and we will give you all the honor all the glory and all the praise and it's in your name that we pray. Amen. Amen.
I don't know about you, but I want to build my life on that truth. And if you want to do that, too, let's worship together all right..
Amen, amen. Amen. Pray with me real quick if you would. Father God, thank you, that we are your children. That's who we are. And that that's the truth, that nothing can change that. That you are our Father, we are your sons and daughters, and that you love us. You love us. God, thank you for that truth. Help that truth to permeate our being. Because whenever we truly realize that, whenever we realize that truth, God, it changes everything about us. It changes everything about us, the way we interact with others, the way we talk to ourselves, the way we treat other people, it changes everything. Help us to remember that truth this day, and every day that we would walk in truth, that we are your children, and that we would act like it and that we would live like it. God, we love you so much. And we pray this in your name, Amen.
Isn't God good? Isn't God good man, just just praise him in the comments. today. He is so so good to us more than we could have ever deserved. You can now receive the blessing of the Lord made Jesus Christ our God and our King forever be with you this day and every day. Amen.
