How Do You Know What’s True and Right? / Rich Nathan

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] hey everyone well welcome to vineyard columbus you if you're here you're a little bit early which is great for you because you get to check out a little bit of a pre-game show you're not on vineyard time your time is everyone's late it would be like 10 minutes like that's like 10 minutes from now 15 minutes that's been your time but right now you get to have a chance to just sit and listen in on eric and i's conversation right wow that's good that we're going to invite them into our conversation who we really uh really did we rehearse this we didn't rehearse this so i'm going to ask you something because i've been on social media because you know we're at home all day and i saw you on facebook yeah and you were making ice cream oh yeah like not like scooping it out of a jenny's container like you actually made the ice cream true so what's going on with that you're like making ice cream now i'm all about it i'm all about it since july 4th weekend okay i've made several gallons of ice gallons i don't know i've made a lot what flavors i saw like a strawberry so i did blueberry okay i did strawberry okay pistachio oh strawberry pistachio or just strawberry and pistachio i know just yeah i'm not that good yet oh okay these are all pretty like some folks are going to be listening like apparently there's a jenny's ice cream cookbook is there i heard about that no i didn't hear about that apparently it's pretty awesome okay i don't have that you don't have to i'm just doing the eric's ice cream recipe cookbook and what are people thinking about that have you had i like some reviews not from you you i can't trust your your reviews the kids are not really into it okay like they're like like gloria got out this ice cream uh whatever like i'm like so some billion dollar company made that trashy ice cream you could be eating something homemade but not just homemade from your father's heart and exquisite i mean it's it is good i got i'm not gonna i love that you caught it exquisite what about julia julie is she's she's all about i mean she's like she'll eat it she's not like she doesn't want to be overly encouraging i gotcha she's humble keep me keep getting humble that's all that is i love it have you ever made ice cream i have never made ice cream before i've never made super easy it doesn't seem when i watch the cooking shows it seems very complicated something always goes wrong it's like the easy like i julie and i are horrible cooks i shouldn't say that about it horrible i've i've sampled it's not horrible we don't cook we heat things up like we take it out of the freezer peel it open put it in the microwave there you go okay put it on a trough for the kids we're like come on in just slide it to their door so they can come up no we don't so the ice cream recipes are like the simplest thing you can imagine so like what goes into the blueberry ice cream uh blueberries [Laughter] they're real they're not fake they're real yeah they're sugar plenty of sugar right um heavy cream milk okay and that's pretty that's really good little vanilla okay it's super simple that's why you can do it you should be terrible i'll bring some next time okay that'd be great what have you been up to what have i been up to okay my whole summer has literally been hamilton like i watched that once i loved it once that's that's cute have you watched it i've watched it i've i've watched it way more than once like how many times if you had to estimate oh in its entirety i've probably watched it about seven times in its entirety but then have you memorized like parts of it it's been like way too much like way too much that i'm like certain scenes it's like over and over and over and over oh you pick your favorites yes i have my favorites like of course i love the alexander hamilton at the beginning yeah um trey and i are obsessed with king george iii can you do one of his songs right now yeah you say the price of my love's not a price that you're willing to pay you cry and your tea that you hurl in the sea when you see me go by why so sad i remember that part dude you got a great voice oh you should join our choir that's like not me like singing singing so like i don't want any comments listen that was just like no that was amazing okay you should like lead you can you like sing me lullabies at night because hey listen i can oh oh oh i think i think they're talking to us i think we've been going to talking to us you need to you need to but let's it's actually a great segue okay because we're gonna worship we're gonna sing and that was singing and we're gonna look at you you're so good at this hey everyone thank you so much for joining us at vineyard columbus it's wonderful to have you here my name is eric pickerel and i'm our associate pastor and my name is adrian ash i am one of the assistant pastors in our community life ministry am i supposed to keep saying something else [Music] it's okay no you just you just keep rolling i'm sorry so we are live hosting this uh our service right now please ignore me i got so caught up in the hamilton conversation and the songs in my head that i missed my beat is it obvious that we're live hosting i don't know if i feel obvious i don't know if it's obvious for people that are new is not obvious right so we if you're new we are live hosting right now we have pastors and we have leaders who are available they would love to chat with you if you have any prayer requests they would love to be able to just uh respond to that as well so you can pop over into the chat you can just say what's up you can put a prayer request there but either way we would love to be able to talk to you and over the next hour we're going to start with worship we're going to hear a few announcements take the offering we're going to hear a great message from pastor rich and then we're going to close with some time to pray together so let's begin by welcoming god's presence would you uh pray with me now and uh just if you would close your eyes open your heart to god and let's welcome his presence lord thank you that you're here with us today and i prayed lord that you would come by your holy spirit and reveal your presence to us lord we need your presence in our lives lord you are our life i pray that you would come and renew us today as we worship in jesus name amen amen let's worship [Music] this is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] on higher ground so here i stay you are my god [Music] is [Music] [Applause] i won't forget [Music] see [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Applause] [Music] would it [Music] we're grateful god [Music] god we are grateful for you for all that you've done lord you've been so good to us you've been so faithful lord we worship you now [Music] i waited patiently [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] pick me up and turn me around and place my feet on solid ground hallelujah oh hallelujah pick me up and turn me around and place my feet on hallelujah [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hallelujah [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] together [Music] in the holy spirit and righteousness in the holy [Music] the holy spirit [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] jesus cause you've been faithful god you've been faithful jesus a good good guy [Music] i know that you've been [Music] jesus yes you've been so good so so good to me so good so so good to me so good so so good jesus temples built with hands lay with precious stones but all along you wanted to make a treasured home mansions made of men can touch the sky from earth but still your house of choice was broken vessels made after make all that [Music] [Music] lay with precious stones but all along you wanted to make a short treasure at home manchester [Music] of choice [Music] make our hearts your heart [Music] oh we make room for you jesus [Music] come inhabit our prayer [Music] take a seat i made room for you and me neverland stay with me come on in take a seat for you and me never leave will jesus stay with me come on come on in and take a seat for you and me never leave oh jesus stay with me [Music] you and me [Music] oh [Music] take a [Music] stay with me come on in take your seats [Music] oh oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] me so make my heart your home oh oh that's mine is yours [Music] oh [Music] god that is our prayer that you would make your home in our hearts [Music] that we wouldn't be momentary christians sunday surface christians but we would be people that house the presence of god that make space for jesus alone to be enthroned upon our hearts it's the lord we make space for you today we ask that you would come and have your way in us lord [Music] we love you we love you we love you and we pray this in that mighty name of jesus [Music] amen that song was amazing right it sure was i mean the whole set was really good but that my heart your home like i'm really loving it yeah that was new to me yeah that's the first time we've done it here so that was really really great i love that song so we are normally one church that meets in multiple locations but right now we are all meeting online and this weekend we are finishing up our series uh from confusion to clarity that's right and next week we're starting a new series pastor julie is going to start a series that's called that they may be one and it's based on the prayer of jesus that we might be one and as we're heading into one of the most divided times in our nation we're talking about what does it look like to follow the way of jesus toward unity and i'm really excited to hear julius preaching next weekend hey if you are new we would love to be able to connect with you and it's really easy to do all we need you to do is text hi to 98977 because we would love to be able to just say hi to you and to connect with you so again it's hi to 98977 and if you don't want to text you can just click on the link that's going to be over in the chat and when you do that we make a five dollar donation to the community shelter board which is an organization here in columbus that's working really hard to reduce homelessness so you're making a difference just by texting and joining us i want to take a moment to turn toward receiving our ties and offerings one of the things that we're doing that you may not be aware of is we're doing mid-week in-person gatherings here at cooper road also at east and our sawmill campuses and they are wonderful worship services we're taking communion it's a really different way to worship i just love it and if you're not comfortable with coming into our buildings you can also drive through someone will pray over you our pastors are there you can take communion i want to share a story with you i came out to one of those services last week adrian and when i was there i felt the holy spirit so powerfully i was like in tears during the service and then at the end i turned around uh to someone who's behind me okay and i just said hey my name's eric what's your name and i looked into horizon she couldn't even speak because she had tears coming down her face and she just was able to say i needed this so oh wow wow i needed this i miss my church and i was like i miss this too it's so good to be together it was so cool um you know your giving vineyard allows us to do things like our midweek service and we are so grateful for your generosity yeah we are and there's several ways that you can give the easiest way is to text you can text the amount that you want to give to the number three three 614-333-0-3300 and there's other ways they're going to come up on your screen that you can give as well like eric said we're really grateful for you all and and for your generosity and we're just going to pray right now for our tithes and offerings lord we just thank you so much for what you have been doing in the midst of such hard times and that you've blessed us to be able to come together stories like this this woman who just got to encounter your presence and and feel your presence and feel the the love of this church we are so grateful and we're grateful that everyone who has given lord that has created this opportunity in this space so i pray just for more of your presence in these midweek services and more of your presence in our communities and in our church families lives and to all those who are listening lord just more and more of you we love you in your son's precious name we pray amen amen now we get to hear a message from pastor rich just a quick message before i begin if you've been coming to vineyard for any period of time maybe you're new post covid and you want to investigate the church you know find out more about what we believe and how you can be involved or you would like to join the church next weekend september 13th on sunday i'm going to be teaching our membership class it'll never be easier for you to join the church than next weekend you can sit in your home watch online and i'll be in my home you can see the inside of my home sign up at vineyardcolumbus.org but we've got membership class next weekend and i really want to encourage you many of you who are not part of the church to take that next step into church life well i want to begin there is a podcast called tales from the rabbit hole it's been going on for about 10 years and it's by a guy who was involved in debunking conspiracy theories and he finally came to the realization that it would probably be better to uh engage in conversation with people who believe these things then simply just debunk the theories and so he has on you know ufo folk and and people who are part of the 911 hoax community those are folks who believe that the world trade center was not taken down by terrorists but rather was taken down by the u.s government or the israeli government that bombed the world trade center he has folks who believe in flat earth and you know different cult members he not only interviews them but he talks with their families those who have been affected by these various conspiracies you know wives and children and parents anyone who has gone down the rabbit hole and typically the way the rabbit hole works is that somebody will click online they'll watch a youtube video that'll send them to another video to another video and pretty soon they're embracing this entire you know global conspiracy about the way the world works and maybe you've heard some of these conspiracies for example that covid19 the pandemic was actually designed by folks like bill gates and other global elites and bill gates is behind trying to uh inject us with the vaccine that contains tracking chips and the tracking chips are going to be um set off by five g 5g network uh you know cell phone towers and the government will be able to track our movements or the idea that the 5g towers are actually the cause of the spread of the pandemic this ran all through england there were 70 cell phone towers burned to the ground by these conspiracy theorists the prime minister had to make a statement saying this was all false well of course he was part of the conspiracy and that's why he was saying that or maybe you've heard about alex jones he's on the radio he's frequently at the source of many of these conspiracy theories alex jones alleged several years ago that the chobani yogurt company was importing migrant laborers who were child rapists they were bringing them in it was absolutely the case that chobani frequently hired refugees but alex jones was forced because of a lawsuit in court to completely retract his statements to say they were totally lies they were totally false but it injured the chobani company in their reputation uh there's the q anon uh conspiracy theory maybe some of you have heard of it but the idea i mean it it goes in lots of different directions but that this is a global sex trafficking satan worshiping group that is involved in pedophilia and it involves people at the highest level the pope is alleged to be involved of course again bill gates he shows up he's involved various politicians and it's part of a much larger conspiracy theory i just received an email from a former church member begging me to check this out that there was truth in it and that i needed to communicate that out to our church there are people who are running for congress who you know espouse these theories millions of ordinary americans including i'm sure some of you believe some aspect of these conspiracy theories and uh surveys indicate that many of the conspiracy theorists claim to be bible-believing christians now listen listen if you are a follower of jesus now we're talking about my wheelhouse so i want to talk to you from what i you know deeply care about if you're a follower of jesus if you claim to believe that the bible is the word of god then you should care about the truth or at least at least the truth should matter to you because truth is mentioned in the bible 224 times that word is mentioned times from beginning to end of the scripture the bible claims to assert the truth and we read verses like this john chapter 8 to the jews who believed in him jesus said if you hold to my teaching you are truly my disciples then you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free or the very famous john 14 6. jesus answered i am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me the apostle paul says this in first timothy chapter two this is good and pleases god our savior who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth the apostle paul said that the last days will be characterized by what we are presently experiencing right now here's what paul says in second timothy 4 beginning in verse 3. for the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine instead to suit their own desires they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths we would say they would turn aside to conspiracy theories listen friends we are living in a time where it's not only that millions and millions of people believe in conspiracy theories including some really well-intentioned folks i just received an email from a former pastor here in our city who was advocating a really dubious really spurious medical treatment for covid and uh i urged him to not send this around but we live in a time where not only are we being inundated by conspiracy theories but it doesn't matter what assertion you make somebody will be able to immediately click online and find 10 counter arguments and send you 20 youtube videos showing why your perspective is wrong so here's my question for today how do we know what's true with so many arguments and counter arguments and such a fog of information how do we know what's true how do we know what's right we've been doing a series here at vineyard columbus called from confusion to clarity and today my message is simply titled how do you know what is true and right let's invite god's presence and we'll turn to his word together lord we thank you that you're a god who doesn't hide in darkness but speaks in the light and that you're willing to speak to us about the truth god that you've spoken you've given us a sure and certain word and i pray today lord that the truth would really shine as i speak that you would lighten our minds lord please make our hearts soft and receptive to your truth in jesus name amen now there are typical ways these days that we discover what's true and uh a typical approach to the truth is to check it out on some you know fact-checking non-partisan website and there's some really good fact check sites that are nonpartisan one of the most famous is politifact it's uh from a non-profit institution uh called the pointer institution it's down in saint petersburg florida it was the fruit of a an effort from the pulitzer prize-winning tampa bay times and and so if you read an assertion for example that three million illegal you know immigrants voted in the last election you can just type that in and you know find out is that true or not and politifact.com it ranks things maybe you've seen it but it ranks things from true which means the claim is totally accurate all the way to false and the false claim is pants on fire and so so you may have seen this in newspapers another really good fact check site is called it's a project of the annenberg policy public policy center at the university of pennsylvania and so there's lots of ways to fact check political statements now if you want to fact check a broader conspiracy theory like the 5g technology is spreading covid you can go to snopes.com and snopes is great at debunking urban legends you know urban myths like the one that i described about my friend here in town who was sending me spurious medical treatments and i clicked you know i sent him the link to to snopes and said please stop sending this around this is dangerous and here's the snope site so there are some traditional ways for us to check the truth or falsity of a statement but you can't go on one of these fact check sites to determine what values you should hold the big questions in life are not is bill gates behind a conspiracy theory to inject us with tracking devices the big questions in life are you know involve how do i find meaning in life how do i become the kind of person that i wish to be how do i what sort of values should i teach to my children how do i live a good and meaningful life how can i ensure that my life will count for something and if you're asking bigger questions those can't be answered by fact check sites so how do you determine what's true and right especially about the big questions in life well here's what the apostle paul says in ephesians chapter 4 then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming instead speaking the truth in love we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head that is christ from him the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work so i tell you this and insist on it in the lord that you must no longer live as the gentiles do in the futility of their thinking they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of god because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardening of hearts having lost all sensitivity they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity and they are full of greed that however is not the way of life you learned when you heard about christ and were taught in him according with the truth in accordance with the truth that is in jesus now it's interesting to me that when the apostle paul is urging the ephesian believers and us to not be taken in by every you know charlatan to not be tossed to and fro with every wind of teaching that he sets this discussion of truth in the context of community and uh he's telling us that there is a way for us to determine what's true that is better than doing your own internet research it's better than listening to the political pundits or the latest hot take regarding the you know the most recent news he says the there are better approaches to determine what is true if we're trying to find out answers to the big questions in life like what kind of people are we going to be or or what values we should teach our children or what should we pay attention to paul gives us an incredibly deep and actually contemporary insight and he says this two thousand years ago he says the way that you're going to figure out what's true is by choosing your community wisely he says if you're trying to determine what is true and right choose your community wisely again the context for this entire discussion about truth and about not listening to myths and conspiracy theories and all of that is a discussion of community scripture teaches that the community which we choose will shape our values and our beliefs and you always need to ask yourself what is happening to my soul as a result of the community that i'm a part of what's happening to you friend because of the community that you've chosen to be a part of are you becoming a kinder person or are you becoming a more judgmental person are you becoming more generous more open-handed or are you becoming more withholding are you becoming more paranoid more fearful more anxious more full of rage or do you find yourself becoming more tenderhearted more of the person you want to be what is happening to your soul as a part of you the chosen community that you have selected and and friend of course our community is not just you know the physical community but these days it's really the online community that we may have chosen to be a part of whether it's an online religious community an online political community an online social community on facebook on reddit and if you fill your heart and mind all day long with various conspiracy theories and angry talk and rage it will shape your soul what you listen to what you take in what you in will shape the kind of person you become so christians we always need to ask ourselves what is what i'm reading or taking in doing to my soul am i becoming more welcoming or more fearful am i becoming more racist or less racist more warm-hearted or more hard-hearted paul says choose your community wisely let me bring this down with an illustration you know online there are all these stories that are called d conversion stories and the typical way the deconversion story works is somebody will you know have a blog saying i used to be part of a fundamentalist church but as a result of my reading i began reading science as a result of the weight of the intellectual arguments i could no longer resist the truth and so i am now an atheist and that's the way the story usually goes well i recently read a deconversion story online that really impressed me because it was more self-aware it was more honest than the typical post that you see online and and the story went like this this guy grew up in a evangelical church in a small town here in the u.s and then he moved to new york city and he said the way i used to tell my deconversion story was i used to say well i just got overwhelmed by the weight of intellectual arguments i could no longer you know deny them and so i became an atheist he said but the truth is actually much simpler i got involved in a different community and as he told his story he said i stopped going to church and i got involved with a group of folks who i found more attractive than the church people that i used to hang around with and they were all atheists and the longer i was involved with this group the more i found myself being shaped by them and the more the harder it was for me to believe in god the more i started to adopt atheistic views that's the deal so one of the things that you need to always ask yourself is what sort of person do i want to be what do you want to be like in five years or 10 years because your community will determine your destiny so what do you want to be like do you want to be more faithful to your commitments or do you want to be more of a cheat do you want to be more caught up in decorating your home or do you want to leave something for the next generation and care about children do you want to be somebody who is wrapped up in the pursuit of money or do you want to be someone who is open-handed and generous what sort of person do you want to be the apostle paul says that will turn on your community choose your community wisely and if you want to know what is true and right you not only need to choose your community wisely but paul says you need to stop being a baby here's what he says in ephesians 4 14 and 15 then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming instead speaking the truth in love we will grow up to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head that is christ now obviously according to jesus's teaching we need to be like children in some ways right he tells us to be like little children and in some ways we need to be we need to give ourselves an unreserved trust like little children and if you're a follower of jesus you're giving yourself an unreserved open trust to the lord we need to be innocent like little children we need to be humble like little children but paul says there are ways that you should not imitate children that children are a negative example he says stop being a baby and what are some of the negative qualities of a child well the apostle paul tells us first of all babies tend to be unstable paul says that children are tossed back and forth like the waves that that uh they're blown around with everything they hear and and what he's referring to is the kind of person whose opinions are easily shaped by the last thing they hear so the last conversation they had the last youtube video they watched the last thing they saw on television uh all of that becomes their newfound belief and a mature person is not like that a mature person has settled convictions a more mature person is a person that is rooted and if you're a follower of jesus your routing goes down deep into the word of god now that doesn't mean that you never change your con your opinions it doesn't mean that you don't grow and that you're not a lifelong learner but it does mean that you're not tossed to and fro that you have deep and settled convictions you're a stable person that's what maturity looks like what are babies like babies tend to be unstable and babies tend to love excitement you know just think of the church today i mean any church anywhere people who are part of a church often are no longer asking questions like is the message true does the message line up with god's word during worship was i touching the god who really is there you know is this message changing me and making me the kind of person who looks more like jesus many people are not asking those questions anymore they're asking was the message exciting was the service exciting did the preacher make me want to jump up and down did i enjoy the light show or or you know did it get my heart pumping that's not what mature people ask mature people ask the questions you know am i being challenged to grow as a christian am i being stretched even if the message is uncomfortable is it forcing me into places that i know are good for me children tend to want excitement and babies tend to be easily deceived then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming immature people fall prey to every con artist every charlatan every snake oil salesman every slick politician it's interesting but in the new testament virtually every single book in the entire new testament warns us about being deceived apparently this is a huge issue for the new testament writers and apparently it is because we are easily taken in and so we are warned dozens and dozens and dozens of times to not be deceived to not be taken in in the text we looked at when we started the series from confusion to clarity just a few weeks ago matthew 24 jesus himself warns us about deception in the last days here's what jesus said at that time if anyone says to you look here is the messiah or there he is do not believe it for false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive if possible even the elect he's talking about even christians being deceived see i've told you ahead of time so if anyone says there he is out in the wilderness do not go out here he is in the inner room do not believe it the great temptation jesus is telling us during crisis because he's speaking about you know these global crises that will happen all through the last days the great temptation during crisis the crisis could be a pandemic the crisis could be economic collapse the crisis could be social unrest the crisis could be a war breaking out the great temptation is to blindly follow someone who promises security that we just you know follow the person who says i am the savior i will rescue you i will protect you and uh have you ever asked yourself the question how in the world did intelligent people ever follow hitler like how you know you watch this guy screaming you know at a podium and waving his arms and hundreds of thousands of people are cheering and you say how did that happen how did intelligent germans get swept up in the fuhrer and uh you know follow follow hitler or or follow a mao or follow a stalin students of leadership theory talk about a toxic triangle and uh the toxic triangle they say is made up of of three sides first we need a dangerous leader and second we need uh some kind of crisis environment but those two things are not enough it's not enough to have a dangerous leader and a crisis environment the third thing is we need susceptible followers we need folks who are easily led who are open to being deceived and so here's the question how can you and i protect ourselves from being led astray by every new conspiracy theory or every slick con artist every slick politician whether they're coming from the left or the right or the center of the political spectrum how can we protect ourselves from being deceived how do we know what's true and right and here's what the apostle paul says in ephesians chapter 4 so i tell you this and insist on it in the lord that you must no longer live as the gentiles do in the futility of their thinking they're darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of god because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts having lost all sensitivity they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity and they are full of of greed now paul gives us a very deep analysis about why many of us are led astray and he says it's not as we believe because of our intellects listen have you ever gotten into an argument with someone and you present them with a bunch of rational you know arguments a bunch of evidence for your perspective and it doesn't convince and you think my goodness any rational person looking at this evidence looking at these arguments would agree with this perspective but it doesn't work uh they're dug in even more and paul says it's because the issue is not simply a matter of the intellect yes he talks about being darkened in our understanding and and the futility of our thinking and there is a fog that lies over the mind that keeps people from perceiving the truth a fog that can only be blown away by the holy spirit and we need to pray for that that the mind would be clear but paul gives a much deeper analysis he says that the issue will not be solved by better statistics the issue of truth is not solved simply by better evidence the problem goes deeper and it goes to the heart he says pay attention to your heart they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of god because the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts see the inability to listen to an argument is not simply a problem of the mind he says it's a problem of the heart and the word for hardening is an interesting one in the greek it's the greek word parosis it was used of a particularly hard type of marble jesus talks about the condition of our heart and he warns us about it in the parable of the sower he says your heart can become like a hardened path or like you know a rocky field that the truth doesn't penetrate and the bible frequently talks about the issue of the condition of our hearts now this is fascinating because this is two thousand years before freud's great insight that the reason why we choose what we choose is not because of our conscious minds or even because of our intellects paul that freud says that there are these unconscious urges what the bible calls the hearts and so let me drop this down as i finish today what protects me and you from being deceived and what protects us from being deceived is not the truth we know what protects us from being deceived is the truth we love here's what paul says in 2 thessalonians 2 they perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved for this reason god sends them a powerful delusion so they will not so they will believe the lie the issue is not how much information have you stored in your brain the issue is what i've taught you for years it's the inclination of your heart see what i'm trying to do as a pastor is to shape the inclination of your heart not just fill your mind with information but to incline you towards loving jesus and loving the truth more and more i know that any argument i make as i preach can immediately be counted by 10 arguments that you find online the issue is why are we inclined to embrace certain things and why are we disinclined to embrace others have you ever argued with someone and you just know they're just shut off to these arguments they don't want to hear them why it's because of the condition of our hearts and so again it's not the truth we know but the truth we love that leads us to more truth if you're a person who loves the truth if you're a person who says i love the truth i love the truth about myself i love the truth about my flaws i love the truth about my family i love the truth even though it makes me uncomfortable even though you know it makes me squirm a little bit even though it holds up a mirror and makes me see what i don't really like seeing i love the truth even about our country i love the truth even about my family i love the truth even though it's different than the truth i was raised with i love the truth and i want more truth then jesus says you'll be given more truth but you're if you're a person who says i don't want the truth if it makes me uncomfortable i don't want the truth if it pushes me in places that i don't want to be pushed or it makes me confront things that are going to cost me financially i've got a personal interest in holding on to a lie then jesus says even the truth you have will be taken away from you set your heart on loving the truth even if it comes from unlikely sources and even if it makes you uncomfortable be someone who loves the truth and always wants more so how do you determine what's true and right choose your community wisely stop being a baby and love the truth here's what i'd like to do i'd like to just ask you wherever you are if you're able to just open your hands and i'd like to pray for you and so would you do that would you just take a deep breath right now and open your hands and we can pray together i pray for you i pray that the lord would give you a soft heart pray for yourself right now pray for your family and say lord make me someone who loves the truth even if it makes me uncomfortable pray for yourself pray for your family make us a family that wants more truth that loves the truth even if it makes us uncomfortable even if it costs us we want to hear your voice jesus you know we carry into our service every week lots of prayer concerns and if you need prayer right now i want to ask you to text one of our pastors or leaders all you need to do is text pray to 989 777 text pray 989 777 and say would you pray for me i need prayer right now we need prayer and somebody will pray for you god bless you worthy of every song we could ever sing worthy of all the praise we could ever bring worthy of every breath we could ever breathe we live for you jesus the name above every other name [Music] jesus the only one who could ever save worthy of every breath we could ever breathe we live for you oh we live for you and holy there is no one like you there is none beside you open up my eyes and wonder and show me who [Music] [Music] [Applause] show me who you are [Music] leave me in your love leave me [Music] and i will build my [Music] i will put [Music] my [Music] is [Music] there is [Music] there is [Music] show me who you are and fill me [Music] me that was wonderful we need to build our lives on a firm foundation and i'd like to just close today with a brief prayer of blessing on each of us and so would you please just open your hands and let me pray a closing prayer of blessing again you can always get prayer when you're in our online services just text pray to 989 777 somebody is there they'll pray with you but let's close in prayer today and so lord you are the spirit of truth jesus you are the word of truth father you are the author of truth and i pray triune god that you'd flood our minds and hearts with a love for the truth help us to be people who love the truth regardless of what it costs us help us to want more and more truth even if it makes us uncomfortable lord keep us from being deceived in this really confusing world cover us protect us go with god's peace in jesus name amen god bless you that's it for our service yeah it's been great it has been great i want to remind you come out for our midweek service on wednesday go on our website vineyardcolumbus.org and register we'd love to see you one more reminder make sure you come back next weekend as well we're going to be starting our new series that they maybe won julia's going to be preaching so make sure you come back for that looking forward yeah see ya [Music] you

Channel: Vineyard Columbus

Views: 2,019

Rating: 4.8823528 out of 5

Keywords: Church, Faith, Vineyard Columbus, Rich Nathan, Confusion to clarity, Finding Truth

Id: lwbjTi7pASM

Length: 83min 4sec (4984 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 05 2020