Jesus Is The Truth | Tim Douglass | 9am Online Service | 19th September 2021

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] all rise my soul remember this [Music] [Music] to see the lights [Music] oh i won't boast but in the cross let's save my soul sees us is now jesus [Music] [Music] all of this for your glory [Music] glory [Music] oh [Music] now jesus in me for i was dead in sin but i woke up to see the lies [Music] we see [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus [Applause] [Music] the gospel of jesus it's the hope of the ages burning brighter and brighter and standing forever the church is building nothing can stop it it's a city that's shining a lot in the darkness [Music] though christ was dead now surely he's risen yet he's coming back again ring in triumph forever [Applause] yeah all praise belongs to jesus [Music] is what is the answer for all generations he will never be tainted he will never be broken this is our confession this is our conviction we believe what is written we believe what you've spoken come on we sing together [Music] [Music] he's coming back [Music] [Applause] [Music] belongs to [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] jesus [Applause] [Music] christ is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] [Applause] he cries [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] amazing there is nothing like coming into the house of god and lifting up a shout of praise and singing songs like this declaring his goodness and his grace and you know that song we just declared there was a line and says remember where your help comes from and there's so many different challenges and so many things in fact i had a whole list of different prayer requests that are weighing on people's hearts and their minds today job opportunities families relationships whether it comes to businesses and careers so many different things but i love in this moment that we can kind of align our heart and tell our mind hey there is one thing let's remember where our help comes from our help comes from the maker of the heavens and the earth he's got our back he's on our side in fact david i love reading the psalms king david he said this in psalm 116 he said so i have learned from my experience testimony of the goodness of god that god protects the childlike and humble ones i was broken and brought low and he answered me and came to my rescue now i say to myself and to you all relax and rest be confident and serene because the lord fully rewards those who simply trust him i wonder if we can make it simple this morning that we have a god in heaven that is our anchor no matter what situation no matter what storm that the bible says that yes the world sometimes when we go into a battle with things that we don't know how to we try and trust in worldly things that says some trust in horse and chariots but oh no not the people of god we trust in the name of the lord our god because he is sovereign he is all-powerful he is able and so i'm i want us in this moment of prayer we're going to declare a name that is greater than cancer a name that is greater than fear a name that is greater than depression a name that is greater than every single situation and we're gonna say hey we are gonna be a people that choose to simply trust are you with me church come on why don't we pray together father i thank you that you are a god who is for and with your people we thank you that we have to just ask and you are there that you come alongside us father we thank you that there is no greater name that every situation must bow to you so we thank you that you are the lifter of our heads today that you would infuse your people with strength and boldness and that we can come knowing that if god is for his people who and what can stand against us in jesus [Music] i love that chatter friendly church isn't it so good to be together and not on zoom like in the room there's nothing like it i love it you know for for my life definitely and i i know there would be many who would say the same thing i love that church is not just a group of people but in fact the bible calls us a family and that doing life alongside people and especially for um our season in melbourne we literally knew no one and church became family the people you do the ups and downs of life with the you know you're going through something you send the text message like hey can you just pray about this situation there's something beautiful about that and you know for tim and i i think one of the greatest hearts that we have and and i know so many others would be that church is a place that when you see those signs welcome home it feels like home it feels like family it feels like community but can i just say that sometimes it's not easy that it actually takes a little bit of a first step to put yourself out there and meet people and do the journey and so as it is a kind of new season and a new academic year it's time to start thinking okay what do i want it to look like who are the people that i'm doing life alongside and so groups are one of the most amazing ways to do life alongside others to make big church small and to have these people that you do family with but right now you love your location pastor robbie so why don't you give it up for him because he's going to come and encourage you in your ties and operations hello everyone hello loving the haircut it looks amazing i did i did it's good to see you all it's been a while glad you made it to church today you can stop that it's fine it's okay no i'm i'm nervous enough you don't need to do that hey listen if you've got um if you've got a bible second corinthians chapter eight says this uh starting in verse one we want you to know brothers this is paul talking to the corinthian church it's really interesting if you trace you can trace the theme throughout paul's letters over over the years that he wrote them he's trying to get these churches to partake in a giving towards the church in jerusalem because they're going through such utter poverty and he says we want you to know brothers about the grace of god that has been given among the churches of macedonia for in a severe test of affliction their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty has overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part for they gave according to their means as i can testify and beyond their means of their own accord begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints and this not as we expected but they gave themselves first to the lord so key and then by the will of god to us accordingly we urge titus that as he had started so he should complete among you this act of grace but as you excel in everything in faith in speech in knowledge in all earnestness and in our love for you see that you excel in this act of grace also talking about the giving final two verses i say this not as a command but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine for you know the grace of our lord jesus christ that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich i grew up in a um christian family but it wasn't kind of genuine christianity it had a lot of rules it had a lot of behavior modification i went to a christian school and the uh the emphasis i got from my teachers was a lot of behavior and i kind of grew up with this mindset that christianity was or a christian does this a christian must do that a christian has to do this you must do this you must do this and and i therefore thought that my salvation my standing before god was there was based on my merit was based on me adhering to these rules when i was 22 i had a radical encounter with jesus and i learned that christianity had nothing to do with my behavior there's nothing i can do to earn my salvation there's nothing i can do to earn god's love there's nothing i can do to earn god's acceptance he already loves me he already accepts me and he sent jesus he came incarnate in the flesh flesh in jesus to die for my sins imputing his righteousness to me so that my eternal home is with god in the new heaven and the new earth it has nothing to do with me now what's funny is after i had that revelation some i don't know over a decade later after i had become accustomed to the do this don't do that the funny part is after i had that revelation of the love of god there was a transformation that happened inside of me so now when i reflected i was doing the things that they told me to do but i had forgotten they told me to do it i was doing it out of a transformed heart for the glory of god this is kind of what paul's trying to i think get across we can so often think that this is a command that this moment the giving moment is a command you must do this but all that does is put works on us and for the people who don't do it it heaps condemnation on them and that is not the heart of god at all what paul is saying is is is is give out of a transformed heart don't give because you're told to don't participate in this moment because you're told to and you think it's the right thing or the person next to you is doing it no that's not christianity at all christianity is i have encountered the lord jesus christ he has changed me and following his example as paul says he emptied himself to come down to serve us to love us to give to us so that we might experience the riches of heaven following jesus's example because we've been transformed by him we get the opportunity now to live out of that transformed heart it's not about a rule it's not about a have to it's because i serve jesus and i love him he has changed my life and now just as he emptied himself i will model him and empty myself for the sake of others amen let me pray for you ah the screens aren't working today which is awesome but if you can see these tiny ones down here it'll give you instructions and i'm going to go from memory which is no that's a lie i have a photo on my phone you can give in this moment you can download the giving sick let me pray for you as you give father i thank you of what you have given to us you have completely emptied yourself you left your heaven your heavenly abode the richness of heaven god to come to this earth to empty yourself to pour ourselves out so that we might know the love of god that is for us lord we thank you for all that you have given us and father i pray that everybody in this room would not just have an encounter with you but would be transformed by that encounter that they would be opened up continuously to daily encounters with you that lead to our ultimate transformation of this hard heart to a soft heart towards you and towards humanity father we just ask would you continue to change us as we give ourselves to you in jesus name we all said amen there's no containers to pass because we don't do that anymore but um one last thing again talking about the overflow of our heart we are thinking about and when i say thinking about we are planning to in the coming weeks add a second service an evening service at at some point between the hours of three and six four and six something in there it's coming um but yes but it's so it's easy to say that it's a whole other thing to pull that off it was easy to say we're coming out of lockdown back into this service it was a whole nother thing to actually put those things in place and pull it off and the reason why you're sitting here today and the reason why we are having a service is because there are people just like you and me who said i would love to serve i would love to help put on this experience for other people i would love to smile and welcome people on the doors i'd love to help the kids i love to do the worship and the production all that all that to say is if you're here and you're thinking you know what i think i'd love to serve i think i'd love to help other people i think i'd love to give up a little bit of my time for the benefit of other people we would love to have you on team i'll be down here at the end of the service you can come and chat to me otherwise um we can get in touch with you in the week if you give us your number on the website hillsong dot co dot uk forward slash teams fill out the form on there we are the central london campus and um we'll get in touch with you this week and figure out how we can best find the right fit for you is that all right lovely tim is giving the word today which i'm very much looking forward to welcome to all the other campuses who are tuning in today church online it is fantastic to have you here i have to say because it's the first time i reckon in years that i've actually got to sit in church together with one of my incredible friends and heroes gary clark we finally get to be back in the same room together so i know him well enough to know he hates me doing that but um i love you anyways and so the way that gary and kathy have been unbelievably generous and kind towards me nick as we've come in has been um absolutely blown us away and so thank you for doing what you always do best cheering us on and you cheered all these people on before we got here and you still do both of you and things that you cheering me on today and if i get my theology wrong um don't please just give me a break he goes not my problem like that's that's fantastic well hey are you ready for the word okay come on i wanna go to john chapter 14. john chapter 14. uh if you missed last week uh we i guess started a series like why are we doing a series i i guess as the new guy coming in and trying to figure out we're coming out of lockdown we've got different locations all across the place i guess it's just my heart and a simple way to go can we all get on the same page of what this is about and what are we going to be doing moving forward and what better thing to do than focus on jesus our lord and savior and put him right in the middle of uh i guess what we're going to do and how we're going to rebuild and so that's where it came from and so there's different location pastors preaching at different places across the month and but really we just wanted to focus on jesus and throughout the gospel of john jesus makes these seven i am statements he talks about i am the bread of life i am the true vine i am the way the truth and the life and last week i got through a little bit of that verse i am the way that's all we got through and so today we're going to attempt to just go a little bit further into john 14 6. i am the way the truth i'm going to be talking about the truth today and so if you're wanting a title today it's very simple jesus is the truth when you put in capital letters on your iphone on your ipad even if you're more spiritual than anyone else you actually have real paper notes in church i know i know you get extra you know houses as well in heaven it's fantastic but listen john chapter 14 verse 6 in case you missed it the background of of this moment was when jesus had just been talking to his disciples and he's trying to give him a paint uh painting a picture of what's about to happen he's saying listen i'm about to die and i'm about to head off i'm about to leave you and things are going to get good things are going to get difficult but hey ultimately like you know where i'm going and peter uh i love peter because he's he's like the one who's the no filter he speaks before he thinks he's like whoa well jesus i'm ready to come with you i'll die i'm ready to come and she's like you know get behind me satan this is not your time peter it's not going to happen you know where i'm going and then thomas the doubting guy he speaks up again he's like no no jesus we actually don't know where you're going and if we don't know where you're going how we're going to get there and that's where this familiar scripture that is there's known very widely widely jesus literally tells the guys like hey listen i am the way i am the truth and i am the life no one comes to the father except through me and it's a great bumper stick it's a great uh bible sticker but what does it actually mean and what is the power that it has for us here there in edinburgh in guildford wherever you're watching this today they're online and so i guess i want to hopefully unpack the truth of this and make it make sense hopefully but also that we walk out of here knowing more about our jesus and it has impactful power in our lives in jesus name but let me pray father i thank you for your word i thank you that this is this is absolutely lord god your words that has been breathed from heaven into our hearts so god as we come around these next few moments together i pray you speak to us our ears are open our hearts are ready speak in jesus name and everyone said amen amen amen so when he says i am the truth it's important because what we believe to be true about god about the world about ourselves ultimately influences a whole bunch of things in our lives it influences our identity it influences our morality our relationships everything that i guess even maybe we perceive about reality comes down to what we hold and think about truth our thinking determines our beliefs you could say what we believe about god what we believe about each other what we believe about the world around us what we really believe to be true or untrue or even a lie will impact our lives every day even if you realize it or not and so when we look at this bold claim about truth that jesus starts to mention here we need to understand that in our world today yes there is definitely all sorts of angles and perceptions and understanding on truth mainly they come into two foundational camps of truth there's in our modern day cultures there's this thing that says first i mean i guess and most commonly is that when it comes to our modern day world view on truth and maybe you've known it maybe you've heard about it maybe you've even talked about it but this postmodern era that well there is no absolute truth there's no such thing as a real truth there you can't say there is absolutely truth i have my truth you have your truth and everyone's happy if you just do you boo just do you and we get to this modern-day culture that says well as long as i'm not offending you as long as my truth that i hold doesn't offend or conflict your truth then we all can just get along and the issue though with thinking like this if you start to critically think about it is that it becomes all too easy just to begin to begin to believe things that are according to our preferences i mean if i liked the color purple which i do it's not my favorite but if i do i'm like you know what i just really believe that you know all you were wrong and the sky is actually purple and that's my truth so you know you can't come at me because it's my truth and and that's what i believe even though it's not reality when there's no absolute truth we can start picking our reality it's like i love chelsea i know i was about to get reminded on the front row again but listen i believe that chelsea's going to win the premier league this year it's my truth don't at me don't add me it's my truth [Applause] i mean these are the things right we hold on to realities some are thinking there's no way reality so others of us holding on to it but there's so often if we're not understanding that there is absolute truth and that we can hold on to it we start to pick and choose our realities because the second fundamental claim about truth is that truth is actually absolute and this is this is actually christianity's claim and because jesus was bold enough to say i am the truth now the issue becomes discerning which of these claims is true which is a lie and which is true is actually really important in our modern day society and when it comes to the people of god and when it comes to the church emerging of how we're going to portray who our jesus christ is we live in an age where there is more teaching more learning uh there's more books than ever there's more podcasts than ever there's more accessible content than ever i mean your phone is in your hand 24 7. i read a quote this week that said the point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or to push an agenda it's to exhaust our critical thinking and to annihilate truth to bombard us so much with so many different angles with so many different opinions and uncertain what that camp thinks and this camp thinks and so i'm not really sure what to think anymore so i best be silent and if i'm silent and i'm not really talking about it anymore and so what do i really believe and this is all the assault on truth and so there's a danger in accumulating all this knowledge and not realizing the importance of wisdom and discernment 2 timothy chapter 3 and verse 7 paul puts it like this he says hey don't be like these people who always are learning and never able to arrive at a knowledgeable knowledge of the truth let's not always be scrolling and tapping and scanning and reading never actually realizing what is the truth who is jesus when he says i am the truth otherwise the result is that we end up in a culture in a world where there's distorted truth all around us not knowing what our truth is but as jesus followers we get to understand and believe that jesus christ is the truth it helps us navigate the fact that how do i distinguish the lies in the world versus the truth how do i distinguish the lies between myself and what god says about me how do i distinguish the lies when it comes to the enemy and all those distractions how do i figure out in a world where there's agendas and and and pushy things coming at us how do i figure it out now we've been married 17 years got it right 18 years in april the first gary actually married us up in hamel hempstead yes we i actually was decked out in tails you know like the suit with tails i've never worn them before never worn them since but hey we got married in england it was felt like it was the right thing to do the photos are quite embarrassing but we got up we got married there it was fantastic it was wonderful and then we went for a holiday in thailand and this was a very young i was 21 at the time a young australian who'd moved to england who'd never been to thailand and it was our first kind of day at the beach and nicola is one of those holidays who she just loves to sit there and do nothing and relax and read by the pool and the amount of activity she does for hours and nine years every kind of 15 minutes or half an hour she just turns over to make sure she doesn't unevenly tan newly married couple i'm thinking this is not how i used to do things i want to surf but there was no surf in thailand so i rented a scooter i'm going around and i get to one of these shops where there's just a person on the sideline and i see like these these kimono ropes and again ignorant australian a little bit young had no idea what's going on and this thai person starts to tell me how these are authentic kimonos and how i need to have one for my new bride and she will love this and i'm like this is amazing okay and then she tells you the price i had no idea that it was it was supposed to be a sport of haggling so whatever she said i'm like yeah that's great and she goes i actually got the price wrong and kind of almost doubled it and i'm like yeah that sounds great fantastic original kimono my new bride is gonna love it i walk back in it's now you know nicholas done the next turnover so she can now see what i've brought her and i had babe all right here i am i've got you a present isn't isn't this awesome and she looks at him she goes you know kimonos are from japan not thailand she has a lot of grace for me over the last 17 years all i knew is that a lie that i bought into caused a little bit of loss of money that i shouldn't have lost and but also a loss of pride and that's the thing about lies when we believe the untruth when we get sucked into a way of thinking when we get sucked into a narrative that isn't actually truth it always causes the same thing lots of pride a little bit of displacement maybe a loss of momentum in our lives and it's no different when it comes to any of these factors that we're trying to navigate in our world today what is truth and if jesus says he is truth then what does that mean is he knowing the truth it helps us navigate these the distinguishing i guess of lies in our culture john chapter 16 in verse 13 puts it like this but when he the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth he will guide you jesus will guide you into all truth now one of the things i'm learning and being reminded about living in london again and i'm not sure if it's like that around the rest of the uk but the water is a little bit different to melbourne australia and it leaves behind it some residue called uh limescale and i wasn't aware of the white in the kettle and then the taps in the bathroom i'm now understanding so i got a filter and it's fantastic when i drink the water it doesn't have the same effect but recently because we've been here a few months the filter ran out and i was easy to see because the build of up of limestone limescale returned so what do i do easy replace the filter let me ask you this question how's the build-up of spiritual lime scale going in your mind where you've got maybe some things and junk that's sitting there because you haven't been using the right filter called the spirit of truth called jesus christ and sometimes we forget that he is the word the word became flesh we'll get to that in a minute and this is the best filter that you and i can use to make sure as romans 12 says that we would renew our mind that we wouldn't get caught up in the arguments and the narrative around us and go actually god you've got this this isn't the first time some of these issues have hit our our society so so what's the answer here and so often we can go to pop culture we can go to hey what sounds good what who's the person who sounds the most compelling but actually what does jesus say what does he say what does his truth say how does he navigate help us navigate these seasons in these these areas of our time i love when he was talking to disciples here you know it was a time of confusion for them they're like hang on whoa whoa whoa we thought jesus that you were coming here to set up the new kingdom what do you mean you're going to die and you're leaving us i mean we've just given you three years we've just given you followed you around we've been telling everything we've left all our professions for you now you're telling me that things are going to change and they're not going to be that great i mean i mean how is that fair and we look at the modern day world that we're in and the church coming out and church not hillsong church but globally so many things that are uncertain how's it going to look post pandemic is are we going to get back in lockdowns in winter all these things god how's it going to look and jesus is sitting there smiling go hey i am the truth you can trust in me but you got to know and stay close and understand that he is the way the truth and the life it helps us understand and distinguish the lies of our culture he also helps us distinguish the lives that maybe we have believed or told ourselves or maybe others have told about ourselves that we started to believe john mark comer put it like this he said here's the problem our capacity to hold unreality in our minds is our genius it's our genius it's where our storytelling comes from it's fantastic but it's also our achilles heel because not only can we imagine unreality but we can also come to believe in it we can put our faith in the ideas that are untrue or worse that are even lies we developed this skill at an early age right we have three young children as nicolas said or they're not that young anymore and i'd come in sometimes to their room and they'd maybe been playing with texters or crayons or pens and they'd have it all over their face all over their hands and all over the wall and as a parent you know the answer to this question but you ask them anyways who did this they've just learned to talk but it's amazing how they can stare at you pan face and say not me daddy i'm like i'm not sherlock holmes but i'm pretty sure that pin and that wall and your face is telling me that you're telling a little bit of an untruth here i mean we learn it from a young age we get to school sorry mum no no homework tonight it's amazing my teacher for six weeks in a row hasn't given me any homework it's amazing no no no mom they haven't given me the report cards there's no report cards at the moment i think there's a printing problem i'm not sure it's like i didn't even have a dog but i found out that my dog was very hungry and he loved homework growing up like that we we learn how to how to start to navigate our lives our lives through life sometimes but sometimes if we're not careful and i know i'm talking about fun funny kind of side of it we start to lie to ourselves we start to listen to lives about ourselves start to listen about lies from the devil saying hey ah are you really forgiven does god actually really love you does he actually have a plan for you is he really going to heal you and just like it is to handle and distinguish lies between our culture ourselves that's also distinguishing jesus helps us distinguish lies it's my australian accent between the devil and what god is saying see it's been an assault since the beginning of time since the fall of humanity you know back in genesis chapter three where the the devil satan the serpent comes along and says hang on did god really say this was going to happen are you really going to die takes the truth and and distorts it so there's enough in there to think about it and then make some decisions the same has been happening for thousands of years since where every now and then we think this is who i am this is who god's created me to be this is how i'm going to help build others and reach others and and see see the church built well did god really say that did god is god really going to use you and so often we buy into laws i wonder if you could hold up some of the things that you believe get the jesus filter in in in play okay is actually this what god has spoken to me about or if i started to believe something that is actually untrue see if we look across the gospel of john there's many times he starts to talk about and brings up this concept of truth and jesus as our truth and our guiding truth and and and all these wonderful things and there's many things i could talk about but i want to talk about four realities that jesus talks about about truth when it comes to the gospel of john number one the first reality about truth i guess we learn here in john's gospel is that number one truth is important truth is important let me show you in chapter 18 in john chapter 18 verse 37 then pilate said to jesus has he been arrested he said so you're a king are you and jesus answered you say that i'm a king for this purpose i was born and for this purpose i've come into the world to bear witness to the truth everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice and pilate's response is but what is truth what is truth and it's a question that is still echoed today at your workplace in your home around the dinner table what is truth and the question and the answer that truth is important and it's so critical because truth as we know it it can be used it can be skewed and it can be abused we live in a time where fake news is now something we all understand and have heard of it's flourishing we understand and i heard of the the idea of cancer culture and it's thriving we understand that truth is something that people use in power and they now manipulate it and distort it to their own benefit into their own gain and so it no wonder it becomes a difficult time to go well what is true what do i put my life to how do i understand it and then if we're not careful we get skeptical so we start seeing in everything we start chasing shadows and go well that kind of how do i trust that person how do i trust that that's actually true that that's real that they're authentic that they're sincere we always start looking and trying to see through things c.s lewis in his book the abolition of man says you cannot go on seeing through things forever the whole point of seeing through something is to see something else through it it is good that the window should be transparent because the street or the garden beyond is opaque if you see through everything then everything is transparent but a wholly transparent world is indeed an invisible world to see through all things is the same as not to see to see nothing in anything is to see nothing at all and if we're not careful we start to erode trust we start to wrote that well there is no absolute truth which and of itself is an absolute truth and we start to go well who's got the truth claim and who's who seems to be right and how do i detect what is truth all the time jesus 2000 years ago hey i am the truth but what does it mean how do we know that it is actually what that's that's going on you see there's religions all across the world and been all throughout history and there's certain truth claims that say well we're the truth we're the true religion where the true religion know where the true religion you've got all sorts of competing voices and essentially when it comes to christianity it's like well how do i know see it's not the truth in the truth you know i guess it's not the truth claim itself i should say that is the problem it's what is in the truth claim that makes a difference let me try to not confuse you anymore when i'm talking about a truth claim it's actually what that truth stands on there was a tragedy in 2006 a a very deluded man he walked into a amish school who uh look it up for sake of time you can figure out what they do but they have a very simple way of doing life but it's based on their faith in jesus and anyways let's knock into world religions we'll keep moving but here's what they do this guy deranged and deluded his truth was you know what these people are dangerous they they're hurting people i'm going to go in there and do something so he takes a gun and walks in and starts to shoot these young girls in this classroom now one of the his truth leads him to something horrible but this one of these young girls one of the five who got killed that day stood up and said listen don't kill any of them i'm gonna stand in their place shoot me first and don't kill any of my friends this group don't watch tv they don't read watch movies where does she get that from her truth came from what she'd been told about jesus not only that this group after this tragedy took up an offering because the man killed himself so they took up an offering and forgave the widow and gave the money to the widow of the god of the killer and her family not only that the day after they buried their own children who had been killed went to the man's the killer's funeral and at the end of the funeral were hugging her saying we forgive you we forgive him we hope things are going to be okay for you here's this offering truths causing two different things now the reality when it comes to jesus the foundational fundamental truth in jesus is that he's our savior who went to a cross and the fundamental truth in his that he was the guy who died for his enemies and with his last breath started praying for others this is why we know that our savior we can trust in him and put our trust in him his truth is good his truth is great there is there is nothing better than that [Applause] so stay with me truth is important because number two truth is freedom truth is freedom john 8 32 you may know this verse and may be able to quote it but then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free we know jesus because we know he brings freedom there's a story and i'll be brief with it but in galatians chapter two in verses four to five paul's on his way to this uh a meeting where there's a whole bunch of leaders and let me just read it out for you and i'll give you some context in chapter 2 verse 4 this matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy watch this on the freedom that we have in christ jesus and to make us slaves we did not give in to them for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you what was going on is there was old customs that some of the believers were saying we need to eat like this we need to behave like this we need to do this and pause come and go what are you talking about jesus died to give us freedom from religious abstraction of rules and divine lists of what we can and can't do that's not jesus jesus did away with all that and he gave us freedom so that we could follow the person of jesus not the rules of religious structure and ultimately they go that's a great idea and that's why we have the christianity we have today but here he is saying hey there is definitely things that we can and can't do for sure we understand that but he's saying hey don't get caught up in a bunch of lists and divine details of what you can in shouts and sharp knots and all the rest of it he says no jesus is freedom when there is no real freedom because there is no real truth and he was trying to say hey here's the truth let's protect it let's look after it you can't earn your way to god's love you can't eat the right thing and god go 10 out of 10. you had a medium-rare steak tonight you now get to heaven like that's not how it works all you vegans are judging me don't but he says hey our trust in jesus the person is what gives us freedom not trying to keep all these rules and regulations proverbs chapter 14 verse 12 says there is a way that appears to be right by the end it leads to death when when we're not sure of the truth when we're not close to jesus as the truth we're not following his way his truth it's amazing how we go on a way that appears right to us we start to feel like we have to act the right way we have to live the right way we have to talk the right way and truth shows us that there's a totally better freedom than the one that we create for ourselves let me go a little bit on john chapter 1 and verse 14 and the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us and we have seen his glory glory is the as the only son from the father which is full of grace and full of truth jesus came word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us he came full of grace which we so love we love talking about jesus is full of grace but he also came full of truth and sometimes without the balance out the other way if it's all grace then we don't realize that jesus actually has the ability and and the desire and the power for us to have this transformational experience to become more like him but if it's all truth we start to get up here with these microphones going you naughty little christians and you need to do this this this this and then it becomes skewed into religion and it's bearing down and it's cold and it's dehumanizing and it's not right and it's not what jesus came to do see freedom is absolutely what jesus came to give us but here is the thing about freedom freedom is not the absence of restrictions or the presence of only the restrictions freedom is the presence of the right restrictions the ones that fit with the truth of who jesus is who you and i are and what the grace he has given us to do let me try and help you understand this so grace and truth so i have the grace to go out and eat whatever i want i mean if you're a vegan you've put some restrictions on you so let me just not use the beef example for a minute but last week i i made that wonderful dad joke if you miss it i'm going to give it to you again see i like the seafood diet because i like to seafood and eat it anyways i know i know it didn't get it didn't get the same two weeks in a row it's all right i'll get it right next week so listen you i can eat what what i like right and i'm grace to do it and i can eat jesus still gonna accept me into heaven but the truth is that if i eat what i want when i want all the time and don't care my health and my flourishing life is gonna be quite inhibited as i move forward and get older but when i'm okay if i want to the truth is if i want to live right if i want to live healthy if i want to be there for my kids and do it right then there's going to be some restrictions that are good restrictions to help me find his grace even more for my life he's fully graced and fully truth with his truth brings freedom so my teacher when i was growing up i said you know what you can be whatever you want to be i'm not sure if you had one of those teachers you can dream it you can be it and i go to youth camp and i'm like you know what i'm hearing verses like i can do all things through christ who strengthens me so i'm taking things out of context left right and center so imagine if i'm sitting there watching some espn one day and i see some sumo wrestling come on the screen i think you know what maybe god's calling me to be a sumo wrestler it's my truth why are you laughing at me it's you know and i started to think and go well hey there's some restrictions i need to put on my life that says i've got to eat a certain way i've got to do a certain way there is nothing about any restriction i could put in my life that would help me become a sumo wrestler i'm too short i'm too skinny and i'm too australian slash now english like it's not going to happen and so because i'm not living in the right truth i now set myself up for disappointment and disillusionment because i feel like oh oh this is what i want to do and this is my truth but god had never graced me for it so it was never going to happen so when i tap into ephesians chapter 1 and verse 11 which says in him it's i find out who i am and it's in him i find out what i'm living for and so that as i start to walk in that truth and that grace i start to realize wow i no longer have to be a frustrated disappointed sumo wrestler but i can walk around as the pastor and leader that i was anointed to be in this right time in this right place so often we miss the fact that it's both truth and both grace so we walk around frustrated because we don't want to listen to the truth just hoping to get the grace of god failing to realize that the right restrictions are nothing but freedom for our lives one more example it's the goldfish maybe you had a goldfish growing up and you're like what that's so sad that small tiny goldfish bowl it needs to be free and so maybe you picked it up out of the goldfish bowl and you put it on the grass you quickly realized it's no longer free and it's about to die and you're about to be a goldfish murderer and that's not cool in life and so you pick that thing back up and you put it back into its boundary its restriction but guess what when you put it in its restriction guess what it found life and the same is about you and i the restrictions that we have through christ isn't to keep us small or bound it's to bring life and as we understand it is freedom that is found in his truth it is freedom that is found in jesus and that his truth isn't to bring us small it is to bring freedom in our lives can anyone say amen so there is freedom in truth because truth is important because number three truth is a person truth is a person if you hear nothing if you've you know haven't got my accent because you're too busy listening to grant erskine up there in edinburgh just it's okay i'm gonna pray for you but if you hear nothing else today hear this next point i guess we can get some keys up here because i'm going to get spiritual but watch this truth is a person john chapter 1 and verse 14 we just read it out it also happens in the beginning of john there's this moment where the writer john he says the word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us that a god in heaven supreme being limitless decided to make his dwelling amongst us but in case you don't know your greek let me help you out today this word the word some of you know it it means logos it's the original uh translation is this word logos logos means logic it means the in this context he was meaning the meaning of life and ancient philosophers at this point in jesus time had spent centuries really arguing about what is logic what is reason what is what is the meaning of life what is the purpose of life and by the time john writes his gospel they've got to the point where there is no real truth there is no foundational logic there is no real purpose to life i'm sure they didn't have the phrase you do ubu but it's essentially what they were talking about so then john deliberately writes this word here at the start of john in the first chapter the first verse and all the way down here in verse 14 and he says that logos and it's this loaded technical word so that he would get the attention of everyone around and the readers and hopefully we would grasp it today that he says logos became flesh he's saying hey there is a logos and it's a person it's not an abstract theory it's not a removed list of distant details or divine directives but absolute truth is actually a person and his name is jesus now there's a big difference between absolute truth being an abstract out there god with his list of what we can and can't do versus absolute truth being a person and jesus helped me preach this my part because a distant and removed god who dictates some rules to get to heaven it becomes dehumanizing it becomes difficult it becomes cold you have to do this to get to heaven this is how you got to act this is how you got to behave this is how you got to pray this is how you got to do every conduct all areas of your life and if you're just good enough you might get to heaven one day if that's the way god brings salvation then it's dehumanizing it's exploit it's exploitive but if it's a person if it's a relationship it's liberating see a love relationship is when you surrender your independence to the other person but in a loving relationship you both have to do it together each of you has to surrender each of you has to adjust each of you has to sacrifice i said 17 years ago we got married i found out very quickly as we moved back home and you know if i was out maybe spending a bit more time with the boys and i told her i was going to she'd be like hey hey what's going on if i spend more money then i said i was going to she's like hey babe what's going on i quickly realized how selfish i was as a single man and she has been very gracious and still being very gracious 17 years on but i learned in my marriage was going to work then it couldn't just be all on my term saying well i'm just going to do what i want you're my wife you know just you got to fit in with it the relationship would be horrible but when a loving relationship is at its best it's when each of you says i will give up my independence for you i will adjust to you i will sacrifice my needs for you if you both do it together it's heaven but if be married for a few minutes you'll know there are seasons where your selfishness gets the better of you and sometimes it's like i don't even want to be around that person right now again don't nudge anyone to your left or to your right just keep looking straight see if only one of us does the sacrificing if only one one of us does the the giving and maybe the other one in the relationship holds on to their life and their preferences then you as the one who's sacrificing you're dehumanized you're you're exploited you're taken advantage of and it quickly becomes worse than having no relationship at all and that's why legalism and religion in any form is dehumanizing and it's empty because it's just all one way it's all us going how do i serve my god how do i serve this distant being who he's given me these rules and regulations to find a way to get to him there's the shout outs and the shout knocks and all the rest of in between it's on us to do the shifting it's on us to do the adjusting it's on us to always do the sacrificing it's on us to do the surrendering and it's all one way it's all exploitive but not with this god not with jesus not without jesus this is not his way this is not his truth you see there's a lot of religions out there that'll tell you this is the right way and you've got to earn your way up here but christianity is the only one that says god the absolute truth became a person and went to a cross and on that cross jesus christ god stepped out first and said i'll adjust for you i'll lose my independence for you i will sacrifice for you i will limit myself for you jesus says to us i've already done the surrendering and i was killed for it my arms are open i've already done the surrendering for you that's why philippians chapter 2 verse 7 and verse 8 he says rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant he became a slave for us being made in human likeness being found in appearance as man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross here is the ultimate cosmic being steps out of heaven and he's bound he was exploited he's nailed to a cross he adjusted for us he surrendered his freedom for us so that we might know that we can trust him that's why roman says that even whilst we were still sinners christ died for the ungodly he made the first move he said i'm not going to wait to try and exploit you and say if you get it all right then you can come to me no in this loving relationship because truth is a person because it's not some abstraction out there that we have to climb a ladder to get to our god because jesus decided to come down and say hey i am the way i am the truth and i am the life and i'm here and if you don't accept me it doesn't change how i think and what i've done towards you this is jesus this is his truth that jesus removed religion and makes it a relationship because he made it possible first all we have to do is accept like tim you said there was four that's right i've run out of time but here it is the other thing about trust is that sorry truth it changed our person truth when we understand that he is the truth that we can actually trust him that he's not a mean god out there to try and limit us and restrict us that he's just trying to say hey live this way there is life there is abundance there is my grace there is my truth there is my goodness there is all that you need on this journey and here's the best part he's not waiting for us to get it right and be perfect and have it all together and to make every every awesome decision every single step of the way that's not him so that when we stumble his grace is there to pick us up and his truth is to say hey i still love you keep going you're going to make it and so the wonderful thing about his truth is it changes our person if we truly surrender if we truly say okay god i know what my world wants to say around me i know what the confusion and different things that are vying for my attention my allegiance for my heart but jesus if you say in the middle of confusion the middle of uncertainty that i can follow you as the way and i can follow you as the truth that i'm in and a human heart that is surrendered fully to our savior our incredible god life never looks the same and i can't say that it always looks awesome there's difficulties along the way no no doubt about it but his grace and his truth is always there to guide us every single step of the way amen amen hey i'm going to leave all the other campuses you're going to hand over to your local guys and so have a restful one of the service but online why don't you stay with us because for this room and they're online i guess i want to talk to you about jesus he's like you've been talking for the last few minutes yes i know but he we have to make a decision this wonderful news the good news the gospel it it commands a decision from us if this is true if he's real then we've got to decide do i accept him as my lord as my savior or do i continue just to walk in my own ways i mean if we're honest we know what walking in our own ways does we stumble we fall we make a mess and the bible simply calls it this bar would repent which this just means to turn away from my preferences my wisdom my truth and go i'm going to take a step towards faith in that maybe jesus is who he says he is and i'm going to go on this journey of giving my heart to him not into a relationship with rules and regulations but a relationship with a person and today friend no matter who you are online or in this room jesus is madly in love with you and he wants to take guilt shame the mess and the regrets that you have and take that all from you you were never created to walk with guilt and shame but walk in his grace in his kindness and his compassion and his love and how you find that he doesn't make it hard it's the decision of the heart and it's a confession with a mouth that simply says okay jesus i believe in you i believe that you died for me i believe that you rose again i'm going to choose to do my best to follow you every day from here and that's as simple and as wonderful as it gets so maybe you've never prayed a prayer before maybe you've never made your peace with god well this moment is for you so i'm going to pray a prayer maybe you've never prayed like i don't know how to do that i'm going to pray these words out loud and if you know you're not right with jesus but you want to be you want to know him as your truth and your way and your life then today would you pray this prayer with me they're on online here in the room but as you pray why don't you just close your eyes right where you're at and if you can feel i guess maybe your heart's covering you there's something in you that knows i'm talking to you right now and you know that it's your day your time to say yes to jesus to make your peace with god then i'm simply going to count to three and wherever you are in this room or maybe they're online if it's appropriate when i get to the count of three i just want you to raise your hand high enough and long enough so i can see it it's that outward decision of that inward inward one it says god this is me jesus i'm crossing that line today i'm going to choose to make my peace with you so wherever you are this place after three would you raise your hand i'm gonna include you in this prayer one two come on three lift it up say that's me i need to get things right wonderful beautiful many of you so good so good all throughout this place wonderful many lift the whole so good up in the balcony i've been looking downstairs but so many of you up there as well it's fantastic good on you best decision you can make they're online maybe you can't raise your hand you're on a bus somewhere just put in that chat i prayed that prayer and some our team are getting in contact but when you lift your if you lift your hands up you can put them down but here's the best part why don't we pray this prayer let it be your let it be your words i'm going to repeat them out loud yes but let them be your words as sincere and as honest as you can and church can we pray it with them because we know what this prayer means and we know what this prayer does in people's lives so come on out loud say dear jesus i thank you that you love me and i thank you that you died for me today i recognize my need of you would you come into my life i thank you that you forgive me of all of my mistakes today i choose to follow you would you help me to live every day from this moment with you in jesus name amen amen come on why don't we give them a huge round of applause in here for you online epic amazing best decision now here's the deal in moments like that there's some people you're going to be crying you're going i i love this jesus if this is who he is for me this is amazing there's other people like within about 2.6 seconds you're like i don't feel anything i'm not sure if that's right for me i'm just not gonna would you just give it some time and some effort so the best thing you can do and i guess nicola will come out here in a minute she'll tell you more about it but there's a bible that we're going to put your hand on you as you leave here it's a new testament wonderful magazine format that you can start to read through and find out more about it our team want to talk to you give us a couple of details there online there'll be a qr code or a website you can click onto and and make your i guess details available so that we can help you in this room there are so many of you i'm not sure if our team's going to be ready for it all but hang out in the foyer find some of some of the hey how do i talk to about the decision i've made if you don't get a bible if you don't talk to anyone just do one thing just turn up next sunday uh the good news is you don't have to get online and get your ticket you can just turn up and that's going to be a fantastic thing so that's awesome thank you jesus thank you dominion but just keep turning up keep turning up and say you know what i'm going to keep walking in the truth because his grace is going to uphold me every time every season the good the bad and the ugly in jesus name amen over to you babe thanks church love you

Channel: Hillsong Church UK

Views: 4,522

Rating: 4.8461537 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: lE98al3_bSE

Length: 68min 3sec (4083 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021