Todd White - Truth Not Lies

my whole life growing up i had no idea why christmas was i didn't know and and you know i'd go by churches and i'd see the the manger i'd see the the nativity scene but i had no clue what it was i had no idea and until 34 years old i still didn't have any idea and i would get my mom can remember how mad i would get on christmas because people would forget my birthday because it was christmas you guys didn't remember again i was so mad i mean it's real i was really really upset i was the most jealous angry selfish person on the planet now you might have been more selfish but i doubt it because it was all about me and anything that i could get and anything that i could maneuver from anybody and i had no idea and one of the reasons why i think gosh because it was all about me and i remember the year that that christmas was real to me and it was the year that we got saved because 2004 after 22 years of addiction and anger and selfishness and all that stuff jesus showed up for me now he showed up before that but i got shot at and he took the bullets for me none of them hit me and i remember in october 2004 i remember taking a walk with my daughter destiny with mom she probably remembers and she was seven and a half years old and i had lot i had lied about everything my whole life everything this is probably the weirdest christmas eve served she ever had but i'm telling you that jesus was the light that came into this world and he came into the world to expose darkness and i was full of darkness i am so grateful that i can see but i was blind and couldn't see and the bible says that satan blinds the eyes of those lest they should see the light of the glory of his countenance and when i see why i'm on the earth i actually get to shine with that same countenance and jesus was the light of men when we see what he did when he came and when that comes and hits the heart of somebody religion can't change you into a light only a relationship with jesus can change you into that light but when i came home i i remember oh my gosh like my whole life has been a lie and i lied to my daughter continuously continuously i remember taking a walk with destiny and her mom and i said jackie we need to talk to destiny we need to tell her some of the lies that we've said i don't know how important that is to y'all that your children understand that their parents aren't liars i can tell you how much of an effect this has had on me i've been a christian for 16 years and i haven't lied one time in 16 years about anything ever and i'm not boasting in my ability because you cannot have the ability to stay free from life the only ability you can have is to see he who alone is truth i know that sounds weird people like you call me a liar see what we do is we grow up in the world and and there's little white lies and then there's a little bigger lie and then maybe a little bigger lie but a lie as a lie is a lie and satan is called the father of lies are you guys with me religion doesn't teach this religion hates that i talk about this because religion's a liar so destiny and mom and i are on a walk and i'm nervous but i've got to tell the truth i always tell my kids you'll get in way more trouble if you lie and you get caught in that because they always get caught it always comes out your sin will find you out you guys all right some of you are like what is happening right now i'm exposing where your heart's at that's what's in if you're upset at me it's because your heart's not right josh i know it sounds funny but it's true so i remember taking destiny and we went for this walk i'm about to tell my daughter that her seven and a half years of life has been a lie that's a big deal see i was born on christmas and i shared my birthday with a king but i didn't grow up that way and even though it was in the background it wasn't in the forefront so with me christmas was the most exciting this night right here was the most exciting night ever i would be sick i would any of you grow up that way where you're so excited for what's going to happen in the morning that you want to throw up at night like you're anybody ever i would get so nobody that excited here i am i'm just like i'm still like a little kid because all night long i couldn't sleep like oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh he's coming he's coming oh my god he's coming and my uncle would play games with me and and do the bells outside oh my god i got to get to sleep if i don't go to sleep are you guys with me some of you are not going to like me well here's why so all my life i was excited i'd lay the cookies out you never do the cookies and milk and you like come down and maybe there's a little bit of a cookie left like yes you know and then if you're naughty you get cold dude i should have got cold every year are you with me i was the most naughty kid ever i was bad i was bad my third grade year i ate lunch in the principal's office all year long every day you don't understand i was bad my report card on the right side was all zeros plays well with others how self-control all that i was out there like whacked but i was so mad i remember the day that my mom told me because there was kids at school that were like your parents are lying to you like what back i punch them i'm serious because you ain't gonna call my parents liars you ain't gonna call my mom a liar i'm i'm gonna teach you a lesson and i got in trouble for it i did it i remember coming home one day and i got into some kind of argument with some kids at school i'm so sick and tired of this and my mom and dad they're like honey we need to talk to you what and they told me the truth i was so mad i was mad do you remember i was livid you're lying to me i kept saying you're lying to me honey he was real but he's not real like you think he's real like what the heck is that what is that what do you mean what's real what's real see all those nights of getting sick and and and being so excited and staying up and the anticipation and the my heart racing like oh my gosh and and can't wait till i come down the stairs in the morning to see what is under the tree for me are you with me that's not a gift it's not a gift i remember even last year i put something on facebook tell your kids the truth oh my god i got eaten alive them believe when they want to believe who are you to ruin their joy and i'm thinking are we that gone are we that gone that like we want our kids to hold on to something that's not true and then we want to tell them something that is true that can change and redirect every bit of life itself and we're wanting to hold on to something that's not true so we can hold on to this mystery while we dismiss the real mystery it doesn't seem like a big deal but tonight i promise you'll be faced with one thing or another see there's no such thing as a little lie there's no such thing as a little white lie a lie is a lie period it doesn't matter and the more you tell the more you have to cover because when you tell one lie you have to cover it up with another one and you cover it up with another one you covered up with another one man i remember when i got home from teen challenge and i and jesus was real to me he wasn't real to me because someone preached him to me he was real to me because i got shot at and every bullet that came out of a nine millimeter gun didn't hit my vehicle from 10 feet away and i took those bullets for you he said are you ready to live for me yet well of course [Music] i had ruined my life with my girlfriend for nine years i threatened to kill her for seven years and i told lie after lie after life she never saw a paycheck i didn't care about anybody but me myself and i and i was a poor excuse for a dad and i didn't know who the father was so how could i be a good father and my whole life had been jacked up and been whacked had been stolen and i had taken on the very nature of god's enemy i didn't realize the meaning of christmas i didn't understand like even today when you go places instead of merry christmas they say merry xmas or happy holidays because they don't want to offend anybody how offensive is it going to be the day we stand before him and you have the xmas line over here and the christmas line over here how offensive is it going to be when you have this merry xmas line over here entering into eternal separation from god and a merry christmas christmas line over here entering into the joy of the lord how ridiculous is it going to be that way you don't want to offend anybody now by talking about the truth because it might it might make them upset i thought that it was the truth that set people free i didn't think it was compromising the truth that sent anybody free matter of fact it doesn't set you free it leaves you in bondage jesus is real i wrote this down march 15th year 270. there was a man that was born his name was saint nicholas also known as nicolas of bari he died december 6 343. there was a bunch of stuff that he did in his day that was good actually one of them they say was the resurrection of three babies three little kids that were murdered by a butcher they were pickled in the juice and history says that they were raised from the dead did you hear what i said that's pretty hard for people to grab there were three kids during a famine that were murdered and pickled in juice and this guy saint nicholas prayed for them and they raised from the dead that's a little different than a tree if you notice on march or in december of 3 43 he died he's no longer alive in 19 or in 1862 there was a guy named thomas nast he was a civil war cartoonist he drew santa claus for harper's weekly magazine in 1862. he was a small elf-like figure who supported the union nasa continued to draw sound for 30 years changing the color of his coat from tan to red that he's known for today that picture has stuck with us for this christmas celebration in this age right now to where christians that are supposed to know the truth get angry when you talk about this because it might let their kids down i would much rather let your kids down so that your kids can be lifted up i know this is the sad part of the service right here it is jesus is the light of the world he came into the world so 2004 i get out of teen challenge and i'm totally i am totally excited about telling the truth but i'm totally upset because i got to talk to my daughter and i've never i've never exposed how much of a liar i've been before so i've taken destiny for a walk mom remembers it we're taking her you probably remember it we're walking down the street and i said hey baby i need to talk to you daddy lied to you his whole life and i got to tell you the truth about santa she goes what i went oh my gosh no honey mommy and daddy are santa she goes i knew i'm like oh my god what about the easter bunny she was dad come on i knew that you guys were given the same paper you and santa can't give the same paper i went oh my gosh my point is this jesus was given by god as the greatest gift that you and i could ever know the greatest gift the greatest gift but if you don't unwrap that gift it'll never help you the word of god says that god so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever would believeth in him wouldn't perish but would have eternal life eternal life doesn't start the day you get to heaven eternal life starts the day that god's gift is unwrapped by you and you take that gift into your heart and you give your life that doesn't belong to you back you have to give your life that doesn't belong to you back to the one that gave his life for you there's the exchange i had no idea my whole life and no one told me for 34 years i lived a lie i spoke a lie i talked about a lie my whole life says in john i wrote it down it's in john 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god he was in the beginning with god all things came into being through him and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being in him was life and the life that was in him was the light of men the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot comprehend it and in john 1. god and jesus was the light of all men he came into the world jesus lived his life for 33 and a half years was crucified on that cross and on that cross he died for your sin and my sin the whole world's sin was laid upon him when jesus died and descended into the pit it says that jesus for three days descended so that he could pay for your sin and my sin the sin of the world hell couldn't keep him down death couldn't keep him down jesus rose from the dead three days later we know the birth of jesus to be christmas and the resurrection of jesus to be easter both of those holidays have been perverted but today i want to bring it back to wise on the earth because if jesus wasn't born and jesus didn't pay the price that he did and jesus didn't get crucified and jesus didn't raise from the dead i wouldn't be standing here i wouldn't have a wife because i destroyed that woman's life for nine years and now we've been married for 16 years i wouldn't have i wouldn't have a daughter that's going after the lord that loves him who's yesterday was her birthday she turned 24 who's happily married who's going after jesus with everything in her i wouldn't have another 14 year old daughter because she came after christ came i wouldn't have her zoe who's doing amazing i wouldn't have briley who's nine years old he loves the lord i wouldn't have azariah who we were who we were fortunate enough to come and to allow him to come into our life for us to be adoptive parents and for us to have him he's four years old i wouldn't have little asher who's 18 months old here none of these none of these would be possible i'm not about to tell them on christmas morning that we're having christmas morning for any other reason then today is a day that jesus was born and jesus came into the world and he was the light of all men [Applause] not about to raise my kids in a way and tell them something that's not true so i can have them just believe how could they just believe in this and then try to get them to just believe in this well what's real no way dude your kids are sponges they are what they eat and we are all taught that we need to eat the bread of life we need to drink living water and eat living bread and jesus is that bread of life we need to celebrate this christmas of why you know jesus said he was the light that came into the world and then he says to us and he switches it over in the beatitudes in matthew 5 verses 14 through 16 says you are the light of the world a city set on a hill that can't be hidden nor does anybody light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lamp stand and it gives light to all who are in that house let your light shine before men in this way so they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven we are supposed to be light bearers in philippians 2 verses 13 and 13 or 12-13 says so then beloved just as you've always obeyed not in as in my presence only but now much more my absence work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is god who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of god above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in this world holding fast the word of life so that the day of christ will have a reason to glory not run our that i did not run in vain or toil in vain but even if i'm being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith i rejoice and share my joy with you all you are the light of the world and as we hi baby hi oh god he's such a daddy's boy [Music] jesus didn't just pay a price to get you to heaven he paid a price to get heaven into you and the only way that that happens is that you would accept what jesus did on that cross he died for your sin and you have to accept him as savior so that he can become lord in your life we accept him as savior he saves us from our sin but then he comes to move inside of us through his light holy spirit holy spirit is the light of the world he comes into us and he lights us from the inside so that inside of our heart you can see it through our eyes and what we say and how we live and how we walk and how we talk and how we handle ourself in the way that we communicate with each other the bible talks about walking in the light as he is in the light that's what it says if we walk in the light as he is in the light you and i have fellowship together if we walk in the light you can't walk in the light if you're still in the darkness he casts out all fear his perfect love is that very light you and i you and i as men and women of god this christmas have the opportunity the opportunity to actually walk as light in this world tonight we're gonna we're gonna light some candles and we're gonna sing some worship songs just at the end do yourself a favor tell your kids the truth kids ask your parents questions tonight questions that can only be answered by truth and if they ask you why are you saying this say todd white told me to ask questions i'll go down like that i'm good i'm good wouldn't it be amazing to have kids at school exposing and telling the truth about why we have christmas wouldn't it be great to have kids that were bold they'll be like no jesus is real i had to go to parent-teacher conferences because of this buddy this is real i had one parent that was so or one teacher because because they had this little elf on a shelf thing in the school and my daughter came home she goes dad i'm telling you this is like totally weird like it looks real i'm like honey is it real no but i'm telling you it looks real and this one little girl came up to me and i told her jesus was real and she said no santa's real. and then my daughter told her back she goes i just don't want you to go to hell so i got brought into school because my daughter said a bad word so when i went to school parent-teacher conference i'm like hey i just wanted to talk to you and say how sorry i was for for my daughter can i share why she said well no i i just wanted to talk to you so this was this was zoey because destiny had the same teacher but when destiny had that teacher i was a drug addict and she was falling asleep at school because mom kept her up on the couch all night long and when she went to school the next morning she didn't have sleep because her daddy was an addict so the teacher said i had your older her older sister i had destiny i said yeah i said but life was a little different remember how destiny fell asleep all the time she said yeah i said that's because i was a drug addict for like 22 years she said what i said yeah it was really bad because mom would keep destiny up on the couch waiting for daddy to get home but then when jesus came everything changed she said that's why she was falling asleep i said yeah her mom was up telling her how much she hated her dad and how much she's leaving her dad when she gets old enough that's all she heard her whole childhood and i said then jesus came and and he changed it all she goes well i just wanted to say keep telling your daughter to tell kids about jesus because we as teachers can't initiate it but the kids can she goes so i just want to say thank you kids are so important don't think that they're not old enough to understand jesus said unless you become like a child you'll never get it now before we light these candles i just want to mention this you could grow up with religion your whole life but the bible says that you must be born again born again doesn't mean entering into your mother's womb a second time and born again is an occult born again is what jesus said he said unless you're born again you'll not see the kingdom you'll not understand you can't hear and you can't see see being born again doesn't mean entering into your mother's womb a second time being born again actually means that you need your spirit regenerated to where god gives you a brand new spirit and he comes inside of you and makes his home inside of you and you become one spirit with god one flesh with god flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone and that happens when we say yes to jesus that we believe that jesus died for us that we believe that jesus rose from the dead for us and we're asking him to come in and make his home inside of us and i know there's people here that haven't done that this isn't a long thing this is a short thing i'm just going to ask you right now if you've never been born again and you've never had jesus come and make his home inside of you i'm not talking about religion i'm talking about knowing god as a father and i'm talking about you knowing he's your dad and you knowing that you're a son or you're a daughter this could be the most amazing day the most amazing christmas ever so if there's anybody here that has never said i would like jesus to be my lord and my savior if that's you just shoot your hand up real quick i won't pray with you before we do the candles amen amen who else just raise your hand come on who else who else if that's you i want you to stand only the people that have never done this come on it's okay just stand up there's a bunch who else just stay standing please your whole life is about to change i saw this earlier you've been through hell on this earth and you've had one thing happen after another and it's been one thing one thing one thing one thing god's doing something different in you today is a day of brand new birth everything changes from here this isn't going to be the same tomorrow you're going to wake up the sun's going to be different life is going to be different you watch and see depression will no longer have you anymore that thing will be broken today it won't touch you again you watch and see your whole life is about to change man who else is there anybody else i know i see one back here in the back who else who else is that i don't care if you're a kid if you've never gotten born again it's time there she's raised her hand little one right there all right amen amen well i just want you all to pray with me just say this lord jesus we believe that you died for our sin and that you raised from the dead for us to have life we put our faith in jesus come and make your home inside of us and have your way in jesus name amen can we give a shout a celebration jackie

Channel: Todd White

Views: 21,592

Rating: 4.818182 out of 5

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Id: FyJ9uZwhZfI

Length: 32min 20sec (1940 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 06 2021