Idolaty

Can y'all hear me now? Good. Wow.

Amazing to be here this morning. I'm so excited about our new series, Crushing Kryptonite. I think it's going to be amazing. I think we're going to learn so much from this, how to grow in Christ and be more effective. I have my superhero cape on today just to announce our new superhero series for our kids.

They're starting that today. And I even got a little mask here. I think I'm Captain America. You know, Captain America had a cape. Why don't I just preach with this on all day?

I don't know if y'all would take me seriously enough if I did that. But if you have families in the area, you want to invite to church, it's a really cool series that we're having for them to go along with what we're doing here. Just invite your friends, your family out. I think it's going to be an awesome time as we talk about Crushing Kryptonite. And they're learning about Kryptonite as well.

So let me take this off so y'all can take me a little seriously. I don't want you to take me too seriously, okay? Because that's what I think church should be fun. But we do have a few things coming up this month. I just want to remind you that I am having lunch out here with some good pizza.

This isn't Domino's pizza. This is Gino's pizza. How many of you have been to lunch with Leon before, right? It's good pizza, right? It's good pizza.

Some of you the other day was like, wow, this pizza is incredible, you know? So don't leave me alone to eat pizza by myself. Come on over and have pizza with me. And I'll tell you a little bit about who we are, where we're going as a church. I promise you it'll be a fun time.

Also, at the end of the month, we have a baptism. We usually do our baptisms every few months. Our next baptism event is April 26th, so our 29th, I think that's right. 26th or 29th. I think 29th is a Sunday, right?

Correct? Somebody checked her phone. I think I didn't write that down, right? I got that right. 29th.

And we're going to have a baptism event there. You can register. We did send out an email for online registration. We'll have something on our website as well. Or you can come right out as you're leaving in the Welcome Center.

There are some papers you can fill out. Please provide your t-shirt size because we're going to have a t-shirt for you. And we're just going to have an awesome time of baptism. If you've never been baptized before, maybe you're new to Christ. You just come to Christ.

Or maybe you've been walking with Christ for a while but never took that next step. Join us in baptism. We'd love to celebrate with you. Amen. Amen.

So, here, our new series, Crushing Kryptonite. And I'm not as cool as the guy on the screen when I say these things. And he gives you kind of the main push there. But Superman is a lot like us. We're a lot like Superman.

As believers, we're a lot like Superman. Superman was from another world. We're from another world, right? Superman was endowed with supernatural power. We are as well as believers in Christ.

We have been giving spiritual gifts. This supernatural power has been granted to us. He liberates the oppressed. We liberate the oppressed as well. He draws his strength from the sun.

And I know this is corny, but we draw our strength from the S-O-N sun, right? And we do that. So, we have a lot of similarities with Superman. But with that, we're like Superman in the other area. There are weaknesses.

And just like Superman is weakened by this green crystal substance called kryptonite and his power is neutralized and he's weakened and he's not able to be what he is made to be or what he's gifted to be. We have a spiritual kryptonite that often invades our lives. And it reduces our effectiveness. And there are certain things perhaps that go unnoticed or even acceptable. Sin in our lives and different things that come into play that can reduce our effectiveness in the kingdom of God.

And not only does it weaken us, it makes us very ineffective, and sometimes it even results to spiritual death. And in some cases, even physical death. In fact, Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians, and I think this is wild. As people were coming into church to partake of communion, to drink, to break bread, and to drink the wine in honor of the remembrance of Jesus Christ, they would come together and celebrate. But things were happening in the church because the church occurrence, there was a lot of sin that was involved in our life.

They would bring it into the fellowship, and it would make them very ineffective. And this is what Paul was saying. He said, that is why many of you are weak and sick. And some of you have even died. So people were actually physically dying.

They were sick, they were weak, and physically dying because of what they were bringing into the house. And he was bringing correction to the church. So not only does it harm us as individuals when we're involved in sin, an ongoing willful sin, but it also affects the church. And it becomes like a cancer in the church. And it grows, and it can weaken us and make us not necessarily physically sick, which in the case in Scripture, it actually was doing that, but more so spiritually sick.

And we can be very unhealthy, and we can't do what God's called us to do. We can't be all that God has allowed us to be because we have this cancer. We have this kryptonite that's in our lives. And Satan wants to do everything to present this kryptonite to you. He wants to put this kryptonite in your life.

He doesn't want you to know God. He doesn't want you to have anything to do with God because he knows that if you can connect with God, you are going to be a powerhouse for his kingdom. But he'll do everything he can to keep you from being effective. So he doesn't want you to know God. He doesn't want you to do extraordinary things for God.

But here's the positive side of it. Daniel writes in 1132, he says, The people who know. See, Satan, like I said, doesn't want you to know. But the people who know, who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits. So God wants you to carry out great exploits.

He wants you to do amazing things. He wants you to change your world. He wants you to be effective in your church and in your ministry. And when I say ministry, your very existence, the reason you were created, your purpose. But Satan's doing everything he can to keep you from knowing God.

That word know, to know God, comes from the original language as yada. That's how you pronounce that in the original Greek, yada. And it means to know someone intimately or knowing God's heart. So when I think of this and how we are to look at this, whenever we hear the word knowing God, I want to know you more. We sing about that.

I want to know you more. How do we know God? It's through an intimate relationship with God. It's much like marriage. And throughout the Bible, we see marriage imagery all over the place.

In fact, the whole Bible, there's a metaphor that goes on and on about... There's a metaphor that goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on About marriage. About a husband and a wife. In the Old Testament, it was God and the people of Israel, right? The Father and Israel.

My bride. My bride Israel. In the New Testament, it was Jesus and the church. And then he even brought it down to the area of marriage. He says, if husbands, if you don't love your wives like Christ loved the church, you're going to be in a bad place.

So he challenges us to love our wives as Christ loved the church, his bride. So we see this marriage imagery taking place throughout the entire Bible. But often, we allow other things to come into our lives and it can affect that marriage covenant that we have with God, that relational knowing him. We're going to play a video to kind of show you what that really looks like in contemporary terms. That castle.

Really? Isn't that phenomenal? So they taught you how to fold the napkins? Yes. Oh, wow.

I actually, believe it or not, I know how to fold the Sydney Opera House. I don't believe you. No, no. I really do. I can totally show you.

Stop. I'm very excited. Good evening. Oh, good evening. Have you dined with us before?

Yes. Actually, this is our favorite restaurant. Welcome back. No, babe, I'm pretty sure we've never been here before. Oh, that's weird.

Really? Yeah, no. No, we haven't. Oh, okay. Hold that butt just one second.

I'm really, really sorry. Oh, no problem. Yeah. So what would you like to order this one? Yes, sir.

So you know what? I think I would like to have that salmon. That sounds absolutely wonderful. That's one of my favorites. Oh, great.

Yeah, I like that. And for you, ma'am? Oh, I will have the filet mignon and the New York Strip and the 8-ounce sirloin. All medium rare, please. Yes, fantastic.

That is a great choice. Thank you. I will get those right out to you. Babe, that's kind of a lot of food, isn't it? I'm not just ordering for one, you know.

Wait, are you... Are you telling me that we're... Are we expecting? Yeah. He'll be here soon.

It's a boy? Oh, wow. Yeah, of course. Oh, my gosh. Babe, okay.

This has got to be one of the... There he is now. Hi. Oh, bonjour. Sorry I'm late.

I ordered for you. I ordered for you. Oh, thank you. You know me so well. I'm sorry.

Do you two know each other? Yeah. He is my boyfriend. From high school. Your...

Your boyfriend? From... From high school. Babe. Can I ask your white old boyfriend's dad?

Did I come at a bad time? What? I really don't see the problem here, Justin. Yeah, I really don't see the problem here. Okay, who are you?

Honey, stop. You're embarrassing me. I just wanted us to have one nice night at our favorite restaurant. Okay, first of all, I've never been in this restaurant. And second, what is going on?

Hey, babe. Sorry I'm late. Did I miss anything? Okay, seriously? You...

Alright, you take your hand off her and you... What is going on? Just sit down. It's alright. It's alright.

Angela, is this... Is this some kind of joke? Are you... Are you actually seeing these guys? Justin...

I've known these guys longer than I've known you. Wait, what? Are you seriously jealous right now? Jealous? Angela, in case you forgot...

We're married. Okay, and we spend the majority of our time together. I'm... I love you more than any of my other boyfriends. That's why you'll always be my favorite.

Your... Your favorite? Is... Is there anyone else I need to know about? Babe?

Is there a problem over here? Okay, really? The waiter? No, Dennis, we're fine. Alright, seriously, no.

Good, food will be right out. Oh, okay. Angela, Angela, alright. These guys need to go. We need to talk.

We're done. I cannot believe this. You are being so selfish. Selfish? I...

Why do you always have to make everything about you? You ruined our favorite restaurant. Excuse me. Sorry. Yeah, I've...

I've still never been to this restaurant. Thank you. Thank you, Dennis. The salmon is delightful. So, did you propose to her here too?

Wow. You're embarrassing me, you know? I've known them a long... A lot longer than I've known you. But you're still my favorite, right?

And that's often how we talk to God, isn't it? Well, you know, I've had these... You know, I've known them a long... A lot longer than I've known you. I...

I need this, you know? You don't understand, God. Or whatever it is. And you're in this marriage relationship with God. You're knowing God.

But oftentimes, we bring other people, figuratively speaking, other sin into our lives. And saying, well, God, I love you. But, you know, I really need this. And we compromise it all the time. And it's a form of adultery and idolatry that takes place in our lives.

And God doesn't want that. He wants your devoted attention. You are in a covenant with Him. And He wants you to be healthy and whole and real and powerful. But yet, we settle for God's second best every time.

Because we bring things into our lives. So, my hope for this series is to help us identify those areas that could be weakening you, your family, and perhaps your church. And destroy the things that you gain strength from. So, we're going to learn how to break this stuff off of us. And crush it.

Get rid of it. Destroy it. So that we can be effective for the kingdom of God. So, are you all ready? Are you all ready to do this?

Amen. So, I want to talk about a few sins over the next few weeks. We're going to talk about several different types of sins. But these aren't sins that are the first thing that come to our mind. These are sins we often neglect.

These are what we call necessary sins. Sins that, perhaps, we don't think will really affect us. And we need to do them. And they're just a part of how we live and exist. And when we first think about, like, these kryptonite sins, probably the first thing that comes to our mind is, ah, murder.

You know, that's a really bad sin, right? I mean, yeah, we want to get rid of that if we have any of that, right? Or stealing, you know, yes, that's pretty bad. Or rape, horrific, horrific sin. Those are the first things we think about.

Yeah, we need to get those things out of our body, out of our church. But we often neglect other sins. In fact, Psalm says this, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you.

Anything in me. Not just the really obvious things. Anything that's inside of me that offends you. And lead me along the path of everlasting life. So, there was a story, and this is a true story.

There was a pastor that had a congregation, and he was preaching one Sunday. He says, okay, next week I'm going to preach on Mark 17. And I want everybody to read Mark 17. Come back next week prepared for it, because I'm going to talk about it. Well, he gets there the next week.

Congregation comes in, and he says, okay, if you... Did not read Mark 17 this week. I want you to raise your hand. You know, obviously, you know, if the pastor asked you that, you're not probably not going to want to raise your hand, right? If you didn't read it, everybody was like, I'm not prepared, right?

So a few people in the church raised their hand, and he looks at it and says, okay, thank you for being honest. As for everybody else, there is no Mark 17. We're going to talk about lying today. So today we're going to talk about lying. Lying.

How God feels about lying. And lying is one of the first things we learn as kids, right? I mean, it's easy. I asked my kids, did you eat that chocolate? No.

And chocolate's all over their face. No, I didn't eat it. Yes, you did. It's on your face. And then we sing songs like, Johnny, Johnny, yes, Papa, eating.

Chocolate. No, Papa. Telling lies. No, Papa. Open your mouth.

And then you laugh about it, right? And we think it's cute. And even when we tell stories among ourselves, you know, and they go the wrong way, sometimes we just kind of make light of them because we don't think they're that big of a deal. But in God's eyes, they are a big deal. Lying is always a big deal in God's eyes.

And in fact, God actually hates lying. If you're following your notes, God hates lying. And Scripture shows us this at the Proverb 12, verse 22. It says, The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in those who tell the truth. He detests.

What does that word detest mean? It means he's disgusted with it. He actually wants to vomit thinking about it. And I assume he wants to vomit thinking about it because it reminds him of the enemy. It reminds him of Satan, who is the father of lies.

When you look at John 8, 44, it says, Satan was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. There is no truth in him. And when he lies, he speaks his native language. It is his language to lie. For he is a liar and the father of lies.

Now, that is one of the reasons God really hates lies. But in particularly, he is really repulsed. He's sick when he hears about lying. And we should take that to heart. Anytime we consider telling a little white lie or a big lie, whatever that lie is, the little white lies as well, we should consider how God feels about it.

So, how do we lie? Let's just talk about that for a minute. Let's get real here. How do we lie? Well, number one, we lie to each other all the time, right?

We lie to each other. In fact, Jeremiah 9, 5 says, friends to see friends and no one speaks the truth. It just happens. He saw it in his lifetime. He saw it among the people.

We lie to each other. Women lie, some statistics here, women lie an average of three times a day. That's a thousand times a year. Some of the husbands are looking over and says, yep, that's right. Yeah, you, yeah, yeah.

No, no, hold on, men. Men, men, I got yours right here. You lie twice as much. Men lie six times a day and 2,000 times a year. Think about it.

I mean, we lie all the time. You oversleep. You're on your way to work. What do you do? You call the boss.

Oh, there's bad traffic. I'll be there. I'm just, you know, I'm stuck in traffic right now. Are you a lie about how much you paid for something, you know? If you overpaid, you don't want people to know, I didn't, you know.

Or maybe you're arrogant and you want to tell people how rich you are, you know, I pay a lot, you know. And then you pay, you exaggerate it. I don't know what you do, but we all tell lies. Or maybe you're just too busy to meet with somebody or you're trying to avoid someone. Have you ever done that and you start making up things?

Oh, I'm just sick today. I'm not feeling well. Or how many of you have just called off work and said, I'm sick. I can't make it to work today. How many are going to be true?

I got one truthful person back there. Hey, man, I got another one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Many of you probably have. I know some of you don't do that.

I respect that, but I have. I call my sick day a recoup day, right? I'm sick, so I need to recoup. And people often do that, and we don't consider it bad. But the funny thing is, it would actually do us better if we would just tell the truth.

In fact, if you told the truth, maybe your boss would say, you know, take off today. You need to take off today. You need to relax. You need to take a day off. I've got an example that was given to me yesterday, and I'm not going to name any names because, but he did give me permission to share this story, and it's kind of a funny story.

He and his wife had a fight at the beginning of the week, and he's on his way. I guess he's just driving around trying to make sense of things, and he says, you know what? It's a peace offering. I'm going to go and get her some food and bring it back to her and, you know, apologize and get this right and stuff like that. And while he was—so he calls her up.

She says she wants a double quarter pounder with a, you know, meal, you know, with everything, you know. She was hungry. She said, yeah, that's a good idea. So on his way home, so he gets it. He gets him a sandwich.

He gets her the meal, and he has the fries in his bag, and he's, like, eating the fries. You know how you are when you're driving down the road? You're not even thinking about it. You're just eating your fries, and I do it all the time. My fries are usually gone by the time I get back to the house, and I'm only five minutes away from the house, you know.

And he's eating those fries, and by the time he gets home, he's like, oh, my gosh, there's, like, six fries left in this bag. Like, okay, she doesn't—okay, we know who it is now. So he lied again. I was trying to keep it confidential. So Lisa Marie obviously is very honest.

We have no problems with her lying. Okay, so he gets home. He's like, oh, my gosh, what am I going to do? We were just in a fight. It's going to be—you know, what do I do?

So the first thing he says, he blames McDonald's. So he walks in. He says, can you believe this? McDonald's skimped us out on front. What's going—you know, she's like—you know, he's expecting another response.

Oh, it's not that big of a deal. I don't want you to have to go back, yada, yada. She's like, are you kidding me? Okay, we're getting in the car. We're going out there.

You know, I'm going right now. She hops in the car. He does not tell her anything. And she comes back with another thing of fries. I think the—I think—just to add to that story, I think the person, the manager, didn't even believe you did.

Yeah, I did. But they—she wasn't lying. But you see how things kind of snowball when we lie. It's not good. It's not good.

It's not good. It probably would have been better to just say, I'm sorry, honey. I ate all your fries. I'll go back and get you some more fries. Make it better or whatever.

But we tend to lie. And we lie to each other. And then a snowball effect happens. And it often happens. We just like to lie to each other.

The second point I want to make is we lie to God. God, there's this story of Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts, chapter 5. And you have this couple that come up to Peter. And they're holding back from the church. They're lying to Peter.

They're lying to the church because they were giving their offering. But they were holding back a little from them. And it's an extreme story because God actually strikes them dead. For lying. And it says this, this is what Peter says, he says, what made you think of doing such a thing?

You have not lied just to human beings, but you've lied to God. You lied to God. My professor used to scare us when I was in seminary, when he'd let us take a test home. He'd say, remember Ananias and Sapphira? Don't cheat on that test.

Don't look in that book. So we'd be thinking about that as we were taking that test. I'm just saying, you know. But there's some truth to it. God really doesn't like us when we lie to the church, when we lie to each other, we lie to God.

We're actually lying to God. And then, thirdly, we lie to ourselves. We lie to ourselves. Psalm 119 says this in verse 27. It says, help me understand the meaning of your commandments, and I will meditate on your wonderful deeds.

And I weep with sorrow. Encourage me by your words. And here, underline this. Keep me from lying to myself. Keep me from lying to myself.

Give me the privilege of knowing your instructions. So we find ourselves lying to ourselves. And we begin to believe the lies because we lie to ourselves. We get caught up in who we are, and how we're supposed to be, leaving God out of the equation. And we lie to ourselves.

I had a friend growing up when we were kids. He used to lie about everything. His name was Jeff. He'd lie. He, it was just a contagious, it was, it was like a epidemic, I guess.

He's just lying all the time. I'd say, Jeff, you know, your shirt's a nice green shirt. No, no, it's red. You know, it's just, I mean, that's how he was. He'd just lie all the time.

He didn't know he was lying. He was just so used to lying, he would lie. And it a lot of people, when they get into the habit of lying, they don't even know at some point in it, they believe the reality of that lie. And they start to live that lie. And maybe they tell themselves, I don't have a problem.

I'm not hurting anyone. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not giving anybody else any issues here. I'm just, but my biggest fear, and here's my biggest fear, is that people are lying about where they stand with God. They're lying about where they stand with God. I'm great with God.

I'm good with God. I'm, I'm, I'm with, with the big guy. It's okay. But yet, they're living another life. They're living in sin, and they're walking two different lives.

They come to church. Hallelujah. Praise God. I'm good with God. But yet, they're living an alternate reality.

And that's my greatest fear. Because I've talked to people, you know, you can usually catch these things, and I'm never in a position to judge. But we can look at the fruit of people. And when I'm talking to people, and I, I see people struggling, but I know that they're prospering, because I see them working through things, and fruits coming from it, and I see their spiritual lives growing. But on the other hand, I see people, and you ask them about their spiritual life, and they're like, well, you know, I'm just too busy.

I'm just, this is going on, and that's going on. And you just see no fruit. And you have to question. You have to question. You have to question, are they living for God?

Are they lying to God? Do they know where they stand with God? And that's my greatest fear, because I was there. When I was a teenager, I was in the youth group. I knew all the phrases.

I was a leader, you know. I knew all the things. I knew all the cool stuff to say. I would come up with the creative names. I would have the people following me, but I didn't know God.

I didn't trust God. I didn't really know Him. I didn't have an intimate relationship with Him. Therefore, I was lying to myself. And I remember one time in my life when I was involved in sin, I remember telling my friend across the table, who was also involved in sin, and we were going to church together, living that other life, I still know who's Lord of my life.

I was referring to God, but I was living a lie, because I was, He was not Lord of my life. He was not Lord of my everything. And that's my greatest fear, is that people don't know the Lord. They lived with that lie. First John 2, 4 says this, whoever says, I know Him, but does not do what I command, is a liar.

And the truth is not in that person. And that's a strong statement. That's a strong statement. Let's take that to heart. So how do we lie?

We lie to people, we lie to God, and we lie to ourselves. But why do we lie? Why do we lie? Why do we even engage in a lie? Well, perhaps it makes life easier.

We think it makes life easier anyway. That's the lie in and of itself, right? We think it makes life easier. We try to protect people's feelings. We don't want conflict, right?

We want to look better. We want to get ahead. But lies snowball. And when we're lying, we have to cover up the other lies. We have to cover it up with other lies to keep the lie going, right?

And then lies, you have the snowball lie effect that happens. And before we know it, everything we do is a lie. And then later on in life, we look back and we're like, man, I've been living a lie my entire life. And we feel stuck. And in a place of hurt, in a place of pain because of the lies.

Lies can escalate to that. It can. It can start off as a little thing and turn into a big thing. Life.Church did a series a few years back called My Secret.

And they posted this thing called MySecret.tv, which allowed people anonymously to post things about their secret life just to kind of get it out there. And here's some of what the comments were of people living in this lie. This first one says, my whole life I've struggled with telling the truth. My problem is, I hate to disappoint people.

So if I failed them, I lie about it. And I also lie because I'm trying to impress people and to convince people to do something I want them to do. I've even lied to women in the past to get them to sleep with me. Another one says, I pretend that everything in my life is perfect, but the truth is, I hate myself. And most days, I wish I would die.

My family and my friends don't have any idea. No one knows that I think about killing myself every day. Another one said, my husband thinks I was a virgin when I was married. Not only was I not a virgin, but I had an abortion at 19 years old. Now we can't get pregnant.

And I'm afraid God is punishing me for my lies. Please pray for me. I don't know what to do. And you can hear the pain in these people's voice because they're stuck. They're hurt because they've held on to a lie.

And whether the theology of this is true or not, that God is punishing this woman or this is happening to this person, it's beside the point. They're stuck. They're caught in something because they've lived a lie when it would have been better just to tell the truth. This is why God hates lying because it ruins your life. It hurts you.

It's painful. And it sticks with you. So why do I lie? That's, if you're following your notes, this is where we really need to get down to. And just be honest.

You know, you've got a blank there. I lie because blank. I lie because... Why do you lie? Why do I lie?

It might be because it makes you look better when you're doing something or you don't like to tell the truth because it makes you look bad or you want to impress someone or maybe you want to protect someone else. Whatever that is, just write that down for yourself so you can pray over it and think about it and meditate on it. Why do we lie? Well, you may think that if you lie, it brings you security, but in fact, it brings you insecurity if you're lying, because instead of living a life of integrity, you've built a foundation on lies, so you have no security, or maybe you think my lie will get me more, if I can get by more if I lie, have you ever heard that, somebody in a business, in the business world, saying, well, I get further if I lie, if I, if I manipulate the truth a little bit, you'll get further, but that doesn't work either, because you have less of what really matters, you might have more something, but less of what really matters, or maybe you lie, my lie will help, help you like me, you know, my lie will help that person like me, but then your relationship is based on a lie, and then it's not an authentic relationship, so you see how damaging lies can be, they can be hurtful and damaging, and what I find in life, and what I find in life is the further I am from truth, the further that I am, I'm standing from truth, the more I lie. The further I'm away from truth, the more I'm involved in a lie.

The further I stand away from the further I stand away from the truth, the further I am from him, the more I walk into the identity that the world has given me, the identity that Satan has given me, the identity that life has given me, the identity that others have given me, and I walk that lie, and I'm walking a tight rope. will i make it across or will i fall but i find when when i'm closer to truth when i walk closer to truth when i'm when i'm developing my relationship with god when i'm when i want to know him more because those who know the lord are truthful those who know the lord experience that experience the reality of who he is and the reality of life and that the lie no longer exists in me those who walk with christ closer to the truth closer to god believe more about themselves and who they are jesus said this or john said this in john 8 and closing 8 32 when you when you will know the truth excuse me then you will know the truth and the truth will set you three free the truth will set you free who is truth the personification of truth with jesus christ he says i am the way the truth and the life no one comes through the father outside me he is the truth he says come you will know the truth how do we know the truth by knowing god by a relationship with jesus christ that's how we know the truth because the truth is we have been divided by sin by the kryptonite we've been weakened by the kryptonite in our life we've been we've been kept from being all that we can because of the kryptonite in our lives but truth is there waiting for us truth said i'm putting myself up on a cross i'm putting nails in my hands i'm allowing you to spit on me and rebuke me and call me names and make me less than who i am the truth said i will humble myself and come to earth and walk with you and teach you and live among you and show you the way for i am the way and the truth as we celebrated last week where we had just a great celebration of of the truth that that he rose from the dead he is no longer in the grave because he is the truth that is the truth that is the reality of who god is so we can know the truth and the truth will set us free we can know the truth we can know jesus you are not too far from jesus i don't care what you've done in your life you can be a superhero you're as powerful as the most well-known superhero in the world in jesus christ your identity is in him and no matter what is thrown your way no matter what the obstacles are in this life no matter what the hurt and pain we don't come to church i had a friend send me a message just last night says we don't come to church just to escape the pains of the world we come to deal with the reality of how to handle the things in this life and that's what jesus christ does we come with that reality of who he is the truth and we need to wake up that there's a greater hope beyond what we're currently experiencing and with all heads bowed and all eyes closed if you would just join me in prayer as i pray for you all over this place everybody in this room i pray god that you would begin to touch lives and touch hearts that you begin to move across this facility here god a power of your name the power of the blood of jesus christ and be able to pour over people there are people experiencing things maybe they've been living a lie maybe they've been living in the lie maybe they have a relationship with you lord but that relationship isn't fully developed to the point where they know you fully lord jesus and they're not experiencing all they can be in you god or maybe there's somebody that doesn't know you at all lord so i'm asking you a lot god is begin to speak to the hearts of the people here as i pray over and bring bring just just touch them holy spirit begin to change them from the inside out the same spirit of prayer and ask people to take the next bold step of faith if you're here today and maybe you've walked away from god a long time ago and you have you don't know him anymore or maybe or maybe you've never known what it's like to have a relationship with jesus maybe that you maybe something stuck out in the sermon today that really kind of pulled you you know what that is that's called the conviction the power of the holy spirit he's drawing you to him he's asking you to come to him to know him to be with me i've got a greater life i've got a greater reality and you can know me today don't wait eternity is waiting if that's you today i beg and i plead with you that you would simply and i won't embarrass you but you would just raise your hand and let me pray for you just just say i give my heart to you lord i give my life to you today i'm making a decision for you i no longer want to walk in the lie i want to walk in the truth i want to walk in the truth if that's you today just just give your life give your heart to christ let him change you from the inside out let him do that today