SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Manna Church Stafford Podcast, where we're all about equipping God's people to change their world.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful you're here, and we're praying that this message encourages you to love God, love others, and love the world more fervently than before.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's get to it.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, during that phone call, he called, yeah, I thought, how things going?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, fine.
SPEAKER_01: Then he goes, This woman that God gave me.
SPEAKER_01: No, he didn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: In case of conflict or his first move is always, God, what are you doing in me?
SPEAKER_01: It's just really odd.
SPEAKER_01: You know, especially since he's a Marine.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like, I don't care if I'm right or wrong, I'm gonna go do it.
SPEAKER_01: It's just amazing.
SPEAKER_01: It's uh anyway, I would love to be all folksy.
SPEAKER_01: You know, hey, how you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Love being here.
SPEAKER_01: All those things are true.
SPEAKER_01: Is this a Jimi Hendrix concert?
SPEAKER_01: Purple haze! Anyway, uh, what happened?
SPEAKER_01: Are we are we good now?
SPEAKER_01: Can you hear me?
SPEAKER_01: Love this church.
SPEAKER_01: I've really been with this church since before the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: So I got a dog in the fight.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, I got a pack of dogs in the fight.
SPEAKER_01: Uh really care for you.
SPEAKER_01: Glad to be here.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, and I brought my bodyguard, um, my my youngest daughter, Anna.
SPEAKER_01: Uh guys?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Just no.
SPEAKER_01: It's better that you hear it from me, because if you get near her, she'll just look at you and go, no.
SPEAKER_01: And there's nothing worse than a lady just looking at you, going, no, right?
SPEAKER_01: So I'm saving you some trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the answer is no.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, God help me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna pray.
SPEAKER_01: Let's invite the Holy Spirit back.
SPEAKER_01: Um Jesus, there's so many things we could thank you for, but there's one thing I'm thanking you for now, and it's that you sent us the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, we of course welcome you, we acknowledge you, uh, we surrender to you.
SPEAKER_01: Just your presence should be enough, but honestly, it's not.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, one of the things you do is you bring truth in a way that doesn't just inform, it transforms us.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Holy Spirit, we yield to that ministry and we ask that you would communicate truth to us that will impact us, not just inform us.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, so there was this uh anyway, like we're in the middle of a conversation.
SPEAKER_01: Um there's this governor, uh, governor Pilate, and you know, he you know he had he had Roman authority, and there's this guy, Jesus, who was causing some problems.
SPEAKER_01: Uh he was getting just a little too much notoriety, a little too popular.
SPEAKER_01: So they arranged it so the two of them would be together.
SPEAKER_01: And uh Pilate sort of sizing up Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And in the middle of the conversation, Pilate said to him, So uh you're a king.
SPEAKER_01: That's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: It was a trick question.
SPEAKER_01: Because if he if he said, Jesus said, Yeah, I'm a king, then you can take him out.
SPEAKER_01: He is a threat to Roman authority.
SPEAKER_01: So he said, So uh you're a king.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus answered, You say that I'm a king.
SPEAKER_01: Don't try to trick a Jewish Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: He'll always sniff it out.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, you say that I'm a king.
SPEAKER_01: For this purpose, I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world.
SPEAKER_01: To bear witness to the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone who is of the truth, the word is really important.
SPEAKER_01: It's not, it doesn't say anyone who believes the truth.
SPEAKER_01: It's anyone who is of the truth.
SPEAKER_01: It's sort of like birthed in the truth or rooted in the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone who is of the truth, that that's the one that listens to my voice.
SPEAKER_01: Pilate is back on his heels and he went, What's truth?
SPEAKER_01: What's truth?
SPEAKER_01: He was trying to get out from under Jesus, like, what's truth?
SPEAKER_01: But what's fascinating, that's a real question.
SPEAKER_01: Not only for then, it's a real question for now.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to talk about a few things that hopefully will mess up all of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, in a good way.
SPEAKER_01: The idea that Jesus comes into our lives, pats us on the head, gives us a hug, and doesn't change anything.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, if that's your Jesus, good luck with that.
SPEAKER_01: That Jesus will not save you.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus comes into our life, what does he do?
SPEAKER_01: He loves us, heals us, and then he transforms us.
SPEAKER_01: And that's sort of like restoring a house.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever restored a house?
SPEAKER_01: Floorboards.
SPEAKER_01: For new, anyway, uh, that wasn't in my notes.
SPEAKER_01: It's true that Jesus looks on the heart.
SPEAKER_01: He really does.
SPEAKER_01: Uh David, he was just a runt uh taking care of stinky sheep, and the uh Samuel, he's looking for the next king, and he sees David's brothers, and they they all look like leadership material.
SPEAKER_01: But scripture says, but the Lord doesn't look at external uh appearances, he looks on the heart.
SPEAKER_01: And then he saw David and he went, now there's a king.
SPEAKER_01: So it's true, God looks at our heart.
SPEAKER_01: Um for those of us who have a great voice and face for radio.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, he just looks on the heart.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus also looks at our minds, he looks at what we think, what we believe, and how we think.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't just look on the heart, he looks at what we believe, what we actually think, and how we think.
SPEAKER_01: Another way of putting this is Jesus is very concerned with truth.
SPEAKER_01: It's a big deal for him.
SPEAKER_01: Truth, it's a huge deal for him.
SPEAKER_01: Why is it a why is it such a big deal for him?
SPEAKER_01: Truth is the primary battleground for spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, of course you can play spiritual Nintendo and come against this and cast out demons.
SPEAKER_01: That's all that's all true, except for the Nintendo stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, there is spiritual realities all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: But the primary, the foundational battleground for spiritual warfare concerns the truth.
SPEAKER_01: It started in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: You know, throughout scripture you see this.
SPEAKER_01: It started in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: God said, you know, eat whatever you want, except that.
SPEAKER_01: Just leave that alone.
SPEAKER_01: And the snake comes by and he said and basically says, did God really say that?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's the first move.
SPEAKER_01: Uh later, God went to Adam and Eve and went, uh, who told you you were naked?
SPEAKER_01: It's just amazing.
SPEAKER_01: At the very beginning, God created a lot of really cool things, people.
SPEAKER_01: And the enemy came in, that snake didn't bite them, just lied.
SPEAKER_01: And they bit into the lie.
SPEAKER_01: And it was a real normal thing.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, did God really say?
SPEAKER_01: How many times have we seen the clear teaching of Scripture?
SPEAKER_01: We go, yeah, yeah, but did he really mean that like that?
SPEAKER_01: Surely I'm an exception.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Or that was for the Bible days, the old days, but yeah, we're we're a little more progressive.
SPEAKER_01: What happened with your governor?
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, I just had to say that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in trouble now.
SPEAKER_01: I've lost half of you.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew 24, Jesus is, you know, he's doing all his miracles, great teaching.
SPEAKER_01: And um, in the middle of all that, his disciples, you know, they're hanging on every word, they think he's great, they're writing down everything, and he stops and he turns and he goes, Don't be deceived.
SPEAKER_01: Make sure that no one leads you astray.
SPEAKER_01: I know if I was one of Jesus' groupies, man, how could that be?
SPEAKER_01: I'm following you.
SPEAKER_01: I got my nose in the middle of your back.
SPEAKER_01: If I do that wholeheartedly following you, how can I be deceived?
SPEAKER_01: Now just step back a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is really smart.
SPEAKER_01: He knows everything, probably because he's God.
SPEAKER_01: So he knows a lot.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So if Jesus tells a wholehearted follower of him, hey, you can follow me and still be sidetracked.
SPEAKER_01: You can follow me and still be deceived, I tend to believe him.
SPEAKER_01: He's smarter than us on our best day with three pots of coffee.
SPEAKER_01: He's just smart.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a warning to people who really love Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever, make sure you're not led astray.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be deceived.
SPEAKER_01: In Jeremiah 17, 9, one of my unfavorite scriptures, because it just goes right at my heart.
SPEAKER_01: The heart, you know, your emotional reactions to things.
SPEAKER_01: The heart is the most reliable indicator of what is right and what is true.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that what the scripture says?
SPEAKER_01: Y'all sitting there going, yeah, my Bible says that.
SPEAKER_01: Get a different Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Um the heart is deceitful above all things.
SPEAKER_01: And it's beyond cure.
SPEAKER_01: Another translation is desperately sick.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that crazy?
SPEAKER_01: God's saying, look, I gave you emotions, uh, but if your emotions are not informed and ruled by the Spirit of God, they are absolutely no reliable indicator of what's right and true.
SPEAKER_01: How many times we just tithing?
SPEAKER_01: Excuse me, God wants me to tithe and be generous.
SPEAKER_01: I see it, but I'm just not comfortable with that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just not comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm just not comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: That's not my lived experience.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, but we got to say stuff like this.
SPEAKER_01: Peter, one of my favorite guys, he's all in for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He loves Jesus, he loves the mission, he's all in.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus says, you know, you have the revelation of who I am.
SPEAKER_01: You know that I'm Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Good job.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm that rock, I'll build the church, etc., etc.
SPEAKER_01: And at the end of that, Jesus goes, Oh, and by the way, uh part of this mission will include my being murdered.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to die.
SPEAKER_01: Peter did what almost every one of us would do, definitely what Jake would do.
SPEAKER_01: You go, Oh, I'm not going to let that happen.
SPEAKER_01: You're my hero.
SPEAKER_01: This is a great mission.
SPEAKER_01: I'll protect you.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, that kind, patient Jesus, he looks at Peter and he goes, get behind me, Satan.
SPEAKER_01: You are a hindrance to me.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning, your attitude, how you're thinking, is will get in the way of how I minister to you, and it will get in the way of how I minister through you.
SPEAKER_01: So, get behind me, you're a hindrance to me.
SPEAKER_01: You have in mind human thinking, not the thinking of God.
SPEAKER_01: You have, yeah, you're operating from purely human thoughts, not the thoughts of God.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine being Peter?
SPEAKER_01: But but but don't you look on the heart?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: This is a hard thing for all of us to accept.
SPEAKER_01: There are there's the kingdom of God, and then then there's the world system, humanity.
SPEAKER_01: There's no mutual non-aggression pact.
SPEAKER_01: There's no grayer, there's no partnership, there's no middle of the road.
SPEAKER_01: There, there isn't.
SPEAKER_01: And the stuff that's not the kingdom of God, it's from the dark side.
SPEAKER_01: Could you imagine Peter being shocked?
SPEAKER_01: What was really cool is that Jesus didn't go, I'm going to bench you until you get your theology right, so you start thinking kingdom thoughts, and then I'll let you follow me.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: It was on-the-job training.
SPEAKER_01: I was talking with uh Jake about this.
SPEAKER_01: One of my favorite portions of the scripture where Paul talks about strongholds.
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, the weapon, our weapons have divine power to tear down strongholds.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're if you're a counselor, right?
SPEAKER_01: You sit there, what strongholds do we have?
SPEAKER_01: And how does God want to heal?
SPEAKER_01: That's all good.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm for you.
SPEAKER_01: But in that scripture, you know what Paul is actually talking about?
SPEAKER_01: He actually believed that prayer and then preaching the word of God had a supernatural power to tear down strongholds, to tear down ideologies, to tear down ideas that stand against the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: Which is sort of crazy because you start preaching against certain ideologies, you might get dinged.
SPEAKER_01: You might get canceled, people might label you something.
SPEAKER_01: But it's really interesting that Paul really said the world has sets of ideologies and their pretensions, their ideas that set themselves up against the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to preach the truth out of the love of God with the anointing of God, with the idea that God's word will eventually trump, no double meaning there, it'll eventually trump the ideologies of man.
SPEAKER_01: That's warfare.
SPEAKER_01: And in Colossians, which last couple years have been sort of my fave book, I mean the whole Bible's really good.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul, he's talking to established mature believers, and he says in Colossians 2.4, I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.
SPEAKER_01: Um smooth rhetoric, very persuasive language, uh, powerful narratives, great commercials.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: How many times do we take a stand on something that can be reduced to a slogan that has been repeated for a couple weeks on our social media?
SPEAKER_01: Fine-sounding arguments, uh manipulative narratives, propaganda.
SPEAKER_01: That's all out there.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all know that?
SPEAKER_01: If not, thank you for coming to church.
SPEAKER_01: In Colossians 2.8, which is Lord willing, I'm gonna write the book on this.
SPEAKER_01: See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, or in other ways, ideologies, mindsets, worldviews, ways of thinking, which depend on human tradition.
SPEAKER_01: There is that human source and the basic principles and spiritual forces or spirits of the world system rather than on Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There it is again.
SPEAKER_01: Now we don't have the time to talk about where are the worldly ideologies and where's the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's that's your job.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: Good luck with that.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but here's a great way to start.
SPEAKER_01: How do you start discerning what's what?
SPEAKER_01: Just find out what has God created.
SPEAKER_01: What is it God created?
SPEAKER_01: God created men.
SPEAKER_01: He did.
SPEAKER_01: God created women.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, next, God created babies in the womb.
SPEAKER_01: God did that.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Here's another thing that God created families.
SPEAKER_01: Mother, father, and kids.
SPEAKER_01: God created nations with borders.
SPEAKER_01: He created nations with laws.
SPEAKER_01: He created governments.
SPEAKER_01: He established governments and he established authority.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, if the government doesn't do its job, that's a whole nother story.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, and here's another thing that God created truth.
SPEAKER_01: Truth is God's idea.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, he embodies truth.
SPEAKER_01: He created truth.
SPEAKER_01: So just look at what God created and stand back and look at any ideology which would lead you to say, well, he created it, but it wasn't really good.
SPEAKER_01: Or we've gone past that.
SPEAKER_01: Or there is no God.
SPEAKER_01: We can create anything and everything we want.
SPEAKER_01: Just start there.
SPEAKER_01: The things we know that God has created, are there ways of thinking which want to undermine that or or disparage it?
SPEAKER_01: You can pretty much guarantee that that's not coming from God.
SPEAKER_01: That's a great theory, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: But how do you actually discern the truth?
SPEAKER_01: It's a real issue.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I got my own ideas, and of course, since they're my ideas, they must be right, but I found out that time some of the things I used to think they weren't right.
SPEAKER_01: I just I had a good joke, but I want to be serious.
SPEAKER_01: There are many competitors to the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Many competitors.
SPEAKER_01: One is, we already mentioned, feelings.
SPEAKER_01: Feelings.
SPEAKER_01: This is a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: Love your enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Well, look, my idea of loving my enemy is not double tapping them and burying the body.
SPEAKER_01: That's my idea of love.
SPEAKER_01: That's not it.
SPEAKER_01: Love your enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Forgive other people.
SPEAKER_01: What they did, by the way, you can forgive someone, but you're under no obligation to trust.
SPEAKER_01: Trust is earned.
SPEAKER_01: So for those of you thinking, well, if I forgive, that'll make me vulnerable again.
SPEAKER_01: No, you went through that whole thing.
SPEAKER_01: So you learned a couple stuff, so that never happens to you again.
SPEAKER_01: But like forgiveness is really, really hard.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize if you hold on to unforgiveness, you get to pull around your excuses for not going forward in God?
SPEAKER_01: What a built-in excuse.
SPEAKER_01: Really, I love you, but I'm from New Jersey.
SPEAKER_01: And I in the South, if I say I'm from New Jersey, I get a pass.
SPEAKER_01: Ah, he's from New Jersey.
SPEAKER_01: He's got no people skills.
SPEAKER_01: It works for me.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, there are also ideologies.
SPEAKER_01: I could go on and on and on and on.
SPEAKER_01: There are many ideologies that have tried to hijack Christian ideas, Christian values, Christian feelings, empathy, love, care, concern.
SPEAKER_01: But what drives them many times are ideologies that are hostile to Jesus, like Marxism.
SPEAKER_01: Marxism, just read about it.
SPEAKER_01: We're supposed to love the Marxist.
SPEAKER_01: Basic idea.
SPEAKER_01: There is no God, there's no truth, there's no right or wrong, except there are oppressors and then the oppressed.
SPEAKER_01: If you're oppressed, not only are you entitled to rise up and destroy, but you're under an obligation to get that thing moving.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever wants to get that revolution going, just create resentment, create unforgiveness, create anger, create all that sort of stuff, create warlike division, and then you're off to the races.
SPEAKER_01: This happens in our nation, this happens in our families, this happens in our business.
SPEAKER_01: The idea that God's big idea is oppressor, that people are not individuals.
SPEAKER_01: They are simply people who are members of a certain class of persons.
SPEAKER_01: That's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: Like, Jesus saved you, brother.
SPEAKER_01: Not because I'm trying to figure what kind of class of person.
SPEAKER_01: No, that's not going to work.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to do it.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't save you because you're a white middle class male.
SPEAKER_01: He did not.
SPEAKER_01: He saved you.
SPEAKER_01: And you happen to be part of that, but that's not the defining characteristic of you.
SPEAKER_01: And whether or not you can fulfill God's plan for your life does not depend on you belonging to one class or another.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: It depends entirely on the extent to which you're going to obey God.
SPEAKER_01: That's how this works.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm going to be so in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But there are these ideologies that seem really good.
SPEAKER_01: And they drive things that undermine God's ways of doing things.
SPEAKER_01: So go you get the idea.
SPEAKER_01: Habits.
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: You go to the doctor, the doctor says, You got a problem here, got a problem here, you need to get in shape.
SPEAKER_01: You go, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And it's all true.
SPEAKER_01: But you go, I really like my life's rhythm.
SPEAKER_01: I like my 10 p.m.
SPEAKER_01: pizza.
SPEAKER_01: I really like that.
SPEAKER_01: And I know this is true, but my habits override what I know to be true.
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: The conflict is not over truth or another truth, it's truth and my habits.
SPEAKER_01: So you get the idea, there's many competitors.
SPEAKER_01: Also, deeply held convictions.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I think it's good that we have deeply held convictions.
SPEAKER_01: I really do.
SPEAKER_01: However, well, you know, I was raised XYZ.
SPEAKER_01: We never did anything like that.
SPEAKER_01: I know the Bible says do this, but I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: Like deeply held convictions sometimes can get in the way of our experiencing more of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's one of the reasons why Jesus was so tough on the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm not going to throw away your whole system, but if that's all you got, you're not going to get me.
SPEAKER_01: If that's all you got, rules and principles and how good you look, you're not going to get the whole enchilada.
SPEAKER_01: And these Pharisees go, we've been doing this for years.
SPEAKER_01: This is how we've been raised.
SPEAKER_01: These are our lived experiences, O Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, that's getting the way of you experiencing more of God.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a couple there's a couple translations of a scripture that a while back, you know, just jumped out at me.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever had a scripture?
SPEAKER_01: You're just reading, all of a sudden it just jumps up, and the Holy Spirit punk slaps you.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: I'm reading this.
SPEAKER_01: It's in Jeremiah chapter 9, verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: And when this portion of scripture refers to they, he's talking about the nation of Israel, but in particular God's people.
SPEAKER_01: He's really talking about God's people.
SPEAKER_01: And it accurately describes the situation that I'm sort of talking about.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, uh, this is uh ESB and ASB.
SPEAKER_01: I sort of mangled them, put them together.
SPEAKER_01: Uh they bend their tongue like a bow.
SPEAKER_01: Falsehood or lies and not truth has grown strong in the land.
SPEAKER_01: Think about this.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever just you're watching whatever you're watching?
SPEAKER_01: You're checking out whatever you're checking out, and you're going, is any of this true?
SPEAKER_01: One narrative after another.
SPEAKER_01: Is any of this true?
SPEAKER_01: Or if it's true, how or why is this big thing happening on the heels of this big thing?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever just done that?
SPEAKER_01: Going, right?
SPEAKER_01: And it just seems that what predominates are falsehoods, propaganda, manipulation, and not truth.
SPEAKER_01: Now, God's diagnosis for that is shattering.
SPEAKER_01: Lies and not truth has grown strong in the land because they proceed from evil to evil.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning, the reason you got all that is the people, they just go from evil to evil.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm not talking about setting goats on fire.
SPEAKER_01: That would be evil, but what's the point?
SPEAKER_01: The word evil there means iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: It means going, I'm gonna live my own life in my own strength according to my own ideas, and I love God so much I'll let him in when I need him.
SPEAKER_01: That's iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: That is iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: God still loves us, but I'm gonna live my own life and hope that God throws me a bone so I can live my best life.
SPEAKER_01: That's what iniquity is.
SPEAKER_01: So he's like, the reason there's all this stuff is they go from iniquity to iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: And they don't know me.
SPEAKER_01: They know about me, they may know, they may read about me, but they don't have that personal connection to me.
SPEAKER_01: When you have a people who are trying to live a good life, even in their own strength, but not depending on God.
SPEAKER_01: And they they depend on habits instead of relationship, that sets the stage for deception.
SPEAKER_01: So I thought, oh, that's pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: And then I just I scrolled.
SPEAKER_01: Um I found one from the New King James Version.
SPEAKER_01: And I went, that is what I'm looking for.
SPEAKER_01: And like their bow, they have bent their tongues for lies.
SPEAKER_01: They are not valiant for the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And I went, we can go home now.
SPEAKER_01: They're not valiant for the truth.
SPEAKER_01: It captures something that God's perspective captures something for me that I went, that's true of all of us.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, if you were asked, is the Bible God's word?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: You go, yes.
SPEAKER_01: Is God's word true?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's the only way you get in here.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm only kidding.
SPEAKER_01: No, but yeah, God's word, of course, is true.
SPEAKER_01: Are you valiant for the truth?
SPEAKER_01: Now, there's two ways you can be valiant for the truth.
SPEAKER_01: When your ideas, when your feelings, when your habits, all those things, when those things are really set, when they conflict with the clear teaching of Scripture, who wins?
SPEAKER_01: How valiant are you for the truth?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I've always thought this, but oh this is what God says.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you have to fight to believe what God shows you.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we we can't brainwash ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Well, in a way, we can't.
SPEAKER_01: We can't just get rid of our thinking.
SPEAKER_01: But when there's a conflict between our best ideas and God's ideas, who wins?
SPEAKER_01: When you're valiant for the truth, you go, God, I know what you're saying is true.
SPEAKER_01: I yield, would you teach me your truth?
SPEAKER_01: I repent and I surrender that and help me think better.
SPEAKER_01: Think more truly.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it is to be valiant for the truth.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, of course, a lot of people might take that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's go protest.
SPEAKER_01: Pray about that.
SPEAKER_01: You can be valiant for the truth in a whole bunch of ways, but it always starts personally.
SPEAKER_01: It always starts personally.
SPEAKER_01: Because guess what happens when you're valiant for the truth?
SPEAKER_01: You stop moving from evil to evil for iniquity to iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: When you're more valiant for the truth, what happens?
SPEAKER_01: You get to know him.
SPEAKER_01: This is not an intellectual exercise.
SPEAKER_01: There are a lot of uh theologians.
SPEAKER_01: They they know about the truth, they can tell you all about the truth, but they don't know him.
SPEAKER_01: Pharisees were like that.
SPEAKER_01: They knew a lot, but they didn't know him.
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, when I grow up, I want to be valiant for the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm gonna show you.
SPEAKER_01: I almost said raise your hands, but that would be embarrassing.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I want to be valiant for the truth.
SPEAKER_01: I would want to know how to become valiant for the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Because you can't just decide to do it.
SPEAKER_01: Though prophetic, I can be very practical.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be practical.
SPEAKER_01: Number one be a discerning critical thinker.
SPEAKER_01: Not a cynic, but someone who's discerning, a critical thinker.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, back in my days when I used to teach philosophy at universities, um, I used to teach this thing on critical thinking, and what we would do is bring up current commercials, and everybody look at the commercial and I'd say, okay, what's their message?
SPEAKER_01: What are they trying to sell you?
SPEAKER_01: And is what they're is their message actually true?
SPEAKER_01: And back in the day when the Corvette was a real muscle car, it didn't just look like a muscle car, Corvette, it really was a muscle car.
SPEAKER_01: There was this ad, beautiful red muscle car, Corvette, and there is this.
SPEAKER_01: I can't even do the pose, but she's just a beautiful lady.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I've just destroyed your ideas of what a beautiful lady looks like.
SPEAKER_01: And so the idea is every every guy who's got any testosterone will go, if I get the car, I'm gonna get the girl.
SPEAKER_01: That that's the association.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not what happens usually, right?
SPEAKER_01: So this is what I'm hearing, is it true?
SPEAKER_01: Or I'm not so sure that's the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I can just do a little digging.
SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a really good idea.
SPEAKER_01: It's a really good idea.
SPEAKER_01: Just, you know what I do?
SPEAKER_01: I like to keep up with the news, but I, you know, I can get all.
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people, they take little snippets of what someone said and say, C, they're a jerk.
SPEAKER_01: C, they're evil, see, they're racist, see, they're whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm without jumping, I go, when did this happen?
SPEAKER_01: Where it was?
SPEAKER_01: And I'll go to YouTube and I'll see the whole context.
SPEAKER_01: And I can't tell you how many times I see the whole context, and I'll go, what they said, he said he didn't say.
SPEAKER_01: And all it requires is be a discerning critical thinker.
SPEAKER_01: And ask, is this true?
SPEAKER_01: In Acts chapter 17, verse 11, um Paul had just been to Thessalonica, and they just gave him a tough time.
SPEAKER_01: He preached and they probably threw things at him.
SPEAKER_01: And so he went to Berea, and scripture says, and the Bereans were of no were of more noble character than the Thessalonicans.
SPEAKER_01: What made them noble?
SPEAKER_01: They cheerfully received what Paul said, and then they checked it out on their own.
SPEAKER_01: Be a discerning, critical thinker.
SPEAKER_01: Not just of what comes your way, but what's running around in your head.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay to say, here, nice example.
SPEAKER_01: I wish Becky was here, my wife.
SPEAKER_01: But early on, you know, I can be intense, especially when I'm thinking about something.
SPEAKER_01: And for like a couple years, she used to think that I was angry.
SPEAKER_01: Are you angry with me?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Are you angry with me?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you're just really intense.
SPEAKER_01: And my dad joke was, I'm not intense.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in our living room.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, get it?
SPEAKER_01: Come on, guys.
SPEAKER_01: That was good.
SPEAKER_01: It was good.
SPEAKER_01: My daughter's sitting there going, I can't tell you how many times I've heard that.
SPEAKER_01: But guess what?
SPEAKER_01: She was incorrect in her interpretation of my behavior.
SPEAKER_01: Gosh, that that's that's like great marriage counseling.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, you get the idea.
SPEAKER_01: Be a discerning critical thinker.
SPEAKER_01: Second one is I am not telling you to be some super duper theologian.
SPEAKER_01: I think theologians are great.
SPEAKER_01: Some.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm saying is, immerse yourself in scripture.
SPEAKER_01: How do you immerse yourself?
SPEAKER_01: Well, why do we have scripture?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus in John chapter 5, 39, 40, somewhere around there, he's talking to the Pharisees, says, You study the scripture and you think by doing so you have eternal life, but these scriptures talk about me and you don't come to me.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say, stop studying scripture.
SPEAKER_01: But he's going, you're going at scripture as if you can master this thing.
SPEAKER_01: If you just go after scripture with the idea that it'll connect you to me, then you are engaging scripture in the right way.
SPEAKER_01: It's incredible.
SPEAKER_01: What a move.
SPEAKER_01: Why would you want to do this?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the Bible has got power.
SPEAKER_01: Just look, um, you don't have to write any of this down.
SPEAKER_01: In Hebrews chapter 4, God talks about the word of God has power to expose stuff in our souls and in our mind, or disrupt certain things in our soul and our mind.
SPEAKER_01: And it can actually change how we think.
SPEAKER_01: Am I the only one who's sitting there going, love your enemy, and immediately an enemy comes up?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Biblical truth, handled correctly, will set you free.
SPEAKER_01: Where freedom is a matter of to the extent that we actually know God and obey God, then we're really free.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said in John chapter 9, if you take my words, if you take my teaching and put them into practice, when you put them into practice, then you're a disciple, not simply a believer, then you're a disciple, and then you'll know the truth, meaning you'll experience the truth the way it's supposed to be experienced, and the truth will set you free.
SPEAKER_01: How many times have you had to forgive someone?
SPEAKER_01: And you go, Yeah, in the name of Jesus, I forgive them as Jesus forgiven me.
SPEAKER_01: And next time you see them, you're figuring out where to bury the body.
SPEAKER_01: You're just mad.
SPEAKER_01: You're just reminded of what they did and all that sort of stuff, right?
SPEAKER_01: But what you do is go, in the name of Jesus, I forgive them.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe a month later you go, you see them, and you're not mad, but you just wish they had not been born.
SPEAKER_01: And you go, Lord, in the name of Jesus, forgive them.
SPEAKER_01: And then give it a couple more months, and you're sitting there.
SPEAKER_01: Their sin against you and the pain it caused no longer rules you or influences you.
SPEAKER_01: You can remember it.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what you can do?
SPEAKER_01: You can go, Lord, may my path never intersect with his.
SPEAKER_01: But Lord, would you please bless that guy?
SPEAKER_01: Would you have mercy on that guy?
SPEAKER_01: May you not hold what he did to me against him?
SPEAKER_01: Do you know sometimes you have to put things into practice, something you know that Jesus said, and there's like a tipping point where you go, oh, this is what it is to be free.
SPEAKER_01: It's also a key to victory.
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, we all have promises.
SPEAKER_01: This church has got a great promise.
SPEAKER_01: And how do you do that?
SPEAKER_01: Double down on your commitment, on your knowledge of Scripture, double down on it, and then recommit to its authority over all competitors.
SPEAKER_01: This is exactly what God told Joshua in chapter 1, verse 7 through 9.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Listen, just really double down on the truth now, get it settled now so that when you go into the promised land, you'll be able to be victorious and you'll be prosperous.
SPEAKER_01: Why did God prepare them before the battle?
SPEAKER_01: Because when they went into battle, there are a whole bunch of tribes who are very well established with very strong ideologies.
SPEAKER_01: It would be very competitive.
SPEAKER_01: So many people have said this one way or other.
SPEAKER_01: They don't like what I'm saying, and I understand it.
SPEAKER_01: So, you just want us to brainwash ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And over the years, I've been able to go.
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
SPEAKER_01: Because the issue is not whether or not you're brainwashed.
SPEAKER_01: The issue is what do you wash your brain with?
SPEAKER_01: Do you wash your brain with your opinions, your lived experiences?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying we get rid of them, wash our brain according to the cultural trends.
SPEAKER_01: Do we wash our brains with that?
SPEAKER_01: Or over time, do I wash our brains with the truth of God's word?
SPEAKER_01: To the extent that we start doing it, we won't be religious people.
SPEAKER_01: What we'll be doing, walking in greater freedom.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the third one.
SPEAKER_01: Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a command to be charismatic.
SPEAKER_01: Do the happy dance and beller in tongues at Walmart.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what this means.
SPEAKER_01: In Ephesians chapter 5, be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It is a command to every believer.
SPEAKER_01: What it involves is choosing to be surrendered to the person in various ministries of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Why would God want that?
SPEAKER_01: Why would God command all believers to be surrendered to the Holy Spirit as a lifestyle?
SPEAKER_01: Why would he do that?
SPEAKER_01: Here's one reason.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth.
SPEAKER_01: This is a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say the Holy Spirit points to the truth.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, here's the truth.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit will lead us into the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Where the truth, where our lives engage with what's true instead of just observing the truth.
SPEAKER_01: This is a very Middle East concept, but the Holy Spirit leads us into the truth where the truth is, it makes a difference.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit makes Scripture come alive.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit shows us where his way and our way conflict.
SPEAKER_01: We won't know we're in sin or compromise unless the Holy Spirit shows us.
SPEAKER_01: Another reason why God wants us to be filled is we find in Acts chapter 1, verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you'll receive power and you'll be my witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: Now the word witness comes from the Greek word martyria, where we get martyr.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine being invited to a Bible study?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, we're gonna have a Holy Ghost party.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit's gonna come down on us and we'll have the power to get killed.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't that be great?
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't that just be fun?
SPEAKER_01: We get to die.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of look?
SPEAKER_01: This is a way to get more patience.
SPEAKER_01: Open it up, and the people who show up will refer them to you because they need some help, right?
SPEAKER_01: The word martyr is a little different.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus is saying here, watch this.
SPEAKER_01: When someone is a martyr, they have a relationship to the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Where like what's true, what they know to be true, people are joined to it.
SPEAKER_01: They're bound to it.
SPEAKER_01: There's not this, oh, I believe in Jesus mostly when it's convenient.
SPEAKER_01: It's like I know Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I know Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And nobody can put me off that.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize when someone has that relationship with the truth?
SPEAKER_01: Who can stop them?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever been joined to the truth?
SPEAKER_01: Bound to what you know to be true in such a way like I have supernatural courage.
SPEAKER_01: One of the reasons I'm sharing this is elections are coming up.
SPEAKER_01: Get strong now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not telling you who to vote for.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of tumult.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to lend uh end with two things.
SPEAKER_01: And what I'm what I'm gonna say is radical, might be offensive to some of you, but I'm your opportunity to walk in love.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the truth.
SPEAKER_01: We really can't know the truth the way it's supposed to be known without the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We can't.
SPEAKER_01: You can't know that Jesus is the Messiah and He's God.
SPEAKER_01: You can't know that unless the Holy Spirit turns on the light and makes it real to us.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, it's just something that we know about.
SPEAKER_01: We can't know the truth without the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We can be valiant for our deeply held convictions, but we cannot be valiant for God's truth and our own strength.
SPEAKER_01: That's why God says, be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He'll lead you in all truth.
SPEAKER_01: And the truth that God wants you to know, He'll join you to it, and nothing can stop you.
SPEAKER_01: There's another reason.
SPEAKER_01: In Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 47, in the NIV, I don't know what's up here.
SPEAKER_01: God is talking about his own words.
SPEAKER_01: These are not idle words.
SPEAKER_01: They are your life.
SPEAKER_01: Not this is about life.
SPEAKER_01: They are your life.
SPEAKER_01: By them you will live long in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.
SPEAKER_01: This is not just new information.
SPEAKER_01: These words are life to us.
SPEAKER_01: That's God's perspective.
SPEAKER_01: And the other reason is Easter's coming.
SPEAKER_01: We're believers.
SPEAKER_01: Easter's coming.
SPEAKER_01: You know how many times we endure Easter?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know Jesus, he did this and this, and there's this story, isn't this good?
SPEAKER_01: You know, where's the Easter bunny?
SPEAKER_01: You know, stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: One of the most incredible stories in the history of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, he came, he was sent by the Father, and he invaded the world, did really great stuff, then he was murdered for our sins, raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you can know about that and be absolutely untransformed.
SPEAKER_01: You can know about that and go, well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I know that.
SPEAKER_01: But wouldn't it be better to prepare for these next few weeks, going, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_01: I'd like you to refresh what I know about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Make the story come alive in me so it transforms me, where it revives me.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to pray for us.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for letting me go long, but you can wait another year.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I speak on behalf of us.
SPEAKER_01: Would you help us be valiant for the truth in our own lives?
SPEAKER_01: Help us to be valiant for the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And God, would you fill us not just now, but start a season of filling us with your Holy Spirit so we can have experiences, but so that we could be led into the truth in such a way that we're joined to it.
SPEAKER_01: We're transformed.
SPEAKER_01: God, would you do that for our sake?
SPEAKER_01: Would you do that for the sake of the people that you entrust to us?
SPEAKER_01: And would you do that for the sake of your name that we carry with us wherever we go?
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Mana Church Stafford Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like to connect with us, you can find us on the web at manastafford.church or download the Mana Church app to listen to our new episodes as they become available.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure to subscribe to our podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We would also love to meet you in person.
SPEAKER_00: If you are local, our services take place each Sunday at 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: We pray you have an amazing week and we'll see you next time.