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God, thank you that we're gathered together this morning. Thank you for the sweet time that we've already had, just worshiping in song and reflecting on your goodness and your grace. God, thank you that the words that we have sung are true. That your grace is more. Thank you that you have forgiven us. Thank you for the hope that we have in you. Thank you for the truth that is in you. Lord, what we're asking this morning is that you would help us to have hearts that are open to you. God, we're asking that you would help us to be in a space ready to hear from your word and from your Holy Spirit, who is here with us and amongst us. And so we're just asking that as I speak and as you lead us through this time, that you would be honored and glorified. Thank you. Amen. I don't know if you've ever had the experience of believing something, as in setting your heart and your mind and saying, yes, this is the way that it is, only to find out later on that you were wrong. That the thing that you had believed was true was actually a lie. That your belief was based on an error of thought. The truth that you thought you knew was actually a lie. The path that you thought was correct was incorrect. It's a horrible experience. It's like the rug's been pulled out from underneath you. I don't know if you've uh you're familiar with the story of Prince Caspian. It's one of the chronicles of Narnia, written by C.S. Lewis. But in that particular story, there's this scene where the four main heroes that are four children, brothers and sisters, two boys, two girls, they're taken from our world to the fantasy world of Narnia. And as they go there, it's fiction, obviously. Uh so as they go there, they're taken to this place, but they're trying to meet up with this group of people who need them that are on the other side of the country, right? And so they're trying to make their way to them, but they get incredibly lost in the process. And as they're lost, they come to this point of decision where there's a couple of paths in front of them, and they're debating back and forth which is the right way to go. And so as they're there, Lucy, the youngest of the children, she gets this glimpse, just a glimpse, of Aslan. Aslan is the hero figure. Again, if you're not familiar, he is the God-type figure, the supernatural being in this story. He is a lion. And she gets this glimpse of Aslan, the lion, pointing her in the direction that they should go. And she says, Hey guys, I just saw Aslan. We need to go this way. And they're like, uh, what? We don't see Aslan. And they so they're like, hey, that path actually looks harder. This one down here looks easier. And so they go back and forth, they put it to a vote, and they decide to go down the easier-looking path. And so they venture on down this path too much protesting from Lucy, who is very upset. She's like, hey guys, why won't you believe me? Why don't you, why won't you come the way that I'm telling you? She's upset. They go down this path, it goes on for quite a time, and it seems easy, it seems good, it seems right, until all of a sudden they're sabotaged and there's arrows flying all around them. And so they go scurrying on their uh on their bellies back up the hill, and then they start the long trudge all the way back to that point that Lucy had pointed out, so that they can be on the right path. And what we see in this story, and what we're going to see in the text today, is the importance of having a rightly placed belief. You see, right beliefs lead to prosperity, wrong beliefs lead to ultimately death. And we need to weigh very carefully what we are believing in because what we believe leads to the direction that we go with our lives, which ultimately leads to the whole purpose of our lives. We have to believe the right things, otherwise, we're gonna be in a world of hurt. And Jesus is trying to explain that in this text that we're gonna look at today to the people that he's interacting with. So I'm gonna ask you to turn to John chapter 8 with me. We've been journeying through John, and it in some ways it feels like it's been quick, in another ways it feels like it's been slow, because I don't know about you, but we've been going since you know the start of the school year in John, and we're only up to chapter 8. But in preparing the message today, I'm like, man, we are covering so much ground. We're going verse 21 through 59 today, and so there's so much that we could and should say about each of these passages. So that's what we're doing. We're going through John. Where we're up to in John, we're talking through some of the I am statements. As you can see on our graphics on the slides, we're talking about I am statements because in this part of John, Jesus has been making these incredible statements. He's saying things like, I am the bread of life, or the one that we looked at last week, I am the light of the world. Now, if you're a normal person, you do not say things like that, right? You're either trying to fool a bunch of people, you're seriously crazy, or you are exactly who you say you are. And so Jesus is making these incredible statements of saying, I am things like the light of the world. Now, the scene for where we're up to is Jesus is in the temple complex in Jerusalem at a very busy time of year. It's at the back end of the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths, which is when all of the population of Israel would descend on Jerusalem to celebrate this festival together. So you've got to imagine that the city, that there's a lot of people hustling and bustling around the city, and specifically in the temple where Jesus is. And there he is, talking to the crowds, talking to the Pharisees who are kind of arguing with him, and that's the scene that we pick up on this morning. As we go into the text, we're gonna hear a couple of things. One thing that I specifically point to, don't want to assume that you all know who Abraham is. Abraham's gonna be brought up in the text today. Abraham is to a Jew the most important person. He is the father of fathers, he is the patriarch of the Jewish faith, okay? And so when we hear Abraham in this story, just know that that is somebody who is hugely respected by these people that Jesus is interacting with, okay? Let's jump in. Verse 21. Then he said to them again, I'm going away, you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I'm going, you cannot come. So the Jews said again, He won't kill himself, will he? Since he says, Where I'm going you cannot come. You are from below, he told them, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. Who are you? They questioned. Precisely what I've been telling you from the very beginning, Jesus told them. I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him, these things I tell the world. They did not know he was speaking to them about the Father, as in God the Father. So Jesus said to them, When you lift up, talking about his crucifixion, the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own. Just but just as the Father taught me, I say these things, the one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him. As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. We are descendants of Abraham, they answered him, and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say you will be become free? Jesus responded, I assure you, everyone who commits a sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever. Therefore, if the son sets you free, you really will be free. Now we're going to jump down to verse 43, but just to give you a little overview of what happens there, this heated discussion starts between the people here and Jesus because he's basically saying to them, Hey, you claim that Abraham is your father, but he he really isn't your father. You're nothing like Abraham. Your hearts are nothing like Abraham. And they're like, hey, we're we're legitimate children of Abraham. And so we pick up in verse 43, Jesus is speaking again, and he says, This, why don't you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to my word. You are your sorry, you are of your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of liars. Yet because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Who among you can convict me of sin? If I tell you the truth, why don't you believe me? The one who is from God listened to God's word listens to God's words. This is why you don't listen, because you are not from God. Well, that really riles them up. If you look onto the next verse, what they say next is, Aren't you a Samaritan? Don't you have a demon? And really, I mean, that's basically as offensive as they can say anything. Like they're mad at Jesus at this point. But he goes on to point out to them again, and he says, Hey, no, you don't understand. You do not have hearts like this patriarch Abraham that you keep claiming is your father. And he's saying, No, you don't understand, you're not understanding that what's really going on is that Abraham had a heart where he saw me, he understood who I was, he understood this need for me and for my the truth that I was going to bring. And that really sets them off. Jump down to verse 57 with me. It says there, the Jews replied, You aren't fifty years old yet, and you've seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, I assure you, before Abraham was, I am. At that they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple complex. Pretty intense, right? There's so much in this text, so much, so many things that we could dive into, but really what I wanted to do this morning was to jump straight to what I perceive in this text to be the greatest problem. You see, as I read this text and as I was studying this text, after a couple of reads, this thing kind of started to pop out to me. Maybe you already saw it, maybe you're a little bit quicker than me. But uh, this there's this problem right in the middle of the passage. And the problem looks like this. If you go to verse 30, what you'll read there in verse 30, it says, as he was saying these things, many believed in him. I read that and I'm like, yeah, that's good. Awesome. People are believing in Jesus, great. I'm excited for that. But if you read on what happens next, that's where the problem starts to set in. Because what it tells us in verse 31 is this. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, so he's addressing specifically who? The Jews who had believed in him. And he says, if you continue in my word, you really are my disciples, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Great passage, by the way. We're going to look at that some more. But who is he speaking to? He's speaking to these people who have believed in him. Go on to verse 33 with me. And that's where the where the problem really starts to rub. Because I, when I've always read this, I've wanted to imply that Jesus is talking to those who believed in him. And then he's like, back to these people who don't really like him and don't believe in him and don't agree with him. And they're like, Well, we're Abraham's sons. But if you look at the text and what it says, it says this we are descendants of Abraham. The argument starts. They answered him. Who is they? They are the people that believed in him. And it goes on and says, and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say you will become free? So what I have to what this text is trying to say to me is that these Jews who believed in him, that they're actually arguing with Jesus. And if we follow it to its logical conclusion, what we see is the same people who move from these same people move from belief to anger to wanting to pick up stones to kill Jesus. And as I look at that, I'm like, what is going on? Now, I I looked up some commentaries, and the commentary I found the most helpful from a guy that I really respect, he outlined five different ways that people have tried to resolve this text. Different, like, you know, means of kind of working around what was going on and saying, well, maybe this was happening or maybe that was happening. And he and he he just pokes holes in all of these five views. He says, none of these hold water. What we have to do is look at this text and actually take it at face value. That we have to look at the text and see what it's saying. What it's saying is that there were people who had the forms of belief, as in they look like they believe, but they didn't have the function of belief. That there were people who started to move towards belief but didn't really believe in Jesus. What they were actually believing, if we would say the problem succinctly, is they were believing lies. Specifically, the lies that they're believing are these. The obvious areas that we can see, obvious not to them, obviously, uh, but the obvious areas to us. I'll see how many times I can say that in one sentence. Uh in verse 33 is there that they believed that their lineage made them special. They're there and they're like, we are Abraham's sons. You know, doesn't that make us doesn't that count for something? Doesn't that make us special? That's a lie. It's not your DNA that makes you special to God or forgiven in God's sight. That isn't what makes you special. That's a lie. The second lie that they believe is that they are free. They're like, we're never, we've never been enslaved to anyone. And and Jesus comes straight back at them and says, hey guys, if you struggle with sin, you are enslaved to sin. So the question I think that's obvious that we need to ask is why? Why were they struggling? And let's open this up. Why do we struggle with being blinded by lies? Because essentially they're being blinded to the truth. Why do they, why do we struggle with lies? Well, a couple of quick reasons. Firstly, we live in a world that is incredibly full of lies. This world in which we live, which was perfect, if you read Genesis 1 and 2 of the Bible, it'll give you a description of a perfect world that was then distorted by sin. And when sin came in and distorted this world, this world was filled with all sorts of lies. You guys know what I'm talking about. You live in this world. There's lies that say you must do this to be happy. You must look like that. You can't do this, you can do that. All of these lies from this external source that are bombarding us all of the time. But that's not the only reason that we struggle. The second reason that we struggle is that we live inside of these bodies that are susceptible to infection by lies. These bodies in which we live, Christian, non-Christian alike, we both struggle with these broken and fallen bodies. There are things that we crave, there are things that we desire that we are tempted by, and they're all hollow lies. If only I had that, I would be satisfied. Why? We prove this every time we eat, right? You eat a meal, you're like, if I just had some food, I'd be happy. A couple of hours later, you're grumpy again, right? It happens. I'm speaking the truth of myself here. It's true. We all struggle with lies, but the main reason that we struggle with lies, yes, there is this world, yes, we are in these fallen bodies, but the main reason that we struggle with lies is because there is an enemy who is the instigator of all of these lies. We are told that he is this enemy who seeks to devour us. His name is Satan, the devil. You know, we've got all these words that we use for him. We don't actually in modern Western American church talk about Satan a lot. But the passage today actually contains one of the best definitions in the Bible of who Satan is and how he operates. And I want to take you back there because if we're going to talk about lies and the truth, we have to understand the source of these lies. Look back with me to verse 44. What does it say there about Satan? It says, You are the father, sorry, you are of your father, the devil, and you want to carry out the fat your father's desires. This is a description of Satan here. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth. Because hear this: there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature because he is a liar and the father of lies. Satan is evil, he is the father of lies and the father of liars. What that means is that he is the source of lies. That's why we all struggle, is because we're all exposed to all these insidious lies that Satan is perpetually bombarding us with. And so, what I want for us to see is the reality that we all battle with lies because of Satan, and they blind us to the truth. That's what a lie does, it blinds you to the truth. I've got a silly example of that. A number of years ago, I was on a trip with my dad, and uh we we stopped at this place to eat, this kind of diner type place. And somewhere in the process of being there at that restaurant, I lost a $50 note, a $50 bill. And I was really, I didn't realize it actually till a couple of hours later, looking through my wallet, and I'm like, I'm missing $50. I'm a college student at the time. It meant a lot to me, right? It still would actually. Uh so anyway, I was upset. I was frustrated. And so I'm like, I'm pretty sure I lost that at the um that restaurant we were at. So dad and I went back to this restaurant and we talked to the waitress, and she's like, nope, haven't seen it. Immediately, my head, I'm like, you took it. I'm like, I'm like, this lady has taken my money. I bet she does this all the time. Like, I'm projecting all of this stuff onto her, right? I don't know if you got, I'm just being honest here. I did all of this. I'm projecting all of this onto her. And then uh, so I I leave the place, so I'm frustrated, we went on with the rest of our day. We stayed somewhere nearby that night, and then we went back past, and my dad was like, let's just go back past one more time, see if anything showed up the next morning. Wisdom of a father, right? And so we go back past and we go in, and the guy who was working there that day was like, actually, yeah, we were counting up the till last night, and we had $50 extra. Here you go. And he handed me the $50. In that moment, all of a sudden, I felt so convicted for all of these things that I'd projected onto this lady who had served us. I had painted this horrible picture of her. I had believed lies about her and been blinded to the truth that it was my own stupidity that had lost the money. A lie blinds you. It's so sneaky, it's so like insidious the way that it works and blinds us. And that's a silly example, but that's the way that they all operate. Lies blind us and they take so many forms. The lie that the people in the text were blinded by was that they were important, Abraham's sons, and that they didn't need freeing. We're free people. What are you talking about? We're constant constantly bombarded by lies too, and they sound like all sorts of different things. Often they sound very negative. I'll give you some quick examples. You're useless, you're insignificant, you're lazy, you're ugly, you're unwanted, you're unliked, you're worthless. I could go on. Why do lies often sound like that? Well, let's go back to the source again. Satan. What's another name for Satan? He is what? The accuser. That makes perfect sense. That's why lies sound like that, because they come from this source. Christians and non-Christians alike both struggle with lies. I don't know where you are spiritually this morning, but I would say that wherever you are spiritually, we are all in this together. We're all struggling with lies. Now, there are lies that sound a little bit different, specific to where we are spiritually. I'll give you an example of those. So if you're not a Christian, this is my opinion, by the way, but if you're not a Christian, you are battling with a lie that there is, you may be battling with a lie saying that there is no God. That's a huge area of unbelief, and I would say that that is a lie. Another lie that you may be struggling with if you're not a Christian is this one. There may be a God, but he's not interested in my life. I'd say that's a lie, that we have many proofs against that. Another lie that you may struggle with if you're not a Christian is if there is a God, he could never love me. Again, no, wrong. Like we have proof and proof again that there is nothing, nothing that can separate us from the love of Jesus. That's a lie. But Christians too struggle with lies. They may sound a little bit more like this. You're not good enough. You're not doing enough. You mustn't be a Christian, you're still sinning. That's not the way a Christian acts. That's not the way a Christian thinks. God's not good. Look at what's going on around you. How can God be good? God's not in control. Look at how chaotic your life is. These are all lies crafted and planted by Satan the accuser. So, what are we to do with these? What do we do with this thing that's going on? I guess essentially what I'm trying to say to you guys is we are in a battle. There is this ginormous, epic battle that's going on between lies and the truth. And in any battle, you have one of three ways to behave with the battle. One thing to do is to ignore it, to pretend it's not going on. You know, just picture setting up a picnic in the middle of a battlefield. It's stupid, but you can do that, right? The second option is to give up. To be like, well, the lies are just too overwhelming. I just, I can't do anything. Slump over, be depressed, give up. The third option is to stand and to fight. We must fight the lies with truth. And the thing that I'm calling us to is to fight unbelief with belief. I mean, if I could capture this message this morning, what I'm asking us to do is to fill in the gospel gaps and the gospel cracks in our lives with the good news, the truth of the gospel. I know I just used a lot of Christian language. Let me explain that. Gospel, the message, the good news, that God loves us, that He has a plan and purpose for our lives, that He sent Jesus to die for our sins. Like that is the gospel, the message of the gospel. We need to apply that truth to the areas of unbelief in our lives. Sometimes those are gospel gaps. Those are big areas of unbelief in our life. I've already given you a couple examples, but I'll come back to them. So if you believe, maybe you're struggling with this thought that there is no God, I would say that that is a canyon of unbelief. That is a big area of unbelief. Doesn't mean that God can't fill that in, but that's a big area of unbelief. Much in the same way, if you're struggling to believe that God is good, maybe you're a Christian, you're like, man, I'm really struggling to believe that God is good. Again, that is a big gap. That is a canyon of unbelief. And what I'm saying is we need God, we need to allow God to back up the cement truck of truth to these areas of unbelief and allow him to pour in the truth of the gospel until that ground is filled. But sometimes it's not a canyon of unbelief. Sometimes it's just a hairline crack. It's just this little space of unbelief. It may sound something more like this. You may be battling to believe, yeah, something like this. God and I are good because I made a real effort this week to have a quiet time. Now that sounds okay, kind of, but there is a lie in there. The lie is that God loves me more or less based on my performance. That's a dirty little hairline crack that needs filling with the good news and the truth of the gospel. What I'm essentially saying is this in big lives and in small lives, we need to allow God to pour in truth and to fill in our unbelief. But the problem is we can't and we don't. Oftentimes we can't and we don't. When we're struggling with a lie, we don't even know how to identify it or how to deal with it. I may believe the lie, I've picked on this one several times. Forgive me for that. But I may believe the lie that God is not good. I have some friends that are struggling and some relatives that are struggling with this lie right now. And in that unbelief, the way it fleshes itself out is I'm depressed and I'm angry and short with my kids. Okay? Let's get real practical here. And all that I can see is my depression and my anger. And as I'm struggling with that, I don't even know that there's a lie underneath all of this that's fueling all of this. And so what I would do in that circumstance is maybe slump in defeat or to battle it out in behavior modification. But neither of those things need to be done. What needs to happen is the light of the gospel, the truth that we talked about last week, needs to shine brightly on this area of unbelief, and we need to allow the Holy Spirit to bring truth to that area. As Jesus said, if you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. We need to be free. But the obvious question now is, what is truth? You're not the first people to ask that, right? Even Jesus, when he's in front of Pilate, about to be go to the cross, we're going to come up to this in John 18. He's standing there, and Jesus says, Hey, you know, he's saying several things about himself, including saying that I'm the truth. Pilate picks up on that and says, What is truth? It's a big question. Yes, but hard to answer. I'd say with some timidity, no. Because of God's word, which shows us things like this. I keep coming back to this verse, but I love it. John 14, 6. What does Jesus say? It's so succinct and awesome. It says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. What is truth? Jesus is truth. Jesus, you see, Jesus' life, specifically his words, his actions, his miracles, have been pointing us towards the fact that he is the truth. All that Jesus has been doing in the book of John is pointing us towards the fact that Jesus is the truth. Throughout the passage, even today, Jesus has been pointing to us towards the fact that he is different. He said, I am different. I am, you know, who can accuse me of sin? I am sinless. I am not of this world. I am the key to your freedom. I am greater than anyone, including the most important person from your history, Abraham. And all of these thoughts that Jesus, all this truth is kind of bundled up in these I am statements that Jesus is making. And they pair up beautifully with some of the ones that we've already studied, like I am the bread of life or I am the light of the world. One of the uh uh dictionaries that I was looking at on biblical imagery put it like this. Together, all of these I am statements indicate the fullness of Jesus' divine identity and the and of his saving significance. What I'm saying is that Jesus is truth and his life proves that. But how did Jesus defeat the lies and ultimately prove that he is truth? Hear this. If you don't hear a lot else of what I say today, hear this. Jesus went to the cross to disprove every single lie that the enemy had been preaching since the garden. The cross is the ultimate proof that Jesus is the truth. Liz and I have started going through this devotion with our kids. It's written by Sally Lloyd Jones, who is the author of the Jesus Storybook Bible, who is, which is an incredible resource. Very gospel, Jesus centered, okay? And so we'd encourage you if you want to check this out, it's worth a read. The other day we were reading, and Liz and I were both moved emotionally by what was read in this, we read to the kids, and I want to read it to you because it's right in line what we're talking about today. I'm just reading with you some of these words talking about Jesus. It says this the words God wants us to remember are just three small ones. I love you. They are the words that stop the terrible lie that Satan whispered to Eve in the garden. God doesn't love you. They are the words that heal the poison in our hearts that stops us from trusting God's. They are the words that Jesus came to tell us with his whole life. They are the words he died to prove. Jesus is God incarnate, proving his unfathomable love. He is truth, his words are true. Both his life and his death prove him to be true. And there's only one way for us to stop floundering in the sea of unbelief. You know, if if you are not looking to Jesus as the source of truth, as the source of meaning in your life, you are floundering. And there's only one way to stop floundering in the sea of unbelief, and that is to fix our eyes on Jesus, the truth. As Hebrews 12 puts it so beautifully, it says that there that we are to fix our eyes on Jesus as in put them there and do not move them, who is Jesus who is the author, as in the instigator, the starter of our faith, but also the perfecter of our faith, the one who helps us work out what it means to be a Christian. What do we call someone who fixes their eyes on Jesus? If that's the call, for us to fix our eyes on Jesus, to look unswervingly at Jesus, what do you call someone who does that? A disciple. A disciple. We've been talking about discipleship here as a church for the last six months, specific well, much longer than that, but very specifically in the last six months. And as a church, we've defined a disciple as a person who increasingly knows Jesus, believes in him, and glorifies him through obedience to his word. Essentially, what we've said is a disciple knows, believes, and obeys. Did we pick, you know, just pluck this definition from thin air? No. We looked at the Bible and said, God, what does your word have to say about being a disciple? And one of the passages we spent the most time in was John chapter 8, this very verse that we're looking at here, this one that says, If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. The call as disciples is for us to know the truth about Jesus, to believe the truth about Jesus, and to obey the words of truth from Jesus. And what we see, going back to this crowd of people that Jesus is engaging with, is we see, I think, just the startings of them to move towards belief. What they do is they're like, oh, I hear what Jesus is saying. I think I know what he's saying, and I think I believe in him. But as Jesus talks with them further in this verse that we just read and the verses that follow, what we see is they're like, hold on, wait a minute. You're asking me to really believe, and you're asking me to change, to obey, to change my life. They're like, I'm not signing up for that. That's not for me. The crowd was not willing to move on in belief and obedience. They just had some of, again, the forms of belief without the function of belief. The importance of discipleship comes down to a key word that is in this passage. If we are going to be disciples, we must do something that is in this passage. It says that if you continue in my word. That word continue can be translated to also mean abide. If you read in the NASB or the ESV, that's what it says. Abide. If you abide in me, you are my disciples. That's an older, but I would say better word because the word abide means to be intimate, to be close, to be right next to, inseparable from. That is the call, is for us to abide in Christ, to abide in the truth. But I've got to ask the question again, how? How do we do that? I mean, it's great that Jesus came to save us. It's great that we can look to him, but I don't know about you. My life has proved to me that my eyes tend to drop, that my gaze isn't always fixed. So how do we live a life where we abide with Christ? Thankfully, God doesn't just give us Jesus. He also gives us this other incredible gift known as the Holy Spirit. God gives us his spirit in John 16, among other verses, in verse 13, it defines the Spirit as, the Holy Spirit as the what? The Spirit of truth. Read it with me, verse 13. It says this of John 16, I think it's up here. Yep. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. I love the way the Holy Spirit is described. The Spirit of Truth is one of his names. Another name for the Holy Spirit is that he is the advocate. The advocate. What does that mean? Well, if you look up that word in the Greek, advocate, what it means is the one called alongside to help, counsel, or protect. That is the role of the Holy Spirit. He helps us, he counsels us, and he protects us. You see, the Holy Spirit stirs our hearts to repent and to believe for salvation. One of the works of the Holy Spirit is that before we know Jesus, before we come to a saving faith, I don't have time to describe all of that, what that means, but if you're not a Christian here, what the Holy Spirit hopefully is doing in your heart right now is poking and prodding. Before any of us come to belief, the Holy Spirit starts to stir in us, to awaken in us a desire to know truth. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. It's mysterious and it's a beautiful thing. He's just poking on our heart, saying, Yes, listen to this. Yes, this is true, pointing us towards truth. But he doesn't just do that. The thing that is even more mysterious and more wonderful is that when we make that choice to believe in him, when we make that choice to say, God, I'm yours. No longer am I living for myself. I believe that you are truth. You have all of me. God, I want to live my life. I don't want to just know you. I want to believe you and I want to obey your word. When we make that decision for the very first time, the Holy Spirit comes inside of us and he seals us. I don't have time to go into all of that. We did a series a couple of months ago on 1 Corinthians where we talked a lot about the work of the Holy Spirit. But one of the things that he does is he seals us. And as he does this work of sealing us, he comes and takes up residence in our hearts and counsels us towards continued repentance and belief. He is our advocate and aid in the battle of lies. How cool is that? He doesn't just provide Jesus as this answer for us, he provides this Holy Spirit who prods our hearts and leads us towards repentance and belief. Now I need to make an important note here. I want to make a distinction. The Holy Spirit, at times in our lives, will speak truth to us that is very firm and strong and good. It's what we need to hear. He will bring to us what we would call conviction. Okay, so there may be times in our life that the Holy Spirit will bring a convicting truth, a hard truth, that we're like, whoa, okay, that's heavy, but that's true. That's good. Okay? That is very different. That conviction that the Holy Spirit, who is our advocate, is very different from, and we need to make this distinction, the condemnation that we can feel from the accuser who is Satan, who is our enemy. You guys see the difference there? Satan is the accuser who brings condemnation. The Holy Spirit is the advocate who brings conviction. I'll show you specifically what I mean by that. If you have a thought that runs through your heart where you're like this thought that says, I am worthless, that is a satanic lie. That is condemnation. That is not true. You are not worthless. Jesus died to prove that you are not worthless. Now, if you have a thought that says, run, you are not in a good space. Stop looking at that. Stop doing that. Do this. That can be the work of the Holy Spirit. That is conviction of the Holy Spirit. There is a very clear difference between those two things. Just wanted to note that. Jesus gives all his disciples, if you're a Christian, he gives all his disciples the spirit of truth. And we must look to and listen to the Holy Spirit who will do several things. He'll convict us of believing lies, as in he will call us to repentance. He will illuminate the truth that we must believe, and then he will encourage and enable us to abide or to continue in Christ. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. He does all three of those things. In other words, he helps us to be disciples. I don't know if you picked up on that. He helps us to know, to believe, and to obey. That's what we're talking about here. You see, God can and will use several means to point us towards truth. He will use the Holy Spirit, like we've been talking about to bring conviction. He will use his Holy Spirit to illuminate word. He will use his Holy Spirit to illuminate truths from when we're in Christian community with each other and people are pointing us towards truth. When you're in a life group and you're sharing, hey, this is what's going on, and somebody says, Hey, can I pray for you? Or can I give you some counsel on that? That is the work of the Holy Spirit, and that is the way that God intends for us to be in community together and to love and to point each other towards the truth that is in Jesus. Earlier I told you about Lucy and Aslan and the story from Narnia. And I want to pick that back up real quick because what happens next in the story is interesting also. They get back to that part where they divided the road. And they just start going on the harder path, the one that Lucy or Aslan had pointed out to them, and they start heading up on this journey. And as they continue on, they're behind schedule, they're tired, they're frustrated that they went down the wrong path. They go on, they're getting very tired, it's late into the evening, and they they just stop at this certain place and go to sleep. They're sleeping under these trees, and in the middle of the night, Lucy wakes up, and she's kind of called away from the group to this clearing, and there Aslan is, and she can see him fully this time. She goes and runs and hugs him, and there's it's actually this really cool scene where she likes sees him and it engages with him. But what happens next is interesting because Aslan says to her, he's like, Hey, earlier, why didn't you follow me? I was calling you to follow me. And she's like, Well, the others weren't willing to come. He's like, Well, that doesn't matter. You needed to come with me. And so they kind of go back and forth, and then he says, Well, actually, I'm calling you again. He's like, I need you to follow me right now, and we're gonna leave right now. And she's like, Well, what about the others? She's like, Go and tell them, but if they don't come, you need to come anyway. And so she goes back to her brothers and sister and and the companion that's with them, and they has this dialogue, and they're like, What? Wait, wait, it's the middle of the night. What are you talking about? And where's Aslan? We don't see him. The conversation continues on, and she's like, Well, I'm going, because like he's leading me, and I don't have an option. And so they're like, uh, well, well, wait, okay, we'll come with you. You we were wrong earlier, we'll believe you, but man, I don't know why we're doing this in the middle of the night, right? So they're frustrated. They end up following Lucy. And the picture is kind of cool that that Lewis paints in the book because Aslan is in front, Lucy is following, and she can fully see him, but following her is the rest of the group who cannot see Aslan. They're just following Lucy. But as the dawn starts to come, as the day starts to break, they start seeing little glimpses of Aslan as they follow Lucy until ultimately they come out into this clearing and they can fully see Aslan and they can talk with him and they can engage with him. And I love that picture because it's a picture of the Christian life. You see, we are called to follow truth even if others will not do so. Each of us individually is called to truth, even when others won't come with us. And much in the same way as Lucy, we are called to just follow whether others will go with us or not. And sometimes that's hard, especially making that first-time decision to be a Christ follower. Like that's a big deal. That's really a hard thing to do. But the picture is also beautiful because what we see is as Lucy follows, the others begin to see until they ultimately can see. And it's this beautiful picture of the Christian life because as we as Christians follow Jesus, what is gonna happen is we fix our eyes on Jesus and follow him, others around us are gonna start to see Jesus more and more and more, hopefully, until they come to a place where they see him fully and they believe him to be the truth. So, my question to you guys this morning is this what are you gonna do? You're in this epic battle between the father of lies and the father of truth. What are you gonna do about that? Are you gonna put your head in the sand and ignore it and pretend it's not happening? Are you going to sink down in defeat this morning? I really hope that isn't what you do this morning. Or are you going to fight the lies with truth? And if so, specifically speaking, what does that look like? What are the areas of struggle? What are the rub? What where's the areas of rub in your life where you're like, I'm struggling right now? Start thinking, start praying this morning and saying, God, would you show me what lies that I'm believing? There may be a hairline crack of a lie, there may be this canyon of a lie. Whatever it is, would you be open to say, God, I want to believe. God, I want to fix my eyes on you. God, would you help me by the power of your Holy Spirit to fix my eyes on you? Would you allow the Holy Spirit to be your advocate in the battle this morning? I don't know if you're a Christian or a non-Christian. But whatever place you're in, the call is the same. Believe truth today. Fix your eyes on Jesus. And I want to encourage you, whatever space you find yourself in, please see that this is a journey that we're all in. We're all in together. Please see that as we fix our eyes on Jesus, God is able to do incredible things in and through our lives. My prayer is that as we fix our eyes on Jesus, that again, as he shows us areas of unbelief, little, maybe big areas, maybe little areas, that as we turn to him and fix our eyes and say, God, give me truth in this area. I want to believe in you in this area. That as he does that, he would return, as the Psalm says, that he would return to us the joy of our salvation in those moments, in those places. My hope is that you don't feel beat down today, that you're like, whoa, I'm in this battle and I feel overwhelmed. No, rather, you would feel incredibly equipped by the fact that you can look to Jesus, who is the truth, and have the Holy Spirit come alongside you and aid you in this life. And that as you go through that process, that yes, it's not easy, but it's a beautiful one where God's Holy Spirit can bring much joy and much healing in each of our lives. Let me pray first. God, we thank you. That you were not a God that created us, and then we sinned, and you walked away. You were like, I'm done. In some ways, that make that would make a lot of sense to us. But rather, God, you decided that you were in for the fight, that you wanted to continue to pursue us. That even though there were lies of Satan coming against all of your creation, that you wanted to fight against those lies and prove those lies to be untrue, unfounded, thank you that not just your life proved that, thank you that you going to the cross was the ultimate proof of that. And so, God, I just pray that specifically, as all of us are sitting here this morning, that you would show to each of us the areas of unbelief in our lives. God, for some of us, that may be some pretty big things, overwhelming things. For others, it may be sneaky little things. But whatever it is, God, I pray that you would work on our hearts in these next few moments, these next few days, these next few weeks, this year, God, would you work in our hearts to help us to fix our eyes on you? God, in our own strength, we cannot do that. But this morning we're saying together, God, help us to look to you. God, bring healing in these areas of unbelief. Bring truth to these areas of unbelief. And in that, would you be glorified in each and every one of our lives, God. Thank you that you hear this prayer this morning. God, as we have time to reflect and respond now, I pray that you would help us to do that in a way that honors you. Thank you. Amen.