I Am (Part 2)

**This transcript is AI-generated and may contain transcription errors. Please verify all content by listening to the message.

Today we're going to be continuing in our series, I Am, which is a three part series. Travis kicked it off last week for us unpacking the first part of the of this series, which was I Am the Way.

And I think it's really important to do something that Travis did last week as we go throughout this series every time, because it helps us understand when we read Scripture in its truest context. And so when we're in John 14 today, specifically looking at this particular I am statement, what it's gonna be helpful to do is to remember that whenever he says to them, I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me, the context in which he's speaking to them too. And so John chapter 14 is what a lot of the theologians agree is called the upper room discourse. Because what was happening in John 14 is basically, the disciples are scared, they're confused. They're in this upper room having a conversation with Jesus, one of the last conversations of his earthly ministry.

And he's basically told him, like, things are about to change. There's gonna be some things that take place and they're gonna happen, and I'm not always going to be right here in the way that you know it. And so the disciples do probably what you and I would do in that situation as well. And they start to ask questions. A guy named Thomas pipes up and he's like, well, what do you mean, where are you going?

So we can just go with you? And he's scared and he's confused. And when Jesus is saying, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. It's not in this, like, bold declaring Domine. It's in almost as a dad would speak to his children, like, hey, it's okay.

This is actually better for you. And you can see that Thomas, along with the rest of the disciples, they're actually confused about what he means by this because he says, well, where are you going so we can go with you? Meaning he was looking for a destination or an address. And ultimately, like Travis laid out last week, we see that Jesus says, no, no, I am the way. And today we have the opportunity to look at the truth.

And whenever Ted texted me, I got a text a few months back that said this. He said, hey, Lane, would you be able to speak on August 16th on the truth. And I saw it as my opportunity to send something I've wanted to send for a long time. So I said, the truth. You can't handle the truth.

And I felt really good about that until I saw that he was messaging back and he said, you're making me want to reconsider. Please don't yell that at our congregation. And so I just want to go on record and say I held up my end of the deal. I did not yell that at you. I was just showing the text exchange.

But I will say that for a moment, I thought I had come up with the best sermon title in the history of church. Sermon titles. But we can't go with, you can't handle the truth today. So if you're taking notes, just jot down the truth. That's what we're gonna be unpacking.

But the more I sat with this funny text exchange and that particular movie quote, I realized, well, it might actually be good for us to ask that question. It's a pretty good question when you think about it. So ask yourself right now, can you handle the truth? I think a lot of us would say, yeah, of course I can. And some of you might even recall in conversation saying something along the lines of, tell me the truth, or looking at someone and saying, don't lie to me.

Or maybe you look at someone and say, shoot it to me straight, or just give it to me straight, right? Because we love when the truth wins out. We love the moment that we can take the receipts, push it across the table and say, look, I told you so. This is what the truth tells me. But today, flip that on its head and ask, are you okay with the truth when it exposes you?

Can you handle the truth when it confronts a way of life that you're trying to live? Can you handle the truth when something you read in the word of God says something that you wish wasn't true? In those moments, can you handle the truth? So before we get into the main text today, I wanna level the playing field a little bit. In case you came in today and saw that we were talking about liars and bumped your neighbor and said, I wish so and so was.

They could use a message about lying if that's you. I just want to level the playing field, help you off your high horse. And here's what we're going to do. Go ahead and stand your feet where you're at. We're going to do a little experiment.

I know, I know it's crazy, but just stand where you are. If you're able to.

Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to read to you a handful of statements, and if at any point you can't honestly say that this statement has been true of you 100% of the time, then just have a seat where you're at. Okay? This is a no judgment zone. We're not going to look around and shame, shame.

Okay, are you ready? Just four questions. The first one, when I text someone, I'm five minutes away. I'm genuinely five minutes away. If that cannot be said of you, go ahead and have your seat.

Thank you for playing. We really appreciate you guys. I might as well be sitting right now because that is so me. I hate to admit it, but you can't see it here, but it says, He's 24 minutes out and he's texting. I'm five minutes away.

That's ridiculous, and I'm guilty. Okay, if you're still standing, let's see if you can keep it. After the second one, when someone asks, how are you? And you say, good. You are genuinely always good.

Na, na na, na, na, na, na, na. Hey, hey, hey. Goodbye. Okay, let's keep going. Whenever you say.

Yeah, we should totally get together sometime. You truly intend to make those plans?

Wow, we have some remaining. Do we think we can get them? On this fourth and final question? I think we can. When you check, I have actually read the terms and conditions.

You have actually read the. Yes. That brings me so much joy.

You know what? At any of our venues, if you happen to still be standing, I think we collectively agree you deserve the Sunday off. You've got something figured out that we don't have. Thank you. Thank you for playing.

But what I hope we can realize is that, yes, that's a fun game, but maybe it helps us realize that we all have a much more complicated relationship with truth than we'd actually like to admit. Maybe we're realizing we don't think of truth the same way that we should. And so, yes, those were relatively harmless, and some of them were pretty funny. Thank you for participating. I'm less concerned about the lies we tell, though.

We need to keep an eye on that. And I'm more concerned with the lies that we believe because the lies that we believe wreak havoc in our lives. And we're gonna look at that today. In fact, if you're trying to figure out why we are the way we are, it doesn't take long. It goes back to the beginning of time.

And so if you have Your Bibles. If you could turn with me to Genesis chapter three. And what's happening in Genesis, chapter three, literally, first book of the Bible, God has created man and woman, and he's created them in his own image. And at this point, there's the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, and they have total dominion over what God has entrusted to them. It's a beautiful moment.

There's no guilt, there's no shame. They're just with each other and they're with God. And so this is a beautiful moment. And then there's one. One specific boundary that's put in place that I think we're all pretty familiar with, but it's one tree that they should not eat from.

And so there's one boundary. And really, I think sometimes whenever we read this story and we notice how the enemy shows up, we quote that verse that you've probably heard of, like, the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, right? And so sometimes we think that it's gonna be so, like, blatantly obvious whenever lies creep in. Because if the enemy's coming to steal, kill, and destroy, then clearly I'm gonna see that coming. No, you won't.

Watch what happens in Genesis, chapter three, verse one. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say that you shall not eat of the tree in the garden? Did God actually say, you see, we think that the enemy's gonna show up wielding a weapon, right? And instead, he's just holding out a question for Eve to consider.

And that's where some of the lies that we believe actually start. And if you'll notice in this verse, the first thing that he does is, did God actually say. What he's doing is he's questioning the word of God. He's questioning the truth of is what God said actually true? And then, before she even notices it, how crafty he is, in one of the next verses, he says, you will not surely die.

He outright denies the word of God, starts by questioning the word of God, quickly moves to denying the word of God, because ultimately he wants Eve and he wants Adam to think that this good God that you worship and serve, he's holding out on you. He doesn't actually want what's best for you. He's putting boundaries in place. Would a loving God do that? And, yes, I truly think that you could say that's the oldest lie in the book, literally.

But we're still falling for some version of that lie. Today, what we need to realize is that before humanity ever walked away from the truth and the goodness of. Of God, why would they walk away from that? Why would they walk away from a true and good God? It was because humanity believed a lie about God.

That's where the enemy got his foothold. So if that's where deception enters the story of humanity, then where is it showing up for you and I right now? I read a book about two and a half years ago on an airplane. Turned out to be one of my favorite books. It was called Live no Lies.

And it really talks about this idea of the enemies and the lies that we believe as people. Really comes down to three main parts of a framework. And I really, really love how it helps us unpack. John 14. So that's what we're gonna use today.

And John Mark Comer writes this in that book. Our war against the three enemies of the soul is not a war of guns and bombs. It's not against other people at all. It's a war on lies. He goes on to say, the problem is less that we tell lies and more that we live them.

We let false narratives about reality into our bodies and they wreak havoc in our souls. Those lies we tell, the subtle things here and there, you might have even heard them called white lies that we think are relatively harmless. No big deal. Everybody does it. What's it actually doing?

It's wreaking havoc on your soul. This is what the early church fathers referred to as the three enemies of the soul. And it's what we're gonna talk about. The three enemies of the soul, if you're writing down notes, are this. Number one, the enemy is the devil.

The next enemy is the flesh. And then the next enemy is the world. And the simplest way I know how to explain the idea of these three enemies that are wanting to wreak havoc in your soul is this. The devil is gonna be the one that introduces the lie every single time. He's the father of lies.

We'll read that in just a moment. But what happens is the flesh welcomes the lie. We have a sinful flesh that we don't like to admit, but we actually crave the lie. We want lies to be true. And then the world, what it does is it normalizes it.

Everybody's doing it. It's okay. Just go with the flow, Just go with the crowd. And the reason I want us to look at these three particular. These three things that are gonna act as our framework today is because if you are Going to claim that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

You need to be ready to fight the devil, the flesh and the world. So let's start with the devil. Jesus is not shy about how he addresses and what he calls the devil and what he tells his followers to be aware of whenever he's talking about the devil and his lies and his schemes. In John chapter 8, just a few chapters before our main passage of John 14, we read this. Jesus speaking, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your Father's desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning and he does not stand in truth. Get this. Because there is no truth in him. He goes on to say, when he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and he is the father of all lies. Church.

Hear me this morning. Lying is not something that the enemy does occasionally. Lying is who the enemy is. It's what he wakes up in the morning thinking about. It's what he goes to bed at night dreaming about.

He cannot wait to put his traps and his snares out because he cannot wait to trip up a follower of the one true king. The enemy does not come to play. He has come for death. He's come for your soul. And he wants to wreak havoc.

And wreaking havoc on your soul gives him joy. And the first lie, the lie that he used on Adam and Eve is the one that he's trying to use on me and you today. And it's that our Father in heaven cannot be trusted. That's what he wants us to believe, that God's word isn't actually a source of truth, that God isn't who he said he was. That's the lie that he wants you and I to entertain today.

And about a week ago, actually, my wife and I, something happened and I looked at her and I was like, I'm learning so much about the character of God right now as I'm now a parent. And what had happened is we were playing outside on the trampoline. I have a four year old and a one year old. They're crazy chaotic boys. And we bring them inside and they're kind of running around playing with all their toys.

And my wife and I are trying to have a conversation. If you have young kids, you know what I'm talking about, like trying to do a billion things at once. And out of the corner of my eye I noticed that one of the balls they were playing with rolled under our kitchen table. And our kitchen table is like really Long wood table, but underneath, it has these sharp metal pieces that connect it all the way across the bottom. And Shep, he just goes down, and he's going under to grab the ball.

And I can see that he's about to stand up on one of the metal pieces that are sticking out on the table. And so father's reaction, I just. I just lunge towards him and I shove him, and he, like, falls back on his bottom. And he looks at me like, dad, why did you just push me? Like, he felt betrayed in that moment.

And I was like, buddy, I was looking out for you. He goes, what? And I was like, yeah, I was looking out for you because you couldn't see what I saw, right? And that's what's happening right here as well, is basically whenever we get the wind knocked out of us, whenever there's a boundary in place, we like to look at God and be like, what are you doing? Why did that just happen?

Why did that happen to me? And God's saying, you can't see what I see. I'm looking out for you. And in that moment, to quote Louis Giglio, if we're not careful, we'll give the enemy a seat at our table. Cause the enemy in that moment loves to creep in.

Loves to creep in and be like, why would a good God do that to you? Why would a good God push you on your back? Why would a good God take the wind out of your sails? And in those moments, we can either believe the truth and the validity of God's word, that he is everything that is true, and he is everything that is good, and he is everything that is beautiful. Or we can buy the lie of the enemy that, you know, he's holding out on you.

He doesn't actually want you to experience this. He doesn't actually want to be trusted. What I'm saying is, when you can't see what God sees, it's in those moments that you have to fight against everything in you to believe the truth of God's word rather than the lie that the devil is trying to spoon feed you. All right, let's keep going to the flesh. The next enemy of the soul is the flesh.

And this one's interesting because we don't like to admit this about ourselves, but apart from God. One of my favorite biblical and theological studies professors in college, his name is Daniel Chin, and he had this line. He said, if. If God is everything true, good, and beautiful, then you're everything false, bad, and ugly. And I hated that, but I loved it.

At the same time, because it was super convicting of like, oh, that doesn't feel good to think about. But apart from God, we are sinful, we are broken, we are in desperate need for a savior. And so what the flesh is doing is sometimes the flesh believes the lie because it genuinely wants it to be true. Like your flesh wants to make something true that's not true so that it feels good. Cause your flesh is all about comfort.

And I don't know if you can relate to this or not, but maybe a good example to think of is if you were driving down the road in your car and all of a sudden you started to hear something, hear a sound that you don't typically hear. In that moment, you can either go, hmm, I probably need to get this checked out, or you can do what most of us do and reach over and just turn up the radio right on cue. Whoever's phone rang appreciate that. Turn up the radio just so that we can drown out the sound that we actually know is there, right? But if we turn that radio up, then all of a sudden we don't have to face reality.

And so then a mile goes by and we start to feel our car vibrating. And we go, I think the car's always vibrated like that. Now that I'm thinking about it. I've always done this when I'm driving down the road. And then mile three comes and the check engine light comes on, and you go, I knew a guy that drove his truck for 300,000 miles and it had a check engine light on.

So therefore I'm good. And what you'll realize really quickly is we will ignore the truth in front of us because we don't want to pay $1,000 mechanic bill. And all the mechanics in the room said, there's no mechanics in the room, but they would have said, amen. Okay? And really what's happening here is our flesh would rather believe a blatant lie from our own brain than to face the inconvenient truth about our reality.

And the thing that is not fun for us to think about is that our flesh does not look for truth. Our natural reflex as people, we do not look for truth. We look for permission. Yikes, that's convicting this morning. James 1:14 says that each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed Sometimes the flesh, all it needs is the devil to start the lie, to start to spoon feed the lie.

And then your flesh says, yep, I crave it. I want it to be true. I'm gonna justify it. I'm gonna make it true. And this is where that stupid quote that I started with starts to be really convicting of, can you handle the truth?

Because in John 8, Jesus gives it to us pretty straight. Because I tell you the truth. You do not believe me.

Ouch. What he's saying there is that some of you, no matter how much it breaks his heart, you are going to reject God because it would cost you something. You're going to reject the truth that's right in front of you, and that's obvious, because it would cost you something. Maybe it would cost you friendships, maybe it would cost you relationships. Maybe it would cost you a job or the way that you're living or the lifestyle that you've chosen.

And here's where it gets tricky, because some of us have gotten really good at, like, dressing up this flesh, earthly desire, and we've put, like, a spiritual disguise over it. And what I mean by that is we'll start to use language like, I just feel like I'm really supposed to do this in this season. Oof, that's shaky ground right there. Or if we try to church it up a little bit, we'll say, I'm just feeling really called to this in this season. Or, I just feel like God's stirring my heart in this way, and I want to be careful there because sometimes God literally is calling us to do certain things, right?

But guess what? It's never going to do. What you're claiming he's calling you to do is never, ever, ever, ever, ever going to contradict his word, ever. And that's where we get off, is we start to try to say, well, His Word doesn't exactly say that, but this is what he's showing me. That's not how it works.

That's dangerous. So, so dangerous. So, Lane, how do I discern the will of God? How do I discern what he's actually calling me to in this season? If it's in His Word, it is true.

If it contradicts the word of God, he is not calling you to it. I think the clearest way to say that is the Holy Spirit is not a name for that inner voice in your head that always agrees with you. That is not who the Holy Spirit is. In fact, we don't have time to get into it today. But later in John 17, when we're told about the Holy Spirit, the advocate that's gonna be left with us, it actually tells us that the Spirit comes with grace and truth to convict Us.

So that voice that's always just telling you, yeah, you're right. You should totally do that. That's not the Holy Spirit. A lot of times the Holy Spirit is guiding you in both grace and guiding you in truth. And the Holy Spirit will never guide you in a way that's gonna contradict the will of God and the word of this book.

The flesh loves to feel comfortable. I'll give you just an example of one of the lies that you might come across with. The lie of the flesh is like, you don't actually need to share the gospel. That'd be awkward. That would make that relationship weird.

You don't actually need to do that. Why? Because the flesh is craving comfort, and it doesn't want you to possibly do something that could lead to someone else's salvation. All right, let's keep going. The final one is the world.

And the world is really just what happens when everyone starts to believe that something is normal, when it becomes so ingrained in culture and society that people just accept it as, like, a universal truth. That's what happens with the world. And that's the third enemy that we're talking about this morning. Let's try one more thing. Apparently, I'm full of experiments this morning.

So just close your eyes right where you're at and what I want you to do. Everyone close your eyes. I see some peakers over here. Okay, go ahead and point to where you think true north is, and keep them closed. Point where you think true north is, and on the count of three, open your eyes and keep your hand out.

One, two, three. Okay, look around. Wow. I see you going up. What is up with that?

I don't know who's right, but whoever pointed up is not right for sure. Okay, point being, so many of you just pointed in opposite directions. And I asked you where what was true. And so what happens is, if I'm asking you where true north is, and I take what this room just told me, I'd end up in Texas later today if I listened to some of you. And that's not gonna work very well.

And so feeling something. Cause in that moment, you felt like you knew where to point. Feeling something and it being true or you being right about it are not the same thing. Okay? Do we understand that?

I'm just feeling like I should do this in this season. That does not make it true. That does not make it right. Now, if you even play that scenario out, which this is how the world works. And I were to say 99% of you pointed that direction for true north, would that make it true?

No, because true north is true north whether you like it or not. The word of God is the word of God, whether you like it or not. And for those of you nerds who are actually wanting to know where true north is, it's that way, right there.

True north is true north whether we like it or not. What I hope we realize is that consensus, the things that the world tells us, it can make things feel normal. But the danger is we've got to make sure that we realize it does not make it true. But culture, society, the lies that the world has to offer up, everyone's doing it, everyone's saying it to a point where you tell a lie so many times that it just becomes accepted as normal. As a believer, I urge you, please fight that with everything in you, because it does not make it true.

That's why Paul tells us in Romans 12, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And I'm convinced that the most dangerous lies aren't actually the ones that sound ridiculous or right on the nose. I think that the most dangerous lies in our current culture and society are the ones that have just quietly fizzled off and is now just accepted as normal. And I'll go on record saying that's constantly the story. If you look at how culture is defining marriage, sex, sexuality, the list goes on and on and on.

In that moment, just because it's normal, as a body of Christ, I urge you, please fight it, because it does not make it true. So if those are the forces against us and the devil is the one spoon feeding us the lie, and the flesh is craving that lie, and the world is saying that lie is now normal and accepted, then what do we do about it? I love how Pastor Josh Howerton, he says the devil has a tendency to always outplay his hand. And I love that line. He really does if you give him enough time.

But something that's uncomfortable for us to sit with this morning is that you cannot outsmart or outwit the devil. I'm just being real with you. He literally, it's who he is. It's what he does. He wakes up constantly 247 thinking about a way to trip you up.

And so the answer today is not simply more podcast, more books, more information. What Jesus is actually gonna give us is himself. That's why in John 14:6, he says, I am the truth. The truth, not a truth, not one of I am the truth. Jesus is giving Himself to you and I.

To prep for this message, I did a deep dive on the US Treasury, Secret Service, Federal Reserve, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. And just now realizing I'm probably on some government list now, but that's gonna be something I'll have to explain to him later. It was for a sermon illustration, and reason being is I wanted to get to the bottom of, you know, what is it that separates something that's true from something that's fake? And I thought I already knew the answer, but I was super surprised. And I actually changed where my sermon was going because I was like, this is perfect.

I had no clue. But whenever they were asked the question, like, how do you spot a fake? I thought I knew the answer. And I would have said, you lay out every counterfeit that's ever come through, and you look at all the mistakes, and you look at all the bad ink, and you look at all the printing errors and all of that, and you study it, and you study it, and you study it so that you see all of the different fakes that have come through. But let me read to you what the Secret Service have said about their training.

That's not actually how we train our agents. Agents in federal currency labs do not spend their training staring at fake money. Instead, they spend the vast majority of their time studying the real thing. They learn the exact feel of the paper, the exact cotton and linen blend. They run their thumb over the raised ink until they know the texture without even thinking about it.

They hold up real bills to the light until they've memorized exactly where the watermark sits and exactly where the security thread runs. What's that tell us? They spend the vast majority of their time with the genuine thing. With the genuine article, hopefully. You know, I'm not talking about a dollar bill anymore.

I'm talking about the word of God. How do we spot the devil's schemes? How do we spot when the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy, when our flesh craves it and the world normalizes it? By staying close to the genuine thing. That's how we stay close to Jesus.

He tells us in his word in John 15, remain in me as I also remain in you. For I am the vine and you are the branches. Apart from me, you can do nothing. The only way that you're going to be able to beat those lies, those things that are wanting to wreak havoc on your soul is to stay close to Jesus. If you hear nothing else this morning, hear, abide with Jesus, be with Jesus, and stay in his Word.

So that when the fiery dart of the enemy comes your way, it falls flat. You can spot it from a mile away. Why, you don't even have to think about it. It doesn't look like the truth. I know.

It doesn't look like the Jesus I know. That's what we're saying today. Hopefully you can realize that the Son is the one that is revealing the truth. In scripture, John 1 talks about that the Spirit is the one that leads us into the truth, the Holy Spirit that dwells within us as believers. And then the Word is the thing that continually anchors us in truth over and over and over again.

And I guess where I want to land this morning is whenever we hear in John 8, a few chapters before John 14, that if you abide in my word, you truly are my disciples, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. He then goes on to say in just a few verses after, so if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. Why does he do this? He wants his disciples to know without a shadow of a doubt that the truth will set you free and the Son will set you free. Why?

Because the truth has a name, and his name is Jesus Christ. In one of the last chapters of John's Gospel, it's where Jesus is actually standing on death row. And he has Barabbas on this side and Jesus on this side, and Pilate's in the middle. And he asked who they want. And we know how it goes.

They actually choose to set Barabbas free. And then Pilate is stuck looking right at Jesus. And we get just this sobering verse in John chapter 18, where Pilate looks at Jesus and he says, what is truth? Sounds like a pretty modern question that we would ask right now, if you ask me. And then the tragedy is that not only does he ask, what is truth?

Who's standing right in front of him? The truth. Right. The tragedy is that he then, Scripture says, washes his hands and walks away. And I guess my invitation to you today is please don't make the same mistake that Pilate did.

Some of you have been asking questions your whole life of what is true. What about my truth? Your truth? Their truth, Our truth? What does it look like to actually trust someone?

What's actually going to satisfy me in this life? And today, you have the opportunity to believe whatever lie the devil is going to throw your way. You have the opportunity to do exactly what Pilate did and say, it's going to cost too much. I'm going to walk away from this or you have the opportunity to stand right in front of Jesus and say you are the truth. In fact, you are the way, the truth and the life.

Let's pray. God, we give you glory, we give you honor, we give you praise. Thank you for your word that is both true, good and beautiful and also convicting at the same time. Thank you for this wonderful body. Thank you for the body of believers that show up to be expectant to what your word has called them to do.

May we carry it out in obedience. God, if there's anyone here today asking those questions, could you just reveal yourself to them that you are the way, the truth and the life? And if anyone has any of those questions stirring around in their head and they realize that they've pushed off some things that they shouldn't for far too long, would they come pray with one of our prayer members today and get right with. God, we give you glory, we give you honor and praise in your name. Amen.