Read-along
Chapter labels by Rewind AI · transcript shown verbatim. Tap any timestamp to start playing from that line — the line being spoken is highlighted as it goes.
Come on church. If God has been good in your life, can you lift up a shout of praise in this place? We're gonna need some help on this next section. Full participation. When I say god is good, you're gonna say, and when I say all the time, you say god is good. Let's go ahead.
I say God is good, you say all the time. When I say all the time, you say God is good. When I say God is good. Your part.
Come on. I can't believe that for you. But do you know that God has been good? Come on. Do you believe that God has been good? Come on. Last time. Hands up. Like, one turn.
Come on. If he's been good, give him the praise that he's worthy of.
Well, church, I'm so grateful to be here with you guys this morning. Thank you for being here with us. You could have chose so many different places, and we are grateful that you chose Cornerstone. Sometimes when we're looking back over our life, we forget that God has been good. So can we take a second and just intentionally
focus on his goodness? So we're gonna read a little bit of scripture. We're gonna be reading Matthew seven twenty four through 27. And basically, what we're gonna see here is Jesus is painting a picture of two builders. They both hear his words. They both build a house. They both face a storm, but only one of them stood
because it knew who its foundation was built on. So let's see what the text says. Matthew seven twenty four. Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise. Like a person who builds a house on a solid rock, and that solid rock is Jesus.
Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it will not collapse because it is built on the bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and the floods come
and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash. So what is the importance of a foundation of a home? The foundation carries the weight of the entire structure of that house. So when we're building our firm foundation on Christ, everything else is sinking sand. Everything else will be washed away.
But the builder who chose to make his foundation on Christ, he knew that he was never gonna fail. Do we believe that this morning, church? That if we build our foundation, that he will not fail. Repeat after me. He will not fail. He will not fail. He will not fail. He won't. We're
singing this out in faith that he won't fail.
So
I know we've heard this song so many times, and this next section is the bridge of a song. And what is a bridge? A bridge is something that ties together the entire song structure. And this is Matthew seven that we're singing out. So my prayer is that when we lift it up this time, that we have a deeper understanding
of these lyrics. So all over the room, come on. Let's declare this to the creator.
On, church. If you believe that he is great and greatly to be praised, give him the praise that he's worthy of. Not because I told you to, but because you truly believe that he is great. Father, we thank you. You're worthy of all the praise, the glory, and the honor.
Christmas at Cornerstone feels like memories I'll never want to forget. Like a warm hug on Christmas morning. It feels like serving others with joy. Like making memories my family will carry forever. Like remembering how faithful God has been. Like a place where I actually belong.
It feels like being surrounded by joy everywhere I look. It feels like traditions becoming treasures. Like my family finding joy in every moment together. Like songs that remind me of home. Like lifting my voice with everyone in worship. It feels like celebrating the greatest gift ever given, Jesus.
Good morning, Cornerstone. How are you guys doing today? It is so good to be in the house of the Lord with the people of the Lord. My name is Grant. I get to be one of the pastors on staff here. And on behalf of the rest of our staff and all of our incredible volunteers, we are so glad you decided to worship with with us this morning. Also, special shout out to those of you who are part of our Cornerstone family online. We're so glad you're joining us as well. Everything we do here, whether it's time in worship, spending time in God's word, or trying to get you connected to another ministry, is that so everyone could maybe take a next step in their journey of faith. Now, for some of you in this room, that next step is as simple as just getting connected. And we would really like to get to know you a little bit better. And so after service in the lobby, we've got the welcome center. We've got a free gift there for you. But what we're really looking forward to is learning more about you, your story, and what it could look like for you to call Cornerstone home.
Now, if you're in a little bit of a hurry and we get it, you can just text new to 21999.
Now, it's the holiday season, and here at Cornerstone, we have a tradition called Share Christmas. And Share Christmas is this incredible ministry that provides hope, help, and dignity to families who wanna make the holiday season special,
but because of their financial situation or circumstances out of their control, it's really difficult. And so that's the annual toy drive that we do at Christmas. And it's more than just giving toys to a family. We set up this incredible evening, afternoon of ministry here where parents get to walk through and kind of shop for those gifts for their kids, and it's an incredible thing. And so if you're looking to be generous or you might even be someone who might need the help of that ministry this year, you can text Share Christmas to 21999.
Now before I came out here, I asked the ministry leader what what kind of need specifically do you have for that this year? And she said every year, there's two things that they don't have enough of, and those are grocery gift cards
and gifts for older kids. And so if you wanna help us make that happen on your way out, you can grab a name off of the tree or you can talk to the ministry leaders at the table there as well. At this time, I'm gonna ask our giving team to start passing buckets throughout the, the room.
If Cornerstone is your church home, I'd encourage you to participate in this. But if this is not your church home, just feel free to just keep the bucket moving along. Everything we do at Cornerstone, whether it is the expansion of our auditorium to make more room for people, it's your students being impacted by Mango and what our ministry is doing over in kids or even what we've done globally as a church, it's because so many of you said you wanna honor God in the area of your finances and you wanna be obedient in that as well. And so if you are looking to do that or if you're in this room and you are looking to partner with some ministry or some place for end of year giving and that's something that you and your family think about this time of year, we would love for you to consider partnering with us in that. You can text the word give to 21999.
Now I grew up in Illinois, so every time someone tells me Christmas is around the corner, I look around and I go where? But it's coming. Christmas Eve is happening once again like it always does. And this year, our services are on the twenty first, the twenty third, and the twenty fourth.
And our church has seen God do incredible things this year. Over 1,600 people have come to know Christ. We've seen hundreds of baptisms. And here's why I wanna share that is in the most pastorally way possible, if you call this church home,
I wanna worship with you any day but the twenty fourth. On the alright. The pastor just said don't come. I did. And I'm gonna get notes on how not to say it that way after this. On the twenty first and the twenty third, I'm so excited to worship with you.
But what we know is that Christmas Eve is when a whole bunch of people who all year have been thinking about coming to church choose to come to church. And they come for the very first time, and our parking lot is full, and they're dragging their three year old who fought them getting rep the whole time there. And they're gonna show up, and they're gonna get here, and it's gonna be incredible.
And then if it's like any other year we've had in the past, even with our seat expansion, the only seat we might have for them is in the lobby.
And we do a great job of making that special for them in the lobby. We do a great job of making it special for them while we try to squeeze in and find room for them in this room because we know that when they get into the room and they hear the truth about Jesus, it changes their life the same way that Jesus has changed your life.
And so we're asking if this is your church home and Jesus has changed your life to be sacrificial just enough to text
Christmas to 21999 and let us know that you're coming on the twenty first or the twenty third. And then on the twenty fourth, you can do something crazy with that elf that you put on a shelf. You can build a fantastic gingerbread house. You can go to Flagstaff and see snow. You can do something incredible with your family knowing, or you can serve here, but knowing you made room for other families to be transformed the same way that your life has been transformed by Jesus.
Thank you so much. We love you guys, and pastor Lynn will be right out after this.
Hey, at you.
You made it to church in the rain. I I don't think people understand what rain means to Arizonans. It's it's a terrifying moment and we're all inclined to stay home. So proud of you, proud that you made it in the ring. How how many of you have seen the last installment of Wicked?
How how many have seen that so far? Okay. I I don't want to be a spoiler, but at the end, the wicked witch of the West gets splashed with water and she melts. Apparently, she was from Arizona. So good for you for making it. We've got the seats, they're open. Super, super cool moment.
Hey, I want you to just reflect for a moment on all the things that have happened in this church in the last year. We've had over 1,600 people make a first time decision about Jesus Christ. We've had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people be baptized. We opened up a new children's building that is incredible,
but it's all about making the next generation better followers of Jesus than us. We took the old children's building. We rehabbed it. We went from four adult classrooms to 11 adult classrooms. And so in that room, parents are getting more mature, which means homes are getting better. Wives
are growing in their faith. Husbands are growing on their faith. Marriages are getting better. You help make that happen and then we've got these seats so that your friends, your family members have a place to sit when they come to church.
And you realize, think about this, every single bit of that has happened because you've been generous. We couldn't have done it if you hadn't,
and so now as we come up to end of the year, here's what I just would like to encourage everybody to consider doing, just go take a look at what you've given so far this year and ask yourself, hey, is that what I want my years worth of giving to be? Is it there? And if it is, good for you. And if it's not, if you go, you know what? I was hoping I would be more generous that I would lean into more of what God was doing, then you've got six weeks to change that, to just say, hey, I'm gonna make up the difference of what I wanted to do and what I've done and let's just make the year end help us just finish completely in the black and be set up for 2026.
Alright. Brand new series. Sounds good.
So there's a whole bunch of things that we say to each other all the time that sound good, they sound comforting, they sound encouraging and so we're prone to say that to one another. How many of you ever watched a Hallmark movie? Okay. So the women are like, yeah, the men are like, she made me.
So if you've ever watched the Hallmark movie, you realize they almost all have exactly the same thing.
Somebody comes home, they they've been away in the big city and they've been working on their career and and for some reason, they've come home to help the family sell the old ski lodge or help with dad because he broke it, whatever they, they came home for a moment and they meet their old boyfriend.
They meet their old girlfriend and all of a sudden, it's like, oh, wow, maybe, maybe there's something here, maybe I missed and suddenly there's electricity and the relationship is going in a really, really positive way and so now they're starting to think, I wonder, and then they get the phone call,
hey, you're getting the promotion as soon as you come back and so now they're left in the moment that says, well, mean what do I do? Do I do I go back to the promotion and the that I was working for all these years, it's why I left or
do I stay for this relationship that seems to be going but I I don't know I don't know if it's actually gonna flourish and and happen and and so now they're sitting on the edge of their bed, their parent is sitting next to them and the parent says something like this, you'll know what to do, just trust your heart. We
say things like, you know what, you can be anything you want to be, you do you, you're enough, yeah you're enough. And then we say them because they sound encouraging, they sound comforting, they sound helpful but in the end if you actually stop and think about it, if somebody actually lived out your advice,
there there's a high probability that ends in disappointment, it ends in discouragement. Today, we're going to talk about a phrase that's kind of been popular recently,
it's a phrase called my truth, my truth. Sometimes you'll hear people say, your truth, I've got my truth, you've got your truth
and what it really is, it just says this, it says look, I know what I've experienced, I know what my home life was like, I know what that friendship did and didn't do, I know what I've experienced and I know the feelings I had and I know I can interpret what that means and so I have come to my truth.
This is my truth about the world around me and about my life. The easiest way to define my truth is simply this, it's exchanging what is actually true for what I have decided is true. In other words, I don't care what truth, I'm just telling you what's truth for me
and although that may sound a little bit strange to some of us, the reality is this, people have been doing this since the beginning of time. Hey I don't care what God says, I know what I feel and I know what I've experienced and so I have my truth that's actually greater than what God says is true.
It's the person who's had about encounter with somebody of a different race or maybe a couple people from a different race and so they've come to a conclusion that anybody whose skin color is that color, well they must just be bad people and you and I would say, wait, that's crazy, you can't judge a person
as being good or bad simply because the color of their skin and they'd say, no, no, no, I know what I've experienced. I know what I felt when it happened and so that's my truth. It's the person who's self medicating and you go to your friend and you say, hey, you understand that that you're on the verge of addiction
and addiction brings nothing but hopelessness and heartbreak and destruction and they say back to you, you don't understand. See, the first time I saw, the first time I got drunk, it was like all the burdens of life were lifted. I was like euphoric,
the first time I tried that drug, I am just telling you, I have never had that sensation before and here is my truth based on what I have felt and what I have, I can't do life without self medicating, my truth. It's the young couple that's having sex before marriage
and God's truth would be, hey God, you understand that sex is this an incredibly unbelievable sacred holy gift given to knit the souls of two people together
and when you take that capriciously, when you use that randomly with people and then the relationship ends and now you move to the next and on and on and on, you will actually diminish your ability to bond with the one when you meet the one and she says, well I know that's what it says but here is what I've experienced,
it's fun and it's actually making our relationship deeper, so I'm just living out my truth and here is what you need to know, when you and I exchange what's actually true for our own personal truth, our lives will always be diminished. So let's just walk that through, let's just unpack that together for a little while today.
Hey, grab your bibles real quick. Go with me to Proverbs chapter 14. If you're not familiar, Proverbs is near the middle of your bible, so if you just open your bible to the middle, chances are you're gonna hit the book of Psalms. If you hit the book of jobs, it's not what you think. Book of Psalms, go to the right,
you're gonna get to this book of Proverbs chapter 14. Here's the first thing to know about your truth
When you say, hey, I know that's what God said or I know that's what's supposed to be true, but I'm just telling you my experiences, my feelings tell me something different. I have my truth. Living my truth is living in self deception.
When you live your truth as opposed to what is actually you are living a life of self deception. Here we go, Proverbs chapter 14 verse 12. Here's what it says, there's a way that appears to be right.
In other words, I've looked at the facts, I've I've seen the experiences I had, I I know how I felt about it, I I evaluated it for myself, I'm telling you, this looks right. There's a way that appears to be right but in the end, it leads to death. Potentially, spiritual death because I reject Jesus Christ,
Relational death because I implode a bunch of my friendships and relationships. Potential unmet death. In other words, what God created me to be and do, I never realized that. I never get there because instead of living out God's truth for my life, I lived out my own version of truth. When you live your truth,
you live a life of self deception. Some of you would know this, I I got my pilot's license, I got this little pa pa airplane that I bought. When you first get your license, you you your rating is what they call VFR, which means visual flight rating. In other words, I can only fly when I can see where I'm flying.
The next step up, which is actually a pretty big step, is called IFR. In other words, instrument flight rating. So that means, hey, you can fly through clouds, you can fly through weather and you'll do that by watching your instruments because your instruments will tell you what you cannot see.
It's a really interesting thing when you fly a plane through a cloud, it's possible for you to actually get the plane in a pitch, you can't feel it. I know that sounds crazy, I'm telling you it's true because I've done it before. I I've had my plane on an arc and I didn't know until things started falling across the plane.
How many of you remember the story of JFK junior? Okay. So JFK junior had just gotten his instrument rating. In other words, he had been approved to fly through bad weather using his instruments to tell him what was actually happening.
As he did his flight with his girlfriend, we don't know for sure if he got distracted or got into a conversation, what we do know is this, he ignored his instruments and the reason we know that is because the impending crash that happened would have never happened if he had been watching the truth
that his instruments were telling him. He got his plane in a pitch and it slowly descended, descended, it happened over minutes and minutes, it wasn't, it was a period of time
and because it didn't feel wrong, because it felt okay, he believed he was safe, he believed he was doing just fine all the way till he took his plane into the ocean because he could not see the horizon through the fog. He ignored what was true and depended on what he felt in the moment.
Because our human perception is limited, way way better to trust God's truth and bring my opinions and feelings into obedience. See, JFK were sort of looked at the the
instruments on his plane, he would have said, hey, your plane is turned, you're and and and if he would have believed it, he would have adjusted to it, he would have lived in safety because he brought his life in line with the truth and not with what his opinion was or what he was feeling in the time. Living my life,
my truth, living my truth will lead you to self deception. Here we go. When you believe my truth,
we will eventually act on it. In other words, if you said, hey, you know, I know what God says or I know but but here's my truth. This is what I've learned based on my experience and so I'm gonna live my you will eventually begin to act on your truth and you and I will live lives diminished from what God intended
for you and me, why, why? Number one, you and I have an enemy who wants us to doubt the truth and replace it with our own truth. You realize Satan doesn't need to get you to be a Satanist, he doesn't need you to like join his team, he just needs you to doubt God and become your own God, living your own truth, your own way
and then he can destroy your life. Grab your Bibles real quick, go with me to first Peter,
if you're not familiar, to the very back of your bible, start working to the left, don't stop in Revelation, it's very scary. Now we'll do a series on it with some time, it'd be a lot of fun. First Peter chapter five verse eight. Here's what it says. It says, be alert. Be alert.
I'm convinced that most Christians don't live their lives realizing there's an enemy who wants to destroy their lives. Ethically, well, know culture is against me and I I know sometimes I have silly thoughts and I need to but I don't think we live conscious to say, you realize there's an enemy working against you
to destroy you because he knows that your destruction breaks the heart of God. Not because he cares about you, because he doesn't. Says, hey, be alert and sober mind, clear thinking, truths not optional truth. Be alert in a sober mind, your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone
to devour, someone to destroy and guys, guess where, guess where his methodology is, guess where he works, In our minds. See, he whispers to us and he says, hey, you know, you know, what God is saying may may may be true for it's just not true for you. You're you're the God didn't understand you when he said that.
Hey, you realize the reason your prayer hasn't been answered when you wanted it answered in the way you wanted it is because God really actually just doesn't care about you and he twists our minds to leave truth.
Think about this. Think about the Genesis story. So we're talking about all the way back in the beginning. God puts Adam and Eve in the garden. He says, look, it's all yours. It's all everything is yours. I created it all for your blessing, all for your good. There's just one tree.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that's the one tree that you are not allowed to eat of. And then Satan comes. He says to Eve, hey, Eve, why did God tell you not to eat of that tree? And she says, well, God told us that in the day we ate of that tree, we were surely gonna die.
And he goes, you're not gonna die. Matter of fact, do you know why God told you that Eve? He told you that because when you eat of that fruit, you'll become like him, you'll you'll know good and evil, you'll you'll be God like if you eat that fruit.
And the enemy speaking into her mind and into her heart begins to distort the truth and Eve, you ready for this? Exchanges the truth that God has loved me, he created me, he gave me everything that I can see and she exchanges that truth for, I think maybe God's holding me back.
I I think maybe God doesn't love me the way he said he loved me, I think God maybe doesn't want the best for me and she came up with her own truth and then she reaches for the apple or whatever it was and we all know what happened next. Guys, I'm just telling you, there's a deceiver
who would love for you to live the rest of your life based on your truth, ignoring God's truth.
Second reason that you your and I lives will not be what they should be if we follow our truth. When we follow our truth, we create our own struggles. We create our own pain.
I'm not saying that you would have pain if you sometimes following God is hard and sometimes following God is sacrifice, but you and I don't need to add to it and when you and I substitute God's truth for our truth, we actually increase our struggles. We increase our pain. Matter of fact, go to the book of Jeremiah,
Jeremiah again, if you go to the middle, you're going find that book of Psalms, you're going to head to the right, if you get to the book of Isaiah, you're almost there. Jeremiah chapter 17,
Jeremiah chapter 17 verse nine, here is what it says, the heart, the heart is deceitful. In other words, it says, hey look, what I feel in my heart, when you know, there's that moment and my heart tells me something, my emotions tell me something, it says, you realize your heart lies.
How many times have we had someone say something we thought, oh they were just trying to be mean to me and you talk to them later and they go, oh I just didn't even think before, I wasn't trying to be mean. And scripture says, hey look, you follow, your heart will betray you.
Your heart is deceitful, ready, above all things. In other words, the most least reliable thing to do is follow my heart. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, there will never be the day that you go, hey you know what, my heart is finally telling me good information. Beyond cure, who can understand it.
You remember the story of king David, he's been highly successful. It's the season when armies go out to fight and this time he says, you know, I'm just going to stay home and they can do it without me and so he sends his armies off. Scripture tells us that he walked onto the balcony of the palace
and there he saw women bathing. Now here's what you need to know that in those days, the most modest place for a woman to bathe was on her rooftop because rooftops had parapets around them. So anybody walking on the street couldn't see them up on their roof bathing
but David could because his palace set above the rooftops. David knew in the moment he walked out there exactly what he was going to see and as he does, there is Bathsheba and in that moment, guess what his heart told him, I need her, I need her.
Does it matter that he had a wife, does it matter that she did not belong to him? If he had listened to the truth of God, God would have said, hey, it's another woman, it's another man's wife, you have no right, you are not even supposed to be thinking that way about her,
but in his heart, says, you know what my truth is? My truth is she would make me happy. My truth is if I don't have her, I'm gonna feel like my life is missing something. My truth overrides God's truth. So he sends for her. She ends up sex with her, she gets pregnant. The problem is her husband,
David's good friend is off at war. There's no way he got her pregnant. So now he brings Uriah back and he says, hey, you know, while you're here, you know, go ahead and spend time with your wife and he says, no, I can't do that, all my brothers are on the battlefield.
So David sends back word to the general, he says, you you tomorrow, I want you to go and attack the stronghold, be sure Uriah is at the very, very front of the attack and be sure that Uriah dies before you call retreat And sure enough it happens. And then David brings Bathsheba into the palace, the child ends up dying.
His sons, his sons seeing the complicity of David lose all respect for him. Matter of fact, eventually his son Absalom will rebel against his father and overthrow his father's kingdom and it all started because David chose to live his truth instead of God's truth
and guys I'm just telling you that when you and I live our truth, we will bring pain and struggle into our life that God never intended for us because we rejected what was really true and we exchanged it for what we decided was true. The third reason that your life will be diminished if you live out your truth is this,
your opinion, your opinion has never made anything true. You go, what do you mean? My opinion is always true. No, no, no, your opinion has never made anything true.
You may believe that the cardinals are a good football team. Your opinion doesn't change reality.
I'm 16 years old and I'm in the living room, I don't even remember how the conversation started but I decided to share my opinion with my mom. I told my mom, you know what, Billy Graham is not a good Christian. Now you need to know, had been going to a really, really mean church
that they spent most of its time talking about why other people weren't good Christians and they told me, Billy Graham is not a good Christian. They said, you know what he does, he brings artists to sing up on stage who aren't living very good lives. If Billy Graham was a good Christian, he wouldn't let that person sing.
Hey, Billy Graham lets people come on stage and pray, and some of those people might not even be Christians. And if Billy Graham was a good Christian, he wouldn't bring those people on stage. So I I decided Billy Graham must not be a very good Christian. My mom said this to me, oh, Lynn,
if someday you would lead as many people to Jesus as Billy Graham has, I'd be so proud of you. And in that moment I did with 16 year old, but I couldn't get away from the words and as I would drive alone in my car, as I had quiet moments in my room, they came back and haunted me. I knew my opinion was wrong.
Later, I got to go to the Billy Graham museum and see the scope of this man's life which I had no idea and I'm just telling you that if Billy Graham's life was a beach, my life would be lucky to be a grain of sand on that beach. Just because you have an opinion doesn't make the opinion right.
The best way, the best way to live is to start with truth. Just say, hey what is actually true? And guys I am just kidding, here is where you start. You start it because this will always be true. Matter of fact Jesus said about the bible, you ready for this? Jesus said heaven and earth are more likely to pass away
than one crossing of the t or one dotting of the I in scripture to fail. Truth.
You start with truth and then you let it guide you. You let it guide your feelings, you you let it guide your conclusions, you let it guide your perceptions and then you live truth. Grab your bibles one last time, here we go, John chapter eight.
Again, can go to the back and work to the left, you are going to find this book of John. John chapter eight verse 31, Jesus is having a conversation with Christians about truth and here is what he says, John eight thirty one, to the Jews who had believed on him, Christians, Jesus said, if you hold to my teachings,
you will really be my disciples and then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. And guys, I'm just telling you that if you live a life with your truth, you'll live a life in chains, but if you live a life in God's truth, you'll be free.
Moses struggles with this. If you know the story of Moses, he's a Jewish child born in Egypt at a time when Egypt had enslaved the Jews.
The pharaoh had gotten worried that there were too many Jewish babies being born and not enough Egyptian babies and pretty soon there'd be more Jews than Egyptians and so he made this decree, every time a Jewish baby boy is born, they're to be killed. The midwives of the Jews
did not listen to this and were sparing some of the children, so then Pharaoh then of the Egyptians said, just go into every village, every child that's young, slay them, every male child. Moses' mother couldn't bring herself to present her little boy and so she keeps him in hiding until he's too loud and too old to
continue and so he puts him in a little basket and sets it out on the Nile River. Just by coincidence, it floats down to where the daughter of pharaoh is taking a bath. She hears the crying baby, she goes over, realizes this is Jew because he had been circumcised
and she takes that little baby into her home as if that child were her son and raises him in pharaoh's palace. As Moses gets older knowing that he is a Jewish person and then seeing the struggle of the Jewish people and he starts to get frustrated with God, he is like God,
I have prayed about this and you are doing nothing. It is so obvious that this is unfair, if you were a fair God, why wouldn't you fix this? And Moses' truth becomes, well either God is intimidated by Pharaoh or God is just not capable of delivering his people and so he acts out on you, ready, his truth.
One day he sees an Egyptian who is misusing and abusing a Jewish person and he says, if God's not going to do anything then I will. He kills the Egyptian. See, truth is what's true. His murder becomes known, he has to flee Egypt, he spends the next forty years of his life tending sheep,
doesn't mean much to you and me but what you need to know within that culture, tending sheep is what little boys did. It's like a job at McDonald's and by now he is 80. The sum total of his life is I'm flipping burgers. One day he is sitting
on a hill, he is tending the sheep, he looks to the side, there is a bush that is on fire and of course, he's watching the bush because if the fire comes toward the sheep, he's gonna have to move the sheep, but the fire doesn't move
and the bush isn't consumed, it just keeps burning like a candle and so he goes over to investigate, God says, hey, take off your sandals, you're in the presence of God. And then God says this to Moses, I'm sending you back to Egypt to free my people because you didn't think I heard, but I heard.
And so I'm sending you back to free them and in that moment Moses speaks his truth.
I can't. I can't. I'm a criminal. I know what I've done and to go back there probably cost my life. Pharaoh's never gonna listen to me. Yet, he's living in his experience. This is this is what I feel, God. This is what I believe to be true. And God says, your truth isn't true. You are my chosen prophet
and I will empower you and I will go with you and you will free my people. And the only thing that Moses does right is in that moment, he trades his truth for what God has just spoken. God's truth. I'm at think about this for a second. Imagine if Moses had said, hey, God. I I just can't believe your truth.
I'm gonna live in my he would have spent the rest of his life tending sheep. But because he steps into God's truth, he goes back to Egypt. He does unthinkable miracles, the 10 plagues. The children of Israel are freed. When they leave Egypt, God has caused the Egyptians to be so great. They they heap the Jews with treasure.
Moses becomes one of the most revered leaders of all time in the history of Israel
when he traded his truth for God's truth. So here's what I'm asking. We talked last week about prayer and I challenged you. I said, hey, let's spend the next thirty days five at least five minutes in prayer, which means a week has gone by, you still have twenty three to go.
What if in the midst of that five minutes, part of that prayer was simply this, God, would you reveal to me any place in my life where I have chosen to live my truth and reject your truth? And if you show me,
I'll trade it. I'll I'll set my truth aside, my belief aside, my feelings aside, my percent and I will simply live in your truth.
I want whatever years I still have to be more like Moses' second half of his life and not like the first half. Let's pray. Hey, dear lord Jesus.
Although the saying, my truth is relatively new, the struggle's not.
We we we've all had experiences in our lives and we've all had influences in our lives and they've caused us to say, hey, you know, I know what the bible says, but I just don't think the bible understands me. I I don't think God thought about me when he made that command, and we have exchanged truth for our truth.
Our lives are less. We're not enjoying the life that you created us to live. And so God, I'm just gonna ask us that we would do some serious housecleaning,
that we we would invite you to examine our hearts and examine our lives and just show us those places in which we've dismissed your truth in favor of our own and God, we promise we'll lay them down. We'll stop believing our own self deception and begin believing the true things that you have told us. This we promise
in Jesus name. Amen. Hey, if you're here and you need prayer, we have people who'll be at the front. For the rest of you, I love you. I'll see you next week.