Trading what is actually true for "my truth" — what I feel or have decided is true — always leaves life smaller than God intended, so we must trade our truth for God's.
God's truth, not our own feelings or experiences, is the only safe foundation for life. When we exchange what is actually true for what we've decided is true, we deceive ourselves, create our own pain, and diminish the life God intended — but when we trade our truth for His, like Moses did, we find freedom and purpose instead.
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 1 of 7
"My truth" means exchanging what is actually true for what I've decided is true
Pastor Linn defines the popular phrase 'my truth' as people leaning on their own feelings and experiences over what God has said. He gives examples: someone judging a race based on one bad encounter, someone justifying addiction because of the euphoria it first gave them, and a couple justifying premarital sex because 'it's fun' and feels like it deepens their relationship.
“The easiest way to define my truth is simply this, it's exchanging what is actually true for what I have decided is true”
— Linn Winters
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 2 of 7
Living your truth is living in self-deception
Working through Proverbs 14:12, Pastor Linn shows that a way can appear right and still lead to death — spiritual, relational, or unmet potential. He illustrates this with his own experience getting an instrument flight rating and the true story of JFK Jr., who ignored his plane's instruments, trusted what he felt, and crashed into the ocean because he trusted feeling over fact.
“When you live your truth as opposed to what is actually you are living a life of self deception”
— Linn Winters
A story from life
Story about getting a pilot's license and flying a plane into an unnoticed pitch
Illustration
Story of JFK Jr.'s fatal plane crash due to ignoring instruments
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 3 of 7
We have an enemy who wants us to doubt God's truth and replace it with our own
From 1 Peter 5:8, Pastor Linn warns that Satan doesn't need people to become Satanists — he just needs them to doubt God and become their own god. He retells the Genesis account of Eve at the tree, showing how the serpent distorted God's love and provision until Eve traded truth for her own conclusion.
“your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, someone to destroy”
— Linn Winters
Illustration
Retelling of the Genesis account of Eve and the serpent in the garden
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 4 of 7
Following our own truth creates our own struggle and pain
Citing Jeremiah 17:9 that the heart is deceitful above all things, Pastor Linn retells the story of David and Bathsheba, showing how David's heart told him 'I need her,' overriding God's truth, leading to adultery, murder, a dead child, and eventually his own son's rebellion.
Illustration
Retelling of the biblical account of King David and Bathsheba
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 5 of 7
Your opinion has never made anything true
Pastor Linn shares a personal story from age 16 telling his mother that Billy Graham was not a good Christian, only to be humbled by her response and later, as an adult, seeing the vast scope of Graham's ministry at a museum. He uses this to show that strongly holding an opinion doesn't make it correct.
A story from life
Story from age 16 about judging Billy Graham and being corrected by his mother
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 6 of 7
Truth, not feeling, must come first and then guide everything else
Pastor Linn points to Jesus's own words that heaven and earth will pass away before Scripture fails, then reads John 8:31-32 that knowing and holding to Jesus's truth sets people free, while living by one's own truth leads to chains.
“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”
— Linn Winters
Illustration
Retelling of the biblical account of Moses' life, call, and deliverance of Israel
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 7 of 7
Moses had to trade his own truth for God's truth to fulfill his calling
Pastor Linn walks through Moses's story: his frustration that God seemed absent from Israel's suffering, his own truth that led him to murder an Egyptian, forty years tending sheep, and then the burning bush where God commissioned him. Moses initially answers with his own truth ('I can't, I'm a criminal'), but when he instead trades it for God's truth, he goes on to lead Israel out of Egypt and becomes one of history's most revered leaders.
“I want whatever years I still have to be more like Moses' second half of his life and not like the first half”
— Linn Winters
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Take it into your week
Pastor Linn frames the charge as a trade: find where you've chosen your truth over God's, and trade it.
Application
Ask God to reveal your own truth
During the five minutes of daily prayer challenged the week before, ask God to show any place you've chosen to live your own truth instead of His.
Trade your truth for God's when He shows you
When God reveals a place of self-deception, set aside your belief, feelings, and perception, and simply live in what God has actually said.
Start with truth, then let it guide you
Rather than starting with feelings or opinions and bending truth to fit them, begin with what God's word actually says and let it shape your conclusions and perceptions.
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI