Walking in Truth

Think of your worst enemy. Maybe it’s someone who hurt you in a deeply personal way. Maybe they hurt someone you care for or took something of great value to you. Now imagine they’re dying and you alone have the capacity to rescue them, though it will require extreme pain and suffering on your part – even death. What would you do? What did Christ do for you? As Pastor Johnny will point out in today’s message, the sacrifice Jesus made for us required supernatural love that we can’t produce on our own.

There are a lot of things we love in this life. You love your family, you love your pets, your favorite sports team, and you love clothing or certain food… We love it a lot. We take the word and the depths of affection it describes for granted. But there’s a love that transcends this. Agape love is a divine love that requires God’s intervention - because it comes from the deep wells of His heart. As Pastor Johnny will explain in today’s message, if you want to have this selfless, limitless love, you can only find it in trusting Christ.

If you examine your own heart, where does Jesus fit in? Is He central to your life? Does your passion for loving and following Him consume your thoughts and desires? For most of us, we’d have to admit that He’s not in the place He should be. We have many other loves that compete with Him. As Pastor Johnny will warn in today’s message, this is a serious problem. Your relationship with Jesus must come first. This means you’ll need to let go of those other distractions – but it’s completely worth it.

You may not realize how influenced you are by what goes into your head. You hear things that affect your thoughts. You see things that you may not be able to erase from your memory. You might speak things that you can’t take back. Today, Pastor Johnny reminds you that if you let God rule in everything that filters through your head, then God’s Spirit will fill your mind. It will flow out of your speech, flooding your senses with what’s true, noble, and lovely. Let that be what you strive for today!

You don’t have to be a genius to know that your body can’t function without the brain. All the nerves and passageways back and forth between the brain, the heart, and the rest of the body, are dependent on what the brain is communicating. Without your head, your body is useless. It’s the same with the church! Today, Pastor Johnny speaks about Jesus being the head of the church, but some don’t desire for that to be the case. Let Jesus be the head, and the rest will fall into place!

You may buck against the system, and not like having people be in charge of you, or tell you what to do. But if you haven’t realized it yet, there’s always something or someone that’s ruling your life. What Pastor Johnny teaches today is that the ONLY thing that should be ruling your life is God and His Word. If anything else is reigning and ruling in your heart, it will lead you to the wrong place. So if you want to protect your own heart, make sure it’s leaning heavily on God’s reign and rule in you!

Imagine if the most important parts of your body were visible….the brain, the heart, your lungs, your intestines. The truth is, those vital organs in your body go unseen. But they’re of utmost importance in keeping you alive! Today, Pastor Johnny talks about being the various parts of the body of Christ, the church. You shouldn’t aim to be in the spotlight. There should be a willingness for God to use you wherever the need is. Sometimes that’s seen and other times, it’s not as obvious.

When you’re at a store, there’s a clear difference between those who are working there, and those who have come to buy, to consume. The buyer is looking for what they can get out of the products. But if you’re working at a store, you’re there for a different reason. You’re there to serve people, and to focus on their needs rather than your own. You’re “others-focused,” rather than self-absorbed. In today’s teaching, Pastor Johnny helps you understand what this looks like within the church body.

A lot of people have been burned by the church over the years. Many people have a lot of bitterness toward the Christian church because of some way that they’ve been wronged. Well in today’s teaching, Pastor Johnny wants you to look at the church in a new light, in a fresh way. He wants your focus to be on the One who created and built up the church, and that’s Jesus! So whatever perception you have of going to church, or the people who have possibly mistreated you, try to lay that aside today.

Many people in our nation today, even politicians and leaders, will claim that they believe in God. Yet, as is clear every day, not very many of them actually live lives that demonstrate that faith at all. Today, Pastor Johnny will encourage you to not only declare your faith in God but also to live a life that clearly demonstrates it as well. Because you believe in Christ, you should be loving and serving others. You should be sacrificial and kind. You are representing Christ to a broken and needy world!