Walking in Truth

What if you had a job where you worked overtime, but didn’t get any benefit or reward from it? You spent all this time and effort working hard, but you earned no extra money. That would feel rather defeating, wouldn’t it? Well today, Pastor Johnny mentions that no amount of effort will get you into heaven. It’s simply a generous gift God offers if you’ll only believe. So instead of getting stuck in religious rituals and rules, rest in knowing that believing is enough…not hours of work or effort put forth.

It’s obvious to everyone when someone’s been physically injured in war. You see a limb that’s been removed or a scar that marks what he went through. But what about the emotional trauma that people experience in war? That goes mostly unseen until you dig deeper into how that person’s affected the rest of his life because of what he endured. Today, Pastor Johnny talks about the sin that you carry being noticeable at times and unnoticed at other times. But God wants to heal it all!

Your past shouldn’t define you. If you suffered from abuse as a child, that’s a traumatizing experience, but it shouldn’t hold a grip on you for the rest of your life. Perhaps you’ve felt the urge of just one more drink, and then the next drink is the last one…again…and again. But that also doesn’t need to clamp down on your identity. Today, Pastor Johnny expresses how there should be a desire to be helped and to be healed. If you know Jesus, you know the One who can do that very thing!

When you see someone who’s unable to walk, your heart goes out to them, and you feel for what they’re missing out on in life. They can’t experience things like going on a beautiful hike or enjoying the simple things - like a relaxing walk through a neighborhood. They would love some of those things if they had the ability. It’s no different for you today when it comes to spiritual things. Pastor Johnny makes it clear that God doesn’t want you to be spiritually blind or paralyzed. He wants you to be made well!

An anchor sinks deep into the ocean floor, holding a ship in place, so it isn’t tossed by the waves or swayed to a different spot than was intended. It’s meant to hold fast and be what keeps something in place. In today’s teaching, Pastor Johnny relates God’s Word to being an anchor for your soul. The Bible can sink deep into your heart and keep you from doing things you might regret, as well as convict you of things that need to change. This type of anchor is a life-preserver!

So many times, you hear about something, but it’s hard to believe it unless you see it. You might hear about something on YouTube, but if you see the video of it, you’re more likely to believe that it’s actually real or that it truly happened. What Pastor Johnny’s getting at today is that with faith, it’s necessary to believe in God without seeing all that He says, right away. A man in today’s passage had to believe that Jesus was a man of His word, without seeing the immediate effects in front of him.

You might notice an attractive woman and you think she has it all. What you don’t realize, is that she’s an empty shell with a pretty exterior. She has no hope, and she might be on the verge of harming herself in some way because she feels like there’s no escape from the situation she’s in. In the passage today, Pastor Johnny speaks about a woman who had tried many things but came up empty. But once she talks to Jesus, she leaves that emptiness behind. If you want to be filled, listen today to hear how!

If you knew that a certain kind of liquid was poison, you’d stay far away from it and you definitely wouldn’t go so far as to drink it, as you know it would kill you. But what about the things you’re watching, listening to, or reading? What’s your mind drinking in - and is it healthy or is it toxic? Today, Pastor Johnny brings things to light in a way that might make you squirm a little bit, feeling uncomfortable about what he’s saying, and how it hits you personally. But sometimes, this is good for you!

Imagine being so thirsty that you feel like you’ll faint if you don’t have some refreshing water in the near future. You find a glass, and try to drink anything…even one drop of water, but there’s none to be found, and you feel like you’ll just die if you can’t get to a water source. It’s interesting to picture this because as Pastor Johnny mentions today, the thirst to drink water is a small need compared to the thirst you should want for Jesus in your heart. This kind of water will satisfy you forever!

There are very few things that would be worse than being stuck in a cave, with no way of getting out. But just before you’re ready to give up and have given in to despair, miraculously you find a passageway that directs you out into the sunlight again. Did you know that this is the exact picture of life as you know it without God? You’re stuck in a dark, depressing cave, with no way of escape. But as Pastor Johnny states today, Jesus makes a way for you to have hope and to come out of the darkness.