Origin
Origin
Disarming Deception, Many Ways to God
Join the Table of Origin to discuss the deception, Many Ways to God. We are boldly stating that Jesus is the Only Way. We are all susceptible to deception. Find out how to guard against it as we discuss strategies for disarming deception.
Welcome back to the table of Origin where we are disarming deception. This is week four. The deception we are discussing today is the thought that there are many ways to God. I know this could be a controversial thought process to some of you, but I'm here at the table, and fortunately, I have my friends to help me. Welcome to the table, Jina McAfee and Kyli Rose. We're shoulder-to-shoulder girls who love Jesus and love the Word, and who don't want to leave any stones unturned. We're willing to discuss elephants in the room. And, girls, we're going there today. Many people are drawn to spiritual things for one reason or another; we always have been. Often it's because we're trying to answer the big
questions of life:Who am I? How did I get here? And, how does it all end? Is it just death and that's it? Is this it? So, Jina, what's the first thing we need to note about this deception.
Jina Mcafee:One of the things we want to point out is none of us is above being deceived. Every one of us is susceptible. Sometimes we think that we've walked with the Lord a long time, we have the gift of discernment, we're not going to be deceived. All true. But deception is mentioned in the Bible at least 57 times. That's a lot. A definition of deception is "to lead astray, to seduce, to beguile and deceive, utterly, completely or thoroughly." That's from Strong's. So that's a biblical definition of deception. One of the things we're saying to ourselves is that we need to be humble, we need to realize we all need protection. Some of you may not realize that we are in a battle continually from beginning to end. There's good. There's evil. There's God who is all good. And there's Satan who is all evil. The world knows there's evil. We don't have to look very far to see it. We know it. We know it's all around us. So if there is evil, there has to be good. There has to be. That just makes sense even if you don't know the Word. Satan is out to deceive the world, people that haven't accepted Christ yet, and also believers, if he can. Satan is called the father of lies; he's a liar from the beginning (Jn
8:44). That's who he is. Whereas, God is truth. Jesus is truth, all truth. But Satan is crafty. 2 Corinthians 11:14 says, "Satan disguises himself as an angel of light." So we can hear something that sounds good, that seems reasonable, but it's nothing more than a false appearance.
ReGina Johnston:In deception, there's little bits of truth, or else we wouldn't be deceived by it. If it was obviously all clear, we wouldn't even be drawn in, people wouldn't be drawn in. But because there's truth sprinkled in and twisted, it's alluring.
Jina Mcafee:Even for people that know the Word. Even if you know the Word, it's going to sound right because Satan just takes a little bit and twists it. One of the things I thought was interesting as we started this study, I read that Hitler's regime would say that a big lie is easier to get people to believe than a small lie. I guess the bigger it is, the more you think it has to be true. They would speak it over and over and over and over again. We're seeing that in our culture right now. The deception is purposeful. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 says, "Don't be fooled." God doesn't want us to be fooled. Verse 10 says, "The man of lawlessness, the Antichrist, doing the work of Satan will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction." This is referring to those who have not accepted Christ, who have rejected Christ. But we also know from Matthew 24:24-25 that there are going to be false messiahs, false prophets, false teachers that are going to rise up and try to deceive even those who know Christ. That's us. So we've got to pay attention, to be on guard. One other danger is self-deception. That's where we believe something that's not true kind of on purpose. We just accept it. Do you think we accept it because it's easier, because we like it more, or?
ReGina Johnston:Maybe we feel validated by it, or we feel like it gives us permission which is validation to do the thing we want to do?
Jina Mcafee:The thing we want to do.
Kyli Rose:I think comfort and convenience will always be two idols that we have to deal with. It's like our default to want to serve self. I think we're constantly trying to build constructs and theologies that ultimately glorify self, make self comfortable, provide convenience for self.
ReGina Johnston:What's interesting is, the more we find comfort and convenience, the more we expect comfort and convenience, the more we want more comfort and more convenience. It's just this never ending cycle of serve me, serve me, make me comfortable. Don't you dare say anything that disagrees with what I'm doing. You can't believe the way you want to believe because that offends me, because I believe differently. Now I'm entitled to all kinds of comfort, and nobody is pulling the little feathers out of the nest so that the bird
Kyli Rose:If you look at the Gospels, you see Jesus show up, will fly. and He is just so radical, He makes everybody uncomfortable. He is preaching this radical idea of picking up your cross, that there is cost involved and the cost is worth it. We see this Guy on His hands and His knees washing filthy feet, and telling us to do that. He says,"You don't want the best seat, you want the lowest seat at the table. You honor." All these radical ideas that are not glorifying of self, this laying down your life, He modeled that, literally. Everything about comfort and convenience, these Western ideas, are so antithetical to the gospel.
ReGina Johnston:We even see Jesus speak to one of the disciples who is basically wanting to show care towards Him and honor Him, but also has all of these keen but misguided ideas of how this thing's going to play out, and Jesus basically says to him, "Get thee behind Me, Satan" (Mt 16:23 KJV). So there was some deception at work there in that disciple's mind and in his words. Jesus spoke directly to that. He offended everybody's thought processes. It was interesting for Him to do that to some of the those who walked so closely to Him. So even seeing that example, we see that none of us are exempt from deception. So how do we keep from being deceived?
Kyli Rose:Whenever people are working with money, they don't have them look at the counterfeit bills over and over in order to spot a fake. They have them look at the real deal. They become so familiar with the weight, they become so familiar with the texture, they become so familiar with the real that they could close their eyes and spot the real thing from a fake. I think Jina had even mentioned how a lie was infiltrated within the Nazi German regime by just saying the same thing and keeping it in front of the people over and over and over. Probably what started off feeling kind of uncomfortable, awkward, "we're not sure about this," became truth over time. If we're going to protect ourselves from deception, Jesus cannot be this box that we check, He cannot be this decision that we made when we were eight, I prayed the prayer and that's it. He has to be the One our whole lives revolve around, everything centers around Him where I am growing in this real, live, dynamic relationship with Him day in and day out. I am becoming so accustomed to the real thing, so accustomed to truth, so accustomed to His Word, so accustomed to the way He lived and what He spoke and what He modeled and who He was, that I can spot what is not true. Because this is what Jesus said, that is not true. Because that's how Jesus lived, because that's what He did, because that's how He spoke...
ReGina Johnston:That's who He is.
Kyli Rose:So the truth of who He is eventually infiltrates me and becomes who I am and what I do and how I live. It's this constant thing. It's not this Sunday morning experience only. It's this day in and day out relationship with Jesus. It says
in John 14:6 that Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE, Him and Him alone. So He is making this wild statement. There is no other truth outside of Me. There is no other way outside of Me. There is no other path outside of me. It's Me and Me alone. If you want to get to know Jesus, if you want to have this real dynamic, life changing relationship with Him, He is revealed through His Word. You cannot know Him apart from His Word. We've talked about some statistics in previous podcasts. As a general rule, we're not engaging with the Word. As a general rule, believers are not engaging with the Word. We expect people who weren't necessarily raised in the church or even going to church now not to be engaged with the Word, but this is a statistic, an alarming statistic, for people who claim to be a Christian, who said they know Christ. And His Word would say, you cannot know Me apart from My Word. That's a really big statement, right?
Jina Mcafee:But I love it because you can know Him through His Word. You can know Him. You can kind of flip that and say, you can know Him.
Kyli Rose:When Jina was saying that no one is above being deceived, being good isn't enough. We've got to know truth. How do we know truth? We know truth through Jesus. How do we know Jesus? We know Him through His Word. In John 17:17, He says, "Make them holy, by Your truth. Teach them Your Word which is truth." You want to know truth, you have to be in the Word because that's where Jesus, the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE is revealed. And then lastly, you want to know Jesus, He is also revealed by the Holy Spirit. John 15:26 says, "When the Spirit of truth, who comes from the Father, He will testify about Me." This is Jesus speaking. He says, "The Holy Spirit is going to testify, He's going to make Me known." So Jesus is revealed through the Word. He's also revealed through the Holy Spirit. It's this Holy Spirit part of the Trinity which is the presence and the power of God on the earth. I think we all want the same thing, right? We all want to know who we are. We all want to know what our purpose is. We all want to know that we have a purpose here on the earth. Statistics right now show that people are very, very hungry for spiritual things. They're just going on all these different paths looking for it. It's the church's responsibility, the Trinity's responsibility, Father God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the power source from the Trinity's responsibility. We are trying to live our lives as Christians and the church is trying to operate apart from the Holy Spirit. It is no wonder that the world around us doesn't necessarily want to be like us. They need to see a dynamic power source in life. They need to see that we are operating in the power of the Holy Spirit not necessarily to get out of hard but to get through hard a little bit differently. They need to see that believers sleep at night because they're not riddled with anxiety, that they're walking in the power and the authority of the Holy Spirit. It's a key piece.
ReGina Johnston:The life of the Word, not the letter of the Word.
Kyli Rose:This is a huge part if you want to protect yourself from deception. You get discernment, you are able to know the truth from a lie, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the discerning power of the Holy Spirit. So if we're going to know Jesus, we've got to be in the Word and developing this relationship with the Holy Spirit day in and day out. And the cool thing is, He wants to meet with you. My kids love the"Where's Waldo" books, where you're just searching and searching and searching, and they're hiding. That is not Jesus. He wants to reveal Himself to you. He is not Waldo. He's not perched behind something. He wants to be found by us. He will reveal Himself through His Word and through the Holy Spirit.
ReGina Johnston:I said, apparently, we all want the same thing. Here's an author that says there are thousands of paths to God, and every one gets you there. So, apparently, we're all wanting somebody bigger than we are. We're wanting to find answers that we in ourselves do not have. We don't have them. But we want to believe that there's somebody out there, there's some deity out there that has the answers. It's kind of hard to believe that all this just happened, and here we are, and once we live it, then we're done. It's been so intricate. There's another author that says, "All paths lead to God. And it doesn't matter if you call him Jehovah, Allah Buddha, or even if you believe that he is a she." There's this apparent path, desired path, that leads to God. And there's this sense that we all want to believe that we're headed there. We want to believe that. Oh, it would be so great to believe that. But here's the deal. We're going to make a bold statement, and the bold statement is this. And Kyli has pretty much seeded it. Jesus is the only way to salvation and truth. We are basing what we believe on the truth of His Word. This is a biblical
worldview. 2 Peter 1:3 says,"His divine power has given us all the things that pertain to life and godliness." It's through the knowledge of Him that we begin to understand everything. We'll never get it all for eternity. There'll be constant revelation. But it's through the knowledge of Him that we begin to have clarity. Kyli, I know that you've just been up to the mountains recently. And there's this sense of clarity when you're standing up on a mountain peak. You have a vast perspective. And there's this coolness that you experience. When you look at the largeness, the vastness of creation, there is a revelation that there's a Master Designer, that there's someone bigger.
Kyli Rose:I love that! There are all of these other world religions, but that is what has been incredible and completely different about God, the one true God. He revealed Himself as Elohim, the Creator, and we see this grand God. As we get to know Him, He then reveals Himself as Yahweh. All of the other gods were distant and fickle. They didn't really want a relationship with humans. They just kind of put up with people. They were there to serve their needs, their purposes, their desires. They didn't love their people. And their people never knew where they stood with their gods. And then we meet Elohim, the Creator, the One who put order into place in the midst of all this chaos. And then several chapters later, we meet Yahweh. He lets us know that He is so powerful and He created all of it, but I also want you to know Me as Yahweh, that I am not like the other gods, all these little"g" gods who are fickle. I am as close as the very breath you breathe and I chose you, I want you, I love you. Christianity is like no other world religion for this reason. We serve a God who wants to have intimate personal relationship with us. Not only is He powerful, not only is He Elohim, but He is Yahweh. These are the first two ways He reveals Himself to us. He is close, and He loves us. He doesn't need us. He wants us.
ReGina Johnston:We find Him in the beginning searching for Adam and Eve in the cool of the garden. We're all about the beginning, about Origin. He wants to walk with us. He is so very intimately personal, so personal that in these days, He has sent His Holy Spirit to live in us.
Jina Mcafee:24/7. We talked about how we all want to know why we're here, all the questions, but God answers those in the very first pages of Scripture, the very beginning. He has purpose for us. We're to cause everything to flourish. Man and woman created in His image. We bear His image. He wants relationship with us, and He shares purpose with us, which I love. You don't get that anywhere else.
ReGina Johnston:We're basing what we're saying here on our belief that God's Word is true. But, statistically, Kyli, we're not seeing that with everybody. Can you share some of that with us? There's just kind of a disconnect.
Kyli Rose:Barna Research, this group out of California that studies all things faith related, shows that only 17% of self-identified Christians have an overall perspective on a variety of topics consistent with a biblical worldview. That means that 83% don't. Essentially, out of all these people who identify as Christians, a huge percentage of them do not believe that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God.
ReGina Johnston:And herein is the issue. That's the open door to deception, right there, wide open door.
Kyli Rose:We can go on and on and on about what God says about His Word in His Word, right. How it is true, it's the standard for our life that helps us discern right and wrong, it helps us know the heart of God, it helps us know who He is, His nature and who we're called to be. He gives us guardrails to keep us safe through His Word. He gives us cautions. He gives us wisdom. He gives us story. He gives us aspects of who He is. You cannot know Him apart from His Word. He is speaking constantly, but He is also speaking actively through His Word. It's not just this antiquated book, collection of stories and folklore. There is truth, and it is still living. It is still active. And you will have an encounter with Jesus Christ Himself whenever you make this a part of your day-to-day life. And, we just see statistically that is not happening. And we also see that that is having an impact. The statistics also support that statistic.
ReGina Johnston:In our world.
Kyli Rose:In our world and even amongst believers. We sometimes don't look very different than those people. It was always God's design that His people would look different than the world around them. He says, "And this is My new commandment that you would love one another the way I have loved you and that this would be a testimony, the greatest testimony to the world around you, that you look like Me." We see Jesus say that in one of the Gospels. The Word is what teaches us how to be like Him and look like Him. And when we look like Him, and we act like Him, and we sound like Him, it's supposed to draw people to Him. We were always meant to be set apart.
ReGina Johnston:But we have trouble even sitting around this table. At times, we're searching for the right words to say, and we have trouble confronting this idea. Why? Why do we have trouble?
Jina Mcafee:That there are many ways to God? The thing I see is that so many people believe it. They want to believe it because then they believe they're fine. They're going to be fine. But it's such a dangerous deception, because it's going to determine your eternal life forever and ever and ever, whether you're going to be with God in heaven, in the new heavens and new earth, or whether you're going to be in that lake of burning sulfur. But we don't talk about that.
ReGina Johnston:And we've been raised to respect what other people believe.
Kyli Rose:I think, too, it's very hard. Christ requires Lordship. He requires all of us, a complete surrender. Like, "You are God, and I am not." I think that there is just this pervasive idol to self. Like, I don't want to bend, I don't want to bow, I don't want to say that You are Lord of my life, because that means that I have to live the way You've called me to live. That means that I might have to give some things up. That means that I might have to adopt some things. I might have to cut this and pick up this. I might have to practice denying myself. There's some cost. Is it worth it? Absolutely! But at the end of the day, I think it's a lot easier to say, I can get where I want to go and do it my way. It's always going to be easier that way. There's no resistance there. I can live my life the way I want to live my life, and it'll be okay. Right? I can say what I want to say and do what I want to do. I can really adopt any type of principle, life construct, theology, that at the end of the day, benefits me and requires little to nothing of me.
Jina Mcafee:I think it's a God thing that awakens you to know who He is. He does it. And His Word talks about this danger. 2
Corinthians 11:3-4 says, "I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may be led astray." So He's telling believers this. These are people who are in the Word who are going to hear this.
ReGina Johnston:Another important thing to point out really quickly before you go on, Jina, here's Eve in the very beginning walking with God, being deceived.
Jina Mcafee:That's the truth. We can be deceived. Verse 4 says, "If someone comes and proclaims a Jesus, other than the One we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the One you received, [that is what we're talking about today in the world] or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it way too easily." So we're asking,"Why are we not coming against this thought?"
ReGina Johnston:Crickets? Why are we silent?
Jina Mcafee:Why? So why are we afraid? And what do you mean, when you say crickets?
ReGina Johnston:It's kind of a well known fact that when people say "crickets," they're just hearing the crickets in the night. Nobody's saying anything. It's just silence. You know when the night is very quiet, and you can hear...of course, right now, in the summer, we hear cicadas...but that cricket noise in the night when the night is silent.
Jina Mcafee:That's all you hear. One of the thoughts is that maybe we don't want to make waves. I sometimes don't speak up because I'm afraid I will lose relationship. What if? What if I speak this, and they walk away and won't even talk to me, won't even listen to me anymore? They won't have a relationship with me? But you can look at that another way. What if we speak truth and they do receive Christ? What if? So we're looking at the truth that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Here is the context for that passage in John 14:1-6. Jesus starts with these words to those closest to Him, "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in Me."
ReGina Johnston:You believe in God. Believe also in Me.
Jina Mcafee:Trust in God, trust also in Me. Jesus says that. That gives us comfort, right? He's saying this to His disciples. He's saying, I'm getting ready to go away, but I want you to know, there's room in My Father's house. And I if it were not so, I wouldn't be telling you that I'm preparing a place. He's preparing a place for those who have said, "Yes.". And when everything's ready, He's going to come and get us. But Thomas is saying, "But we don't know the way." Jesus says,"Yes, you do. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life." And He makes this statement, "No one can come to Father God, except through Me." No one. No one's going to go to heaven and be with God except through Christ. That's the only way. It's not a version of the truth. Jesus says, "I am the truth. I am the living truth.". He didn't say that there are lots of lives you can have. He says, "I am the life. I myself, and only I. And no one comes to the Father except through Me." I remember when our teacher taught this. She said, there's a 100% exclusivity when it comes to the way to God. It's exclusive. There is one way, but she made another point too.
ReGina Johnston:Yes. So we know a lot of good people. And we want them to be in heaven with us, but they may not know Jesus. And so what we're saying is, "He is the WAY, 100%." Keep it 100, 100%. If Jesus is not the only way, He can't be any way. If Jesus was not the only way to God, He's no way at all. Because He claimed He was the way. So how could he be a way to God? How can He claim to be a way to God and not really be the way? That would make Him a liar. That would make Him a lunatic. That would make Him a devil. In fact, that's what some of the religious people thought about Him back in the day. Most other world religions will say that Jesus was a good man, but they won't say that He's God. But a man that is going to lie to us, that's not a good man. We don't call that a good man, right? So those truly thinking truth must ask this, "Is Jesus a liar?" Historical evidence testifies to the fact that He existed, and there's evidence to support the truth of many of the biblical stories. There's evidence, and they're uncovering cities even as we speak. Anthropological digs are uncovering portions of biblical materials that bring evidence that Jesus really did exist. Is He a lunatic? If so, He has had a long term following. How many people do you know who have followed a lunatic for years and years and years and years and years? Smart people. Or, is He Lord? So Jesus is 100% exclusive in that He's the only way. I think this is where you were headed, Jina. But in another way, He's 100% inclusive. So tell us about that, Kyli.
Kyli Rose:Yes, so ReGina and Jina both touched on it. Just to kind of put a bow on the thoughts: Jesus is 100% exclusive in that He is the only way. There's no other way to Father except through Jesus. But in another way, He is 100% inclusive. He asks for all of us, because He gave all of Himself for us. He's not asking for all of you and withholding parts of Himself from you. He gave us everything. He took on God's wrath on the cross. He died a sinner's death even though He had never done anything wrong. He took the wrath of sin on Himself so that you and I wouldn't have to wear that wrath. And He gives us the choice. That's how much He loves you and me. Not only did He take our punishment, but then He gives you the choice, the dignity of choosing, and He doesn't even force you to. He's so kind. And we see that in Scripture. This is a Scripture that you've seen crocheted a zillion and one times, but I really want you to hear it. It's powerful. "For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He gave His One and only begotten Son, so that whoever [that's the 100% inclusive] believes and trusts in Him will not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16 AMP). He loved us so much that He gave everything for us. And then verse 18 says, "Whoever believes and has decided to trust in Him is not judged; [For this one, there is no judgment, no rejection, no condemnation] but the one who does not believe[and has decided to reject Him as a personal Savior and Lord] is judged already [that one has been convicted and sentenced], because he has not believed and trusted in the name of the [One and] only begotten Son of God[the One who is truly unique, the only One of His kind, and the One who alone can save him]." He is the only way because He is the only One who could take on your punishment and my punishment. He's the only One who could have sat in that place. We've all sinned. We've all fallen short of the glory of God except for Jesus. And He decided to take a punishment that wasn't His.
Jina Mcafee:As a man.
Kyli Rose:Yes. He came down to the earth, wrapped himself in human flesh. He felt all the same things that a human would: tired, fatigued, all the things. And He chose to not sin and then stand in our place. And that is why He can say, "There is no way to the Father except through Me." He earned the authority to say that. He did it all. And so we see that light came to the world. And He said, "Whoever." A lot of times there's these Greek words that mean this, that or the other. But "whoever" simply means "whoever" in English and in Greek, the same. If you want Him, you can have Him. He made a way for you to get to Him through what happened on the cross. And then in Jeremiah
29:13, "You will seek Me and you will find Me when you seek Me with all of your heart. I will[I want to] be found by you." He is not hiding from us. He is not Waldo. He's not hiding around the corner on pages. If you look for Him, you'll find Him. He wants to be found by you. We talked about those big questions, whatever you are seeking, if you are seeking peace, He's the way. If you are seeking purpose, Jesus is the answer. If you are seeking rest, Jesus is the answer. If you are seeking love, Jesus is the answer. If you're seeking joy. If you are seeking deliverance because you feel stuck, and you feel tired, and you do not know and you've tried all these other ways, and you keep coming to the same dead end over and over and over again, you've tried all the self-help tools, and nothing is working, Jesus is the way. Jesus is the way. He is the answer. We
see in John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word." The Word here is Jesus. He's talking about Jesus. In the very beginning. He didn't show up in Matthew in a manger. He actually was in the very beginning. We find Him all throughout the Old
Testament. John 1:14 says, "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only Son, who came from the Father." We talked about this. The Word Jesus was made flesh. He wrapped Himself up in human flesh. He became like us.
ReGina Johnston:So we see then that ifJesus is the only way and if Jesus is the Word, then His Word is the only way. So, Jina, bring more clarity to that for us.
Jina Mcafee:So we just said that Jesus IS the Word. And God has given us His Word, His living word, written over hundreds and thousands of years by multiple authors, over 40, and it all fits together and it has lasted. One time, my friend Regina looked at how long the Bible had been on the best seller's list, pretty much as long as there was a best seller's list. And the reason for this, and it's in the word,
Proverbs 30:5 says, "The Word of the Lord proves true." It proves true. It has proven true over thousands of years. So we're going to look at the Word to see what the Word does for us. 2
Timothy 3:16-17 talks about the Word. It says, "All Scripture[all of the Word] is inspired by God [That means it's God breathed, from His mouth and given to us] and it benefits us for teaching, for correction, for training, that the man or woman of God may be fully able, equipped for every good work." The Message version says this,"There's nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed useful one way or another, showing us truth [this is our foundation, the truth, our plumb line] exposing our rebellion [that could be that self-deception we talked about, our rebelion] correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the task God has for us." I love that. That's The Message . So read multiple versions. Read the Old Testament, the New Testament, All scripture. We talked before how we have technology. We can go on our phone, we can Google, we can find multiple versions in a Bible app on our phones. We can click on other versions. We can see the original Hebrew, what it meant originally. We're easily deceived. The first deception was in the very first pages of Scripture, I think we already talked about it, when Satan deceived Eve in the garden. Here they were...
ReGina Johnston:They used the Word out of context. They used what God said out of context. They misquoted it.
Jina Mcafee:Eve misquoted it, and then Satan lied, straight out. Satan said, "Did God really say...?" He caused a question to arise. That is what happens in us, too. Basically God said you can eat from any tree in the garden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If you eat it, you will surely die. Eve comes back and says, "If you touch it or eat it, you will surely die." That's not what God said. And then Satan says, "You won't die." There's the lie. I thought about all of the effects, all of the consequences, when Adam and Eve brought sin into the world. They brought sin into the world for all of us, right? We all start out with a sin nature. They were ashamed. They had never been ashamed before. Never. They hid from God. They had never hidden from God. Never. They were afraid. They had never been afraid. But they messed up. They had everything. It was perfect. And they messed up. So we can mess up. We've got to be on guard.
Kyli Rose:You see they messed up, and even after they made a choice, God still loved them.
Jina Mcafee:He made a way.
Kyli Rose:He still covered them. He clothed them. He went and killed an animal. That was the first sacrifice we see made in Scripture to cover sin, when He clothed their naked bodies.
Jina Mcafee:But it separated them from God. They had to leave God's presence. That was Satan's goal. And it's still his goal. He wants to separate us from God's presence. And it would be his greatest joy to keep people from having relationship with God now and forever. So we can't let that happen.
ReGina Johnston:No. And I think it's important to know who they
Kyli Rose:Satan does the same thing every single time. What he were listening to when they made those choices. They weren't listening to God. That's the question to ask ourselves. Who are we listening to? What voices are we putting around us? What did with them, he does with us now. He will sway us away and voices are we lending our ear to? And by lending our ear, who accuse God. Is He really that good? He's holding out on you. are we lending our lives to? You make the decision, and then the one who pulled you away begins to accuse you. And you feel the weight of shame on your shoulders. And he begins to heap shame and throw things at you. He does that over and over and over again. It's a cycle. He draws you away and then he begins to shame you.
Jina Mcafee:It's a pattern. He does the same thing.
ReGina Johnston:We cannot emphasize enough a daily interaction with the Word. There's a Scripture that talks about the Word being alive and active.
Jina Mcafee:It's really alive. It speaks to you in the situation you're in, specific to the day you're in. You will hear one thing and ten people in a room will hear something different because God is using His truth, for your purposes, for your good. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges...
ReGina Johnston:It's precise.
Jina Mcafee:Straight to the point where it needs to land.
ReGina Johnston:That's why we emphasize it. So Jesus is the only way. His Word is the only way. And there's one more exclusive point that we want to make. What is that?
Kyli Rose:Lastly, that the Holy Spirit is the only way. I think I got ahead of myself a little bit earlier. We see the Holy Spirit is the third person in the Trinity. And God refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the Living God, the Spirit of light, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of wisdom. It is God's presence on the earth. And whenever you become a believer, you have the Holy Spirit reside in you. You are now a temple, a home of the Holy Spirit. You had a stony heart and you now have a soft heart of flesh, and the Holy Spirit helps you look more and more like Jesus. You need Him. It's not an option. You can't do this thing without Him. He begins to move you towards relationship. He moves us from this place of just knowing in theory about God and who He is and just trying to find answers to questions and this mechanical thing we engage in with the Lord. He moves us beyond that to this relational, living, breathing. He makes it dynamic. He instills power in our walk with Christ. If you are a believer, you should be walking in the power and the authority of Jesus Christ. That is through the Holy Spirit. We shouldn't be living these dry, powerless lives, just kind of like whatever comes our way, we just kind of have to put up with it. Absolutely not. We walk in power and authority. And that is through the Holy Spirit. He tells us what to do. He helps us know what to do. He gives us strength. He gives us courage. He helps us have the mind of Christ. When you do not know what to do and your own logical mind has failed you, which mine does constantly, we get to lean in to the Holy Spirit. He helps us know what to do when we do not know what to do. He'll show us
ReGina Johnston:So Jesus is the only way. His Word is the only way. Holy Spirit is the only way. And so with all of that in mind as our foundation, as we close, we need to ask ourselves
some questions. One:Do we believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, or are we still seeking? I just encourage you to draw near to Him today. He'll draw near to you. Ask Him, speak to Him, ask Him to reveal Himself to you,
and He will. Two:Do we speak the truth in love, or do we stay silent? Is it just crickets? When people around us are questioning or looking or trying to find a way or clearly lost,
are we speaking up? Three:Do we say we love Jesus, but are we really just loving what we want--our will, our desires, our way, because Jesus said, "Not My will. but Yours be done, Lord"? So let me pray it out. Search us, Lord. The Word says You can do that. We can ask You to do that, that You alone really know our hearts. Lead us on the path that brings us to the only wise God and everlasting life. Today we affirm that You are the way, the truth and the life. Give us fresh vision. Forgive us when we've made idols of ourselves by elevating our way over Your way. Lord, teach us through Your Word and train us to listen and to obey and even know the voice of the Holy Spirit. Lord, may Your Word find fertile ground in our hearts and yield a great big harvest for the kingdom of God that brings You glory eternally. In Jesus name, Amen.