Origin
Origin
Disarming Deception, pt 2: True for You, But Not for Me
Join us at the table of Origin as we compare Relative Trust to Absolute Truth. Truth should be rock solid. Dependable. The same in every culture, for every generation, for all time. Pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee and let's have a talk!
Welcome to the Table of Origin. I'm here with my friends and co-ministers Kyli Rose and Jina McAfee. Today, we are ending our season of Disarming Deception, Part Two, where we've been discussing deceptions and disarming them with the truth of God's Word. Today's deception is True for You, But Not for Me. We're going to start right off speaking a truth that is true for everyone. It's this: "Your Word is truth, God Himself is the truth, and God does not change." But, we are in a season of "You be you, Girl." And that's Satan's counterfeit to God, really, because God's Word is "Be holy for I am holy." I don't know about you, but when I look in the mirror, and I see me, I don't want to necessarily just be me all the time. Kyli, you said something earlier this morning, that if all you do is serve yourself, you've become a miserable person, right? So God had to save me from me. The Apostle Paul said this, "I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me"(Ga 2:20). Here's another one. This is what happens when we live by the "You be you" principle. In Judges 21:25, it says, "In those days, Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes." And that was chaos.
Jina McAfee:And mess. They had to be rescued, right? Over and over again.
ReGina Johnston:So is it possible that they were doing what was right in their own sight because they were hung up on these terms, relative truth and absolute truth, maybe without even knowing it? We're going to look at these two terms, these two truths, today. Jina, can you give us some more understanding?
Jina McAfee:I want to start with relative truth. I've struggled with this term because I realize it so wishy washy, you can't even nail down the definition, really. But we're going to give some descriptors of what relative truth is. And I'm going to give two different ones. I'm going to split the first one into two parts. The first descriptor is that relative truth is conditional. When I think about the meaning of conditional, I think about if/then statements from logic. So if this is true, then that is true. It's conditional. Can one of you think of an example for a conditional truth?
ReGina Johnston:Well, this is one that might raise some eyebrows. There's this thought that if I love somebody, then sex outside of covenant is fine.
Jina McAfee:That's one out there right now for sure. And it's happening and.... I keep wanting to bring this back to the truth, the absolute truth.
Kyli Rose:I think one conditional truth that can cause
Jina McAfee:We've talked about that this season. So that's people to walk away from the church is this: If this happened to me, then God must not be good. We've talked about that, really good, you guys, really good. I want to take us to right? If this bad thing happened, then that must mean God is bad or unkind or not good or uninvolved. circumstantial truth too. Truths that are determined by circumstances are defined as relative truth. Here's an
example:It's raining in Temple. So right this minute, it could be raining where I am. But tomorrow, that may not be true. It might not be true 10 minutes from now.
ReGina Johnston:You see a lot of that in misinterpretations of the Bible.
Jina McAfee:Absolutely. When we look at truth in the Bible, we look at timeless truth, prescriptive truth, what is a truth for all time. But there is also descriptive truth, what's going on in that particular situation. So it's situational, circumstantial. You really need to be able to define which it is, true for all time or situational. Which is it? Relative truth is fluid. It changes. Here's another one. Relative truth is subjective. This indicates that relative truth depends on your feelings and what you see, what you perceive. For instance, we could be in a Sunday service or at a concert, and one person could say that the music is too loud. In that same church service or same concert, another person could say that the music is not loud enough.
ReGina Johnston:Or in the same car, because I've experienced this before. I'm just saying.
Jina McAfee:So it's based on what you think or feel. It's your perception.
ReGina Johnston:And is it your truth? Shouldn't that be everybody else's truth in that situation? Don't you feel that way when you say it? That music is too loud.
Jina McAfee:You want somebody to turn it down then, right?
ReGina Johnston:Absolutely. Should have already happened.
Jina McAfee:I figured this out in a women's conference. In a
ReGina Johnston:We are in that day, but I'm watching some room, you've got one person that might be fanning themselves because they're hot. So you go and adjust the thermostat. And then pretty soon, they're wrapping themselves up and freezing. So you go change it. Up and down, back and forth. I've decided I'm never doing that again. I'm setting it and leaving it, because you cannot please everyone. It is subjective. Here's a Scripture that will help you see this. 2
Timothy 4:3-4 says, "The time is coming when people will no people come awake. We are so much in that day, but I'm longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching [to the truth. They won't listen to truth.] They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths." Boy, are we in that day! watching some people who haven't really spoken to it or seemed to notice it, come awake to it and say, "Oh, no, oh, no, no!"
Kyli Rose:Whenever you live, according to what you feel, eventually that train is going to crash. It's a very unstable, very fickle way to live. We are talking about relative truth and what it leads to. Jina covered what it is, and also the consequences. So what is relative truth? It is varying. It's contradictory. And it's very unstable. When you read the Bible, God is the center. He is what tethers us. He holds us. He's unchanging. He doesn't move. The Word says He is the same from beginning to the end. And that tethers us. There's so much instability with relative truth because it puts me in the center. I become the center. My good days determine what I'm going to do. If I'm having a bad day, what people say about me, people's thoughts about me, what I'm feeling for that day. That is a very unstable way of living. There's a lot of instability with relative truth. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All Scripture is inspired by God and useful to teach us what is true, to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and it teaches us to do what's right." So Scripture diagnoses the broken parts of us. And then the Lord has the ability through Jesus to heal. We don't get stuck.
Jina McAfee:I love that! It's not just to say you're wrong, right? It's to say, "I've got something better for you!"
Kyli Rose:We balk, oftentimes, at how He tethers us, but really, there's so much safety in that. We need to know why we believe what we believe. The Word says that Scripture is inspired by God, but we also know that a lot of people don't know Scripture. Statistically, we don't know the Word. That's why a lot of us live very unstable lives. We're not tethered to the truth of who He is. We need to know what we believe and why we believe it. Otherwise, you will live on this yo-yo, this roller coaster of a ride. We see the instability. We also see that relative truth is ever changing. Do you all follow trends?
Jina McAfee:Not so much. I'm not an early adopter. I usually evaluate them before I step on. Like, do I really want to do that? Is that sound?
Kyli Rose:I follow a lot of design trends. And one of the things I'm always just shocked by is the rate at which they change.
Jina McAfee:Oh, my goodness.
ReGina Johnston:Faster than they used to.
Kyli Rose:So, so fast. I think with social media, you have access to what people are doing and all the things they're thinking. The one thing you can count on for a trend is that it will always change. As quickly as one is established, there will be a new one.
ReGina Johnston:That's a market-driven tool to get people to spend more money.
Jina McAfee:Absolutely. And a lot of people just get rid of what they have and start all over, over and over again.
Kyli Rose:We're really talking about how we're navigating our life, our what, our why. It's huge. Not just being hot or cold, or the music being too loud, not loud enough. But this is life or death. This is about how you're choosing to live your life. It is really dangerous to be tethered to relative truth, this unstable, ever changing tether. Actually, you're not tethered to anything at all. It's constantly moving.
Jina McAfee:Earlier this season, we talked about the fact that people's understanding of love is a shape-shifting concept, whereas, the truth is rock solid. I want to stand on a big enough place that I'm not going to fall off.
Kyli Rose:He talks about His Word as a firm foundation. You can stay tethered to the truth of God's Word. It will not change. It is not trending. It is stable. It's going to remain.
ReGina Johnston:We're going to talk about the opposite of relative truth. That's absolute truth. Some people may think there is no such thing, but there is. Here's what Wikipedia says, "Absolute truth is a statement that is true at all times, in all places. It is something that is always true, no matter what the circumstances. It is a fact that cannot be changed." And that is an anchor. Nothing else will hold your ship from going adrift but that kind of truth. Absolute truth is just as true for me as it is for you as it is for Jina. It's not something we can mold and bend and make into what we
Jina McAfee:You may think you base your life on relative want it to be or need it to be in any circumstance. One example given and it's a really concrete, easy-to-see example is that there are no round squares. One of the things Elwyn always says is two plus two does still equal four. truth, but really you do base your life on some absolutes.
ReGina Johnston:You're right. What are some absolutes we base our life on?
Jina McAfee:People do believe in gravity. They don't go jump off the cliff unless they're thinking they want to die, because they will fall. That is inevitable because gravity is a force, and we believe that. There are many things that we base our lives on.
ReGina Johnston:I've heard this example. If you see a chair, you don't wonder if that chair is going to hold you up. You go sit down, because you just believe it's going to hold you up. I've heard that example used with faith as well. There may be some chairs, maybe in the kids wing, that don't hold you up. I don't
Jina McAfee:Maybe not in heaven, because we might get to know if that's an absolute truth. But gravity at this point is a truth that we do hang our hats on. fly. But, here, it is absolutely a truth.
ReGina Johnston:But here when you tried it as a kid, that did not happen.
Jina McAfee:I know.
Kyli Rose:What you see in the Old and the New Testament supports this idea of what truth is. The Scripture is very clear. We see in the Old Testament, the word truth is actually a Hebrew word "EMET." It involves the idea of support and stability. It stands for authentic, reliable, or simply right. And then in the New Testament, we see the word "ALETHELA." It means that truth is defined as conformity to fact. Truth isn't meant to be something where we conform the facts to fit our situation. There's a tension here that you have to unpack. If we don't know the Word, if we're not in the Word studying, then what will inevitably happen is I will adjust the truth of God's Word to my experience. So my theology will basically be determined by my experience, by what I believe to be true. The Scripture is so clear. This is what is true, and this is what is good, and this is what is good for you. Both the Old and New Testaments are emphasizing the truth, that we don't conform truth to what we experience. We don't adopt a lie because of what we feel. The biblical view of truth contains the idea of factuality. A lot of people think that we just check our minds at the door as believers, not the case. The biblical view of truth contains faithfulness, and it contains completeness. So truth is not this cultural construct. It wasn't just a cultural construct of the Jewish people or even Christians, us today. God presented His truth to them, and they were expected to conform to it. So God gives us the truth of His Word, and the expectation is that I can form my life to fit within the truth, to fall within the boundary lines, the safety of what that truth is. And that's freedom, really. What does that equate to? That equates to freedom.
ReGina Johnston:So that tells me this fact about absolute truth. It's universal. It's for everyone. It's not just for one group, for one person, for one culture. It steps across cultural divides. And it's the same, no matter where you go, who you are, or what you may believe. And I love that. That's why you can take the truth of the Word across the ocean, and it will still be relevant. That's why you can take the truth of the Word from thousands of years ago and present it to someone today. And yes, the Word is trending. Because it's always relevant. I don't mean trending in the form that trends go down and trends go up. It is always on the edge of relevance. That's what I mean. Here's what 1 Timothy 2:3-4 says, "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth." That's all, not just some. He wants all of us to know the truth. There are some contexts where only the minister has the Bible or only the priest or the overseer has the Word. But no, the Lord is saying, "I want you to have it, Kyli. I want you to have it, Jina. I want us all to have it." We have a godless culture that's trying to establish what truth is or is not. I mean, you can't measure truth by untruth, by Inaccurate measures. That's what's going on. And they're doing it apart from God's Word, so it's impossible. You can't speak truth without knowing truth. But we speak it as if it's the truth. God's truth applies to all people in all cultures at all times, because He rules over all creaton. So real truth, God's truth, is universal. No one can esape it. And no one can say, "Well, that doesn't apply to me."
Jina McAfee:People are saying that there are many ways to God, but that's not true. There is one way to God. That's Jesus. There's only one way. Not knowing that truth is very costly. Eternity is an awfully long time to be wrong. I think both of you said, "This is life and death." It's life and death.
ReGina Johnston:Some would say,"That's a narrow way of thinking." What do we say to that? What do we say to that accusation or that comment that might be leveled towards our thinking?
Kyli Rose:I would dare say, try it. Test it. See. I feel like the only way to know Him is to experience Him, experience Him through relationship and also through His Word. Try it.
Jina McAfee:He will reveal Himself. If you are truly seeking, He will reveal Himself. He wants you to know Him. It is a narrow way, but it's also the most freeing way. When you're walking in Him, you are free.
ReGina Johnston:Well, and it's grounding. It's really grounding. And I think having that firm place to stand has to be more secure than being whipped in this direction and that direction, depending on whatever the world is saying, whatever culture is saying. It has to make us more secure. What we understand about the people in this culture at this time in this season, is that more people are experiencing anxiety than ever before. Could it be because we're not wrapping our minds and hearts around absolute truth?
Jina McAfee:Absolutely!
Kyli Rose:One of our biblical worldviews is that He is the Creator, and we are the created. Whenever the created are trying to determine how to live and what our purpose is, whenever we're trying to figure out things on our own, whenever we try and usurp God's authority, we get ourselves in a mess. The Creator knows what He created better than the created itself. Like He knows us. He knows why He made us. He knows why the boundary lines are here. He knows what's best for us. He knows what to do in order for us to be free. He knows what we need. He knows what is going to give us an abundant life. He knows. So whenever we think we know better... That is part of the original sin. She thought she knew better than the Creator. He gave them absolute truth, and they stepped out. They created a new narrative. They thought they knew what was best for them instead of the One who created them. And it's a spiral.
Jina McAfee:Another aspect of absolute truth is that it is just and right. There is justice. There is righteousness. That's Jesus. There is One who is just and right. And that is the Lord, the living Word. Psalm 119:142 says, "Your justice is eternal, and your instructions are perfectly true." There is going to be a judgment coming. We want that when it involves encroachment on our rights. We may not want to be limited ourselves sometimes. but we also know that God's limitation is freedom. His way is for our good and for His glory. The Word of God is perfectly true, not just a little bit true, not just true for one people group, not just true for a certain period of time. It is perfectly true. It holds within it the words of Truth that are meant to guide us into a life of truth. Psalm
19:7-8 says, "The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for the living." When I have a decision to make or a path to take, I want it to be clear. I want to know the best path to take. I want to know the best decision to make. I want to come to the end and say, "Oh, I made good decisions because God directed me." Without God, we cannot find truth. We cannot have just and right living. The Word says, "We are like waves blown and tossed by the wind"
(James 1:6). So what is truth? It is universal. It is just and right.
Kyli Rose:And it's also unchanging. It's eternal. It will never change. Why is that? Isaiah 40:8 says, "The grass withers, the flowers fall, but the Word of God endures forever." We can say that God's truth is eternal, because God's truth is rooted in Him. And He is not bound by time. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He stands outside of the bounds of time. So what was true 2000 years ago, actually remains just as true today. We see the application of the Word changes over time, but the Word itself, the truth itself, endures forever. So what was true for them is still true. Why? Because it's rooted in His eternal nature. We've talked a lot about trends. It's so comforting to know the truth isn't going to change, depending on the season. It's not based on some social construct. It's based on the very nature of God. That is one of the things that makes Christianity stand out amongst all the other religions in the world. We do not serve a fickle God. That's what stood out even 2,000 years ago. All the people around them worshipped gods that they were trying to appease and trying to please. They never knew where they stood with them. The gods could be sleeping, they could be awake, they could be angry, they could be happy. You never knew where you stood. So you lived in this very tentative relationship with these gods that you were constantly trying to appease and
please. God says:I love My kids. I don't change. I'm solid. You can count on Me. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'm not distant. I'm right here with you. Everything I have, I want to offer it to you. You know where I stand today. You know where I'll stand tomorrow. My truth, it's not changing. And that to me is so so so comforting. It's actually the thing that separates Christianity from all the other world religions. Our God does not change.
Jina McAfee:I love that. He sent His own Son so we can know what He is like. And people wanted to be with Him. They couldn't wait to be with Him. He loves them, cares about them.
Kyli Rose:You'll see a lot of people actually balk at this, the unchanging nature of God's truth. It's a big issue. It's offensive to us. Because, what did we say? We said that, as Christians, we conform our lives to His truth; He doesn't conform Himself and His truth to our lives, our experience. So, honestly, I think that's a very natural response as humans. We want our way. Whenever we we surrender our lives to Christ, we're saying, "I'm surrendering my way." I am saying by faith that Your way is better than mine, even if I don't feel it. I want my way, but I'm trusting that Your way is better, Your way is safer. In laying down life, that's when you actually begin to live life. It's a promise.
ReGina Johnston:An inverted principle.
Kyli Rose:Yes, an inverted principle. It's a stronghold. It's a fortress that sees us through. If you've lived any length of time, you've experienced something really hard, and whenever you were in the middle of what felt like chaos, what felt like your whole world literally got turned upside down on its head, I'll tell you what you didn't need, what I didn't need. I did not need wishy washy. I didn't need something that was kind of relative, fluid. I needed some firm handles to hold on to. I felt like the foundation of my entire life had gotten completely off kilter. I needed something stable. And, honestly, that was where He met me, in that place. I had been walking from the Lord, and He met me in that place. He provided a firm foundation. So not only does His word affirm it, but I can tell you personally, just through experience, He provided something that I needed, and He's provided it every day since. He is a firm foundation. His Word holds. It will hold us in our hardest situations. Always and forever.
ReGina Johnston:Absolutely! So God's truth is universal, just and right, unchanging, and powerful, and purposeful. I love that! Powerful and Purposeful. So while He does not change, knowing Him should change us. If we're not seeing change in our life, perhaps we really aren't on a journey of knowing Him. His truth is meant to permeate our beings and change us from the inside out. His Word when believed in and acted upon will always, always, always, always, always bring a change in us. What we know influences what we believe, and what we believe actually impacts our behavior. So it's important to listen to God's Words and His truth. But it's so much more than that. The book of James tells us, it's so much more than just listening. Listening is good. Listening is where it starts. But then what do you do with it? Here's what James says in chapter 1, verses 21-25, "So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the Word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. But don't just listen to God's Word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the Word and don't obey it, it's like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it." So it's not enough to know the truth, to listen to it, it to know it. It's a huge battle today to know it, and put it into action. But that's what's required of us in order to have that anchored life. If we just listen to the truth, especially if we're not changed by it, our hearts get hard. But the truth is expected to change us. It's purposeful in that. It's powerful enough to change our lives. So the deception once again is True for You, But Not for Me. But the truth is, God's Word is truth. There is right and wrong. It's chaos if everybody does what's right in their own sight. I can liken that to a country where there's plenty of rules about where we drive, on the right and left side of the road, rules about lights, where we stop at the red light, most of us, we should at least, we go when it's green, at a four-way, stop, we take turns, we stop and the person that got there first gets to go first. But if you're in India, where I went not too long ago, it's hard to determine what the two lanes of the street even are. There are people coming down what's supposed to be your lane, the opposite direction, at you, on foot, on little bicycles and motorbikes, in tuk-tuks which are three-wheeled motorized vehicles used as a taxi. You hear horns all the time; everybody's leaning on their horns. There are cows in the middle of the road. I don't think they belong to anybody. They're just walking down the middle of the road. And there's dogs sleeping in the middle of the road. And it's just chaos. I remember stepping into the motel room lobby, where we were staying, and just taking a breath. Because I stepped out of all the chaos where everybody was doing what was right in their own sight. And there were really no written rules. Now there had to have been some rules that people understood, but it was kind of subjective. I heard a few people say that you never see wrecks, but that's not true. I saw wrecks, and I saw people get up and slap each other. Honestly. Each one thought they were doing the right thing, so it was very chaotic. Boundaries are good. God's truth gives us the boundaries we need to live a safe and productive life where we're thriving. So that brings us to a question. How do we live?
Jina McAfee:You've got to know the truth. A lot of people don't really know the truth. They don't take the time to hear all of the truth. If you grew up hearing truth, but you didn't know it for yourself, you've got to take some time to know the truth for yourself. The truth comes from the Word of God. It is in the Word of God. You will want to make it your own. Sometimes kids take time to seek the Truth. Or, maybe you're an adult, and you still haven't done that. It's fine. Go look for it. The Word of God can withstand scrutiny. You can look for it, try it out, you will experience life when you do.
Let's look at John 14:15-17. Jesus says, "If you love Me, obey My commandments. [We heard someone say, that's God's love language. Obedience. Just do what He says. You will find life
if you do. He said:] I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate [a helper], who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit [He's going to be with you 24/7.] He will lead you into all truth. [He will direct you.] The world cannot receive Him, because it isn't looking for Him and doesn't recognize Him. [You've got to be introduced. He wants you to know Him.] But you know Him, because He lives with you now and later will be in you." He's in us as believers now. This was Jesus speaking before He went to the Father and sent Holy Spirit. He said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free"
(John 8:32). We've talked about freedom. It's so important."Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow" (James
1:16-17). He's always good. As I was getting ready this morning, I thought about the tale of the frog in the water. If you put him in warm water, he won't jump out. If it's boiling water, he'll jump out. So it's like we have truth before us, and, it's for our good. If you hear lie after lie after lie, it'll bring death to you.
ReGina Johnston:Like a gentle warming of the water.
Jina McAfee:Yes. I also thought about that telephone game where you speak a message and then someone else speaks it, but they change it slightly, and then someone else speaks it. That's the world we live in. But just like Regina said, "You've got to have the stability of the truth." It does not change. So we do have an enemy. And he is speaking lies all of the time.
ReGina Johnston:He uses just enough truth to reel us in.
Jina McAfee:To reel us in. Absolutely. A variant of the telephone game is something called "Rumors" where they deliberately change one or two words. That is what's going on in our world today. But we can know the truth. And, it will set us free.
Kyli Rose:In the Scripture, there's a word for knowing in your head, but there's a completely different word when you know with your spirit with your mind. It's an intimate knowing; it's relational, experiential. It's this relational, experiential knowing. So as I am pouring into the Scripture, as I'm becoming a student of the Word to know it, there's something going on where it makes that six-inch journey from my head to my heart, and I'm beginning to know the Father of the Word. We talked about knowing the Word; next, we want to talk about speaking the truth. I think that is the byproduct of knowing, not only with your head, not just storing away information like you would for a class, but sitting and getting to know this God. He's being revealed to me through the pages of Scripture, I'm spending time with him, and the natural outcome is that you cannot help but speak the truth. You begin to speak about how your life intersects with His and how it's changing you from the inside out. So you begin to speak truth. And no longer is it just my truth, It's the truth of what the Word is doing in me and through me. This is how He's changed me. You can't help but tell the world. And I'll tell you what, we need to hear it. We need to hear it. We need to know how the Word, how the Lord, is transforming you, how He's transforming me. I have people who actually need to hear my story, right? They need to know the truth about God's Word and what it's doing in me and through me. What else do we do? How do we live? We live in love. We were talking about how oftentimes people balk at the idea of absolute truth. Why? Because sometimes we have weaponized absolute truth. The thing that was meant to set people free, we've distorted it, and we've used it as a tool of shame. It was never, ever designed to be that way. Whenever God reveals to us, the ways that we're stepping outside the boundaries, He does it in a way that makes us want to pull closer to him. But we're talking about how the enemy distorts. He will call you names. He will shame you. Press in. I just encourage you, press in. We live in love, if we are students of the Word. But if we are not getting to know the God of the Word, you will weaponize the Word. You will misuse it. You will distort it. And nobody needs that. We don't need it. The truth changes us, and the truth sets us free. It doesn't put us in more bondage than we're already in. So we speak the truth, and we live in love. We encourage each other. Corinthians 13:6 says, "Love does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out." We rejoice whenever people catch the truth and we catch it and then we give it and people catch it too. And
Colossians 2:8, "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ." Get in the Word so you know it. Let it transform you. Speak it because we need to hear it, and the world needs to hear it. And then you live in love. That is Christ.
ReGina Johnston:This whole podcast season Disarming Deception Part One and Part Two has been about disarming deception with the truth of God's Word. If we don't have that anchor, we can't disarm deception. We can't even recognize it. It's the existence of absolute truth that shines the light on deception. So we can't even realize when we're headed down a path that's leading us astray, because we don't have the tools to do that without the Word. So here's a question we have for you, if you're listening to us today and for those of us sitting around the table. This is a good check for us. What are some things in our lives that have changed from absolute truth to relative truth? Have we begun to apply inaccurate measures to what is true? Have we done that? Have we allowed ourselves to go down a slippery slope without even realizing we're doing it? Are we making concessions to the culture nstead of sticking to the truth of God's word? Are we doing that? That's the question. That's a challenge. The Lord says, "I'm going to challenge the ones I love. I'm going to discipline the ones I love." I beg of you to receive that today, as a challenge from the Lord. Because He loves you more than you could ever imagine. He loves you. So I'm going to close out this season in prayer. Lord, we thank You for all the ones who have heard, all the ones You're ministering to personally right now. Because You are a personal God. Thank You that Your word is an anchor. It's solid. Lord, we can wrap our hearts and minds and arms and our whole beings around Your Word, and live our lives from that center because it is rock solid, because it is life changing. And so Lord, I just ask for those who are listening, that You would highlight any areas where they're making concessions because of something that's trending or something that's sounding culturally sound but it isn't. Highlight that, Lord, and help there to be a redirection to the truth of God's Word so that those within our reach have the ability, the tools, to combat deception that will surely utterly lead them to unproductive, unhappy, unfulfilled, unsafe lives. Thank You, Lord, that Your Word does the work, not our words, your Word. And we ask that it will do it. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Kyli Rose:Amen.