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What Is Truth? · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, let's just talk about uh truth today.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um subjective, doesn't it?
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: My truth is is my truth your truth?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Some people say this is the truth, others say something else is the truth.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus said, you'll know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: So what is truth really?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And how do you know it?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's a that's a question that Pilate asked Jesus, because uh, you know, Pilate said, Are you the king of the Jews?
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he was asking him all these questions, and Jesus says, Here's what it's about.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I came to bear witness of the truth.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: The truth.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, to Jesus, that sounded pretty cut and dried, pretty simple.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I just came to bear witness of the truth, what is true.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Pilate kind of throws up his hands and walks away.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: He says, What is truth?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he had no idea.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh many people would probably feel very similar to that.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but he came to bear witness of truth.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, uh I'm thinking of James chapter 3, verse 17, that describes uh this truth.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said that the Spirit would come and he would be the Spirit of truth.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: He would lead you and guide you into all truth.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously, he came to bear witness of a truth that people did not know of, did not see.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: They were living something else.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: They were living their own version of what they may have called truth or what they thought was true.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees thought what they were believing and doing was true, as do most people.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: They do what is right in their own eyes.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Even the Bible talks about that.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, even from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, there was a choice to choose God, who is truth, and his way is truth, or this other way, the sensual way that we chose.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof was death.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: It seemed right.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of things can seem like truth.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: So how do we know?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, let me read this here.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: In James chapter 3, verse 17, he says, But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Above that it says, it says, um, not to have bitter envying and self-seeking, self-seeking in your hearts, boasting or lying against the truth.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: He says, because that wisdom does not descend from above.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's earthly, it's sensual, it's demonic or demon-like.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's sensual, it's based on the senses, based not on spirit.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: 17 says, the wisdom that is from above.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now that word from above, look it up.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: It means that which is first or primary.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's the truth that always was before there ever was false versions of truth or deceptions, different things that that draws us away from the center of things, from the primary things, from the eternal things, from truth.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to bear witness of heaven.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to bear witness of the Father, his love for us, his gift for us, his care for us, his his want to be with us, to be our love, to be our strength, to be our faith, to be our everything that we needed, our provision, our protection, our everything the way it was intended to be.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to bear witness of that.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: He bore witness of that kingdom, which always was and always will be.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And because that's eternal, that obviously has to be truth.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And everything else that that is a variable against that, uh, it can't quite be truth if it doesn't go along with eternity, which is always reality and going to be truth.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then over in Mark chapter 4, um he gives a parable that I I love to talk about a lot, but it's the parable of the four different types of ground.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And there's that one that he says it's sown among thorns.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: The thorns crowd out the word.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, the thorns are the cares of life.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that word cares, look it up.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: It means the distractions of life.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Things that take us away from life.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: They look like life, they pretend to be life, they tell us this is what life's all about.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: But he says they are the distractions of life or from life.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And what did Jesus say again?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I came that you would have life, not some distracted form of life, not some distraction or mirage or pretension of life, imitation of life, but I came that you would have the real thing.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what is the life?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: The life is the one that was from the beginning.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: The life was the life that was the life that gave life to mankind.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we get these uh distractions or these imitations of life, and that's why he says, don't worry about what you're going to eat or drink or wear.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: He says, those are things people that don't know life, don't know God, they seek after those things.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: They think that's what it's about.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: He says, you know, now your father knows that you need these things.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is in Matthew 6.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but seek ye first the kingdom, get truth, get reality, get your eternity established in God reality, eternal reality, truth.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the issues of life flow out of that, and the necessary things then follow.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a witness of that.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I talk about how I'm living my dream right now.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And there's people that have fancier cars and fancier homes and fancier clothes and all kinds of things, but I'm living my dream.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: I have found life and I found I found peace.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: I found love.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've found the joy of the kingdom of God.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I want everybody to have that.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: I love you guys.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: I want you all to know this and have this every day.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it just comes from a simple truth.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is so simple.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, if you just know truth, know the truth, this truth will will uh make you free.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but it's not the distractions of of living, of day-to-day living.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and it's not the deceitfulness of riches.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: That word is the delusions of riches or wealth or things, possessions.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: He talked about that sometimes.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Life is not about possessions.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: But see, it can be it's a distraction, isn't it?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: People think that's what life's about.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: That becomes their truth.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus would just, he would lament over people like that.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: He says, What a weak, shaky thing it is to trust in that as the basis and the source and security for your life.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, God blesses.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: God's given us all things uh freely to enjoy.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's absolutely not a thing wrong in itself of having the best, wearing the best, living in the best, eating the best.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoy those those those things.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: But life is not about the things.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Life is something that comes from within.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Delusions, uh, if you look it up, you'll see that that that delusions come from feelings.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And most people live by by feelings, and what their feel their feelings is what interprets to them what they think truth is.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because they feel something is that way.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and you notice that that the illusions of life or the imitations of life they cause you to operate in a way of thinking, a wisdom that doesn't come from above.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's sensual.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it brings about stress, worry, fear.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Anything that's not godly, you will feel these things and you will you'll experience these things in your day-to-day life.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came that we would have his life and have it abundantly, so we wouldn't have the stress, the fear, the anger, the lack of peace, and all those things.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And those simply come from believing uh in an untruth or believing in untruth.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what is truth?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me help you with that a little bit, because there are some words here that that that point us in the right direction.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: How you some some earmarks here where you can tell if you're living in truth.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you know it, and it's wonderful, and you know it when you're in it.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: He says the wisdom from above is pure and peaceable.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's peaceable.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: It brings peace.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Not only does it bring peace to people through you, but first of all, it brings peace inside you.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: See, when you know the truth, it'll settle you in peace all the time.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: When you're not thinking truth, when you're not operating in truth, pointing at truth and following truth, what's it do?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: It'll give you the opposite of peace, won't it?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be worried, you'll be stressed, you'll get frustrated, you'll get angry.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's just that's just the way that it that it is.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: You you can't help it.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to have those things if you don't know what the truth is.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And what is the truth?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's whatever the Father says.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I'm when I'm in a situation where I feel um stressed to say the or concerned to say the least about something, I I know enough now that I have access.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: I have this access to life and to truth.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I say, Father, what do you say?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And see, that's going back to the kingdom, that's coming home to truth.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, here's a temporary situation.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: What is truth about this?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Father, what do you say?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And somehow he always ministered, whether he tells me a specific thing or whether he just gives me a sense of peace or just says, trust me, it's all the same.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: But whatever it is, it's truth and it's right, and it's unfailable, and it will always give you peace.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's what truth is.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: He said it's peaceable, it's gentle.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: What is truth?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Truth will always speak gently to you, and it will always come out of you in gentleness to other people.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Truth will do that.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because truth is of the kingdom of heaven, it's it's of all the fruit of the spirit.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, and so on.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: What's the opposite of gentleness?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Harshness, shortness, frustration, anger.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times people, we even as Christians sometimes will will speak out of uh in a place of of hurt or bitterness or anger, and uh, you know, we'll we'll we'll do it in the name of God.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've I I did it for quite a few years on a lot of occasions.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um But that that very thing is is mentioned right there in the preceding verse, the wisdom that comes not from above, but it's earthly and it's sensual, it's demon-like.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's mentions it mentions that that envy is self-seeking.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Look up that word.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: It simply means zeal or heated soul.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: You get this heated soul about something.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I hate that.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're you don't like all this stuff and it's and it's going on.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: All these distractions of life are filling your mind when truth will always bring you into peace and gentleness.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and it's wonderful because not only does it bring heaven into your soul, it brings heaven into your experience, but then you have that heaven to actually pass on and help somebody with.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're in a world that needs a lot of truth, they need a lot of peace, they need a lot of gentleness, not more ardor, not more zeal and heated souls to argue and debate with them.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because it then it goes on and it says uh it says it's uh easy to be entreated or willing to yield.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what's that mean?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's approachable.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't speak only, but it listens.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the names for God in the Old Testament, uh, Hannah called him the God who listens, or the God who hears, because she spoke out, and he actually heard her and gave her what she what she was asking for, and she was like, wow, he really listens.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just tell and tell and tell and speak, he actually listens and then speaks.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and he does that.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of times they're in our in our heated soul.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: We think we're standing for truth, but if it's causing a heated soul to where we can't listen, where we're not approachable, where we're a turn off.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of a turn off Jesus, Jesus totally attracted the world to himself.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: We saw it individually in his walk when he would come to people that the the the church world wouldn't have in their zeal and in their passion, in their heated soul.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus was easily approachable.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: He was gentle, he was peaceable, full of mercy, this truth, this wisdom from above.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, it means that wisdom which was cursed before there was any fall, before there was any corruption, before there was any pain, anguish, stress, fear, anger, anxiety, before any of that came, there was truth.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was God, it was life.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what we now have living within us.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: See, what I'm here for is to point us to it.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's there.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: To point us to it.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: But see, Jesus said the thorns crowded out.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: What is it?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's all these voices, all this noise.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: In the name of the world, in the name of God, in the name of all these different things, there's all this noise, and it's so easy to tell if it's truth or a lie.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: What is it what is it producing?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Is it peace, gentleness, yielding, approachability, that kind of goodness that is of the Spirit of God, or is it doing the opposite?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And see, and that's not an indictment on any of us, that's just a good way for us to tell what it is.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: And anytime I'm feeling that, I know, I know every single time, anytime I'm feeling any of those negative things, I'm thinking about a lie.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Every single time.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good news is we get to grow and recognize that, hey, that's a lie.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I know where truth is.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's in him who's in me.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's full of mercy, full of mercy, and it's full of the good fruit.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, kindness, patience, faithfulness, self-control that comes from the Spirit, not from willpower.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's without partiality.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: It treats everybody the same, that's what Jesus did.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And without hypocrisy.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And this fruit of righteousness, he says, is sown in peace by those who make peace.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is why Jesus is called the Prince of Peace.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: He came and bore witness of truth, and he put the Spirit of truth himself, Holy Spirit, inside us, and now we have this experience of growing in and living in peace, joy, gentleness, goodness, etc.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: And now it's changing our minds, changing our lives, changing our experience from the inside simply because of Him who's come to live in us.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad that you have the spirit of truth inside you?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: That every time you feel any of the negative emotions of lies, stress, anger, anxiety, fear, and so on, you have the spirit of truth that you can always incline your ear to.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus in that parable of the sow of the sowers, he said, yeah, there are those that the the the things of this world they crowd it out, that the distractions of of what they think life is about, the deceptions or delusions of of money and things, and and and the then he says, and the desires for other things.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: That word other things means that which remains.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's that it means whatever it is you don't have, you still want.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: But then in the end, he goes on and he says, now those who who grow, 30, 60, 100, they continue, they increase.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: He said, these are those, he said, they hear the word.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: You look at it, it means they listen to it, they pay attention, and that word actually means, he says, and they receive it, and it means that they they embrace it and they they they they they they they take it.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: They don't just like hear it like, oh, yeah, I wish that were true for me.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: They embrace it and say, this is it, this is my life.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you take it like that.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is your truth, this will be your truth, this will be your life, this will be your existence.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then what happens?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: 30, 60, 100.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately he tells of another peril.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: He said, It's like this, it just starts happening.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: You hear truth, the truth makes you free.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: You just embrace it.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Don't look at it and say, Yeah, that's cool.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: That'd be nice if that were true for me.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, you embrace it as your truth.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, and then it doesn't matter whether you're awake or asleep.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: You can be asleep in the night, but what's going on?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: The blades coming up out of the ground, and then the stalks coming up, and then and so forth and so on.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's how this thing is happening to us, and it's wonderful.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: The truth has made us free, and it's making us free.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we're getting more full of joy, more full of peace, more full of gentleness and goodness, and I'm telling you, we have the most relevant, relevant thing for this world because we've gotten, we're getting away of so much of the garbage that pretended to be truth, and we're bringing eternal truth of God and his love and his goodness from our hearts to a world.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great day, guys.