Latest / Journey Elgin / Sunday Message 8/16/26- Do More Than Ask Questions, Seek Truth!
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: brings us to you know our kind of continued series, which because there's still people coming and sometimes newer people coming, it means not everyone is freaked out. So that's good. but the the series title, ⁓ we're in the end game now, right? ⁓ not necessarily that we started the tribulation, ⁓ but but we are in a a different time, a challenging time. I believe really that the spiritual battle has elevated. and we are experiencing some some challenging times, some confusing times. And and I think as Christians, it is vital for us the temptation, ⁓ especially because of the culture that we have grown up in. The temptation is to just kind of see the darkness that is out there and say, you know what, I'm I'm just gonna focus on those things that are That are good and true and noble and pure. Which we technically should do that. But if we apply that in a way that we don't ever engage the darkness and we just kind of turn inward and we only focus, you know what? All I'm gonna do is focus on my church family and and only positive things. That's good, but we're called to be the light of the world. We're actually not so Called to be the light of the church. We're called to be the light of the world. So, in order to do that, you need to know what's going on in the world and how the world is functioning and how the darkness is out there. Because we need to be able to bring that light to those who who are in the darkness. There are so many voices out there. ⁓ ⁓ two weeks ago ⁓ we talked about ⁓ in Matthew twenty four where it talks about ⁓ the the the the number of deceivers will be increasing. ⁓ well w we're at the place now where more people have more opportunity to deceive than ever before. Right? You used to, in fact even whenever I was in high school, right? You only had the ability to influence a certain number of people. Right? You know, you we didn't even have cell phones yet. Right? So so if even if you wanted to influence people, you had to actually call them or see them in per ⁓ person. Right? And could you grow large audiences? Yes. But it was it was a challenge. Fast forward to today. Just just start searching podcasts. Millions of them. Right? And and then you may think, yeah, but you look at the low looks, you know, maybe they have a thousand viewers, and that's nothing. That you don't get any money for that, you don't get anything for that. But that's a thousand people that are being influenced by some random person. Now that random person may be great. They may not be great. But then you start thinking, well, all those thousand people. Then they can share the things that they may be hearing from that influencer. Right? And and then some of the top ones out there, maybe that you have never listened to. You have Joe Rogan, you have Sean Ryan. These every episode that they put out has millions of views. Right? There is an influential network out there that Even if you're not associated with it, it's impacting the world. Right? And we need to kind of understand that so that we can understand where people are coming from, because most people are in the darkness and they're trying to find the light. And in fact, one of the things that's very interesting about those two guys that I just mentioned, both of them have people of faith on their shows. They're exploring, they're trying, both of them in their own way, are seeking what is true. But yet they're missing the mark, I believe, because they are not basing their truth. The starting point is not right. They are that they're they are not starting from the premise that Jesus Christ is the truth. He is the way, the truth, and the lie. And so it's fine to be asking questions, to be searchable. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, we should. We should we should be willing to question and And and and search for what is true. But we're not the the goal is not just to ask questions, the goal is to find answers. And see, the answer is found in Jesus Christ. And so there's lots of people out there right now asking questions about everything. And listen, th there's reason to do that. But we have to be careful that we don't fall into the trap of just asking questions. And not seeking the answer. And the answer is found in Christ. And so whenever we go and engage the world, all those people that are just asking questions, we have the answer. It's right here. And it's found in Jesus Christ. And we need to be able to engage the world in that way. Because the world is asking questions. The scary thing is, is where are they finding the answers? So I want to read a passage and I I'm gonna talk a little bit. I kind of changed, well adjusted a a little bit, but I there are different worldviews. There's different things that impact the way that that we see the world. ⁓ and there are different heresies that have been out there. ⁓ heresy, what is a heresy? It's a basic, it's a teaching that goes against the teachings of of of Christ. Right. And ⁓ and one of the first heresies that was ⁓ out there was called Gnosticism. All right. Now it it that's a very big word. It actually starts with G, so it's really confusing. it's it's it's ⁓ on the word Gnosis ⁓ which is knowledge, right? ⁓ it it it it's not it wasn't ever like a single religion. It was more just different different ideologies and different ways of thinking about things that that really started infiltrating the ch infiltrating the church early on. ⁓ you know because we're not Catholic we we don't recognize some of these names but these are these are very important names and by the way this was before the Catholic Church was technically formed. Like people like I Irenaeus was his name. He wrote five volumes that were against this the against heresies. And it was against the Gnostic. This was back in like one fifty AD. All right. So these things had been around from the beginning. Do do you really think that when you know Jesus was crucified and so Satan was like rejoicing, right? We We finally got this guy. And then three days later, Satan's like, ⁓ oops, right? Do you think that he just gave up? Of course not. Right? He is a corrupting influence in the world. His goal is to bring as many people away from Christ as possible. So all of these different ideologies quickly started warming that were going against. the the ⁓ the understanding and the truth found in scripture. Right it it can be called Gnosticism, things like that. They were infiltrating the church. And so the the church fathers ⁓ early on were battling these things. Well guess what? We're gonna see those same things today. It may look a little bit different. We don't talk about it and call it this the same thing, but those same ideas still permeate. And we need to be aware of them. ⁓ and and really the tactic has been the same since the beginning. So let's go to the beginning. Genesis chapter three. Starting in in verse one. Now the circ circuit was more crafty than any of the beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any any tree at the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden. But God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, You will not sur surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good as for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, ⁓ she took of the she took of the fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were open, and they knew that they were naked, and that they and they sowed ⁓ sowed pig leaves together. And made themselves oiling cloth. And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man in his life hid himself from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called the man and said to him, Where are you? And he said, I have heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, Greatest response ever. The woman the woman who you gave to be with me she gave me the fruit of the truth tonight. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me and I feed. There is just so much basic truth in this passage of how how deception and Satan work. Right. And it really goes back to the first thing. And so just say again, put yourself in that place. ⁓ God has has given all of this to you. Right. And and he he's ⁓ he's given you a role to play, he's given Adam and Eve, here's here's your job. ⁓ they have all of this. The only thing they are not to do is to eat from this one tree. The tree is the knowledge of good and evil. Right. And ⁓ and and that that was it. And ⁓ and so of course that's where the temptation is going to come, right? ⁓ anything that's going to try to to to move us to out of God's desire, right? And ⁓ and ultimately that temptation is that we can become like God, right? ⁓ and that's that's what the serpent does. And so the the serpent ⁓ begins this is such a powerful thing. Right, especially with the the culture that we're in of just asking questions about everything. Understand that is how Satan works too. His first temptation begins with this. Did God really say? Did God really say that? ⁓ Just to start planting that seed of doubt. And again, I I I never want to come across as saying. That as Christians that we shouldn't question, that we shouldn't ⁓ you know, ⁓ validate that that what God says is true, that we shouldn't ⁓ have doubts. We're always gonna have doubts because we're human and ⁓ and it's okay to address those doubts, and I allow God to address those doubts, right? So but Satan will use that to start qu making you question everything. And if you're not careful, you won't question. Honestly. See, because what does Eve, what's her first response? She says, Well, yeah, God told us, you know, we're not to eat of this fruit, and we're not so supposed to even touch it. She actually makes it more dogmatic in what God initially that has said. Right? And ⁓ and and then the the the serpent actually says something that has truth in it whenever she says, because we know We would die. Well, and the serpent says, ⁓ no, you will not surely die. Well, what what do you mean there's truth there? Well, what happened as a result of them eating the fruit? They would eventually die now. Right? And ⁓ and in and but in their mind the way that Satan was twisting this is that you can tell Adam and Eve thought if they took the the took a bite of it, they just dropped dead. Right? No, that's not what God Was saying is that no, if you do that, then then you are no longer perfect the way that I am perfect, and sin has now, and the wages of sin is death. Right? So if you have once you rebel against God, you will eventually die. So God was telling the truth. Satan twisted that truth to make it sound a little bit different. So just imagine, right? You're like Adam and Eve were like, ⁓ okay, well, maybe maybe this will be okay. And then they take a bite of it and they don't drop dead immediately. And it's like cool. Maybe maybe God wasn't wasn't completely honest with us. Maybe this, maybe this guy over here has has some some validity. But and then also what was true is they did become aware of good and evil as God understands good and evil, which is why they had to go and cover themselves because they knew they were not innocent anymore. So the serpent actually said things that were true, but out of context. And it is vital that we understand that. And by the way, I made kind of the joke of the best response ever, because it is funny. ⁓ it also shows cause there was and sometimes people are actually serious about it, that you know, will will blame Eve that she was the the you know, the the cause of all this. Well was Adam was right there. And frankly, Adam should have done his job of protecting the household and said, quit listening to the freaking snake. That's what he should have done. Right. But he relegated his role as in the spiritual household, right? And he allowed that to come in, and he was part of that. And then what a pansy when God hauls him out, right? What does he do? Not only. Does he blame the woman? He blames God. He says, the woman that you gave me. Right? I mean, he's the first middle schooler. Right? Adam is the first middle schooler that when no matter what you say, there's always a response. Right. There's always me. I didn't do that. I just saw you do that. No, no, you didn't see that. Right? So so Adam was the first but just the same same pattern that we see today. Right? And I and I I hope you're making the connection with what we're seeing in the world around us, right? Of how deception works. There can be and there will be elements of truth within it. Right? But then it will be pulling you away from the truth of God. And we have to be very diligent. I I wish because we're so addicted to comfort in in our society. We all are. We're all addicted to comfort. We would love to be able to turn on the news and just trust what the news is telling us. Spoiler alert. Don't do that. Right? And and I I wish we could. But most of the stuff that comes, literally most of it, is is warved from one perspective or another. And and it and it's a hard time to be alive. 'Cause it's it is a it's exhausting. But man, there's a lot of evil that happens because we just kind of go along. You know, and but that is human nature. We see it from the very beginning. And and we need to make sure that we are testing everything to the truth of scripture. And and even that gets hard. I especially today, we are seeing more and more We're seeing more and more demon influencers who are using religious speak, Christian speak, God speak, in in their steels. ⁓ you know, a couple of years ago there became a big deal of Christ is king. People were posting Christ is king. And it became this really weird viral thing and some people were actually doing it because ⁓ Jews who are on their side who were both conservative would not say Christ is king, which you know, because they don't believe that Christ is king. But it was kind of done out of this anti Semitic stuff that's going on, which we're gonna be talking about here again in the next couple of weeks. But but ⁓ this this idea of using the name of of Christ, using the name of God. to bolster your platform. And that's not to say that there are some very good people that are out there that are trying to to make sure they use the truth of scripture in their political analysis, things like that. Charlie Kirk was a good example of this, that he was striving to bring a biblical worldview to his political engagement. ⁓ When you do that, you're gonna have people that disagree with right. But I believe he was doing that genuinely. Which is I believe is why he was shot. That's why other very influential ⁓ political commentators that would believe all the same things politically as Charlie Kirk. They're, you know, gallivanting around, no problem. Right. Charlie Kirk was dead because he was actually trying to elevate the name of Christ within the political realm, if that makes sense. ⁓ ⁓ but it it is we are now that s people saw how successful he was, there are a lot that are trying to implement that in their platforms as well. And there's a a lot of things that that kind of start to get get back to this Gnosticism. And some of the things that we see in in Gnosticism, these are these are things to be thinking of whenever you hear people. ⁓ When you hear people talking about ideologies and things as faith, these can be some some warning signs. ⁓ is if there ever starts to be an emphasis on how evil the material world is, right? ⁓ and that the physical world is all evil, ⁓ and and This this is tough. This is why why Gnosticism is very affected. So a Gnostic view is that all the physical world is evil, which would lead them to then say, So it doesn't really matter. You're spiritual. You're a spiritual being. So it doesn't matter how you interact with the real world. Right? So so there were literal Gnostic cults that that they would say is that it didn't matter how you practiced your sexual ethic. You you can sin as much as you want because the physical world is evil and you're saved spiritually. And so therefore it doesn't matter how you interact with the with the physical world. That's obviously not what Christianity teaches. But but God does say the world is fallen and is evil, right? But that doesn't mean that we can just participate in it evil. But do you see how the how it it can start to to slip into the the consciousness, but wait, maybe I don't have to live differently because I'm I'm saved by grace. Yeah, yeah, you you are, which means you're now set apart. You're called to be as a living sacrifice each and every day. Right? That's the full truth. You know, there's some other things ⁓ that that ⁓ that salvation comes from a secret knowledge right that there's this kind of hidden knowledge that you can you can seek out And you'll you'll hear some of this ⁓ in and some influencers and things like that that will talk about, you know, hey, I have some information for you. ⁓ and and you know, people are just not seeing this. And and and here it is. And and you you kind of go down these roads of ⁓ there's there's higher levels of consciousness that you can reach. If you look at ⁓ religions, I guess is that I ⁓ like Christian Scientology, right? Very interesting. The fact that the word Christian is there just shows how important that was to our culture because there's nothing Christian about Christian Scientology, right? But it's about seeking this higher level of consciousness. If you start hearing anything like that, be very aware. Right. ⁓ there's even ⁓ a a a Gnostic view that ⁓ which was back in the the early church is that that Jesus ⁓ only appeared to be human. that that he really was a fully human. That that view is out there. Some ⁓ will say that that ⁓ that the spirit of the Lord ⁓ indwelled in this guy named Jesus ⁓ and at his baptism and then left at the crucifixion. Right? ⁓ that that is not what Christianity teaches. Right? That Jesus was both fully human and fully God. C can we fully understand that? No, is it really easy to say, did God really say that Jesus was fully human and fully guilty? And you go, Well, I think he did, but man, how how would you do that? Because he's God. He he can do that, right? He physics do not apply to him. They apply to us. He created all of this. Right? But do you see how it can easily start to creep in? I and now we see this through ⁓ the new age movement. ⁓ how many of you and I will I I will throw my hand up as guilty, have in in talking to someone about faith used the phrase, Well, I'm more spiritual than I am religious. How many have heard that? I understand what I thought whenever I used that phrase. It's like Well, I'm not one of those dogmatic, mean Baptists that are just gonna tell you that everything you're doing is wrong. I'm not religious in that way. But I am spiritual. I believe that they're they're the the God is there, right? Okay. That phrase, though, is totally a Gnostic type of phrase because it is trying to move you away from the fundamental truth of faith. And hey, let's just follow the spirit. gonna have a pretty good example of that here in just minute. ⁓ I think we we definitely look look at look at the rise the the rise and focus on conspiracies. that's always been there ⁓ but but that kind of goes into some Gnostic thinking about there's always this this more information that's out there if we can just unlock the key. Now I would like for governments and leaderships to not act in such conspiratorial ways. So so there are lots of conspiracies out there that do come true. But you have to be real careful whenever you start thinking, hey, everything is a conspiracy. Be careful with that, because that can lead you to some really dark places. Again. It's not just about asking questions, it's about seeking answers. And sometimes we just have to say, well, we don't really fully know the answer. And that's that's okay. But understand these things can be used to I I and I don't know if you've ever but Sean Ryan is a is an interesting one that I think has allowed this to he's starting to be a broken broken man because he's searching and he's starting to see conspiracies in everything. And it's just weighing him down. And this is a podcast influencer. And and you can hear it as he's talking to some faith leaders, that he just has no trust in anything. And just everything is negative. I mean, you know, some people will call it black pill, right? Where you just don't see hope anywhere. Because it it that and and he he's coming from the place where there's a lot of truth. He talks about the Epstein stuff that we've seen. Man. There's some horrible stuff with that. And if you pay attention at all, and I I don't wanna open up the the ⁓ the the the can of worms, but if you pay attention to what we are finding out for sure that happened during COVID when the main health expert was openly lying to us and now it's it's it's proof. You may still be fine with that, but the things that he said privately did not match the things that he was saying. ⁓ And maybe you can say, well, they did that with a greater bill, whatever. But that fuels conspiracy side. And it just starts to build. And all of a sudden we're like, well, what what can we put our trust in? What is true? This. This is it. That's it. This is it. And I'm not saying that we can't pay attention to the things that are going on out there, but be careful because they can be used to just bring in defeat in your heart because you just see no way out. And there is no way out if you're relying on our human institutions to do it. If you're relying on our government to do it, if you're relying on anything other than Christ. And so be careful. All of these things are ways to to push us step by step away from the truth of who Christ is. Moving forward in the in the future, I think one thing you need to be paying attention to. is this idea of transhumanism, of the merging, if you will, of technology with people. It's already kind of happening, but I mean I don't want to go down those roads, but there's there's really interesting and terrifying things that could be coming down the the road. You have to evaluate all of that through what is true. Because what is true does not change. But that truth has to be based in Christ and Christ alone. Now I w I want to to share because sometimes you you wonder how does this get into a culture, right? How does this especially a culture like ours that was founded on biblical principles? Right? And and it and it's one of those things that it just it's just slowly, step by step over time. And ⁓ and I don't I don't know if this come across as fashion this individual because this individual has done amazingly good things for our country, for lots of individuals, has done wonderful stuff. At one time, she had the then this would have been before the social media age and ⁓ and ⁓ before it really got going. But she was, I think, voted the most influential woman ⁓ in the world, for sure, in the United States. ⁓ she had a huge follow. ⁓ and you all know who it is. It's Oprah Winford. And just did so many good things. But she started opening the door to talking about faith and talking about spirituality. And ⁓ and and you know, a lot of it she would have on lots of different people. ⁓ but she actually got to the point where she is definitely more spiritual than religious. Right. And ⁓ I I want you to listen to this is a just a ⁓ combination of numerous ⁓ individuals, but she asked the question, How do you define God? Right? And let's let's just take a moment, let's listen to to this. What is your definition of God? God is the highest place within each and every one of us. It's our divine self. The source of you. As a the source. The source of you. I define God as an energy, a spiritual energy. It has no denomination. It has no judgments. It has an energy that when we're connected to it, we know why we're here. And what we're here to do, and to know that I'm one with something greater, an energy, a force greater than myself. My definition of God. God is not only the Alpha, the Omega, but He's a friend, He's a confidant, He's a buddy, He is a lover of my soul. That's my definition of God. An all encompassing love that is the source of all, the reality of all, and the Being through which I am. Well, he is my beloved. He is my most intimate beloved, my friend, the one I look to in everything. I wouldn't try to define him because no one knows God but God. He's beyond even our idea of the beyond. God is beyond all the forms of life, but also In dwells every form of life as their essence. God is both beyond and within. My definition of God is the ever present essence of love. God is love. Everything and the creative force. To me God is law. I've never heard that before. Total. God to me is mystical law because law is the nature of the universe. It is the order of things. The order it's it's it's universal and the negotiating principle with mystical laws is prayer. That's what makes them intimate. Miracle is when God bends these laws for you. What is your definition of God? All that is everything, everything. Breath, life, everything. I I I can't even just get Webster's dictionary, throw it on the floor. It's everything. Everything. And God is in everything. God is everything. Not only in his everything. I d I don't have a definition of God because I've never really understood that word. People have different understandings of it, and it's caused a great deal of ⁓ conflict. If I had to say what would my definition of God be, if I were going to use that word, I would say that this universe has layers upon layers upon layers of compassion and wisdom beyond ours. God is the evolutionary impulse of the universe. God is infinite creativity, infinite love, infinite compassion, infinite caring. I think that's a great definition. I've never heard that. And it's really, you know, everybody says something different, but I have to tell you, the evolutionary impulse of the universe. That's fine. Yes. Not all of that was straight out demonic care. But most of the what? But I I hope you kind of notice how appealing it really is. Like if you're not coming from a a truth, here's what's true that God is creator, Jesus Christ, lived, died, rose again for the forgiveness of sins, and then without accepting him we are condemned to a lifetime separated from God. If that's not your starting place of truth, that all that It kind of makes you feel good and there's a lot of psychovel in there. Right? That you're like, ooh, that sounds really good. And then you start thinking about it, like, what the hell does it even mean? It doesn't mean anything. Right? It it's just it's just big words put on top of each other, said with a really sweet spirit. And and man, that is the most harmful and deceptive. thing it just starts bringing that those ideologies in and making us question. You know, and there there's other this leads to that question of are there many paths to God? And and everyone on that that we just heard would say yes. Because what was the one word in all those questions? I'm just imagine you you have asked but was there seven or eight at least all spiritu connected to spiritual things and asked their definitions of God. What one name never came up. So let's get real practical moving forward. No longer do we talk about God in terms like that. We talk about God as Jesus Christ, the one who entered into this world. The one who, yes, created it. But guess who created the world? God? Yeah. Jesus. ⁓ Man, we could go down some Trinity theology bus and and and that's fine. But I think we're at a place we need to be real specific when we're engaging the world around it around. And and we don't have to be mean about it. But when people start saying you know they're they're asking about, hey, how do you handle the darkness and and things like that? And ⁓ and and they say, you know, I I rely on God. Say, yeah, I rely on the life saving power of Jesus Christ. Being real specific because it is only through Christ that we are saved. It's only through Christ that we have hope. There are lots of people that go to say that God was the evolutionary essence of the world. And you know where they're not going to be when they die? In the presence of God. They won't be there. We have to make sure we are holding to the truth of scripture. And if anyone is kind of using religious themes in their ⁓ in in in their podcasting and influencing and they kind of stroll around the word God, but they never talk about repentance, about sin, about new life, about the cross, about living our life in response to that. And if they don't talk about Christ is the one who did all of that for us. They are one step away from being overtly deceptive. Make sure you're looking and listening for those types of things. Are people talking about Jesus Christ? Are they talking about repentance? Are they talking about ⁓ forgiveness? Are they talking about sinfulness? That you, that we are sinful and in need of a savior. If they are not, they may just be using the idea of God to promote their platform. And we really need to bring that truth into the dark world. I've said it many times. I love AA. I love when we feel greatly support that. But if you're relying on ⁓ an evolutionary essence as your higher power, you're in soul. That's right. There's only one higher power, and its name is Jesus. Let's go to Christ. Living life in Christ forever, impacting his kingdom and loving the Lord with every breath thy spirit sing. To him be glory, praise everything. ⁓