Part 2: Will You Take the Sail?
What if it’s true? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We know there is a battle for our minds to keep us from 100%.
2 Corinthians 4
4 They do not believe, because their minds have been kept in the dark by the evil god of this world. He keeps them from seeing the light shining on them, the light that comes from the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.
5 For it is not ourselves that we preach; we preach Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.
6 The God who said, “Out of darkness the light shall shine!” is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts, to bring us the knowledge of God's glory shining in the face of Christ.
And it will only ever get worse.
2 Timothy 3
13 and evil persons and impostors will keep on going from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived themselves.
We’re like a boat in crashing waters.
1 James
6.5 Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is driven and blown about by the wind.
But God wants us to have peace, even in crashing waves.
Galatians 5
22 But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these.
Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I have everything I need.
2 He lets me rest in fields of green grass and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water.
3 He gives me new strength. He guides me in the right paths, as he has promised.
4 Even if I go through the deepest darkness, I will not be afraid, Lord, for you are with me. Your shepherd's rod and staff protect me.
Why should we care?
But why should we care about our minds/worldview?
Our worldview has a massive impact on our faith.
There are things we’d just like to know, and then there are barriers to truth. Some things don’t impact our faith at all (will there be potato chips in the new world?). Some do (does God actually exist?)
These deceptions and doubts can be deadly. Sometimes for the body, sometimes for the soul.
I love this analogy because being in the water or being in the air… in certain situations, being poorly prepared or responding to a situation incorrectly can be deadly.
(“The impossible turn” …?)
A situation that is 99% survivable but can kill you if you aren’t confident and trained.
What kills most pilots?
It isn’t storms, mechanical failures, or spontaneous disasters. It’s pilot error.
They say “that fuel check doesn’t really matter,” and it does.
What kills most Christians? Pilot error.
They say “I’ll figure that out later,” and later doesn’t happen.
They say “I know what’s true because I just feel it.” But they’re immersed in the world, not God, and so the world pulls their feelings like a magnet into deception.
But there’s a good side to this. Why? It means you have more control over the direction of your life than you probably know.
You can win in the battle for your mind.
You’re not powerless. You have your own sail.
1 John 5
19 We know that we belong to God even though the whole world is under the rule of the Evil One.
20 We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we know the true God. We live in union with the true God—in union with his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and this is eternal life.
21 My children, keep yourselves safe from false gods!
Why would be asked to stay safe from false Gods if we couldn’t?
Ephesians 6
10 Finally, build up your strength in union with the Lord and by means of his mighty power.
11 Put on all the armor that God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the Devil's evil tricks.
12 For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age.
13 So put on God's armor now! Then when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist the enemy's attacks; and after fighting to the end, you will still hold your ground.
14 So stand ready, with truth as a belt tight around your waist, with righteousness as your breastplate,
Matthew 25
1 “At that time the Kingdom of heaven will be like this. Once there were ten young women who took their oil lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
2 Five of them were foolish, and the other five were wise.
3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any extra oil with them,
4 while the wise ones took containers full of oil for their lamps.
5 The bridegroom was late in coming, so they began to nod and fall asleep.
6 “It was already midnight when the cry rang out, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come and meet him!’
7 The ten young women woke up and trimmed their lamps.
8 Then the foolish ones said to the wise ones, ‘Let us have some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’
9 ‘No, indeed,’ the wise ones answered, ‘there is not enough for you and for us. Go to the store and buy some for yourselves.’
10 So the foolish ones went off to buy some oil; and while they were gone, the bridegroom arrived. The five who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was closed.
11 “Later the others arrived. ‘Sir, sir! Let us in!’ they cried out.
12 ‘Certainly not! I don't know you,’ the bridegroom answered.”
13 And Jesus concluded, “Watch out, then, because you do not know the day or the hour.
What do we often choose to do?
We choose not to take control. We let go of the steering wheel. So what drives us then? The wind and the waves.
Which we saw last week is Satan, if we’re not abiding in Jesus!
You might think being passive doesn’t impact you. Would reading your bible impact you? Then how would watching TV or watching the news not impact you?
Everyday you’re being pushed.
Don’t take your hands off the wheel lol (Ryan).
If we don’t take control, we won’t make it anywhere good.
Something that people also do is they sample but never eat.
Our relationship with God is like food.
Matthew 4
2 After spending forty days and nights without food, Jesus was hungry.
3 Then the Devil came to him and said, “If you are God's Son, order these stones to turn into bread.”
4 But Jesus answered, “The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks.’”
Luke 22
19 Then he took a piece of bread, gave thanks to God, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.”
20 In the same way, he gave them the cup after the supper, saying, “This cup is God's new covenant sealed with my blood, which is poured out for you.
We take a tiny bite of what God intends for us, and then we think “well, that didn’t fill me up.” Then we put the food down until we can’t take it anymore, so we take another tiny bite, and we repeat that over and over, until we die, and we think “man, that God thing didn’t really amount to much,” but we never even sat down for a real meal.
We do a small prayer and nothing changes. Maybe we go to church but nothing changes.
Your boat is in crashing waves and you turn the sail the right way for a few minutes, and nothing changes.
Getting somewhere new in life takes time. And work.
We’re willing to bet 8 hours a day for work, 6-10 hours a day for entertainment, for our entire lives… but very little for our own soul…
Various surveys have found an average American spends 6-10 hours a day consuming media. Yes. 6-10 a day.
Do you think this has an influence on you?
You influence yourself everyday. Your sailboat moves somewhere every day. And as we saw, most people choose to let the world decide where it goes. They don’t take the sail, they give it to the wind.
You have the power to push it somewhere good.
One big lie: “God is responsible for my belief in Him.”
“God it’s your fault I don’t believe in You.”
Who’s mind is in your head?
Have you given it 100% to God?
So who is responsible for your mind? You.
Your mind was given to you by God!
How valuable is a human mind?
Worth a car?
A house?
A billion dollars?
Priceless?
Let’s say… imagine the fanciest car you can
You would probably take great care of it wouldn’t you?
And if it got damaged, would you yell at the person who gave it to you? You would fix it!
You’d put work into it. But your mind is worth far more.
How much have you actually desired to get to know God? How much have you actually tried? For most, that's a really hard thing to come to terms with.
James 1
13 If we are tempted by such trials, we must not say, “This temptation comes from God.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.
14 But we are tempted when we are drawn away and trapped by our own evil desires.
15 Then our evil desires conceive and give birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
To know the truth takes work.
Why do we have to work for it?
Study done by Harvard: easy learning is bad learning.
If you never feel challenged, you aren’t learning.
Just like muscles, if you’re not outside your comfort zone, you aren’t adapting.
If learning was easy, everyone would be Elon Musk
You can be as smart as Elon Musk
Because Elon has to work for it just like you.
If he didn’t, you’d have no hope, the rich would always control you.
Do you get awards for blinking, breathing, or eating?
The only things in life we applaud are the ones that we didn’t want to do. The things that were hard.
Is there a solution?
How do we address our doubts… or know if we’ve been deceived?
How do we find the ultimate truth? Can we really be sure?
How do we know all that effort will actually pay off?
We live by faith and not by sight right?
Yes, there is a verse about that.
2 Corinthians 5
6 So we are always full of courage. We know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord's home.
7 For our life is a matter of faith, not of sight.
But faith is not a wish that something is true.
Faith is the expectation that it is.
Hebrews 11
1 To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.
2 It was by their faith that people of ancient times won God's approval.
3 It is by faith that we understand that the universe was created by God's word, so that what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen.
4 It was faith that made Abel offer to God a better sacrifice than Cain's. Through his faith he won God's approval as a righteous man, because God himself approved of his gifts. By means of his faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
Wishing on a star doesn’t produce action. Faith produces action because it’s deeper.
That greek word we translate to hope = expect.
el-pid'-zo
hope (n.)
late Old English hopa "confidence in the future," especially "God or Christ as a basis for hope," from hope (v.). From c. 1200 as "expectation of something desired;" also "trust, confidence; wishful desire;" late 14c. as "thing hoped for," also "grounds or basis for hope." Personified since c. 1300. Related: Hopes.
So faith is confident action backed by trust, not hopeful thinking with some sprinkles of doubt.
In addition, 2 Corinthians 5 is referencing certainty for the future. There are other things we don’t need to leave for the future… things for which answers are here around us.
For example, we see God apparent in creation.
The world provides evidence:
Romans 1
20 Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made. So those people have no excuse at all!
The heavens provide evidence:
Psalm 19
1 How clearly the sky reveals God's glory! How plainly it shows what he has done!
2 Each day announces it to the following day; each night repeats it to the next.
3 No speech or words are used, no sound is heard;
4 yet their message goes out to all the world and is heard to the ends of the earth…
The creatures provide evidence:
Job 12
7 Even birds and animals have much they could teach you;
8 ask the creatures of earth and sea for their wisdom.
9 All of them know that the Lord's hand made them.
And even you provide evidence:
Genesis 1
26 Then God said, “And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us. They will have power over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small.”
27 So God created human beings, making them to be like himself.
In addition, we are encouraged to work out doubts, we are not told anywhere to live out a half-decided faith. We’re told the opposite.
Proverbs 25
2 We honor God for what he conceals; we honor kings for what they explain.
1 Corinthians 2
9 “What no one ever saw or heard, what no one ever thought could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who love him.”
Even the concealed things, God gives us the opportunity to explore.
The idea that truth can never be certain is a worldly lie.
John 18
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
37 Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.
Pilate said “What is truth?”
(socratic belief or maybe sophism?)
Isaiah 47
10 “You felt sure of yourself in your evil; you thought that no one could see you. Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray, and you said to yourself, ‘I am God—there is no one else like me.’
These “New Age” ideas that truth can’t be known or that it’s relative to our reality isn’t new at all. They’re as old as Scripture.
And you don’t need to be a professional to do this. All you need is to try, and to ask for the Holy Spirit to guide you:
1 Corinthians 2
1 When I came to you, my friends, to preach God's secret truth, I did not use big words and great learning. 2 For while I was with you, I made up my mind to forget everything except Jesus Christ and especially his death on the cross.
3 So when I came to you, I was weak and trembled all over with fear,
4 and my teaching and message were not delivered with skillful words of human wisdom, but with convincing proof of the power of God's Spirit.
5 Your faith, then, does not rest on human wisdom but on God's power.
6 Yet I do proclaim a message of wisdom to those who are spiritually mature. But it is not the wisdom that belongs to this world or to the powers that rule this world—powers that are losing their power.
7 The wisdom I proclaim is God's secret wisdom, which is hidden from human beings, but which he had already chosen for our glory even before the world was made.
8 None of the rulers of this world knew this wisdom. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 However, as the scripture says, “What no one ever saw or heard, what no one ever thought could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who love him.”
10 But it was to us that God made known his secret by means of his Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, even the hidden depths of God's purposes.
11 It is only our own spirit within us that knows all about us; in the same way, only God's Spirit knows all about God.
12 We have not received this world's spirit; instead, we have received the Spirit sent by God, so that we may know all that God has given us.
13 So then, we do not speak in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, as we explain spiritual truths to those who have the Spirit.
14 Whoever does not have the Spirit cannot receive the gifts that come from God's Spirit. Such a person really does not understand them, and they seem to be nonsense, because their value can be judged only on a spiritual basis.
15 Whoever has the Spirit, however, is able to judge the value of everything, but no one is able to judge him.
16 As the scripture says, “Who knows the mind of the Lord? Who is able to give him advice?” We, however, have the mind of Christ.
God is not calling you to a life of shallow blind faith but a life of deep understanding faith. The Bible asserts that you can know.
And even God Himself guarantees you will find the truth!
Jeremiah 29
11 I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for.
12 Then you will call to me. You will come and pray to me, and I will answer you.
13 You will seek me, and you will find me because you will seek me with all your heart.
14 Yes, I say, you will find me, and I will restore you to your land.
Is it not the most awesome and revolutionary idea:
God is real!
Wants to have a relationship with you!
Wants to save you not just in the future but now!
Romans 12
1 So then, my friends, because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.
2 Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.
God loves you the way you are, but He doesn’t want you to stay there forever. God is calling you to go on an adventure.
What do you possibly have to lose?
A lot, honestly. Cost is high.
scripture (take up cross)
Could be a whole sermon!
But God has the cost covered!
Could also be a sermon series!
Call to action
There’s so much potential!
Story of revivals brought about by little old ladies
Story of various martyrs
It’s never too late
Jesus’ ministry was 3.5 years
Daniel
Other verses
You will accomplish things like Jesus verse
Don’t put it off. Too many people say “First I’ll x, y, and z, and then I’ll become a monk and figure everything out.”
Eternity will be forever… but it won’t wait forever.
Luke 12:
16 Then Jesus told them this parable: “There was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops.
17 He began to think to himself, ‘I don't have a place to keep all my crops. What can I do?
18 This is what I will do,’ he told himself; ‘I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store the grain and all my other goods.
19 Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!’
20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?’”
Eternity won’t wait until you’re all settled down.
Dare to go on an adventure this week.
God: how much potential do I have?
God might answer: Look at Me. How much potential do I have?
How highly you think of God is the limit of what you think of yourself. Because your story revolves around God’s story. This is God’s story.
If Scripture is true, isn’t it worth anything to find out?
How far would you go to know that there is a God, that He loves you, and that you can be free?
You probably put hours a day into work and pleasure. Are you willing to put the effort out to know the One Who created you?
Are you stuck in a cycle of taking tiny bites out of God and never feeling full, always feeling empty? You don’t have to be.
Pray truthfully and desperately, give time if possible:
Help us find your truth.
Remove the veil of deception from us.
Have I actually tried to get to know you?
If you created me, I want to know You!
As much as we are willing to get to know You, God, reward us with the knowledge of You.
Help us work out our doubts with Your Holy Spirit.
We commit ourselves to You.