Hearing God: The Burden of Truth
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He [a]will take of Mine and declare it to you. John 16:12-15
I am so excited for today because I am confident that we are going to encounter God today and many of us will experience freedom.
Today I am speaking on the burden of truth. John 14:6 says “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” This means that everytime we hear from the Holy Spirit we are hearing the truth because the Spirit only declares what belongs to Jesus and the Holy Spirit declares that to us. As our main text reads, “He will guide us in all truth.”
Now truth can sometimes be hard to hear. Truth can be a burden because often the weight of truth can be heavy. It feels heavy because the truth of Jesus is regularly contrary to the truth of this world. The truth of Jesus is often countercultural. The truth of Jesus mostly feels like culture shock.
However, as we begin to submerge ourselves in kingdom culture, we begin to realize that though the burden of truth can be heavy, it is powerful because it brings us freedom.
“For if you embrace the truth, it will release true freedom into your lives.” John 8:32 TPT
In the States, the word freedom doesn't carry too much weight because for the most part we live pretty free. However, you begin to understand how powerful freedom is when you begin to lose it.
Covid, lock down, quarantine was a little bitty taste of freedom lost and it set many of us into a panic.
When we begin to understand the price of freedom, the cost of freedom, the weight of freedom we can begin to value truth and desire to pursue it at any cost.
Freedom is costly, truth is costly.
And many can’t value the truth because they don’t recognize the bondage they are in.
That is why often when we encounter Jesus, whether through prayer or worship or any other discipline or practice we often experience a physical/emotional response.
It is a response to the freedom that comes with the revelation of His truth. (IT'S SUPERNATURAL. Physical manifestation)
Now sometimes hearing the truth can feel immediately liberating and then other times it can be so hard to hear.
For example, you are compromising...you are settling...you are being prideful (all personal examples.)
Other examples:
Flesh
Spirit of Pride
Spirit of Fear
These truths can be hard to hear because we have begun to adopt our own personal truths. We have chosen to believe what we say about ourselves vs. what Jesus says about us.
The burden of truth is a burden because in order to receive actual truth we must die to yourself...die to our opinions, our beliefs, our preferences and pick up the thought of Jesus, the way of Jesus, the beliefs of Jesus and the preferences of Jesus.
And DYING IS HARD. It is heavy, it is painful...but
In order to experience true freedom we must bear the burden of the truth!
A powerful example of this is the book of Lamentations, here the people of God had been exiled into Babylon and they are FEELING IT. (hence the title LAMENTations) Jeremiah, the possible author, is feeling the weight of his peoples’ sin and the consequence of their sin. Here is the reality, the truth God shares with them, you broke our agreement, you have entered into a relationship with other God’s now here is the consequence of that sin...exile in a land that is not yours, with a people that is not yours.
The people struggled with this truth and the consequences of that truth, but Jeremiah shares some things interesting with the reader:
Lamentations 3
27b And it is good for people to submit at an early age
to the yoke of his discipline: (correction, truth, brings us back to the way of Jesus)
28 Let them sit alone in silence
beneath the Lord’s demands.
29 Let them lie face down in the dust,
for there may be hope at last.
Aka? Jeremiah is saying, “let’s bear the weight of his truth, the way of his correction. Let’s sit here, in silence and feel it. Let’s feel the burden of the truth, let us meditate on it that they may be hope for us”.
And man that is some good strategy, church. Bear the weight of His truth. When we receive the opportunity to lay down our truths for the truths of Jesus, let’s take those opportunities.
When we hear the Spirit revealing truth sit with it. Bear with it in silence, meditate on it, bring it to your accountability. Dare to lay down your truth, to take up the truth of what Jesus is saying.
So this morning, I believe Jesus wants to give us time to do this. This sermon is going to look and feel a little different because I believe the Lord wants us to take some time to sit in His truth for a little while, to sit in silence before him, to meditate on the truth of His word.
So we are going to read John 8 together and whether you are 12 years old to 80 years old this is for you. The truth is for young and old and I believe the Holy Spirit wants to bring freedom to our mindsets and offer up the opportunity to lay down our truths for his truths.
Now, before jumping into chapter 8, I want to give you context and background knowledge.
Chapters 7 & 8 of the book of John took place at the end of the feast of tabernacles. (except the story with the women caught in adultery-theologians don’t know what to really do with that story and plopped in between 7 & 8, depending on your translation you may have it at the end of John or just in the book of Luke (anyway). Most can agree that all of chapter 7 & 8 occurred on the last days of the feast. This feast was interesting because on the last day (the most important day John 7:3 tells us) it was the custom of the Jewish people to bring their offerings to the temple (they would do this at many points in the feast, but if they hadn’t done so already they would make a point to insure they gave their offering).
Now the book of John tells us that Jesus' teachings during this time happened in the treasure room. Why is this significant? Because in the treasure room is where you gave your offering. So there is Jesus, on the most important day, teaching in the treasure room, which likely was very busy (as it was the last day of the feast) speaking on things like, being the light of the world, being living water and knowledge of Father God and His oneness with him.
Just imagine this for a second.
A feast...large crowds….hustle to submit your offering and there is Jesus...filling the treasure room with truth...as if He is saying come lay down your earthly treasure and leave with my eternal treasure of TRUTH.
Wow. And so as we read today, we are going to expect just that. I believe that as we read John 8, mindsets that need to be reset will be reset, ideologies that need to change will change. Freedom that needs to be found, will be found.
So before we begin, I am going to ask you to surrender:
Pray with me: Jesus, I thank you for coming, dying and resurrecting so that I can be set free. Thank you for sending your Holy Spirit so that I can bear your truth. I cancel the lie that I cannot hear from you. I declare that you have much more to say to me. I declare that I will hear your truth today. As I meditate on your word, I pray you would reveal lies I am believing. I pray you would empower me to lay down my truth and exchange them for your truth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Tell your neighbor: I am ready. Tell them: I am about to be set free from old ways of thinking. Tell them: next time you see me I will be brand new.
Read John 8:12-20
Ask Jesus to bring you into the light.
Ask Jesus if there is any offense in you.
Ask Jesus what to do with it.
Ask Jesus how He sees you.
Ask Jesus if He wants to reveal anything else to you.
Wow...take a moment to write down the truths that have been revealed to you. Take a moment to thank Jesus for that truth.
Why is this important?
We need the truth of Jesus. We need the perspective of Jesus to consume us. This world is filled with opinions and perspectives. We can become so bombarded. Practicing this, with any part of scripture can be liberating because it gives our mind a reset. It gives us an opportunity to lay down any of our truths and pick up the only truths that matter: the truth of Jesus.
Here is the challenge:
The next time you're in a hard spot, have to make a hard choice, overwhelmed, depressed, angry or
In a fight with your husband, wife, parents or kids begin to practice this. In a moment of tension, dare to be bold and ask:
Wait. What is Jesus’ truth?
Choose to lay down your truth and pick up His truth. It will be hard and take practice, pray, but as you make this the culture of your home, the culture of BCF we will see conflict resolved faster, unity achieved quickly and resolution and reconciliation.
Practice bearing His truth.
