and go to verse number 38. And if you're able to stand, I'd like for you to stand so you can read from the word of God, and as we see what God has in store for us, amen. Also pray for Wandia, she's out of town this weekend, so pray for her and her safety as well. All right, look at John chapter number eight, and drop down, make that chapter number 18, because that's where the verse is at. John chapter 18, and verse number 38, amen. John 18 and verse number 38, praise the Lord. The Bible says this, read one verse and we'll pray. The Bible says Pilate sent to him, referring to Jesus, what, watch it now, what is truth? And when he had said this, the Bible says, he, Pilate, went out again unto the Jews and said unto them, I find in him no fault at all. But Pilate asks the question of Jesus and he says in verse number 38, what is the I want to talk to this morning, I move forward with that question. What is truth? Let's pray. Father, I want to thank you for the Holy Spirit. I thank you Lord for indwelling us as believers. And God, there's one among us who's not a believer and one that's watching. I pray God that before the hour closes, I pray God they put their faith and their trust in Jesus. Now I pray and ask God to take the word of God this morning and let it become alive to us. I pray God to enrich our minds. I pray God to reveal to us certain truths that you want us to receive, yes sir, and then to implement in our life and to share with someone else. I pray and ask God to help us and calm our fears, both the darkness that might be around our day. I pray God to let the sun begin to shine brightly through and give us great victory. I pray God to fill the Holy Spirit. Matter of fact, fill us all with the Holy Spirit. I pray God to guide my mind, my speech, and my actions. Help me to preach the life-changing Word of God. Stir somebody on the inside. Change somebody's mindset. Change somebody's outlook on their circumstance. And with that, God, we'll thank you. And if there's anything else I might be leaving out, yes, sir, meet that need as well. For it's in your son's name we do pray. Not only Jesus, but mighty Jesus. Amen. Amen. Truth. In our society today, we are faced with that question in certain areas of life, in certain segments of society. What is truth? Is there really anything that is true? I want us to look in the Scriptures for a few moments and let's find out what does the Bible say about truth? What is truth? Now one thing about this is that when you do have the truth, you don't need to sell the truth. Don't sell the truth. Let me give you a verse. We're coming back here a second But go with me over to Proverbs 23 and look at verse number 23 Proverbs 23 and look at verse number 23 the Bible says this in Proverbs 23 and verse 23 the Bible says by the truth and sell it not also wisdom and instruction The Bible says in the first part of that verse, buy the truth. What does that mean, preacher? To buy the truth means to get the truth or to own the truth and don't sell it. Right. But some people will sell the truth. Some people sell the truth in the court, on the witness stand. They know the truth, but they've been brought out from the truth, and so therefore what they'll do is they'll lie instead of telling the truth. They've been asking us the question this morning, can we or will we allow ourselves to sell the truth? Or pretend we're gonna sell the truth. Well, let me ask you this question. Somebody asks you a question, will you tell them the truth? Oh, well, you sell it because you're afraid of their response. Because see, sometimes the truth can cause even Christians to be at odds with one another. Let me give you a verse. Luke and Mildred Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter four, verse 16. The Bible says in Galatians four and verse 16, now Paul is talking to the church of Galatia and watch what Paul says to them in this letter, in this epistle, Paul says in verse 16, he says, am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth. Now here's Paul, he's writing to Christians, and he says to them, am I become y'all enemy? Because I told y'all the truth. And sometimes, brothers and sisters, that is what happens oftentimes, is sometimes we'll get mad at somebody, or they'll become our enemy, or our adversary, simply because we told the truth. And we talked about this a little bit on this past Tuesday about friendship. Some folks say, but I value my friendship. So guess what? I'm not going to tell them the truth. But that ain't a real friendship. No. Because brothers and sisters, if we are truly a friend of a person, we will tell them the truth because they might be upset at the moment. But then downward, they will see the error perhaps and say, you know what? I'm glad you told me the truth. Because a person that won't tell you the truth, brothers and sisters, that's not a good friend. That's right. Oh, by the way, you ain't going to have a very successful marriage if you don't tell the truth. Yep. I don't forget, me and Felicia first started dating, you know, in the early stages, you know, I mean, whatever, you know. And she said, why don't you tell the truth? I'm like, that's a new truth. The whole truth? All the truth, baby. But you know what I found, Dennis, is that when I began to tell the truth, it was so much easier. Because you ain't got to try to remember stuff. Some of y'all thought I was saying, I was like, what are you talking about? You know what I'm talking about. The kind of thing about it is this, is that when you don't tell the truth, you might say, what did I say? You get all tangled up and then one thing leads to another. But man, if you really just don't remember, you just don't remember. And you got to worry about that because you know you didn't say nothing that was wrong and you didn't do nothing wrong because you just told the truth. Listen, but sometimes telling the truth can cause a person to look at us as the enemy. And we go back now to the Gospel of John, and we see the pilot ask a question that I believe is a question that's continuing to come down even now, over 2,000 years later, questions are being asked, what is truth? Now there is a... thought process out there called relativism. What is relativism? Relativism is the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context and are not absolute. Well, that's crazy. That's right. Because you're saying that that's the truth. That statement that was just made, if you're saying there are no absolutes, that's an absolute you're saying right there. That's right. Because you're saying there are no absolutes. So then that's the truth? Well, there, wait, hold on a second. Let me think about this for a minute. No. If there are no absolutes, that cannot be a true statement when you say there are I think there's something else that is called a moral relativism, and that is everything is based on what an individual desires. It lacks concept of guiding principles of right or wrong. It depends on what's right for you. May that be right for me. And oftentimes in our schools, they'll even teach that what was right for your parents is not really right for you. Wait a minute. Is there no right? Is there no wrong? What is the truth? And here, you see in this verse, when Pilate is conversing with Jesus, he makes the statement, or asks the question, and we wonder about the question itself, we're gonna touch on it in a few moments, but he says, what is truth? The first thing we wanna look at, number one, is the prompting of the question. The prompting of the question, what prompted to ask this question. Back up and look at verse number 33. The Bible says this, the Bible says, Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said, Hallelujah, and said unto him, Art thou the king of the Jews? Now remember, they have brought him, Jesus is about to go to the cross. They brought him a pilot and pilot asked the question, aren't thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus answered him and said, he said, says thou this thing of thyself? Or did others tell thee of me? Are you saying this or this is what somebody told you? Now what's the response of pilot? Pilot answered, am I a Jew? Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? What have you done? I'm not a Jew. Listen, are you the kingdom of God? Watch this. Then Jesus says this in verse 36. My kingdom, catch this now, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight. But I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from his. If this right now was my kingdom, my servants would rise up and fight and stop me from going to the cross. But that's not the case at the moment. And he tells him in the next verse, in verse number 37, and Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answers, here we go. Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born. for this cause came I into the world. What was that, Jesus? That I should bear witness, here we go, y'all, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. Wow, Jesus said a whole lot in that little statement. One thing he said in that statement was this, he says, to this end was I born. He's speaking right now of his humanity. Of his humanity. When he was born of a virgin, he is speaking of his humanity. And then he goes on to say something else. Not only does he speak of his humanity, then he speaks of his deity. And he says, for this cause came I into the world. In other words, I was before I got here. And this is why I came. He is saying to them that before I came into the world, I existed. And we already know the Bible says in John 1, verse number one, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Then he goes on to say in verse number 14, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us as the only begotten of. Wasn't the same preacher? He shows his humanity, he shows his dignity, but then he says something else that is profound, that prompts this question. And everyone that is of the truth, hear my voice. When they ask us the question, don't raise your hand, don't make a grunt, don't make a sound. But do you hear his voice? Do you know the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ? When he speaks to your soul, when he speaks to your inner man. We're not talking about an audible voice, but an inward voice that's so much louder. A voice that speaks to you. A voice that speaks to you when you're all alone, perhaps riding down the road in your car. And all of a sudden, something's speaking to your mind. It's speaking to your soul, to your heart. When the preacher is being preached, he's speaking to you, and you hear his voice. And you know the difference. Yeah. With all these folks here this morning, if Rabbi Starr called my name at one time, there's one voice I would recognize immediately. Oh, yeah. Master Julian's voice. I know her voice. Because she can say it in such a way. Some of y'all know it's like when your mama calls you, you know? Not your mama, but this is like, you know, your mama calls you, you be outside, you hear a whole bunch, all of a sudden somebody, your mama calls your name, you're like, my mama called me? Or even moms, and dads too sometimes, but even moms, there can be a whole bunch of kids in here crying, and you just be going about your business, but when you hear your child cry, You recognize that voice? When I was there, you were out crying? I know his voice man. I was like, good lord. But nonetheless, I know his voice. Do we know God's voice when he speaks to us? And I didn't say this. Jesus said this. I said, listen. He says, everyone that is of the truth, hear my voice. Come on. Oh my, that prompts a question. And then here's Pilate's question itself. Now, let's look at this question in verse 38. And Pilate said to him, what is truth? Now, I don't know how he said it. I don't know if he said it being sarcastic. I don't know if he said it because he was puzzled. I don't know if he said it because he was interested in the answer. But it seemed like he wasn't interested. Why do you say that? Because what Moses does next, the Bible says that Pilate turns away. The Bible says that when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews. He asked a question, and then he goes out to the Jews. I wonder how many times have we asked a question, but we really didn't want a good answer. I mean, there's some, not us, but some other folks, when they ask people advice, they don't really want to know. Matter of fact, some people, they know what they may tell them, they don't even ask them. They'll ask everybody else, and finally, they'll say, oh, I didn't want to ask you. Let's go ask the preacher what he think. Preacher, what you think? You know, here we go. I knew you was going to say that. That's why I didn't want to ask you. I didn't want to say that out loud, but you were in with me. That's why I didn't want to ask you, because I knew what you was going to probably say. Listen, wouldn't you want to know the truth? Listen. Sometimes people get in debates, and they're not trying to find the truth. And that's why, especially on social media, I mean, not y'all, but the motherfucker that be killing me. I mean, y'all ain't trying to find the truth about what the one person thinks of the other one, because nobody's listening. Everybody's finding out, OK, oh, he said that. Once he's done, here I turn, jump in there. He's like, wait a minute, what about all this you said right here? I thought you wasn't on the truth. If we want to know the truth, then let's listen for the answer to the truth. And so Pilate asked the question, what is truth? Then Pilate turns away. But guess what he does? Then he tells the truth. What do you mean? Look at the next part of the verse. The Bible says this in the next part of the verse. It says this. And he said to them, he went to the Jews, and he said to them, I find in him, talk about Jesus, I find in him no fault at all. I can't find any crime, any cause, any reason against him. I find nothing. Amen. He was telling the truth. Yep. But still, that doesn't answer our question. What is truth? Let's go back and look what Jesus said previously about truth. What did Jesus say previously about truth? In the same letter, the same book, go to John 14 and verse number 6. Yes, many of us know this verse. Look at John 14 and verse 6. The Bible says this in John 14 and verse 6. Let's back up a little bit and look at verse number 5. The Bible says in verse 5 of John chapter 14, Thomas said unto him, Lord, we know not good about goers. And how can we know the way? And Jesus said, let me tell you, let me tell you, Tommy. He said, I am the way. But know something else that Jesus says. I am the way, the truth, and the life. And then he says this, no man, I don't care who you are, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Amen. The only way to get to the Father is through the Son. That's right. Which is Jesus Christ. But Noah's Grace says, he says, I am truth. I am truth. Jesus responds to Thomas and says to Thomas, let me tell you about truth. I am the way and the truth. Not a truth. That's right. So if he has said a truth, that means there's other truths. That's right. He is the truth. Yes. Let me ask us this morning, is he the truth for you and I? I got a text message last night from Becky Paisley. She posted this morning. I got a text message from Becky Paisley last night. She was telling me about... Help me out. What show was it? Ellie. Ellie. About Ellie and how Ellie, they was watching... Was it Ben's Tales? Which one was it? It was one of those shows. Was it Ben's Tales? No. Was it Narnia? Yeah, the Narnia. Narnia. They was watching Narnia. And she got to watching that thing and got to asking questions about going to heaven, going to hell, being saved. And her mom began to tell her about that. And all of a sudden, Ellie started crying. And she started crying. She said this, I'm not a Christian. Now, who told Ellie that? Her mama didn't tell her that. Who told her that? Come on, preacher. Now, I'm trying not to jump ahead of myself. But we all need to learn about something called the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit of truth. The Spirit of God spoke to her soul, her inner man, her inner being, and said, you're not a Christian. And right there, she prayed and received Jesus as her Savior. And all of a sudden, she's smiling again. Amen. I was talking to Brian, Christian's fiance. And he was at the party first. I'm from L.A. He met me in the parking lot. He said, let me tell you. He said, my son came up to me and got to asking me some questions about, what was the question? It was about salvation. I wanted to see how he worded it. But he worded it a certain way, so I asked him questions. And then Brian knew he was asking questions about being saved. So Brian said, you know, I said, I ain't never been in a bunch of war. He said, I thought praying won't help you. I said, help me. He said, help me. explaining to him about salvation. And how old is he, Christian? He's 13. And you know what he did? He trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. And he saved him. But wait a minute. Wait a minute. But Brian wasn't talking to him about nothing. He came to Brian and started asking these questions. Listen, no matter who you are, There are times you are by yourself. You gotta be by yourself. Just sitting amongst folks. And something starts speaking to your mind. Starts speaking to your soul. I remember when I was doing all the stuff I used to do, and I'd be in a place I shouldn't be in, and the Spirit of God would be there to speak to me and say, you know you shouldn't be here. And you can try to shake it off. I remember times we'd get so high. It's amazing how you get high and start talking about Jesus. Do you know Jesus the truth man It don't matter him or me what nobody else says, what are you and I going to say in response about Jesus? The Bible says in these verses that he says to him, he says to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man come unto the Father but by me. But then he says something else. He says something else in chapter number eight about the truth. Go over to John chapter eight and look at verse number 31. Look at Romans, John chapter eight and look at verse number 31. The Bible says this in Romans 8, verse 31, what Jesus says about the truth. What is truth? The Bible says in John chapter 8, verse 31, then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him. If, Jesus said, condition, choice. ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. And by the way, because you continue in the word, ye shall know what? The truth. And the truth shall what? Make you free. Make you free. My eyes. Amen. Yeah. Once again, my preacher, what is truth? Here, Jesus says to his disciples, number one, remain. Remain what in the word? Remain, he says, in the Word. That word remain means to dwell. It means to endure. It means to remain. It means to stay. And he asks us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, are we staying in the Word? Are we remaining in the Word? Are we dwelling in the Word? Or are we dwelling in something else? Mm. Come on. You know, whenever we get around, we going to spend a lot. Yep. Don't say it, don't say it. When we hangin' around the dirty places, the nasty places in life, that's what we gonna smell like. How many times do kids take a shower, take a bath, then run outside and they start playin' and they playin' football or whatever, and they come back in here, you say, oh, you smell awful. Where you been? You been outside playin'? I don't know what you play outside. You go out there and sit, and I have to play, and we gotta go somewhere. I wasn't playin'. Why do you smell like you smell? I don't know. Did you put some fabric stuff in there when you washed it? You know about mine, Leo? Y'all might saw this video. This little girl, she must have been about three, I guess. But she had taken some fingernail polish and she had polished the Barbie doll that she had. And apparently she got it on the carpet. And so her dad's filming her. So I'll be on Facebook. Her dad's filming her. He's asking her about it. And he's like, why did you do that? Because she said, Barbie. Barbie told me to do it. Barbie? Yeah, Barbie. She said 1,000 times. 1,000 times. Because she wanted me to do that 1,000 times. And what did you say? I said, no. What did she say? 1,000 times. She said, yes. 1,000 times. And they go back and forth. She's actually trying to convince her daddy that, well, maybe Barkley teased me, I don't know. Get me that Barbie if he talks to me! Glory to God, amen. I had to think about that for a minute. But you know, she's trying to convince her daddy that it really wasn't her. She was pressured by Barkley. But you know we do the same thing sometimes to God. We're like, oh Adam. Adam, where are you now? We hiding. That ain't how you play hide and go seek. We hiding. Why you hiding? We naked. Who told you we're naked? Remember that woman you gave me? It's her fault. Oh man, God, you did that. If you had given her to me, that woman, I'd have been fine. Now some of us do the same way. It's one for the mother's fault. When I went to that store at 12 years old, and I took that hat, and I had the money to pay for it, you know what? I didn't try to convince them that. I could have told the security guy. I said, the only reason I took the hat, because the girl in my business was like, are you scared to take it? Just go ahead and take it. I'm like, I got the money for it. Just go ahead and take it. And me, like an idiot, I'm like, OK, I'm going to take the hat. I got the money for it. And he's asking the question. The security guy, they caught me at the door. She kept on going, her and her friends. I'm still back there. I'm in the security garage. We want that hat. It's my hat. Why don't you got that hat on your head? My mama always told me to take my hat off. Wow. When I walk into a store, it's like. He's looking at the hat. And this is back when we had the curls for the girls. I'm in the jerry curls. I'm thinking to myself, back in the 80s. I mean, he looked at my hat. He said, why ain't no grease in here? I said, well, I don't wear the kind of hat with the grease on it. He said, we go right back, we sit back there, I'm in the office interrogation room, you know. I said, you know what? I said, I'll pay for the hat. He said, my father, where's your hat? Long story short, next thing I know, my mom shows up, pastor shows up, good lord, man. I mean, like everybody in the community knew about that. I mean, good night. But I never talked to that no more. But listen. It's amazing how we're trying to excuse what we do on somebody else. But Jesus says in this verse, if you remain the word, he says right here, then it reveals something. Then are you my disciples indeed. Now, we say we saved and we're saved, but are we disciples? Are we pupils? Are we learners of the word? Well, if we are, that means that we'll stay in the word. We'll remain in the word. And what will happen, preacher, that when you and I remain in the word, it reveals that we are his disciples, but it also gives these type of results. What's that? The Bible says, verse 132, and ye shall know, here we go, the truth. If you and I remain in the word of God, we will know the truth. That means the truth about everything. Everything that you and I are facing, we don't know the truth because we remain in the word. Sometimes we don't know the truth because we're in the word. Well, I ain't got time to read all that call. It amazes me how you'll meet a brother, you know, and he can give you, he can give you, let's say it was basketball. They can give you all the stats. They can give you who pitched the no hitters. They can tell you all about, uh, who won all the World Series, who played in the World Series, who played in the NBA Championship. They give you all the bronze stats, all the micro joint stats, all these stats, stats, stats, stats. You don't know you have to read that. And it's popping your head. Why is it so hard to read? Liar, liar, piss on fire. Listen, it depends on what it is. I mean sometimes we can grab a whole book and we get intrigued by it and we're just saying that thing and just read it. Remember when, what was that, the name of the movie out of it, The Vampire and the Werewolves? Yeah, Twilight. When Twilight came out, folks had already read the books! And they knew what was left out of the movies! It depends on what it is. Now, you might not be a person that likes novels, but I guarantee you said you are a reader. You had to read to get here. Yeah. Yeah. You're just in your car and close your eyes. Nope. You knew which exit to get off of? You knew which street to turn down? You had to look at the signs? Oh, you see how fast you was going when you came and saw the police was down there? I mean, you had to read all that stuff, amen? That's right. What are you saying, preacher? The Bible says in this verse that you will know the truth if you remain in the word, you'll know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. That word free in this verse means to liberate, to deliver from the dominion of sin. From the dominion of sin the power of sin the authority of sin See we don't have to I'll talk you go to heaven now. I'll talk with your brother friend of mine one time. He's like you're that pastor. He said is that sin? Is that sin like the sin with somebody else? It's just like, it's something else that's from somewhere else, and it affected him, but he had no choice about what was taking place. Listen, oh, we got choices. I'm a pastor, preacher, blah, blah, blah, and all that other stuff, okay? But that time, I feel, Miss Bonnie, I feel like stopping people. But I don't. I have a choice, I could stop them. But I'm not gonna say it, My family, that's an inside joke. I always tell them, I say, anybody here gonna whoop me? But I say, anyway, but I mean, how many times you wanna just slap somebody, but you didn't? You stopped. Now, some of y'all did, okay? But nonetheless, I mean, you still didn't have to. When you get saved, here's another few moments, when you get saved, you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God, and he will empower you, he will help you to not only say no, but to not do it as well. So, we see what Jesus says about this, but also he says something else about truth. Look at me over to John 8 and verse 44. The Bible says this. He's talking to some folks. Now make sure you're in this group. He said, He are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, watch this now, and a bold knot in the truth. Because there is no truth in him. When he's speaking a lie, he's speaking of his own. For he is a liar and the father of it. Don't listen to Satan. He is a liar and the Bible says there's no truth in him. But it's amazing how folks listen to the devil. But he's right. I should have slapped him. That's not right. We got to do something about this. Bang, the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is gone. Walk away. No, I ain't walking away. I'm walking forward. I'm going to walk forward. Walk away. No, no, no. Listen, for the Holy Ghost. But tell us something different that leads me to this look what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit Look what the Bible says in John 16. We talked about what is truth. Look at John 16 and verse 13 John 16 and verse 13 look what Jesus says here the Bible says here in John 16 verse 13 how be it when he The spirit of truth Is come what's gonna happen? He will guide you And to how much, y'all? All truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, back shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. But he says in the middle part, or the first part, the spirit of truth is come, and he will guide you, he will show you, he will lead you, the Bible says, and to all truth. Mm-hmm Those who didn't say I'll make it He's I'll make it do to another super make you free, but you can't have to follow the truth He said, I will guide you into all truth. What should I do about this situation? What should I do about this circumstance? How should I respond in this situation that's before me? The Bible says, if you're saved, you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and he will guide you into all truth. That's right. But sometimes we don't want to know the truth. Yeah. My children were growing up. I pray sometimes, then I say, Lord, let me know what's going on. So my parents don't know about it. And the Lord would let me know what was going on. Now, many times, I asked the Lord. Why? I didn't want to know. I said, Lord, help me. Give a deliverance. Do this, do that. I didn't want to know. Because if I wanted to know what I asked, the Lord would show me what the truth was. But I'm just putting out something I didn't want to know. I didn't want to know. I said, God, you have to deal with that. But every time I would pray, and I said, Lord, you show me the truth. Lord, show me exactly what's going on. And he would show me exactly what's going on, and it would blow my mind. I'm like, wow. Sometimes, we're the same way. Lord, should I date that person? A lot of times, we'll ask the Lord, should I date that person? We go, the Lord will work it out. They got a lot of ching ching. I mean, they can say that. You know what? Why are we afraid to ask? Because, like our parents sometimes, you might say no. Yep. Y'all know how that works when we was growing up. You're like, man, so what you do, you figure out, OK, got mom and dad here. Which one will probably lean in my direction? My mom. Now, I'm a parent, remember this or not, but I remember one time me and her was growing up, and we were only like, what, 17, 18 months apart. We was growing up, and I remember asking my mom. I said, Mom, can I spend the night at Jerome and them house? We was Jerome and them, that word, them, yeah. We was growing up on the west side, them. Anyhow, I said, can I spend the night at Jerome and them house? My mom would say this, yeah. I said, okay, Jerome, stay, I can spend the night at y'all house. We get ready to leave. I'm gonna stay. My dad lets go. I'm like, well, mama said I could stay. I could spend the night. He said, no, Pam spent the night. Pam? She said, Pam, that's my dad. Because she spent the night at Warren's house. Warren McCabe. I couldn't think of any great names. But anyway, because she stayed at Warren McCabe's house. He had told her, yeah. But I asked mom. Mom said, yeah, to me. But she asked dad, and dad had said yes to her. And I'm pretty sure I said ass first. But she got to say. Man, I wasn't writing that. So what did you do? I do like you grind up. I started crying. Crying. Forget this. It's one of those moments in life that you never forget as a kid. I remember sitting in that seat, and he go to jail one day. I remember sitting in that seat, and I was, hey, he's like, boy, be quiet. Hey, hey, hey, boy, I said be quiet. Hey, hey, boy, I said be quiet. Hey, damn, wait. Yep. It's amazing how to be quiet. Yep. I was quiet. So now today, you play your part. And he slapped me. Come get him. But you know what? My kid might not remember this. I think Chrissy tried that one time. She said, I'm going to call all the soldiers. I said, OK, go. I said, I ain't going nowhere. You go. They're going to take you out of here, OK? I'm staying. I ask the wrong person. I should ask him first. And sometimes that's how we do it all. We are afraid of what his answer is going to be about a certain situation. And so we don't ask him. Because he might tell us the truth. No, don't buy that house. I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car! I want that car When I met my wife, I mean, it wasn't like she saw me and was like, oh, I love him. Oh, I love him. She wouldn't run it. She said, I was like Pepe Le Pew. What's that thing? She said, I was like him. I was right behind the chair. I wasn't like that. She said, I wasn't like that. That's her version. That's her version. I'm trying to tell her this movie's like that for you. She's like, I don't want that. But you know what? Whatever the truth is, that's what's gonna free us. That's what's gonna help us. Let me show you this. The Bible says the Holy Spirit will guide us to truth. But not only that, this is the last thing I'm gonna show you. Chapter 14, verse 16. Look what the Bible says in John chapter 14, verse 16. The Bible says this, John 14, verse 16. The Bible says, and I will pray, Jesus speaking, And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever. Watch this now. He's going to abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but you know Him. Why? For He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. What you talking about, preacher? I'm talking about the Spirit of Truth dwelling in us. Wow. What you saying now? The Holy Spirit that indwells me because I'm a believer is also the spirit of truth. So I have the spirit of truth inside me? Yep. And the spirit of truth that lives inside of us will guide us into the truth. But here's the question. Will we follow the truth? Will we do what the truth says to do that has been revealed to us? When God began to speak to my heart down in Georgia back in 1994, when he began to build my heart by coming back up to the Chicago area, I'm like, Lord, I like it down here. Nice weather. I mean, that's all I got, regular wintertime. I didn't want to come, I was running. So I went to the Chicago area. But Lord, it's cold up there. and grew up on the west side of Chicago. I didn't want to come back into Chicago. I said, I can go farther south. My body has gotten, is the word acclimated? Is that the word? Acceptable? It loves the south weather. But you know, I knew the truth. I was miserable. And I said, Lord, okay. I came. This is where I didn't want to initially. And oftentimes, brothers and sisters, we know the truth. God has revealed to us the truth, but we don't want to follow that truth, and so therefore, we'll do our own thing, we get in trouble, and then we get mad at God. God, you could have stopped this. You had to apologize. I gave you a free will. I don't need to make you get saved. He says, whosoever will, whosoever wants to, whosoever desires, God's not going to make you become a child of the king. He gives us a choice to either receive his son or reject his son, but the choice is up to us. Let me ask this question this morning. What truth has God revealed to us? Will we follow that truth? What is truth? Jesus is truth. The Bible says, Jesus, I am the truth. Get in my Word. Remain in my Word. Follow the Word, and the Word will free you. Brothers and sisters, whatever shackle has a hold of us, whatever chain is binding us, whatever is controlling our thinking perhaps, or influencing our thinking, the Bible says to us, if you dive in here, that He will show us the truth on how to be free from that which is continuously trying to bind us, and break us down, and beat us down. But do we want that truth? I was thinking about Billy Sampson this morning. Fires out in the middle of the night, I think it was around 1.30 or so when he called me, something like that. And his daughter has two blood clots in her lungs that can easily kill her. But he's preparing to preach, because he had to preach at 8 o'clock this morning for them, because they started at 9. And he's going to preach again at 11 o'clock. And he's going to preach Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. How do you preach when you hear this news about your daughter? How do you preach? For the last 18 months, you've lost your father, your mother, and so many other people that you love and care for. When you have one thing happen out of another, something I can't talk about, or things have happened here, this and that and that, You keep going. Because He knows the truth. He knows the truth. My love was their goal. They know Christ. And by this they're asking the body. But they're present with the Lord. That's the truth. When I think about Kelly. She's with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's because she received Christ as her Savior. So even though we miss her here. We know where she's at. We haven't lost her. We know where she's at. I know where Brother Leonard's at. I know where Mrs. Sue's at. I know where my grandmother's at. I know where others are. That's the truth. For the Bible says, the answer for the body is the presence with the Lord. How do you keep going? The truth helps you keep going forward. The truth helps you. The Bible tells us about that is part of the armor that we're to wear is truth. But if we reject truth and we receive falsehood, then we're all over the place. We're all over the place in our mind and our thinking. Preacher, what is truth? Jesus is the truth. He is the way. He is the life. The spirit of truth lives inside of us. I got two questions for you now. My first question is, I just mentioned this a few moments ago, what is truth? Jesus is true. The second question is this Do we want to know the truth? Do we want to know the truth? You already said But do you want to know the truth about your situation? How to respond the right way do you want to know that truth? And the last one is a simple little statement. Let's ask the Holy Spirit to guide us into the truth Father, thank you for your many wonderful blessings. I've tried my best to give out the Word of God as you gave it to me. And Father, I do pray and ask God that we would receive the truth that you revealed to us from the Word of God this morning. Maybe there's something, God, that's pressing on someone's mind, that's pressing on their heart. And God, they've got to make some type of response. They've got to do something. They don't know what to do. But I pray, God, they come to you this morning and say, Father, I come before your throne. I'm asking you to show me the truth. Show me what to do. Show me what to say. Show me what not to say, what not to do. Show me how to respond. Show me, and then help me to follow through. I pray they come talk to you. Perhaps, God, they're supposedly talking to their friend about the truth, about a situation, and they're trying to avoid that, but you're trying to get them to tell the truth. I pray, God, they come talk to you about that this morning. Perhaps, God, there's someone here today that just simply realized for the first time that Benhart really said it. That's the truth. And they realize that this morning. And they need to come receive Christ each day. I pray God they come receive Jesus Savior this morning. But God, whatever their needs are, whatever they are, maybe I never knew this message, they need to come talk to you. I pray God they come. Help somebody. And I pray they'll just start with me. Of course, if you're a son of David, do pray. Not a weak Jesus, but mighty Jesus.