The Slow Fade | Crossroads Daily

Hey, welcome. We're talking about Hebrews 2 today. My name's Josh. I'm Kirsten. I'm Jordan. And I'm Debo. So Hebrews 2 is all about the idea of truth, what is truth, and being anchored to truth. So this is the pop around answer. What is truth? And see, what is truth? That's the question. What is truth? What is it? Truth to me is whatever Jesus says it is. He says a lot of things. That's a good answer. But truth, as I have formed my life around, is whatever Jesus says. Whether I understand it or not. Whether it makes sense to me or not. What about all the other people? I think for a lot of people, truth is whatever they can see with their own eyeballs or experience with their senses. And that's what it is. But our whole faith is built on someone we cannot see or touch. So how do we anchor ourself to Jesus, the truth? How do we anchor ourself? How do you anchor yourself? I have one practice in my life that I try to do every day. I do not always get it right, but I've found if I can do this thing, I reap the rewards. And if I don't do this thing, I feel it.

And that is Bible before phone. So like scripture before any screen or device. It's not simple. It's actually quite challenging. And the scripture we're talking about says that we're anchored in the truth by the words of Jesus. The actual scripture. So as I get into that thing in the morning, I realize as I go about the rest of my day, I'm more sensitive to the presence of God. I'm more aware of the presence of God. There's usually a little nugget or a thought or something that I kind of take without me through the rest of the day. And that thing, even if it's just five minutes, anchors me and centers me to go about the rest of my day. But if I immediately start scrolling and I see the news or I see social media and I'm just hit immediately with other people's version of truth, what I should do with my money or my family or my time or like insert whatever thing. It's just like I'm immediately thrown into this fight or flight frenzy that I carry with me throughout the rest of my day. And I'm just a scrambled, anxious mess because everyone else is trying to tell me what's true. Yeah. And it's crazy out there. Yeah. It is. It freaking is. That's right. That's good. And you're not talking about religion. So you're not talking about, I have to read my Bible because the Bible says I should read

it. The point is I'm doing the thing that's going to anchor me to Jesus, which is through love. That's about love. Yeah. It's not about a religious practice. Sure. Yeah. Sometimes it's reading the Bible. It could just be before I walk into work. I take two minutes and just pray like, God, I need to be aware of your presence as I go throughout my day. And that's it. Yeah. Not truth as a weapon, but as a way of life. Yeah. You should write that down, Kirsten. I don't have pen. Okay. Sorry. Were you going to say something, Deva? I was just thinking about how we live in this culture where, like Jordan, you said a little bit earlier, like everybody has their own truth. Like it's like, this is my truth. And I think it's hard to, I don't know, share truth, I guess, like what we believe is the real truth of the gospel in a world where we're like, everyone's like, well, that's not, I mean, that's cool. That's your truth. But this is my truth. And so I feel, I don't know, that thought popped in my head of just like working with college students, working with previously like high school and middle schoolers where

they're just immersed in this world. And it's like, this is my truth and you can't change, you know, you can't change that. And so I think it's just, it's a hard world to live in, like facing that, that everybody's truth is right. But it's not. It's not. We have to come to grips as Christians with, we believe the truth we have is the absolute truth. How arrogant is that? Like, I believe it. I believe that, and at the same time, like, wow. In a world where whatever your truth is is your truth, but I'm sorry, my truth is right. It's been put to the test. I think that's the difference that I've seen, at least in scripture that I read. I'm like, it always wins. It's always the thing that loves the person next to me the best. It's always the thing that can get me. I don't think that's true. Say more. I know all sorts of people that don't know Jesus that love really, really well. Well, yeah, that's right. I'm saying the scripture truth, it's like proven, where a lot of other truths will fizzle out if you really put them to the test. Like the truth of the better I'm perceived, the better my life's gonna be.

So you walk out in the street, you get beat up and immediately, that didn't matter. The truth of Jesus dying to save you will never not, it will never fail. And I think that's where like, I don't know. I think people look at people that follow Jesus and there's like, there's something about you. Why are you going through so much suffering and you're so like joyful? Or even if you're not joyful, why are you like still hoping in a God that you can't even see or feel? It's like, because you see the scripture like come true in your life. It is like a proven, undeniable thing. At least like you have to experience it though. Like you can say it till you're blue in the face, but until you like interact with the Holy Spirit, that truth like kind of is so nebulous. Everything you're saying is right. And I have met Buddhists, I have met atheists, I have met and know them whose lives are anchored, who are good people, they're doing good things and their life is tested. How is Jesus different than that? How is this thing, how is that different? So like we have to come to terms with that. It's not about the outcome. It's not about, oh, they have such good life. And I've met today Christians

who I want to punch in the throat. So it's like, it has to be more. And I think to the point of this Hebrews 2 deal, it's like Jesus has set himself up as the way, period. And so the idea like, oh, you'll live a good life and you'll learn how to, man, no, following Jesus is one of the hardest things I have ever been a part of. Pure faith. My life would be so much easier if I just got to do whatever I wanted. So I think we have to sort of dig deeper than just like it's tested. Yeah, lots of things have been tested. But what we're saying, I think in this moment is we have a thing that exists beyond this moment. Our belief is there is this final, there's this final destination. There's this final authority in a world that says, just live your truth. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think we also believe that there are truths and principles sort of that we follow. But the Bible says Jesus is the truth. That's right. So there's like another layer to this. It's not just like, here's the concepts that we believe. But I think about when Jesus was put on trial, Pilate says like, what is truth? And Jesus is actually like, you're looking at it.

It's me. And that even is crazy to talk about it and figure out how it all works, but yeah. So this Jesus who we're anchoring ourself to, this truth that we're talking about, a lot of times in the Christian culture, which we are a part of, this truth is often turned into a weapon, not to give truth to someone, but as a way to hurt someone. So the truth we espouse, that we believe, it's not just because we want to be right. Right. It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be. And when it's about us being right, that is anti-Jesus. That is anti-the Christ. It's not about us being right. It's about us being wed. and anchored to Jesus. And we can speak truth, but even in that, the truth is never about being right. It's about showing life and this other way. So we can't, the point of our existence isn't about winning the argument. It's about elevating Jesus, which is different than the world we live in right now. So the best thing we can do right now is go out from this, from even this discussion, not about planting the flag of truth, but being a representative of truth. So go represent truth well this week.