Sermon Title: The Truth About Lies Part 2
Scripture: John 18:36-38

Deception + Disordered Desires = Normalized in a sinful culture

The primal temptation all the way back to the Garden of Eden is to define for ourselves good from evil based on the voice in the back of our head or an outside voice that appeals to our own disordered desires for happiness rather than on God and his vision of good & evil and what it means to be human.

Our dilemma:

It’s really easy to spot what’s toxic or disordered in someone else’s life or some else’s culture. It’s much more difficult to identify ideas that are toxic in your own because you’ve come to believe they are true.

Case in point:

Freedom in Christian terms has always been defined as freedom from.

The founding fathers and Enlightenment thinkers redefined freedom as freedom to.

“Ideas are the primary stronghold of evil in the human self and in society.” - Dallas Willard

Lies (or unreality) that come in the form of deceptive ideas that appeal to our disordered desires is the devil’s primary strategy for enslaving human beings and entire societies in a vicious cycle of ruin that leads us further and further from Shalom.

Additional Notes:

John 18:36-38
36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.