Getting Centered In Truth Series

Getting Centered in Truth

Series: CREED: Truths that Unite

Brad Bailey - January 10, 2021

Intro

Good morning Westside Vineyard family and friends.

If you are watching this from afar... perhaps at a later time... I am so glad you are joining.

And to those connected or connecting to the Westside Vineyard in this time and place... I am so glad that we can have this time together. I am excited to start this new year with you.

At the end of this past year... I had hoped to plan a couple days away with my family...or at least with as many of our kids were available. I just wanted to have any sort of change from being at home... to enjoy the perspective that some place outside the familiar can be. While I saw some people were in Hawaii...some out in other ocean settings... with just a couple days...we decided to go out to the desert. That may not sound like the most exciting place to go...but the desert has a quietness of it’s own...and it it really beautiful in it’s own way. I loved the night skies... and the unique tranquility.

But I was also reminded why the desert is so commonly the scene in which people become disoriented.

The desert can be so vast... and in some places... there is nothing on the horizon...nothing that defines a sense of location. One could find themselves surrounded by so much that looks the same... perhaps some small rocks... some small plants...but nothing that is really defining of where one is... of one’s direction. Without any reference points... we lose any sense of orientation. When we lose our sense of reference points... we can begin to lose our sense of orientation.

And the truth is that inwardly....throughout life...there may be times in which changes come...or we’ve wandered and then wondered where we really are.

Maybe we lose a significant connection with our family. Maybe we lose a significant role in life. Maybe we face a loss in our strength of character... perhaps having failed in some way we never deemed possible. There are times we just find that our reference points seem to be gone. Maybe they changed...maybe they just weren’t what they seemed to be.

There we are... like one in a desert...and nothing stands out that defines where we are and who we are like it once did.

And I believe that is particularly relevant as we enter this new year.

I sense that this past year may have left many of us a bit disoriented. When I think about this past year...I see the effects of having everything changing around us. Due to this pandemic we have been living through some of the most fundamental changes to life ...along with the swirl of political and social change. This past year we have had the combination of so much change around us... while losing many of our common patterns and points of reference.

When your world is not the same...and your work is not the same...and your worship are not the same... we can lose our sense of orientation... our sense of who we are... can be affected.

And so we are going to begin this year focused on getting centered in the really big truths that can serve as reference points for life. Before we are done...I am going to introduce us to the Apostles Creed... a set of unchanging truths that can center us...and that can unite us.

What we are going to launch over the next ten weeks... is a process of becoming centered in the unchanging truths that can serve as reference points for our lives.

But first I want us to consider what Jesus teaches us about truth itself.

I want us to consider again that vast desert...when all the small rocks and plants all look the same. When we realize we have lost our sense of where we are going... what we need is a compass that is rooted in what is outside of what we see... and we need some large points of reference to orient us.

With that in mind...I want us to hear some words of Jesus afresh. During the Christmas season many of us heard what was spoken long ago through the prophet Isaiah.... when God said...“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light” ... this is what was to come when a distinct child was born into this world... a child which would bear God’s nature... a child which was actually born and given the name Jesus. [1]

And it’s into the state of disoriented life that Jesus speaks. We read in the Gospel of John, chapter 8. [2]

John 8:12, 23, 31-32

Jesus ... said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."