Spirit and Truth

Spirit and Truth. Truth and Spirit. Two words Jesus linked together in proclaiming who will be a worshipper of God. But they can be so hard to balance. Spirit is personal, emotional, in some ways subjective. Truth is the opposite. It is objective, universal, the will and authority of God. Jesus is asking us to give them equal weight and that is hard.

Can I ask you: which of the two is more important? If you were going to be good at one and not good at the other, which would you prefer it be? We'll dig in deeply on that today by giving you a couple of examples to consider. Sometimes we lean toward truth as the center of everything. And I'd say it is. But do we also see that spirit, faith, and heart must wrap around the truth?  It may even mean: heart first, then truth, then more heart. Let me use the Bible to help you see that today.

In the end, we need to keep working on our hearts and attitude. We also need to be easier on people whose emotions are different than ours. And perhaps we need to see that our spirit can even be more fully developed than our understanding of truth. And that may be exactly the thing that saves us!  Join me on this journey to work some of this out and let's become even more sincere - "true worshippers."

- Why did Jesus say both spirit and truth are necessary to belong to God?

- What is this "spirit" and how different is it than the "truth" that follows it?

- Okay, personal question - be honest with me - which is more important?

- Is David's "new cart" example in II Samuel proof that obedience matters more than heart?

- How do we start with heart, reach for obedience, and keep the heart going forward?