Dharius Daniels - Tell It Like It Is

I want to jump right into God’s Word. We are in part five of a series called «Ghosted,» and I want to read a verse of Scripture found in John, chapter 16, beginning at verse 12. I will be reading from The New International Version, family. Um, this is how it reads: «I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.» I want you right here at the 1:15 to say it. Don’t touch your neighbor; don’t look at your neighbor, but just say it so your neighbor can hear you. All right, here it is. Listen, don’t tell nobody, but the other three services didn’t get this topic. This is fresh off the press, customized for the 1:00. Here it is. I want you to say this, but don’t look at your neighbor—just say it. Here’s the topic: «Tell it like it is.» Clap your hands if you’re ready for God’s Word.

Family, John 16 allows us to eavesdrop on a conversation that some biblical historians call the farewell discourse. Somebody say «farewell.» It is one of Jesus’s final conversations with his disciples as a group before his death. Because he is getting ready to transition from Earth to Heaven, he is engaging in communication with the purpose of properly preparing them on how to manage life without him in this form. As he begins to talk about his impending exit, it creates some anxiety inside the disciples. That is normal, that is expected. For three years, he’s been teaching them; for three years, he’s been mentoring them; for three years, he’s been coaching them. And now, all of a sudden, he’s telling them he is about to leave them. They begin to be filled with anxiety and angst. He says, «Calm down. I never arrange an exit without orchestrating an entrance.» My God, calm down! If I orchestrate something going out of your life, maybe I did so to create space because something better, different, and more consequential is getting ready to come into your life. Come on! If we were to go back to the Old Testament and use language that we see in the book of Deuteronomy, it makes sense now why the writer says, «We are blessed in my coming in.» Yes, and we are blessed in my going out. I’m blessed when there’s an entrance and I’m blessed when there’s an exit, because sometimes an exit is simply God rearranging the furniture in my life to make room for something else that is getting ready to come in. This is what Jesus is saying in John 16. He says to them these words: «It is better for you if I go.» What you prefer me to do isn’t what you need me to do, and I love you too much to give you what you prefer at the expense of what you need. We got to move on this Father’s Day, but I want to know, am I talking to anybody that will praise God for what he didn’t do—the stuff you wanted, the stuff you asked for, the stuff you believed for, the stuff you were waiting on him to do, the things you were aggravated by, and agitated with him about because he didn’t do it? But when you look back over your life now and you see what he did do and compare it to what he didn’t do, you ought to praise God one more time for not answering that prayer.

Good! And here’s what Jesus says: He calls the Holy Spirit a helper; he calls him a comforter. But here in John 16:12 and 13, he calls him the Spirit of Truth. He’s saying, «Hey, what’s coming into your life?» The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, and here’s what he says: He’s going to lead and guide you into all truth. You’re going to be exposed, when I leave, to a lot of different teachings, and people are going to be saying a lot of different things. You’re going to need a filter to put what they’re saying through to make sure you don’t get entangled and caught up in what is unhelpful and ungodly. He says, «I’m going to give you something on the inside of you to let you know whether or not what you’re being exposed to is actually true, because everything that sounds good isn’t necessarily true.» He says the Holy Spirit will lead and guide you into all truth. I did some digging there to see what this word «truth» actually means, and it is a word that means reality. It’s powerful, right? He’s saying this is what the Holy Spirit will do: He will expose when you’ve been living in an illusion and then lead you out of that illusion into reality. He will lead you into what’s really real, not what you think is real. Come here! He will lead you into the way the world really works, not the way you think it works. Come here! He will lead you into the way relationships really work, not the way you think they ought to work, not what podcasters say about them working, not what preachers say about them working, but what I say about them working. I’m going to lead you into all truth. Come here! If you’ve fought in and over, you’ll feel this. Um, um… He will lead…