{"id":4656,"date":"2024-12-16T12:50:31","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T12:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/?p=4656"},"modified":"2024-12-19T19:17:28","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T19:17:28","slug":"sermon-12-25-2024-christian-imagery-truth-telling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/?p=4656","title":{"rendered":"Sermon 12\/15\/2024: &#8220;Christian Imagery: Truth Telling&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image.png\" alt=\"This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image.png\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Listen here: &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Ross-241215-Truth-Telling.mp3\">Truth Telling<\/a>&#8220;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Isaiah 12:2-6; Luke 3:7-18<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In order to understand this prophecy by Isaiah we need to put it in historical context.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Isaiah preached during a time of decay, idolatry, and a pro-Assyria foreign policy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><br>Isaiah looked to the future. He had no idea how far into the future his vision would manifest. Nonetheless he saw it as a certainty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sometimes we think that we have it bad today, that our lives are hard, that our struggles are overwhelming, and our hope is gone.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Isaiah prophesied to a truly broken people<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>John\u2019s initial response was pretty confrontive. Many people would consider it to be unChristian, but it\u2019s not.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Jesus did the same thing. Five times Jesus said, \u201cWoe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!\u201d (Matthew 23). He called them \u201cblind fools,\u201d \u201cblind guides,\u201d \u201cwhitewashed tombs.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Was Jesus being unkind? Or was he being honest? It is not kind to treat people dishonestly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Truth always comes with a cost in this world, but it is a price worth paying.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Whether that cost is being slandered or losing a job, a relationship, or like Stephen, who was stoned to death, even losing our lives.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The cost of not telling God\u2019s truth out weighs the cost of speaking God\u2019s truth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(This is just a teaser. If you want to know more, listen to the sermon.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sunday morning messages are available on the website (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.stpaulsmarietta.org\/audio\">www.stpaulsmarietta.org\/audio<\/a>). Tell your friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>there\u2019s a difference between speaking an offensive truth and speaking the truth offensively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-4656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-worship-this-week","tag-worship-this-week"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Paross","author_link":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/?author=1"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4656"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4659,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656\/revisions\/4659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}