When Experience Replaces Truth

The title of today's sermon, When Experience Replaces the Truth. I've learned this information since I was a kid, growing up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and watching growing up in America's golden revival era of Christianity, and how that would affect the church. And so, this information I'm going to share with you, a lot of you are aware of. Some of you, younger generations, may not be aware of where we came from in America. And so, you may not have enough context to see the problem with what's going on in social media religiously today. And so, I want to hone in on a real danger. God never intended us to choose between knowing His Word and experiencing Him and life to the fullest. He calls us to worship with both our minds and our hearts. But people tend to lose the balance on this issue, and sometimes they pick between the two. So, I want to cover this today. It worked. All right. So, here's an odd but relevant question. What happens when a compass is replaced by feelings? What happens when a compass is replaced by feelings? Feelings are real. And let me just say, from the get-go, feelings are important. But feelings change. A compass points north, whether we feel like it or not. Our feelings are the wind in our sails. So, we don't move without them. We need our feelings. But they are not our guide. God made feelings. God gave us His Word. But only one of those determines our direction. And that is His Word. Cool. Let me give you a short history. At the start of America, many settler churches were strict. Specifically, the Puritans wanted to strip away the Old World church customs that they believed were not rooted in the Bible. America's earliest churches spent much of their time teaching Scripture. People expected sermons to explain what God said. But over time, a change slowly developed. Then came the revivals. The Great Awakening, they call it in America. Creatures like George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards called the people to a new birth, or what would later be called born again. During the Great Awakening, many people joined what we would call modern Christianity in America today. Tet revivals became all the rage. People became more interested in experience, the experience of going to church, rather than what they were taught at church. And eventually, many churches began to ask, how did services make you feel, instead of, what was the sermon about? What did God say? Still, early revival leaders didn't mean that the truth was to be thrown away. That was not their intent. They did not say feelings alone are enough, not in this era of America. They wanted feelings to be tied to biblical truth, which is good. It just went too far. The balance was hard to keep. And later, American religion kept the heat, so to speak, but they lost the light. That's actually a reference to something that Jonathan Edwards, an 18th century American preacher, warned about during this revival period. He said, you know, we're keeping the heat, but we're losing the light. Remember in John, 1 John, he says, we're children of the light. We're to walk in the light. Revivals drifted much more into creating an emotional experience. A shift gradually occurred in America, where what God had to say was much less sought after than how the church services made people feel. And let me just say this, the danger is not emotion. The danger is replacing Scripture with emotion.

After World War II, stadium revivals became the born-again movement, and this was the trend in America, and this was when I was born. And this is the America I remember. Preachers like Billy Graham, internationally famous for carrying this revival, revival model to the middle of American life. He even visited other countries. I believe he visited Queen Elizabeth. This model was the big public call to come to the stage and accept Jesus en masse.

Christianity became this big shared moment. And it was more about the experience than the teaching. This was the revival-area era in America. Of course, those who objected to the style of church services were around. More traditional services still existed, but the revival style was very popular. I remember Ronald Reagan in the 80s, when he was in an interview, was asked, are you a born-again Christian? And he said, well, I wouldn't put it that way. I don't even remember, because he was more of a traditional-style Christian. But this was very popular. And things progressed even further. What sprang up in America were megachurches, who built or bought stadiums that would hold thousands and thousands of people, and they essentially put on a show.

Live music lighting effects? Emotionally charged messages designed to entertain? In an article from ChristianityToday.com titled, Willow Creek's Place in History, they said, truth be told, it was entertaining! And that the people looked more like Cub fans, headed for Wrigley Field. Today, American churches have largely left sound doctrine, and have replaced it with what some people call devotional Christianity. And that's what we're talking about today. Devotional Christianity. Where services are about mood, and how welcome a person feels.

And they largely teach the things that make somebody feel good, and help them to be excited, but not to be self-reflective. Not to change their lives for the better. Doctrinal teachings have largely fallen away. And all of this history affects the church. It affects you and I, and it creeps into the church more than we might realize.

More than we might suspect. This actually hits home, right in the church. Now that social media gives people a voice, it's easy for the church to be influenced by these devotional type worship experiences, even though you don't personally go to a megachurch. You can still be influenced by them, by what they say and how they behave, and what they teach simply by tuning in to social media.

So this trend to turn to Christianity into an experience that is felt, excluding self-examination, excluding repentance and change, can be a real challenge in the church of God. God commands us to know the truth. Let's turn to John 8, verses 31-32.

For time's sake, I'm probably going to go pretty fast, so write quickly and stay with me on this one. This is a doctrinal type sermon, so there's a lot of Scriptures. John 8, verse 31. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, if you abide, in other words, live, stay, in My Word, you truly are My disciples.

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Truth, notice truth comes first. Freedom follows truth. But it was predicted long ago that we would fall away from learning doctrine to just listen to what makes us feel good. 2 Timothy 4, verses 2-4. 2 Timothy 4, verse 2. Reach the Word, be ready in season and out of season, rebuke, exhort, with complete patience and teaching. Notice it didn't say entertain, uplift, validate. Didn't say that. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching.

Some of your translations say sound doctrine. Same thing. But having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers. And what do these teachers do to suit their own passions? Your feelings. Your feelings. They will trade the truth for experience. It was predicted. Right there in 2 Timothy, verse 4 shows the danger. Now here's what happens when you do that.

And we'll turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. So Paul said we need to preach the Word. And people will eventually gather teachers and tell them what they want to hear. Paul said, nay nay! You don't do that. You don't preach to entertain. The Scripture is remarkably current to our society today. It really is describing what's going on. We are supposed to be different. Consider the Jews in the synagogue of Berea. That's what's sort of artistically pictured there.

Acts 17 and verse 11. We just covered this recently in a Bible study. Acts 17 and verse 11. Paul had just left Thessalonica where they really beat him up and left him for dead. And they rejected the truth wholeheartedly. And then Paul doesn't quit. He goes to the town Berea and he goes into their synagogue. And he tells the Jews in those synagogues, Jesus is the Messiah.

And he went through all the Scriptures that proved Jesus was the Messiah. Listen to this, Acts 17 and verse 11. Now these Jews were more noble than those of Thessalonica. They received the Word with all eagerness. What did they receive? The Word. The truth. They received the Word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if those things were so. The Bereans examined the Scriptures every day.

This is not a judgmental. This is a doctrinal sermon. I'm not judging you. I'm encouraging you. Do you read the Scriptures every day? Every day. Well, you might say, no, I don't, because I don't understand what I'm reading. A couple of things there. One, get a translation you can't understand.

Right? If you're doing the King James and you don't understand it, King James is excellent for doctrine. It's such a disciplined translation. It's kind of hard to understand. Right? Go to the English Standard Version. It's a little easier to understand, but it's still disciplined. Or try a different translation, and if something's confusing, ask a friend or ask an elder the question when the question comes up. So, first thing is, get a translation you can understand. But secondly, God will help you understand over time if you've just put the work into it, like Sam was talking about in the sermonette.

Put the work in, and the understanding will come. Of course you won't understand it at first. Of course it's not going to make sense at first. It's stuff you don't know yet, until you dive in and read it. Be like the Bereans. Read the Scriptures every day. When Paul came into the synagogue and said, Jesus is the Messiah, and here's the prophecy that he fulfilled, they didn't take his word for it.

They were like, okay, I'll check that out. And then they went and read the Scripture, and they said, yep, sure enough. It matches that prophecy. Come back to the next Sabbath, give a few more prophecies. Didn't take his word for it. Went home. Dove into the Scriptures. Yep. Matches that too. Okay. They checked the Bible, and that's what we're supposed to do. Let's go to 1 John. 1 John 4, verse 1. 1 John 4, verse 1.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit. I'll explain that. But test the spirits to see whether or not they're from God. Wow, he's not talking about dabbling with demons. I'll explain that in just a second. All right. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. Many, many false teachers. Oh, they don't go out in the world making all kinds of mistakes.

They sound like they're telling the truth. They are encouraging. They are validating. They lift your mood. Not every religious feeling comes from God. There's a lot of nonsense out there in the name of Jesus that can lead you astray. The word spirit there, and we'll cover this later in the sermon as well, means reason or mind. So it can be the Holy Spirit. It can be the mind of God. But it can also simply be an attitude or a mood or a thought. So when he says, don't believe every spirit, it means don't take on every attitude that you hear. Don't jump into every feeling. Let's go to Jude. Jude 1, there's only one chapter in Jude.

Jude 3. Jude 3. Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, hey, I wanted to write a letter and just be all happy about the fact that the Kingdom is coming and our sins are forgiven. Salvation, right? Although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I really wanted to write an encouraging letter.

He says, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend, in other words, fight for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. I want to point something out there. Very important word. Once. Once.

The faith was delivered once. It was not constantly reinvented. It didn't go through trends. It doesn't need to be reworded. So the warning is not to look for something new, but to fight to hold on to the one that was delivered originally. Do not add to or take away from the Scriptures. I know this is a scriptural heavy sermon.

It's okay. We need this. Deuteronomy 4, verse 2. Deuteronomy 4, verse 2. You shall not add to the word I command you, nor take from it. That you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, that I command you. And very similar to that, Deuteronomy 12, verse 32. Everything I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it, or take away from it. Notice there's no caveat.

There's no yabbat. Yabbat. You need to make it a little bit more interesting. You need to add some zest to it. Get into the Word of God, and you will find it interesting. In fact, you will find it life-changing. It will turn your world upside down. You don't need to reword it. Solomon even warns us in the Proverbs. Proverbs 30, verses 5 and 6. Proverbs 30, verses 5 and 6. He says this, every word of God proves true. You don't need to change them. You've already got the truth. Every word of God proves true.

He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. When you study the Bible, your life is protected. Do not add to His words. Why? Why not add a little spice to the words? Lest He rebuke you and you be found a liar. In other words, you will make a mistake every time. Don't change the words. One of the dangers of all the fluffy religious language that American religion uses today is that it replaces the word of God and focuses on your outward experience instead of your inward conversion.

It's very fluffy, but it doesn't change you. Now, we've just read eight scriptures, which is a large number of scriptures for the amount of time we've spent so far in the sermon. And the reason for that is we need to establish this teaching in the Bible. That way, you and I have a very solid foundation right now, and everything we do in our lives will be based on the word of God. So we can't change that word by adding to it or taking away from it. And the same warning that we read in Deuteronomy and in Proverbs, we read all the way at the end of the book in the book of Revelation.

Same exact warning. Never changes. Revelation 22, verses 18 and 19. The end of the Bible. Revelation 22, verse 18. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. If anyone takes away from the words of this book of this prophecy, God will take away His share from the tree of life, and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

From beginning to end, God guards His Word. So the thing that happened in America, starting with tent revivals, was very dangerous and a harmful thing. It replaced learning the Word of God, using it to reflect on your own personal character and behavior, to become essentially just being entertained at church, like you were going to a sporting event or a concert.

But let's keep the balance. Let's not jump all the way in the other ditch. Is Christianity supposed to be experienced from the heart? The answer is, of course, yes. Experience matters too. Putting your heart into your worship, worshiping God matters too. Now some of you might recoil at this, dancing with tambourines and blowing. Hold that thought. Don't jump in the other ditch. The Bible never teaches cold religion. God wants to hear from our hearts. Let's read Psalm 95, verses 1 and 2.

In fact, if you read all the Psalms from Psalm 95 to Psalm 150, you will get this vibe that we're talking about at this point right now. Christianity is not supposed to be cold.

Psalm 95, verse 1, O come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise. So we're to come singing, and we're to come thankful. Psalm 150, we're going to read six verses, verses 1 through 6. Psalm 150, verse 1. Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens. Well, that's a lot of praises. Couldn't we make that a little more conservative? Couldn't we just use one praise there? Nope. All three. Oh, there's more, verse 2. Praise Him for His mighty deeds.

Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet sounds. Oh, that's kind of loud for church services. Praise Him with the lute and the harp. Praise Him with the tambourine and dance. Praise Him with strings and pipe. Praise Him with sounding cymbals. Praise Him with loud clashing cymbals. I mean, this is bringing the heat. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. With instruments, with dancing, with everything we have. Psalm 47. This is a psalm of the sons of Korah.

Psalm 47, verse 1. To the choir master, a psalm of the sons of Korah, clap your hands. All peoples shout to God with loud songs of joy. Oh, God doesn't mind the heat. God loves the passion, the heart, the singing, the dancing. For Him. Because we're glad for Him.

David danced before the Lord. 2 Samuel 6, verse 14. 2 Samuel 6, verse 14. And David danced before the Lord. Just a little bit, because he didn't want to go too far. No, it doesn't say that. Listen to what it says. And David danced before the Lord with all his might. I feel like calling Elvin up here to do a little jig right now. He could show us how to do this. With all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. Why did David do that? Here's the problem and here's the challenge with American Christianity.

David wasn't entertaining people. That wasn't the focus. He was honoring God. The focus was worship, not entertainment. You know, Jesus even weighs in on showing emotion in our worship. Yes, He does. Matthew 22, verses 34-37. Verse 34. But when the Pharisees had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer asked Him a question to test Him.

Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And He said to Him, You shall love the Lord your God, and notice the description. With all your heart. With all your soul. That is your entire life. Your soul. That's you. Your heart or your innermost thoughts, your motives. And with all your mind, that's your reasoning. Your logic, your critical thinking. What's left out of that? Nothing. It's all of you. With all of your heart, all your soul, all your mind.

Notice Jesus includes both heart and mind. And your soul, which leaves out nothing. Neither one replaces the other. And that's the challenge in modern Christianity today. Is one has replaced the other. That's a big problem. There is a danger in replacing God's Word. And it's slow. And it's gradual.

And anybody who's ever been in a fishing boat without an anchor, will understand this point. Because you're paying attention to catching fish, and you're not paying attention to your location. And water is generally not still. It moves. There's a current. And if you're not paying attention, it's going to be really hard to get back home. Slow drifting is almost impossible to notice. A boat can drift a few feet every minute, if it's not anchored to something. Anyone who's spent time in a lake or an ocean, knows this phenomenon.

A fisherman can stop and cast a line, and become absorbed in fishing. And without an anchor, the wind currently, or the current, sorry, slowly carries the boat away. I remember fishing in Florida. We would find a great spot. And we'd cast, and it would be out in the Gulf of Mexico, off of Florida. And there were barrier islands out there. There were little islands not far off of the coast. And they were so rich with fish.

Such delicious fish.

And I mean, the current was so strong.

You wouldn't be there more than 10 minutes, and you would be past the island, back out into the ocean, where there weren't great fish. The fish are all around the islands there.

And so you had to anchor to hold your spot. It would literally pull on the anchor.

You could see the line go really tight.

And if you're not paying attention, you're lost. Lost. You know, the odd thing is, when you're fishing or you're doing something else, it's almost impossible to notice the drift.

It's almost impossible to notice the drift.

Hours later, the shoreline is super far away.

People have been lost at sea doing this.

Literally. Get in a little boat, go out in the ocean, do a little fishing, and not pay attention. Or if a storm comes up, and you don't have an anchor, you are gone.

Literally miles up the coastline.

Miles away from where you started.

So no one drifts away all at once. That's the point.

The further you drift, the harder it is to return.

So the solution to this little scenario here is stay anchored to where you're supposed to be.

That's what the anchor is for.

And that's the purpose of the sermon today.

Stay anchored. Here's our key Scripture for today. It's in Hebrews.

Hebrews 2.1.

This is our key Scripture today. Hebrews 2.1.

And it says this, Therefore, we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

Notice the word drift there.

In the Greek, it carries the meaning of being caught in a flow or a current, and slowly drifting away from what we've learned in the Word of God.

And it is gradual. And it is hard to notice.

And the solution is simply be like the Bereans and read the Scriptures every day.

But what gets in the way?

What distracts us?

What pulls our minds off of it?

The use of emotionally charged devotional language.

And it often starts with something small.

One meme on Instagram or Facebook.

One feeling expressed just the way you like it.

One motivational thought that makes you feel validated.

It's still something you acknowledge, but it's not supposed to be something you learn from.

Instead, you're supposed to learn from the Word of God, but instead, you start to substitute Scripture with human ideas as your chosen message for the day.

And God's Word becomes forgotten.

Like that shoreline and the boat and you have drifted out to sea.

Let me give you some examples of devotional memes and devotional prayers that are creeping into the church of God.

And I'll stop because we're on social media.

And we'll see some of these and we'll share them.

Scripture-centered memes might have a nice background of a sheep in a pasture, and they will have the correct words.

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.

Those are huge words.

But, you know, they may not validate you.

In that meme, you are actually encouraged to think about what God really inspired.

But a feeling-centered meme would have the same exact picture in the background of those sheep.

And it would have the words, God just wants you to be happy today.

Trust your heart. Everything will work out.

Well, that sounds comforting.

The problem is that none of those statements are a quotation of Scripture.

When you accept a meme like that in your thinking, the authority, the anchor in your life, stops coming from the Word of God and starts coming from human reasoning. And you start this slow drift.

Here's an example prayer.

If you want to read an example prayer, open the Psalms.

Read Elijah's prayer in front of all the pagan priests and priestesses.

Read Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.

There's lots of prayers you can read.

You can also read them on social media. And a Scripture-centered prayer would be, Father, thank You for Your mercy.

Help me to obey today.

Search my heart and reveal anything that displeases You.

Give me strength to follow Your Word, even when it's difficult.

Your will matters more than my own.

Notice that prayer is shaped by biblical ideas.

Let's look at where those ideas would come from. Psalm 139 begins by praising God because of His perfect knowledge. And then David says this in verse 23 and 24.

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts.

See if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Self-examination.

Internal review.

That's the Scripture.

David's not asking God to validate Him.

He's asking God to examine Him.

And that's profound!

The difference is profound between that and devotional Christianity.

A feeling-centered prayer would be, God, thank You for loving me just the way I am.

Help me believe in myself today.

Remind me that I am enough exactly as I am. Let me follow my heart and never let anyone make me feel guilty.

You know, some of that contains truth.

God does love us.

But notice what disappears in that prayer.

Repentance.

Obedience.

Sin or any error that needs to be fixed.

And an overall submission to God's will is completely absent.

The focus is just personal affirmation.

The biblically-based thinking begins with God's Word, and it ends with some kind of application of His Word in your life. Be on guard for that.

Devotional thinking can sometimes begin with a human thought, and then they look for a verse to support it so they throw a Scripture in.

But the human thought completely contradicts the Scripture.

It's like the clay telling the potter what to do. You.

Instead of the clay being molded by the potter.

That's devotional Christianity.

Now, does that make every devotional thing you see on the Internet wrong? No! No! I'm actually trying to tell you how to divide between what is wrong and what is right.

The Word of God is right.

Human reasoning is wrong.

Stick with the Word of God.

Emotionally charged.

Way to explain Scriptures.

It's okay.

In fact, it's good.

The danger comes when human opinion or thoughts become the message, and the Scripture is only a side note.

Like window dressing.

The Scripture really has nothing to do with the devotional.

That's when you're in trouble.

And that's the drift that Hebrews 2 and verse 1 is warning against.

And Jesus rebuked people for replacing God's commandments with human tradition. Let's go back to the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7. Matthew 7.

We'll read verses 6 and 7, and then we'll read verse 13.

Matthew 7, 6, verse 6.

He answered and said to them, Well did I say, the prophets say, you hypocrites, as it is written. Brethren, we don't want to be called hypocrites by God.

We want to be called faithful children.

Well, it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men, memes, and many other things. But memes fall into that.

Devotional prayers fall into that.

Verse 13, making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition, which you have handed down, and many such things you do.

The danger is very real today, especially in the form of devotional language, devotional memes, devotional prayers that replace the Word of God with emotionally charged human opinion.

And that is the same as replacing the commandments of God with the tradition of men. True worshipers worship God in spirit and truth. John 4, verse 23, we'll cover that word, spirit, again.

John 4, verse 23, But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

For the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

Jesus didn't say spirit or truth.

He said spirit and truth.

The word spirit, numa, in the Greek, among other definitions, and theore, and strongs, as the connotation of rational reasoning.

In other words, your mind, your thinking.

Yes, it also can be guided by God's Holy Spirit because God's Holy Spirit is His mind guiding your mind.

The analogy works.

If it is your mind, then it is your thoughts and your feelings.

It's both.

It's all of you because your mind is both.

Emotion without truth becomes dangerous.

Why? Because emotions constantly change.

God's Word is what keeps us from drifting.

And God wants us to have both of those together.

Given a lot of analogies today.

We've had a compass, we've had an anchor, now we've got train tracks.

Let me close with a picture.

An analogy.

Let's just throw one more analogy in for good measure.

This one brings the balance to the sermon.

Think about a train riding on two rails, and your life is the train.

One rail is the truth.

The other rail is sincere worship, gratitude, joy, praise towards God, a deep relationship of love.

Take either rail away.

A train is not going anywhere but destruction.

It leaves the track and it ends in wreckage.

The same thing can happen to us spiritually.

On one side, a person can know doctrine. He can explain it. He can defend it. He can teach it. Oh, he can correct everybody else with it.

But there's no joy.

There's no excitement.

There's no warm, personal relationship with God.

He just knows stuff.

That's not healthy Christianity.

On the other side, a person can have emotion.

Excitement.

Encouragement, affirmation, validation.

They have a strong feeling of being close to God.

I just love everybody.

But little by little, sound doctrine is pushed aside. They couldn't even tell you what the holy days of God picture in God's awesome plan of salvation.

They don't have a clue.

They don't know where they're going. And eventually, they get lost.

That is not healthy Christianity either.

Biblical Christianity is both truth to guide us and the love of God that we're supposed to return to Him and to others.

They're supposed to work together.

The truth of God should produce a deeper relationship with God.

You need both rails. Safeguard yourself.

We should never replace Scripture with devotional thoughts and prayers, memes, videos, daily study guides.

Oh, nay nay.

Let the Bible shape your thoughts. Let it shape how you learn.

Let it shape your entire life, your feelings, your prayers to God, your relationship with others, your decisions that you make in every little matter.

Even your inner person, your character, let the Bible be your guide.

Then our happiness will be built on the truth.

We have our anchor.

We have our compass.

We have both rails of the train.

Pick your analogy, if you will.

Let the Scripture be your guide to your emotional responses. Don't replace the Bible with devotional material of any kind.

So be careful with what I've called devotional Christianity today.

It's everywhere.

It's on the Internet.

It's on the things we watch, the things we read, the things we listen to, the things that people send to us.

I have a whole playlist of spiritual type music, and I love it.

Some of it, I have to go, oh, that's doctrinally incorrect, so we can't play that at church.

You know, one of the big things that really bugs me about modern music, and I love music, and one of the things that bugs me is they replace the Father with Jesus all the time.

They put Jesus in the Father's role. They ignore the Father.

It's just Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and no Father.

Bugs me.

Some devotional things may sound very encouraging.

That's not the standard we're looking at.

Some of it makes us feel good. That's not the standard. That's not our anchor.

But there is a subtle, very real danger when devotional thoughts begin to take the place of Bible study. You drift away from the shore so slowly you don't even realize how far you've gone, and then getting back becomes this enormous task.

So stay close to the shore. Stay anchored by the Scriptures.

You know, they encourage you, by the way.

And they validate you when you get into the Kingdom, and God says, Well done, good and faithful servant.

You can't get more validation than that.

Enjoy encouragement.

Be thankful for joy.

Praise God with your whole heart, but never allow devotional Christianity to become a substitute for the Word of God.

Keep both rails firmly in place on your train.

Keep your anchor firmly fastened to the boat, and let the Bible be the compass of your life.

In other words, hold tightly to the truth, and let the truth lead you into a deeper relationship with God.