I've often said it before, and I'll say it again
today. We are very blessed in our congregation.
with worship of the Lord. And I appreciate those
of you who, like me, try to just focus on God
during that time and just kind of really let
God do what God wants to do. And I'm grateful.
And when I hear your voices behind me, that encourages
me. And I'm grateful for that. And I'm grateful
that we have a God of whom there is no end to
our ability to declare His goodness. There is
no end. Amen. So, real quick, before we kind
of begin, before we kind of begin, we are going
to talk today about four of seven. You recall
that I said to you that I was in the process
of sort of like working a riddle, if you will,
and today's clue toward that riddle is four of
seven. Now, if you have it, Once you figure out
the riddle, the answer to the riddle, you can
text it to me. Don't blurt it out, though, because
other people might still be working on it. You
may figure it out today while we're going through.
I don't know. But we are over halfway through.
This is the fourth week, and today's clue is
four of seven. So bear that in mind, and we'll
get there in a few weeks. If nobody figures out
the answer before we get there, I will give it
to you in a few weeks. So we talk about lies.
You know, the world has a different kind of a
view on lies. When I was a kid, there were times
where I just didn't want to do my homework. You
know, you get an assignment and it's kind of
hard. Now, this was not because I wanted to play
video games. There was no such thing as video
games at that time. Pong was invented when I
was like in junior high. It was the first go
round of video games. And it really was the internet
was invented while I was in school. Everybody
was like, oh, that was invented. I didn't know
there wasn't always a thing. But yes, it was
invented while I was in school. So I never had
a computer. I was 16 years old when I bought
my first ever computer. And we bought Pong and
played it for a while and then got bored of it
when I was like 10 or 12 or something. So it
wasn't for video games. It was more for playing
yard. It was for building things or destroying
things sometimes. It was for wrestling. It was
for football. And I never did any of those things
for the school. But it was for all of that. and
fresh air blowing through my hair as I rode my
bike as fast as I could down the neighborhood
streets and things like that. I just didn't want
to do my homework sometimes. And so my mom said
to me, she loved me very much, and she saw that
I didn't want to do my homework, and I got up
in the morning to get ready for school, and I
had not done my homework, and she said, well,
just go to school and tell your teacher that
a kid on the bus took your homework when you
were on the way home, and then she'll give you
another copy, and then you can do it later. And
I said to my mom, I said, now, but isn't that
a lie? And she said, well, you've got to understand
this about lies. There is a time to lie and a
time to not lie. And this is just a little white
lie. It's just going to give you one extra day
to do your homework, and then you will do it.
I will make sure you will do it. And then you'll
get it turned in, and you'll not lose points,
and everything will be fine. And she said, this
is a little white lie. Now, that was not the
first time that I was taught. to lie in the world,
but it is one that sticks out in my head. And
from that point on, I remember making that excuse
for myself. I would say, I don't know, thousands
of times, well, this is just a little white lie.
And before we say that we would not, realize
that there are things where people will ask you
your opinion. And the comedian always says, if
a woman asks you, does this dress make me look
fat, right? Lie. It doesn't matter if it's true
or not. I always say, if it does not make her
look fat, then definitely say that, but go beyond
that and say it is. stellar, right? But don't
overdo it because then they'll know that kind
of thing. And so there's a big joke about lie
in all of creation. So the question is, what
does God say about lies? And on the surface you
might say, well, I already know what God says
about lies. In fact, you might say that I know
that the Ten Commandments says thou shalt not
lie. And you would be wrong. The Ten Commandments
do not say thou shalt not lie. What? In fact,
there is only one of the Ten Commandments that
directly addresses this issue. And it is a commandment
about what? False testimony, false witness, right?
Which is a governmental and community command.
And also an atrocity, don't get me wrong. But
it is not about the simple lying. In fact, did
Jacob lie? Did Abraham lie? Did David lie? Name
somebody in the Bible as a main character that
you can think of, that you can think of that
they never lied. Well, there are some. And there
are some of the best. But most of the big names
that we know from the Bible lied. Noah never
lied as far as we know. Enoch never lied as far
as we know. There were probably others. Did Adam
lie? Kind of. He at least deceived a little,
right? Did Eve lie? Did Eve lie to God when God
came and asked her what happened? No, she did
not. She said, that serpent tempted me and I
gave in and I ate. But did she lie to the serpent?
She did. She told the serpent that God said something
that he didn't say, right? So we have lots of
characters in the Bible that lied. So what I
want to do today, and it's going to go by fairly
quickly, so your note taker be right on it, right?
Because each one is not very long, and there's
not a lot of them. So the lightning point today
says creativity or a lack thereof applied to
the truth. So when you apply creativity to the
truth, that could be to carry the truth, or it
could be to perfect the truth, or it could be
to make the truth look a little bit better, or
whatever. Creativity or a lack thereof applied
to the truth to create a lack thereof as a pathway,
a lack thereof, meaning a lack thereof the truth,
as a pathway to worthlessness. Now, I would hate
to say to anybody that they are worthless or
that they have the state of worthlessness, but
that is not exactly what that says. So let's
dig into it, shall we? We mustn't make light
of lies or call them little white lies or anything
like that, but what does God say about it? So
first of all, we're going to go to, grab your
Bibles if you would, and go to Ephesians chapter
4. Amen. This is God's word. Okay? So whatever
I get right or wrong from here forward, whatever
we read from the Scripture, if God uses it to
adjust your heart, that's exactly the way it's
supposed to go. Okay? Ephesians 4, beginning
in verse 17, says this. It says, So this I say,
and affirm together with the Lord. In other words,
I'm saying this, and also God is saying this.
We're together, unified on this. Be sure that
we know that we're talking about what God says
here. Okay? No doubt about that. Now, in the
letters, you will find times where Paul wrote
and said, not I, but the Lord, or not the Lord,
but I. So, and I've done that too when I'm talking
to people. I can't say that God is saying this,
but this is what my impression is, or this is
what I think of the overall from Scripture. This
is basically what I think it says, you know,
kind of thing. And then I would have to research
more if I want to be specific. And I'm avoiding
lying by saying, this is what God says, right?
So we don't do that unless it's what God says.
But here, Paul is clearly writing, this is what
I say, this is what the Lord says. We affirm
together that you walk no longer as Gentiles
also walk in the futility of their mind. In other
words, in their head, they're figuring it out.
You could go back to saying they're doing what
they think is right, right? So if every man does
what's right in his own eyes, we know that that's
a system that fails. It's failing right now in
the world. Every man's doing what is right in
his own eyes, and it's falling apart. It's destroying
lives. It's literally destroying lives in the
form of legalized murder. It's destroying relationships.
It's destroying the ability to have more children.
It's destroying the population of the world.
It's just going on and on. People are doing what's
right in their own eyes. Even inside a system
that is free and just, like the American democracy
is supposed to be. They are working in their
own heads to do what they think is right and
it is not good. So he says that you would walk,
that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles
also walk in the futility of their mind. In other
words, don't try to determine what's good or
bad or truth in your own head. That is not the
standard. And he's saying you're moving away
from that. Verse 18 says they're being darkened
in their understanding. So the truths that they're
standing under are really ignorance. So they
go, oh, I got this. And they latch onto something
and they might for years live according to that
something. Like a little white lie is okay. And
you latch on to live with that for years only
to find out when we face God that that was all
ignorance. It was all wrong. They are excluded
from the life of God because of the ignorance
that is in them, because they don't know, because
they have not latched onto, if I may say this
without getting ahead, onto the simple truth,
the simple reality, because they are looking
for something different, something more creative,
something better, something more far -reaching,
something more deep, something more intentional
or something less complicated, whatever, because
they can't latch onto the simple truth. They
are excluded from the life of God. And it says
this happens because of the hardness of their
heart. And we know Ezekiel says that the stone
heart removed and a flesh heart replaced, but
a person's heart is considered hard when they
do not know the Lord, when they're not being
worked on and in by the Lord. And so because
of that, they are excluded from the life of God.
And then it says in verse 19, and they having
become callous. So in other words, they realize,
hey, the world is hard. It's difficult. And they're
not asking themselves anymore, what is supposed
to come out of this? Or when all creation testifies,
what is the message I'm supposed to be getting?
They're just kind of static. They're okay. They're
not changing. They're not. They're not looking
for something like the life of God, for example.
They've given themselves over to sensuality for
the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
Three kind of big words there, but basically
it means doing these things, and there's a reason
they're doing things, and it's because they're
guided by their senses. They're going after that
which they want in their senses, and then because
of that, they get into every kind of impurity.
That's when you're not clean and useful to God,
and greediness, that's when you're taking something
for yourself, whatever it might be, your own
goals, etc. Verse 20 says, but you did not learn
Christ in this way. In other words, you didn't
get it in your head. You didn't ascend to it
as an idea. You didn't twist it to be right.
You didn't put it under a microscope and turn
it around 17 ways and finally latch on to Jesus.
That is not how you came to Christ. Instead,
he says, or not instead yet, but you did not
learn Christ in this way. If indeed you have
heard him. and have been taught in him just as
truth is in Jesus. In other words, if you really
got Jesus, you didn't get Jesus that way. You
got Jesus another way. And we talked about that
in the discipleship moment where we said it is
by faith through grace. And so if it is by faith
through grace, you cannot ascend to it by any
patterned plan. That's the problem with when
we set out to talk about evangelism and we set
up the ABCs of salvation or the Roman road or
even churches without fear. When we do those
things, we have to be careful that we realize
the gospel is more like a living beast of goodness
than it is a pattern of certain words that you
might say. There are literally no words whatsoever
that you could ever say to another person to
get them saved. And so if you think, well, I've
got to wait until I can say the right words before
I start talking to people about Jesus, you're
completely missing the boat because it doesn't
have anything to do with what you say. What we
need to do is let God say through us whatever
he wants to say through us. And it may not even
make any sense. You have to walk up to somebody
and say, you know, snapping turtles will hurt
your hand. And you're like, not talking about
food, not talking about animals, not talking
about snapping, not talking about pain, nothing.
They're talking about football or talking about
politics. And you might have to walk up and just
break into a conversation about snapping turtles.
And that might be what it was. You know, I had
a snapping turtle when I was a kid. It really
meant a lot to me. And that snapping turtle was
named Mary after Mary, the mother of Jesus. And
I remember we used to go to church back then,
and now you're talking about Jesus. Why? Because
you brought up snapping drills. It doesn't matter
what you say. You just say whatever it is that
God wants you to say, and then that will start
the ball rolling for them to believe. But really,
it's about whether or not they believe and receive
the grace of Jesus. He's going to do it. People
get saved without hearing it from another human
being. It happens. It's rare, but it happens,
right? People get saved. They read it in the
Bible and start thinking, I think, and then they
go and ask, and somebody explains the details
to them, right? I'm reading from the scroll of
Isaiah. Do you understand what you're reading?
Well, how can I understand what I'm reading unless
somebody explained it to me? Climb on up here
and explain it to me. People are searching for
something. They're twisting the truth. They'll
never quite get there unless God does something.
But the bottom line is, we didn't learn Christ
by certain words. If there was a trigger phrase
or an illustration in the sermon that you got
saved under or the guy who witnessed to you at
the store or at the bank or wherever it was that
you got saved. If there was a trigger phrase
or something that was there in that that got
you thinking about maybe you want to be saved,
those words did not save you. They're not special.
They're just words. Yes, God used them. And yes,
it brought you to a place of saying, I'll submit,
I'll accept Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior.
But if you would walk around then going, look,
if I just say the right thing to this person,
if I can figure out their trigger phrase, then
they'll be open to accept Christ. You have missed
the idea of salvation. You've missed the idea
of believing in Jesus Christ and the sacrifice
that was made and receiving the grace of God.
You did not learn Christ that way. Not indeed
if you have heard him and have been taught in
him just as truth is in him, Jesus Christ. Notice
that that truth in him is a big deal. Jesus said,
I am the way and the truth and the life. And
we could go there when we're talking about lying,
but it's more than that. It doesn't really mean
that. He's not talking about... Like, I am truth,
I don't lie. It's something completely more than
that. And we're not going to go there and look
at that today. But notice that truth is in Jesus.
That's a problem for the liar. That's a problem
for the person who's willing to creatively adjust
the truth to fit their circumstances, isn't it?
Because if truth is in Jesus and you're a liar,
or you're willing to creatively adjust the truth
to fit the circumstances, then in that moment
in time, you can reasonably say you're not in
Jesus. And that's a problem. Because the one
who abides in Jesus, Jesus abides in him, and
eternity is there. Verse 22 says that in remembrance
to your former manner of life, you lay aside
the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance
with the lusts of deceit. So there's two major
pieces here. Obviously... We're not talking about
salvation or being born again, but it's a very
real thing. We do get saved. We do let the old
us pass behind. My old me passed behind, and
it was a couple of years, two and a half probably,
before I was able to give up the habit of white
lies, if you will, some of which were not very
white or small at all. And so it took a while,
and sometimes it takes that. Sometimes it takes
something like this to look at what does God
say about lying to make you go, okay, I'm going
to stop and think about this. Your former manner
of life goes away. You lay aside the old self.
Notice he says, which is being corrupted. That
means he's messed up in accordance with the lusts
of deceit. There are desires that go along with
lies or deceit, and they come hand in hand, right?
Like wanting to turn your assignment in one day
late because you just wanted to play outside.
A little white lie will suffice to get that done.
Not wanting to get in trouble with your parents
because you were on the phone half an hour or
two later because you text something online that
you shouldn't have or because you did something
with your boyfriend or girlfriend that you shouldn't
have. So a little white lie facilitates staying
out of trouble. And the greed is me. I want to
stay out of trouble. I see a possible future
and I want to avoid it. And the lust of deceit
is how easy it is to either just completely fabricate
a lie. And you know these people that do that,
and the lie is like 74 steps long. So it's so
elaborate. And the old saying is, oh, what a
tangled web we weave when at first we practice
to deceive. So the elaborate liars get into this
big, long, elaborate thing. But how easy it is
to just tell a little lie, or we think it's a
little lie, it's not elaborate at all, that gets
us past that moment in time in which we would
be in trouble. Were you up a half an hour later
than your bedtime last night? Is that why you're
tired this morning? Oh, no, I wouldn't do that.
I don't do that. Okay, but you were, but you're
lying about it. Now, there's no way of confirming
it, right? And this is the thing that I learned
about lies. As long as there is no one alive
that can know that you're lying, it's not a lie.
That's what I believed when I was not saved and
for a long time after. Frankly, if no one can
know, right? The old saying is, police officer
didn't see it, I didn't do it. But you did do
it, whatever it was, whether he saw it or not,
you did do it. And God always sees, and again,
not to run on a head, but the bottom line is
our old self was like that. We wanted what we
wanted and we were going to do what we needed
to do to get it. That's what the lust of deceit
is about, verse 23. And it says, and that you
be renewed in the spirit of your mind. So remember,
we had our mind at work, twisting things, being
creative, embellishing, right? So we were improving
the truth, not always lying. Sometimes we were
just improving the truth to make it more attractive,
right? So we were doing a good deed for the truth,
not a bad deed. We weren't hurting the truth
at all in our own minds. We were just making
it a little bit better. So our minds were acted
to do that and pursue those things. And now he
says you're renewed in the spirit of your mind.
And you put on the new self. So now there's a
new you that does this completely differently,
which in the likeness of God has been created
in, wait for it, righteousness. We do the right
thing. Holiness, which means we're going to be
more like God. We are not like the world. So
if the world embraces lies in some sense, we
do not. We are holy. We are different from the
world. And of the truth. Therefore, and this
is what we came for. We came for the therefore
today. And it is this. Therefore, because all
of that that I just read to you and broke down
to you is true. We could have skipped it and
just got this verse. But I wanted you to see
that therefore was all of that, 17 through 24.
Therefore, laying aside falsehood. Falsehood
is deceit. It is deceptiveness. It is lies. It
is anything that allows somebody else to believe
something else about you that is not true or
about circumstances or about somebody else that's
not true. It is falsehood. It is lies, deceit,
trickery, anything like that. Laying aside falsehood,
speak truth, each one of you with his neighbor,
for we are members of one another. And so these
verses very clearly say that it is time. If you
have been saved, it is time. It is time to put
away any form of falsehood, any form of deception,
any form of lies. And we're going to talk about
a few of the most common forms for people to
still be kind of wrapped up in here in a second.
But the bottom line is, the word says, if you
received Christ this way, if you have known him,
then there is no place in you. There is no place
in you. There is no place in you for falsehood,
for lies, for deception. No room left for that.
Because in Jesus is only truth. And how much
of you personally do you want Jesus to fill?
100%. And so if you leave room in your life for
lies of any kind, to deception or falsehood of
any kind, then you chase Jesus out of that room.
And what do we know about the occupation of Jesus?
It begins with the belief and the receipt. I
believe and receive. And when he comes in, what
kind of commission do you make? Do you give Jesus?
I believe in you. I see you die on the cross
for my sins. I'll give you 82 % of who I am.
90%. Not good enough. He still won't come. I'll
give you 94, 96, 99, 99 .9, 99 .9 repeating.
When does Jesus come? When it's 100%. And so
if you can honestly say that you said, I will,
Jesus. I will surrender my life to you, let you
lead, be Lord, pay for my sins, forgive me, and
turn me into a minister of reconciliation. If
you said you will do that, short of one, one
billionth of one percent, Jesus didn't come.
But could you embellish the truth? Could you
believe a lie? Could it be twisted just so that
you could think that if you prayed a certain
prayer, did a certain thing, that it was done
a certain way, that you would be tricked into
believing that you're something that you're not?
According to the word of God, that's possible.
To support, the New Testament position where
he says, therefore laying aside falsehoods, speak
truth, each one of you with his neighbor, for
we are members of one another. In Proverbs 12,
22, it says it like this. So this is a long time
before the gospel as we know it. Now the gospel
goes to Genesis 1, right? But the gospel as we
clearly know it, Jesus died on the cross for
sins and it's believe and receive or else, right?
That gospel did not exist then. They were looking
forward to the way that God would make, and it
existed clearly. The gospel existed clearly that
God would make a way, and they needed to look
forward to it. And the prophets began to get
pictures of the crucifixion. They began to get
pictures of the sacrifice. They knew that he
would be a sacrificial lamb, but not everybody
knew. It wasn't common for everybody, hence the
prophets were so busy pushing it to try to get
everybody to understand that that was coming.
But this is what Solomon writes as an observation
to the way all creation works. Amongst the lost
and the saved, he says this. He says, lying lips
are an abomination to the Lord. You know, when
God made creation, he looked at everything, including
Adam and Eve's lips, everything, including their
lips. And he said, it is good. But now some things
inside creation have become an abomination to
the Lord. So God looks at the lips of a lying
person, taking it literally, and says, this is
an abomination to me. That this person would
speak this way. that they would be allowed to
speak this way. It is an abomination to me. He
says, but those who deal faithfully are his delight.
It's a pretty broad swing. So here is a few ways
that as a Christian, as you're serving the Lord,
it's possible that you might still be wrapped
up in the lust of deceits and lying. The first
one is dressing up a good intention. Jesus said,
but let your statement be yes, yes, or no, no.
Anything beyond this is evil. If you've ever
had to add parameters to what you were saying
in order to get somebody to believe you, you
know what we're talking about. Just say you'll
do it or say you won't. Just say you'll be there
or say you won't. I have a brother, friend of
mine. I love him dearly. He's not my biological
brother, Christian brother. And over the years
that I have known him, we've become good friends,
brothers in Christ. I'm not going to name him
because I didn't ask his permission. to use this
illustration. But I have now realized that my
brother has a habit. His habit is he is good
at keeping his commitments. That's a good habit,
is it not? He's super good at keeping his commitments.
Like he says he's going to be there, he's going
to be there. You can trust he'll be there. But
when he knows that there is a chance that he
will not keep his commitment, he says, I will
probably be there. I will probably be there.
So when you say you will probably be there, that
is something different than yes or no. And it
doesn't say, let your yes be no. Your yes be
yes and your no be no and your probably be most
of the time. Or your yes be yes and your no be
no and your probably be almost never or almost
always, right? It doesn't say that. It says let
your yes be yes and your no be no. And so there
is this probably that happens between me and
my brother. And guess what? So my brother has
said to me about five times, I will or we will
or whoever was involved will probably do that
or probably there. And you know how many times
that my brother has said probably that he actually
showed up and did what he said he would do? None.
Zero. Five times or so he has said probably and
five times or so he did not. It is not unheard
of for Christians to get wrapped up in this.
I understand if I make a commitment, I have to
keep my commitment. That as a believer, as a
follower of the Lord, if I say I'm going to do
this, I have to keep it. So here's what I'm going
to do. Even though it's probably right. I know
it's probably right for me to do it because I'm
saying probably. I wouldn't be saying probably.
I would say unlikely. It's unlikely that we'll
be there. If I thought it was most likely not
the right thing to do, then I would say it is
unlikely that we'll be there. But I know that's
not the case. I'm not saying unlikely. So it's
not that it's a thing that I think I shouldn't
do. It's a thing that I think I should do. Or
otherwise, I wouldn't say probably, right? If
I didn't think it was a thing I should do. So
if you know it's probably a thing that you should
do, and you say probably, and then you don't
do it, you probably lied. You took the truth
and you twisted it. You added it. You embellished
it. You perfected it. You perfected the truth
so that you could not be caught lying. That's
what you did. Did you lie? No, because you only
said probably, right? So now I didn't lie. And
that's what happens. We take the truth and we
add a little bit. We embellish a little bit.
We make it just right. Sometimes we say, sometimes
we say, if the Lord so wills. Oh, now watch out
because now our not doing what we said we would
do could very easily be hung on God. that woman
you gave me, she gave me of the fruit and I ate,
right? So now we say, if the Lord so wills. But
then that means in the meantime, between whatever
you said, if you say the Lord so wills, which
scripture says we should say that, we should
admit that it's only going to happen if God wants
it to. But if you say the Lord so wills, then
you need a guarantee. You need to be devout and
faithful and following the Lord. And if it's
one day or five days or seven days, whatever
that period of time is, if the Lord so wills,
you darn well better show up because if not,
you lie. You lied and said, if the Lord so wills,
I'll do it. But then the Lord did so will, and
you didn't do it. Not only that, but you now
have lied to the person because if the person
believes you, you now lied that it was God's
fault. You said you would show up and do that
or do whatever, keep your commitment, and then
you didn't. So now it is God who told you to
not do it, even though God actually told you
to do it. If you're going to lie about something,
don't lie about what God does. That's pretty
much too far, right? That's a bridge too far.
But we're not trying to do that. We're just trying
to embellish the truth a little bit. So that
we can be sure. I just want to be sure. I'll
probably do it. But I don't know that I'll do
it. So I just say probably. Just say yes or no.
Jesus said, let your yes be yes, your no be no.
Anything beyond these is of evil. That's what
he said. It's bad enough to say yes, yes, no,
no. But he went so far as to say anything beyond
this, anything beyond those two things is evil.
Probably has a very good likelihood of being
evil. Maybe. Very likely to be an evil. You are
a creation of God. You are a child of God. Should
you own tomorrow and take it away from God? No.
Should you say if the Lord so wills? Yes. But
then if the Lord so wills, you darn well better
do it because anything else is evil. Sometimes
people fall into this because the world accepts
it. Accepts it. Will you speak what is unjust
to God and speak what is deceitful to him? That's
Job speaking. So these men... came and they accosted
Job. Job is suffering horribly. He's lost almost
everything he ever had that was good. And the
men are coming to him and they're basically accusing
him. And they're talking about how he's done
these wrong things. And then in chapter 13 of
the book of Job, Job refutes them. And he says,
would you? Would you speak what is unjust for
God and speak what is deceitful for him? Those
are talking on behalf of God, correcting me for
something that I did wrong. You're saying I did
wrong. And I'm telling you, I didn't do it. I
didn't do what you said I did. And this is what
we do. We go out into the world and we say to
the world what the world wants to hear. I'll
give you an example. And I'm stepping on toes.
I apologize in advance. I went out witnessing
a young man, brother in Christ by his profession.
And he and I were the only two people who showed
up. We opened the whole church. This was over
on Main Street. We were the only two people who
showed up. Now, it wasn't a weekday afternoon.
We knew there wasn't going to be a lot of people
that could come. But there were a few others
that might have. But nobody did. It was just
him and I. We went out walking the streets looking
for people to tell about Jesus. That was our
whole point. We're walking the streets looking
for people to tell about Jesus. And we got there
a number of times to tell people about Jesus.
I think we had 13 people pray to accept Christ.
But one of those witness encounters, we were
standing in front of a house that looked like
it was deserted. I mean, it looked like it was
the previous home of a hoarder, but was deserted.
That's what it looked like. It had so much stuff,
but there was nobody living there. But we knocked
on the door, and we were knocking on every door,
and we probably led to it. So he was leading
during this encounter, and I'm standing behind
him praying that this person would get saved.
And the person was saying, I don't believe, I'm
not interested in getting saved, whatever. And
this is what he said. He said, well, we're just
out here today offering a prayer of salvation.
Would you like to pray along with me? Now, the
guy's already said he doesn't believe in Jesus.
He doesn't believe in God. He doesn't want to
be saved. But he said, we're just offering a
prayer of salvation. Would you like to pray along
with me? And the guy said, sure. And so he led
and he prayed what was kind of a heartfelt prayer
of salvation. And the man prayed the same words
that he prayed. Allah. One by one after two by
three or whatever. Right? After. And after it
was done. The guy who was with me witnessing
looked him in the face and he said, now you're
saved. Do you need a Bible? How can we help you?
Are you going to church? And the guy said, well,
thank you very much. And he went away. Now, was
that guy saved? Where was the faith? Where was
the desire to come to Jesus Christ or come to
the Lord? Was there something there? I've seen
it done at evangelistic block parties back when
I was a youth leader many years ago where they
stand up in the microphone and they would say,
all you have to do is believe. and receive the
free gift of salvation. It's already paid for
you. And they would use an analogy like, it's
in the mail, but you got to sign for it or something
like that. You just got to receive. All you got
to do is receive it. If you just receive it,
right? You can receive it, put it in your closet
until you're older and then use it. That would
be fine. You just need to receive it. Does that
sound like salvation to you? So what we're doing
is we take the truth that we believe and then
we wrap it in a package that will be acceptable
to the world. This looks like I'm always on time.
I'm a hard worker. I don't cuss on the job. I
show up. I'm a pretty good person. Everybody
knows I'm a pretty good person. They don't know
necessarily that I'm a leader in my church or
a servant of my church or anything like that.
I've never talked to them about Jesus. We talk
about all kinds of stuff. I don't lie to them.
I don't cuss at them. I don't give them bad advice.
But I've never shared the gospel with them. Why?
Because they don't want to hear it. So you're
packaging the single most important truth that
ever has existed under the sun since Adam and
Eve fell, really before that even, the single
most important truth you're packaging it in.
I'm a nice guy. I care about you. I'm a hard
worker. I'm someone you can depend on. I'm honest.
You're packaging it in that because those things
are respected in the world. But for those who
are lost and dying, the cross stinks. Jesus smells.
Jesus is bothersome. The gospel brings conviction.
And you don't want to stink or smell or bring
conviction. So you're telling a lie with your
actions that the single most important thing
to you does not need to be mentioned. That's
crazy. And that's what we get into. We fall into
it because the world accepts a certain thing
and we want to be accepted by the world. But
Job would say, will you speak what is unjust
for God and speak what is deceitful for him?
And he goes on to say, will it be well when he
examines you? Watch out, baby. The lies that
you have been telling, the deceit that you have
been living in, whether it be, oh, I took the
garbage out. I swear I did. Oh, I didn't leave
that there. I know I didn't. I showed up on time.
I'll probably be there. I love you. I'm not going
to tell you about Jesus because I don't want
you to be offended with me, but I love you. I
care about you. You're my best friend. And then
there's no Jesus? Not, you're my best friend.
I know you're going to hell, but I want you to
be my best friend anyway. And then I'm going
to go to heaven when that time comes after that
we can't really be best friends anymore. But
in the meantime, we can be best friends for the
next 60 years and I'll never say anything to
offend you because I love you. You cannot love
somebody without sharing the gospel with them.
It is not possible because the gospel is the
epitome of love. It is the perfect representation
of love. There is no love without the sacrifice
of Jesus in it. And you can't make that sacrifice
yourself. But what you can do is stop embellishing
the truth. And if you do not, will it be well
with you when he examines you? Or will you deceive
him as one deceives a man? Will you say to God,
well, you know, God, I was going to tell everybody
about Jesus. I was going to live not deceitfully.
I was going to live outside falsehood. I was
going to put it away and treat all people as
brothers and sisters and lead them to you and
hopefully they get saved. I was going to do that.
But the kid on the bus, you know, he ate my pride.
He affected my self -esteem. He damaged my courage.
Whatever. He didn't really, they didn't want
to hear. There was nobody to get saved. There
was nobody around me who would hear the gospel
for me to save them. Is that what you're going
to tell God? When God asks, why were you embellishing
the truth? Why were you packaging it in a way
that the world would accept it? That's what's
happening in open and affirming churches. I may
get hate mail for this one. People say, we love
them. We have to love them despite their lifestyle.
If you love them despite their lifestyle. and
do not present the actual gospel of Jesus Christ,
but rather wrap it in something that they will
tolerate, wrap it in something that they will
not get upset about, wrap it in something that
they'll be able to keep coming and being there
and being involved and serving and giving their
money, right? Then you're a liar. You're just
lying to them. That's all you're doing. And you're
doing it literally every day, all day, as you
live before them, saying that Jesus is somebody
who's not. Will it be well when he examines you?
Or will you deceive him, that's God, as one deceives
a man? 2 Corinthians 11, 1 -4 talks about this
from another angle, and we're over halfway done.
It says this, 2 Corinthians 11, 1 -4 says, I
wish that you would bear with me in a little
foolishness. In other words, let's say this in
a fun way. But instead, you are bearing with
me. But indeed, you are bearing with me. For
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For
I betrothed you, that means I set you up to be
married, to one husband, so that to Christ I
might present you as a pure virgin. But I am
afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his
craftiness, now this is written to the church,
so let's be very clear. This is written to a
church, the church in Corinth. But I am afraid
that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness,
your minds will be led astray from the simplicity
and purity of devotion to Christ. I love the
fact that devotion to Christ, which would be
the most impossible thing to ever do if you were
not saved and born again, is described as something
as simple and pure. It's not complicated, folks.
The gospel is not complicated. You don't even
need 40 verses. In fact, you probably can't even
convey it in words as simply as it actually is.
It's so simple and it's so pure. But he's saying,
I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by
his craftiness, your minds will be led astray
from the simplicity and purity of the devotion
to Christ. Verse four says, for if one comes
and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached.
Or you receive a different spirit, which you
have not received. Or a different gospel, which
you have not accepted. You bear this beautifully.
In other words, you take it in. You accept it.
It's okay. And you think, well, all those other
churches can't be wrong. Or all those other things
that people are saying. Or all those worldly
teachings that my parents taught me. I have to
bring it all together somehow. I have to figure
it all out and mesh it and make it work. But
there is only one truth and one set of truths.
And all that set of truths points to Jesus, originates
from Jesus, is God's. There are nothing outside
that. All the rest of that that we're thinking,
well, okay, maybe, right? For example, and again,
I'm not trying to be political, but I'm trying
to put it in modern context, right? There are
people who say, I'm against abortion. I hate
the idea of killing an innocent unborn child
before they're born. I just hate it. It's a living
being and I hate it. And then there's other people
who go, yeah, me too. But in cases of rape, incest,
the child is going to be born with a sickness.
Mom could die in the process. So those are extremes.
And I could never bring myself to say that an
abortion would be wrong in that case. Therefore,
a willful determination of the pregnancy would
be wrong in that case. Therefore, I have to embellish
or package my idea of what it is. I can't say
it's murder of an unborn child if an unborn child
is killed. I can't do that. Because there are
these cases in which it's acceptable. The world
sees these kids. And so what happens is somebody
brings in that teaching. You can take everything
and make it okay if you take it to the nth degree.
And that's what they've done. And so you have
to go back to the simple, pure devotion to Christ.
And I'm going to tell you right now that it is
outside the will of Jesus Christ as the Son of
God that any innocent child, pre -birth or after,
would ever be murdered. Would ever be killed
without exception. That's a little political,
but I'm not trying to be political. It's an example
of how people are struggling to draw the line.
And if you're struggling to draw the line, if
you embellish the truth, if you support it with
things that will make it work or fit or keep
you out of trouble. that make your logic or what
your mom or dad told you, even if they were Christians
and they were doing the best they could in their
reasoning, whatever, or what you read in a book
or saw in a Facebook video or a meme online or
listened to in a podcast or watched in a video,
if it does not line up with the simple and pure
truth of Jesus Christ, it is a lie. And all falsehood
is supposed to be put away from you. It is easier
to accept a lie that is spoken often or louder.
than it is to accept the truth that is rarely
heard or simply hated. Don't you understand that
our truth is supposed to be spoken often or louder?
Not my personal truth, but the truth that is
Jesus Christ, the truth of the gospel, the truth
of his availability of the kingdom of God. God
wants to adopt every living human being, whatever
their age may be, into his eternal family. He's
open for that. He's searching for his worshipers
in spirit and truth. And anybody who is... willing,
he is able to make them into a worshiper in spirit
or truth. It's as if there was a new neurosurgeon's
office opened in the city of Toledo and they
needed neurosurgeons very badly, a flow of them.
And they came in here in this room and they looked
out and said, you're all pretty bright. I can
see that. Everybody in this room is pretty smart.
So here's what we'll do. We'll pay you $250 ,000
a year as a neurosurgeon starting today. You're
like, I can't do neurosurgery. There's no way
I can do a surgery on somebody's brain. That's
absolutely nuts. I can't even, I can't stand
blood. I can't even use a scalpel. What am I
going to do? I can't do this. They say, no, no,
no, you don't understand. We'll begin to pay
you as a neurosurgeon now. Then we'll pay for
your schooling and all your room and board. So
that $250 ,000 is just free money. We'll pay
for all of that over the next 20 years. And at
the end of 20 years, you'll be prepared to be
one of the best neurosurgeons in the world. $250
,000 a year for 20 years plus room and board,
everything to take care of, all the training,
all the equipping, everything that you need.
We'll make sure that in 20 years you're one of
the world's best neurosurgeons. All you got to
do is show up and work 30 hours a week. Just
show up and work and just try for 30 hours a
week. Who says no to an arrangement like that?
God is saying to you that through simple and
pure devotion to Christ, he will equip you to
be everything that he wants you to be in your
lifetime, but it is easier. to accept a lie that
is spoken often and loudly than it is to accept
the truth that is rarely heard or simply hated.
In the book of, I believe it's 2 Chronicles.
Yeah, the book of 2 Chronicles, the king has
been consulting all these prophets to find out
what's going to happen. And it's actually God's
desire that this goes poorly. It's Ahab. You
may or may not remember Ahab, but Ahab's a bad
dude. He's one of the evil kings. In fact, he's
so evil that at one point in time, he and his
wife were having a dinner party. And they took
all the devout priests of God and hung them on
posts, soaked them in tar, and lit them on fire
to light the streets of Jerusalem around the
palace. That's how bad he was. He's a bad guy,
right? And so God wants to be done with them.
He's arranging for him to be done with them.
And God uses the prophet Micaiah, and he says
this. Micaiah said, therefore, hear the word
of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne.
and all the hosts of heaven standing on his right
and on his left. So there's God on the throne
and all the hosts of heaven around him. And the
Lord said, who will entice Ahab king of Israel
to go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one of
the heavenly hosts, one of those who were around
him said, and one said this while another said
that. They had different ideas of how it could
be done. Then a spirit came forward and stood
before the Lord and said, I will entice him.
And the Lord said to him, how? He said, I will
go and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of
all his prophets. And then he said, you are to
entice him and prevail also. Go and do so. So
the spirit volunteered to go and be a lying spirit
in the mouth of the prophets to lie to Ahab.
And God said, okay, that's a good plan. Go do
that. Verse 22, it says, now, therefore, behold,
the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth
of these, your prophets, for the Lord has proclaimed
disaster against you. He was saying to Ahab,
you're going to die. And you're listening to
all these prophets that are filling you with
hogwash. They're telling you what that evil spirit
is leading them to say. And now I'm here to tell
you, basically, if you repent and turn back to
God and do not follow the plans of that evil
spirit, you will be better off. So the king goes,
see, didn't I tell you after that? He says, didn't
I tell you that he'd prophecy badly against me?
So send him back to the governor of the prophecies
from and tell them, put him in jail, lock him
up until he's dead. But what Micaiah said was
true. And the king goes out then and is killed
in battle. And so. What you need to understand
is that your flesh loves a lie. That part of
you that does not want to truly be in fellowship
with God, that really wants to be into pornography
or wants to get more money or get more chocolate
or whatever things that will make you feel good
that are outside God, whatever that might be,
your flesh loves a lie because it's a thing that
you can fashion while the truth, on the other
hand, is largely outside of your control. You
can't change Jesus. You can craft a lie to surround
him to make him look like something different,
but you can't change him. You can't change the
reality that you've got to stop lying. You've
got to stop lying. You've got to. You've got
to be giving. You should be giving sacrificially.
You've got to be serving. You cannot change those
truths. But we like to be able to control our
environment. We were made creators, like God,
made in the image of God. We were made creators.
And so a lie works for us because we can alter
that truth to be palatable. We can make it work
for us. And when someone will come to us and
say, look, you don't want that. You know how
many... You know how many preachers or so -called
pastors are out there right now in the world
teaching a gospel of Jesus Christ that will not
save people, that will push people, manipulate
people, trick people into doing and being what
it is that the devil wants them to do and be?
I don't know what the percentage is, but it's
a lot. And I'm not going to name any names, but
I've seen them personally. I watched a very large
megachurch pastor from the Midwest preach on
TV at one point in time. And he preached out
of the story, the book of Exodus, where they're
getting ready to come out of Egypt. And he preached
out of the passage where the people give their
earrings, their gold and silver to the Israelites
as they're getting ready to flee. And then he
spent 15 minutes telling the congregation that
if there was anything in the world that they
didn't have, it was only because they had not
asked. lost people for it. His whole message
was this. If you want something in this lifetime,
go ask lost people for it and God will make them
give it to you. That was the message. Now would
that be on TV? Watched by thousands, tens of
thousands of people at the church of 5 ,000 people.
There are more preachers in the world preaching
a gospel that is not about Jesus, is not godly
in any way, than we will ever know. Now, will
they get to God and have to answer? Will they
do well? Will they lie to God? No, they will
suffer for it. They're going to pay for it when
the time comes, even if they get saved or are
saved between now and then and spend eternity
with God. In the meantime, they will answer for
their actions, whatever that looks like. They
will have to say to God, oh yeah, I know, I knew
I was preaching the wrong thing, but see how
many people I got to fill the building? See how
many people I got to listen to me? See how many
demons we cast out? There were those who were
casting out demons who were not doing it in the
name of Jesus or for Jesus. And Jesus said, well,
if they're not against us, then they're for us.
They're still casting out demons. But then he
said, not all of those who say unto me, Lord,
Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven.
And he said that to those who said that they
had cast out demons and healed the sick. If a
man thinks himself to be something when he is
nothing, he deceiveth himself, Galatians 6 .3.
And so the reality is we love a lie because a
lie can make us into something that we want to
be that we're actually not. It can make us into
something that we want to be that we're actually
not. And when a person thinks he is something
when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. You've
got to stop lying to yourself. You've got to
stop adapting the evil spirit lies that are in
the world to your own benefit. You've got to
stop adapting the truth of the kingdom to make
it more comfortable. You've got to stop adding
to your yes and no and saying probably or maybe
or whatever and just say yes when it's the right
thing to do and no when it's not or if the Lord
so wills and then if the Lord so wills, make
it happen. The fact is, if you want a lie, If
you want a life that fits the lies of the world,
God will give it to you. Based on the text that
we just read in 2 Chronicles, the text we just
read from Galatians, the bottom line is if you
want a lie, if you want a life that fits the
lies of this world, God will give it to you.
You can have it. It's available to you. You can
do those kinds of things that we've been talking
about, bless you, and have that lie, and it'll
probably feel good. So much so that this is true.
If you see yourself as a loving child to your
parents, So if you're in this room and your mom
or dad are still alive, if you see yourself as
a loving child, teenagers, Alex, if you see yourself
as a loving child to your parents and you lie
to them, then you are not a loving child. You're
just a liar. Now, I understand if you're saved
and you're still doing that, then you're not
technically a liar, right? Because you don't
get identity of your sins once you're saved.
But also, once your sins are brought to your
attention, you repent of them and turn to God
and follow him. And if you're not willing to
do that, then maybe you're not a Christian. If
you see yourself as a good employee, I'm a hard
worker. I'm worth more than I'm paid. If you
see yourself as a good employee, and yet you
lie to your boss, your coworkers, clients, then
you're not a good employee. If you see yourself
as a devout Christian, but you lie to your brothers
or sisters in Christ, or to God, or to yourself,
And you may see yourself as a devout Christian,
but you're not a devout Christian. Because we
put away lying. We don't lie about whether we
did our chores. We don't lie about whether we
got our work done. We don't lie about what we
did with our boyfriend or girlfriend. We don't
lie about our tithes or our offerings or our
service or our availability. And by not lying,
I mean we don't say probably when we actually
know we probably won't. The fact is we probably
shouldn't say probably at all. We should say
yes or no or if the Lord so wills. And if the
Lord so wills, we should darn well make it happen.
You know, if it's the Lord so wills on Wednesday,
between now and Wednesday, if you have to die
to make that happen, then you die to make it
happen. Don't say the Lord so wills unless you're
taking it seriously. He died to make it happen.
He said, your will, not my will be done. And
when you say, if the Lord so wills, that's what
you're saying. And so when you make a commitment,
you make that happen. If you have to die to make
it happen or don't make a commitment, if you
say the Lord so wills and he does not, and he
has you somewhere else doing something else because
he wills it and you know he willed it, then fine.
That's one thing. But otherwise, if you say the
Lord so wills, then you make it happen. See,
this could go on and on. You could look at every
kind of thing a person is. A good dad, a good
husband, a good son, a hard worker, a good soldier,
a good janitor, a good car salesman, whatever.
You could look at yourself and assess yourself.
And if in your reasoning you say, yeah, I'm there,
but you're lying as part of it, you're not there.
That brings us to our conclusion. A couple of
illustrations. In an English village in 1792,
an illiterate domestic servant named Joanna Southcott.
Anybody ever heard of her? Interesting. She became
mentally unbalanced and announced that she had
become the bride of Christ. And she was to be
the mother of the second Messiah. Shortly, she
was established in London where she became very
popular and cultivated 100 ,000 ignorant and
credulous followers called Southcottians, which
is her last name. Southcottians. A small sect
of South Katians still exists today. She made
a fortune from the sale of her prophecies, which
were incoherent and written in rhyme, and from
the sale of certificates guaranteeing salvation
to the purchasers. After long evading the question,
Joanna finally prophesied the date, October 19,
1814, when she would give birth to the promised
holy babe. But nothing happened, and she died
of a brain disease ten weeks later. And yet...
there are still South Katians to this day. Crazy.
She left a man behind a mysterious box with the
request that it be left sealed until its contents
were needed to solve the problems of a great
world crisis. When opened in 1928, it was found
to contain a dice box, a novel, a puzzle, a lottery
ticket, and a lady's nightcap and a horse pistol.
And yet, there are still South Katians to this
day. Because a lie that is spoken often and loudly,
will be preferred by the world and even by Christians
if they are not armed with these truths over
a truth not spoken often enough or even hated.
Paul Lee Tan writes that when the father of the
great philosopher Immanuel Kant was an old man,
he made a perilous journey through the forests
of Poland to his native country of Cilicia. On
the way, he encountered a band of robbers who
demanded all his valuables. Finally, when it
was all done, they asked him, have you given
us all? And only letting him go after he answered
all. When safely out of their sight, his hand
touched something hard in the hem of his robe.
It was his gold, which had been sewn there for
safety and quite forgotten by him in his fear
and confusion. At once, he hurried back to find
the robbers. And having found them, he said meekly,
what was not true. I have said what was not true.
It was unintentional. I was too terrified to
think. Here, take the gold in my robes. Then
to the old man's astonishment, nobody offered
to take his gold. Presently one went and brought
back his purse. Another restored his book of
prayer, while still another led his horse toward
him and helped him to mount. They then unitedly
entreated his blessing and watched him slowly
ride away. Goodness had triumphed over evil.
Now, would you, under those circumstances? Go
back and give the coin that you'd found in your
robe simply because you had lied and said that
you had given them everything? I submit to you,
we had better. Your mouth means something. Your
words mean something. You ask, do you want God
to look at your lips and go, oh, that's disgusting.
That's sick. I can't believe I made that. I can't
believe that's going on. God loves you and you
want him to look at you and go, what did he or
she just say? What falsehood did they just? Present?
I say we go back and give over the coin. I say
we make what we say matter. There are only two
ways. One right and the other is wrong. About
is always wrong. Don't tell me it's about right.
If it's only about right, then it's wrong. If
you come to it, by the way, you get that, right?
If it's about right, it's approximately right.
If it's almost right, if it's getting close to
right, it's just not right. Does that make sense?
We wouldn't have to say almost, about, approximately,
getting close if it was right. If it's that close,
if it's as close as it could ever be, but not
right, it's not right. If you come to a stream
five feet wide and jump four and a half feet,
you fall in and get wet. If you jump four and
seven eighths feet, hit the bank, bounce off,
fall in and get wet. You will get just as soaked.
Not right is not right. You might just as well
have tumbled in from the other side and save
yourself the exertion of the jump. Why bother?
If you're going to jump a five -foot stream,
why would you bother to jump anything less than
five feet? And that's what we're talking about.
Put falsehood away from you and stop lying. Tell
the truth. Be a representative of the truth in
this world. There's a man, kind of a comical
story. He saw an ad in the newspaper where a
talking dog was for sale. He went to go buy the
talking dog. He showed up and there's a dog laying
on the porch. He went past the dog, knocked on
the door. Dog just looking at him with a lazy
eye. Owner comes outside and says, hey, I saw
you had a talking dog for sale. Do you have a
talking dog for sale? He said, yes, I do. It's
this dog right here. And the guy said, oh, yeah,
we'll see about this. And he kneeled down in
front of the dog and he said, are you a talking
dog? The dog said, yeah, I've been talking my
whole life. So I have had an incredible life.
I was a bomb sniffer for the army. I worked in
the CIA hunting down fugitives. I even protect
the president as part of the Secret Service.
And the guy's like, it's a talking dog. Yes.
This is awesome. And he looked at the owner and
he said, how much? I'll pay anything. And the
owner said, 10 bucks. He said, 10 bucks? Why
so cheap? And he said, because this dog's a stinking
liar. What are you worth? Are you a stinking
liar? You're not. You were not created to be
that. Notice the lightning point. It does not
say that lies trap you in a state of worthlessness.
As it is written, it means worth, space, less.
It is the state of being worth less. Not worthless,
but worth less. As a Christian, a follower of
the Lord, if you are still lying, you are worth
less than you will be when you stop lying. As
a lost person, if you are still lying, you may
never be saved until you think you're saved and
you're making yourself out to be something you're
not. You may never get there. You need to stop
lying and accept the truth and become worth what
God would desire to make you. A person who is
a liar is not worth nothing. And that's what
we do. Somebody lies to us a few many times,
we want to just write them off. I can't trust
them. I want nothing to do with them. But a person
who is a liar is not worth nothing. He or she
has the potential to be a child of God. He need
only believe the truth and repent, which is to
say, turn to God through Jesus Christ for salvation,
and he or she will be born again. With that potential
so readily at hand, the lie, the willingness
to lie, the desire to embrace a lie, readiness
and availability of a variety of lies, and the
king of all lies, Satan himself, which is the
lie, That he or she is something when he or she
actually is nothing. These things are put in
place. They work together to keep that person
from realizing their potential. You know somebody
and you might be somebody who's bought into lies.
And unless those lies are dismissed, unless those
lies are put away, unless the new person has
a renewed mind to live and walk the truth and
speak the truth as painful as it may be, you
could be trapped there. While the liar creatively
carves out a meager existence, sometimes rising
to what a man would consider greatness. Great
liars sometimes achieve what human beings would
consider greatness. But while all it really is
is a meager existence, he actively throws away
his greatest potential. He dismisses the opportunity
to receive the keys to the kingdom and to live
forever as an eternal child of God. Turn to Christ
today, whether you are a child of God already,
saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, and are just
now concluding that you have been all too willing
to receive a lie, or to perpetrate a lie, or
if right now in this moment you are realizing
that your salvation has been a lie, or your life
has been a game moving from one lie to another,
and you've never truly embraced Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior, turn to Christ now. Lie not.
Are you a follower of Jesus? Lie not. If you
are a devout follower of the Lord, no one will
ever find you being anything but, and God will
empower it to be so. Am I saying perfection?
No. God understands that the sacrifices of the
Lord are a broken and contrite heart. So you
may be here and you say, look, I have been struggling
with lying, even if it is only in dressing up
the truth, avoiding struggles in the world because
I make the truth look like something that it's
not so that they'll be comfortable with it, whatever.
Even if I've been doing it one of those ways,
I have been embracing lying. And if you have
been doing that, you need to repent today, which
is to turn to God. Not turn away from lying because
you'll just turn to something else. You turn
to God and let him put an end to it. And the
next time you think about it, I want you to think
when I was in the basement of East Toledo Baptist
Church, two and a half years into my salvation,
and I told one of the old deacons who walked
on a cane and couldn't move the tables that I
would come and move tables for an upcoming event.
I didn't really want to do it. But first I said,
I can't do it. I'm busy that day. It was a Saturday
afternoon. I had nothing going on. I said, I'm
busy that day. I can't do it. And he said, okay,
that's fine. And the Holy Spirit said to me,
no, no, it's not about tables. It's not about
relationship. It's not about community. It's
about who you are. And if you tell a little white
lie, that's not you acting as somebody who's
mine. That's you trying to control your circumstances
to get the outcome that you want. You're taking
it away from me. What will you do when the time
comes? If you're continuing to live in deceptiveness,
what will you do when the time comes? If you
continue to believe you're one thing and you're
actually not, you'll stand before Jesus and he
says, you're not actually what you say you are.
You haven't even been doing what you say you
are. Let us repent and turn to the Lord and let
him build us up to speak truth, even when it
costs us everything. Because that is who we are.
I ask the praise team to come forward at this
time and lead us in our final song. As we sing
this song. to ask yourself, did you find yourself
in one of those scenarios that we discussed?
Did you realize that you were doing that? So
repent right now before the music begins. Repent
and say, okay, God, I'm going to let you do it.
I'm going to let you solve this problem. I turn
over my willingness to just slightly work the
tree or to accept the falsehood or whatever.
I turn that over to you to make music today.
And when God does that, God doesn't do things
halfway. I just promise you to take this right
to the end. It's going to be with you, renewing
your mind daily. Will you possibly still make
mistakes? Sure, maybe. But it won't matter. Because
your mistakes will belong to the one coming along.
Stand with me and sing this song. If the Lord
leads you to respond, you do that either through
getting saved for the first time or renewing
your commitment to Christ in the area of falsehood.
Just as I am without one thing, but that thy
blood was shed.