THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING

0:01 Take a trip with me to 1980. Elm Grove, Louisiana. I'm standing in the kitchen, my mom towering over me, asking a very simple question. Chris, did you eat the cookies that I told you not to eat? I was faced with a choice. In my young life, I had never lied to this woman before, but today was going to be my day. I was going to roll the dice, and I said, yes, ma'am, I hear what you're asking me, but I did not eat those cookies.

0:38 I should have been able to tell by the look on her face that she was asking a question she already knew the answer to, just like all good moms do. And I realized in that moment that there was overwhelming evidence. I should have been smarter. It was an open-and-shut case. Crumbs were everywhere. the bag of cookies sitting out on the table, not to mention my back pocket overflowing with vanilla wafers. And she had a key witness. She saw me do the whole thing. So I learned a painful lesson that day. It was 1980. I know it's not cool anymore, but in 1980, spanking was doing real good.

1:17 Learned a painful lesson. I also learned that we honored in our home the ninth commandment. Exodus 20, 16, you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. In other words, do not lie. You're a liar. I don't like being told that. That makes me uncomfortable. You can call me a lot of stuff. To call me a liar, that's personal. But I want you to do that. I want you to look at your neighbor and say, you're a liar. Some of those wives, that felt really good, didn't it? I know it. That feels good. Maybe you're thinking, no, that's not me, Chris. I'm not a liar. Let's do this. Let's take a lie detector test this morning. Host, if you could bring the test forward, everybody's going to get one. No, I just want you to answer these questions. Let me give you some scenarios here. And you have to do what they always say. You have to answer these honestly.

2:12 First scenario. Hey, welcome to this amazing event. You have a lovely family. Adult tickets are $250. $60. The good news is children under 10, they get in for free. How old's little Bobby? Look at him. Pretend like I'm short. It doesn't have the same effect. He's tall. He's over 10. Would you tell the truth? What if he was 11 years and one day? Would you tell the truth? I don't know. Hey, man, you got a little lost back there on the fairway. What'd you end up getting on that hole? Oh, par. Okay, wow. Okay. You have lost a lot of weight. How'd you do that? Oh, just eating right? Okay, okay. Maybe you break the truth. Maybe your thing is not so much breaking the truth, though. I don't lie.

3:03 I just kind of bend the truth a little bit. All I got to do is look at your social media, and I can tell. Do you know all the angles to take the pictures? Like this one? Hey, I look really good right here, but uh-oh, start turning around that way. Uh-oh. You got to put that leg out, ladies. You know, get that head back. You know all the angles. You got it all figured out.

3:25 The vacations. You know, are you posting all the real pictures? I don't know. Are you bending the truth? Maybe you bury the truth. This is a tough one. Hey, you know, man, that's Sheila. I don't want to start rumors, but man, I think she's stealing from the company. if you know different, are you going to speak up? How are you doing on the test so far? Well, here's just the truth for all of us. We're all liars. The test is conclusive. You and I all wrestle with this. Well, that's right, Chris. You got me. You got me. But the good thing is, it's number nine of the 10. Maybe God doesn't take it that seriously. There's eight other things that are more important than this. Maybe God grades on a curve, and this one's not really going to come back and get me. Oh, I wish that was true, but it's not.

4:22 As a matter of fact, if we look at Scripture, we find in Proverbs 6, 16 through 19, there are six things that the Lord hates. Seven that are detestable to him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, the lucatrade, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who stirs up conflict in the community. God hates, but specifically two of those things he hates refer to lying. God hates when we don't tell the truth. You don't believe me? Ask Ananias and Sapphira. In the New Testament, Acts chapter 5, in the new church, they were doing basically their version of an anchor project. People were bringing tithes and gifts to the community to build the kingdom.

5:19 And some people were actually selling property and bringing the proceeds from there to the church. How great is that? Ananias and Sapphira did the same thing. They sold property, but they kept some to themselves, which is not in and of itself bad. Problem is, that's not the story that they told. They wanted people to think that they gave the whole thing. They wanted the generosity reputation, but they didn't want the cost of generosity that goes with it. So what happened is Ananias shows up. They're celebrating their gifts. He's confronted. He lies, drops dead on the spot. Some reason Sapphira didn't get the text. She didn't know this happened. She shows up a little later, does the same thing, drops dead on the spot. God does not mess around with the truth. Why do you think he hates lying so much? Well, I think there's a bunch of reasons, but probably the one that comes to mind the quickest is God hates lying because he is the truth. It's against his nature to lie.

6:19 He has no capacity to lie. Therefore, anything that is a lie is a direct affront to a holy God. And when he says in John 14, verse 6, that I am the way, the truth, and the life, when Jesus made that statement, he says, I am the truth. I'm not a truth. I'm not a possible truth. He didn't say, I can direct you to the truth. He says, I am the truth. I am the truth. It's not your truth. It's not my version of the truth. It's not our collective version of the truth. It is, so saith the Lord, the truth of God, a holy God, not capable of lying. God hates lying because it's against his nature. It's not neutral for us to simply say, well, I don't want to get involved. You know, it's not my place to tell somebody else how to live.

7:14 Oh, that's not neutrality. That's negligence. That's not simply being compliant. You're being complicit. We have to engage with the truth of God. It's who he is. I think he hates it whenever we don't speak the truth because it's a bad reflection on him. It's who he is. Also, I think God hates lying because it is in the Bible, Satan's first language. Did you know that? John 8, 44, he was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. We are never more like Satan than when we lie. We never sound more like the evil one than when we're telling something that's not true. Some of us need to learn a new language. We have the language of lying. I got to tell you, learning a new language, even especially at my age, it's hard.

8:10 We spent 11 years in Miami, my wife and my kids. And I'll tell you, it was difficult. Everything there was in Spanish. My kids actually went to Spanish magnet schools. So from the time they were in fifth grade on, they were in Spanish speaking schools. My wife, her first language is Spanish. Your boy, nada. I was there for 11 years. I think I learned less Spanish before I left. You know why? Because I didn't have to speak it. There was enough people there who spoke English. Now, I could fake it. ¿Dónde está la biblioteca? ¿Puedo ir al baño? ¿Cómo se dice todos los días? ¡Sábado gigante!

8:51 Gibberish. I don't know what I'm saying. But I can fake it. Hey, maybe you can walk around for a little while faking that you say the truth, but it's going to be revealed. Do you know the only way to learn a new language, really? To be immersed in it. You've got to be completely immersed in that language. Everything that you see in that language. Everybody you talk to speaks that language. If you want to become someone who has the language of telling the truth, you've got to immerse yourself in God's house. You've got to immerse yourself with his people. You've got to spend time in his word. You've got to ask yourself the hard questions. and you've got to put yourself in community. That's why we have all these opportunities for you to get connected here at the church. Our Bible study classes that meet every weekend, those are for you to find community, to find truth tellers in your life. To be a part of a connect group.

9:44 You're going to find people that will tell you the truth, a recovery group. Maybe it's a part of the mixed student ministry. Maybe you're a part of the serving team and the FC kids. Maybe you're serving as a greeter or a host somewhere around our church. You're being in contact constantly while you're here with people who are pursuing the truth. What a gift. What an absolute blessing that is. I have to give a quick commercial for the men in the room. Guys, has there been a time in history where truth-telling men have been required more than right now? Men, we have got to stand up in our homes, in our communities, and stand for the truth. We've got to be around other guys that do that. Our men's rally on March 28th is going to be a great opportunity for you to lock arms with some guys who have maybe gone a little further down the road than you have. Maybe they've learned some lessons that you and I quite haven't learned yet. I'll show you one from my own life.

10:38 I realized that being a man means I've got to get involved in my home when my kids were little. We came home from the hospital with three kids under the age of two. We had my son, and like 15 months later, we had twin girls. I wouldn't advise that, but that's the way it worked out. and I remember distinctly coming home and the house maybe was a little bit disheveled. You know, I went to work and come home and there's no dinner on the table. I'm like, what's going on, Janice? You've been here all day. I've been slaving at that office and what have you been doing? So I bought some leadership books, started coaching her on some things, you know, bought some time management resources to help her kind of plan her day better. those went about as well as you would think they did do you know what actually made the difference is when I decided at five o'clock I'm coming home and I'm coming in the door and I'm taking the kids and for an hour and a half I'm gonna feed them I'm gonna bathe them and I'm gonna get them to bed that's what changed the culture of my home it's it was a miracle after I actually got involved we started having dinner. The house actually smelled good again. The difference was as a man, I realized my responsibility was to lead in my home, to be a part of it. Guys, if you're living life on your own, you're doing it wrong. And unfortunately, too many men in our world don't ask for help. We're the biggest liars most of the time. We're the ones that got the biggest problem with it. We need to reach out and be a part of a community, immerse ourselves in the things of truth. Your first step is March 28th. Be there at the men's rally. Bring somebody with you.

12:23 God hates lying because it's Satan's first language. God also hates lying because he knows it holds us captive. It's ironic that we think the lies that we're using are going to give us some kind of freedom. In the moment, it gives like a momentary relief, but it's a bad gift. It's like someone giving you a sourdough starter kit. I got to nurture this thing. I got to take care of this more than my kids. Oh, give me a gift that has work associated with it. A puppy. Thanks a lot. Great.

12:58 That's what lies are. Lies have major liability. Whenever you give one lie, it's almost like gizmo just got wet. It multiplies everywhere. If you haven't seen Gremlins, you need to go watch that movie. They multiply and they become more and more. Now I got to nurture this lie. I got to think about it. I got to analyze what somebody else could ask me. I got to keep my story straight. I have a friend of mine that spent some time in a federal prison. He said he was a professional liar. In the first six months of his prison term, he was in solitary confinement. For six months, go in your closet right now and don't come out until football season. That's what he dealt with. He said the hardest part about being in that environment was that he was constantly confronted with the lies that put him there. And he couldn't make excuses anymore. He had to deal with it. He had to eradicate those lies. He had to realize that he did it to himself.

13:57 And the exhaustion of keeping those lies going, there are many of you in this room right now that can't sleep at night. You can't rest because you know if you do, you're going to slip up and someone's going to catch you. You got to keep the lie going. God knows that that lie is holding us captive. When we lie, we are literally putting the chains around our own wrists.

14:21 We got to break free from these lies, man. We got to declare war on lying. We need to weigh our words carefully. We need to think about the words that we use. We get too flippant with the things that we say. But Chris, that's exhausting. I mean, every single word matters, not leaving a single word behind. I've got to think about every comment I make. A.W. Tozer said this, the kingdom of God is not a playground for the curious. It is a battleground for the committed. Guys, in order for us to get control of this problem, to wage war on lying, we have to go to work. We have to spend time and energy and thought. We have to make sure that we are taking every thought, every word captive. Psalms 139 will give you some great ammunition for this. You can pray this every day. If you're a car salesman, you can pray this every five minutes. Search me, oh God, and know my heart.

15:24 Psalms 139, 23. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See that there is no offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Opening up my heart, opening up my thoughts to a holy God. We have to weigh our words. We have to admit our lies. When you do that first step, your lies are going to start showing up. You're going to start seeing them in front of your face. What are you going to do about it? Step one is I'm going to admit to God that I lied. That's called confession. It's saying, God, I'm just acknowledging what you already know about me. I lied. Please forgive me. Thank you for your forgiveness. I confess it to you. Now I'm gonna admit it to others. That's a natural response. Once I receive forgiveness from God and I've admitted it to him, it's a natural response to go make things right with the person on a horizontal level that I wronged. Son, I know I told you I was coming to the game, but I chose to work late.

16:20 I lied to you, please forgive me. Honey, it wasn't Amazon that messed us up. I totally forgot it was our anniversary. I lied. please forgive me. Admitting to God and admitting to others. Keeping short accounts, not letting those lies linger. And the R is recruit accountability. Recruit accountability. Look for those people around you. Here in God's house, this is what this place is all about. Finding the right people who know where you've been, who know where you are, and they can give you advice. They can share lessons with you. That's the beautiful thing about God's house. The economy that he creates, the social economy he creates, is we go through things so that we can help others. So when you walk in the door and you've got a tragic area of your life that's a gaping hole that needs to be filled, when you make the step of telling yourself the truth and getting involved in his house, watch him put somebody in that Bible study class who's gone through a broken marriage.

17:19 Watch him put that greeter next to you at the door. When you're thinking this role means nothing, I'm just checking this off the list, and all of a sudden the person standing next to you is in the same recovery program that you are. And they've got a success story that you don't have yet. Somebody in your singles class can tell you about getting out of a toxic relationship and they know just because you did that doesn't mean the road is over. They jumped straight from that toxic relationship into loneliness and they've been there. And they're gonna give you words of encouragement. That's what happens whenever we realize that when we admit to God where we are and we recruit accountability, we weigh our words, we're gonna see that God is gonna provide exactly what we need when we need it. When we wage war against our words, it gives us opportunity to love others. And the last thing I would say is we are never more like Jesus than when we speak the truth in love.

18:15 And that's why God hates lying because God loves people. in john chapter 4 jesus encounters the woman at the well this is a fascinating story she was drawing water in the middle of the day if you don't know much about the story or don't know why she was doing it at that time you may not know how important that is she was there at the middle of the day because she had a secret she had lies that were taking root in her life and she didn't want to be accountable for them most women at that time would go to the well in the morning or the evening because it was cooler and it was social. She was hiding. But Jesus was there. And just as he always does, he went straight to the heart of the issue. Jesus will never be known for chit chat. When you read the words that he says, he went straight to her, go call your husband and come back. Wow, okay. Well, she said, I don't have a husband. And he knew that already.

19:16 he had the same look that my mom had back in 1990. He knew the answer to that question. He said, that's right. You don't have a husband. And as a matter of fact, you've had five. And the guy that you're living with now is not your husband either. Think about where she is now. Think about this moment. Her deepest secret just got uncovered. How raw is she feeling right now? How exposed is she feeling right now? I think there's probably somebody in this room right now who's thinking, you know what? That ain't for me, Chris. You don't understand how far I've gone. And if I tell the truth, I'm not convinced that the outcome is gonna be any better than where I am right now. and I get that. I understand that. I don't know what your coach is going to say. I don't know what your boss is going to say. I don't know what your spouse or your parents are going to say when you speak the truth, but here's what I do know is that every time I take a step of obedience to what God is leading me to do, he meets me right there with exactly what I need.

20:25 He is faithful. He knows the lies already. Nothing you're going to say is going to take him by surprise. He spoke to the woman at the well directly to her biggest issue. What is yours? What is the biggest thing that you are covering up right now? Because there's a reality that whatever we cover, it's just a matter of time. God's going to uncover it. At some point, he's going to put it right in your face. you might think you're hiding it from everybody else you might think you could keep this lie going it's just a matter of time sir ma'am but here's the flip side of that is whenever we uncover our lies God covers it when Jesus died on the cross he paid the price for all of our sin all of the lies he knew at the foundation of time the situation that you'd be sitting in right here this morning and he's already provided a way out for you. He's already provided the solution. Will you give him a chance today?

21:37 If you go back to that story, Jesus spoke to her issue and it changed everything for her. The Bible says she ran to the city and said, come see this man who told me everything about myself. She's excited. She's celebrating. Why? Because this news did not destroy her. When she told the truth, Jesus' response did not destroy her. It restored her. She was able to the first time speak in truth, to live in truth. It was exposed and it was covered.

22:11 You know, today, the biggest lie you might be telling yourself is that I'm unforgivable, that God can't forgive me. I'm so grateful that we serve a God, that his forgiveness is unlimited. That the truth of God's love is this. There is nothing you can say or do that he can't overcome. There's no lie. There's no cover-up that can push you far away so far that God can't reach you. in John chapter 8 verse 31 Jesus tells us that we follow his teaching when we're obedient and we follow his commands then we will know the truth and even though lies hold us captive they're keeping us back the truth sets us free let's pray together God we are so grateful for the truth of your gospel, that you died on the cross for us, that you paid the ultimate price for our sin.

23:22 And if you're here this morning and you've never made that decision to accept the truth of Jesus into your life, I invite you to pray this simple but powerful prayer with me right now. Just in the solitude of your own chair, right there where you are, pray these words. God, I admit that I'm a sinner.

23:44 I believe in your truth that you died on the cross for my sin. I receive your forgiveness today. I commit my life to you. God, we're grateful for all those who made that decision this morning. We're thankful that in the midst of all of our lies, our deceit, that your truth was made clear. Thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you that your truth truly sets us free. In Jesus' name we pray.