Description
LIFE’S TOO SHORT…
To Lie
Ed Young
October 19, 2003
For example, our skin; we have all the layers on our skin. We have the epidermis, the dermis and the hypodermis layers of our skin. We don’t think about it, but our skin has a bunch of layers. Does anyone here like Japanese food? I love sushi. Have you ever ordered a California roll? The California roll has a bunch of layers to it. It’s got rice and seaweed, avocado and crab–layers. Are there any baseball fans here? A baseball has layers to it—leather, yarn, rubber and a cork. Our beds have layers—comforter, blanket, sheets, mattress pad, and mattress. Ladies, your make-up has a bunch of layers to it. Have you ever thought about that? You’ve got the powder, the base and then Botox. [Laughter] It’s really amazing when you think about all the layers of stuff.
Today I’m going to talk to you about the layers of something that is intangible; but this intangible thing has some very tangible consequences in our lives. I want to talk to you about the layers of lies that we tell. A lot of us are liars. A lot of people hearing my voice right now are living under layer after layer of lies. Don’t you hate to be lied to? Has anyone ever lied to you before? Maybe it was a family member, a boss, a co-worker, a friend, a coach, a teacher, or a child? It makes me feel bad. I hate it. I feel violated, don’t you? I feel taken advantage of. I hate people to lie to me. There’s nothing like being lied to. I hate it.
It’s kind of paradoxical, though. On one hand, we hate being lied to. But on the other, we don’t mind lying when we need to. In our culture today, truth telling seems to be taboo. Bet lying is the thing that we love to do. Too many of us have built around our hearts and lives on layer after layer of lies.
We say things like, “Hey, you’re lying like a rug.”
“Liar, liar, pants on fire.”
“I’m just telling a white lie.”
It’s kind of funny; lying is the only sin that we color. I’ve never heard someone say, “Hey, I just committed orange adultery.” Why do we color lies? It’s really strange. Have you ever seen the television show “Seinfeld?” It’s very popular; Jerry Seinfeld is a creative genius. But, the whole show is about lying. Elaine, George, Kramer, and Jerry all talk about lies–the lies they tell to others and the lies they tell each other. It’s about lying. It’s a reflection of our society. We love to lie. Let’s face the music. We’re not truth tellers. We’re liars.
The Bible says in Proverbs 6:16-19, “There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him; haughty eyes, a lying tongue, 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 man who stirs up dissention among brothers.”
Wow! If you are a scorekeeper, you’ll see that two of the seven I just mentioned from Scripture have to do with verbal dishonesty. I hate to be lied to, don’t you?
As I said earlier, we hate to be lied to, but we don’t mind lying when we need to. As much as we hate being lied to, God hates it even more. Do you know why God loathes lying?
GOD IS TRUTH
There are two reasons. Number one–God is truth. And because of the fact that God is truth, he detests dishonesty. Truth is bound up in the very nature and character of God. Know God, know truth. No God, no truth. There is a God and there is truth.
The second person of the Godhead, Jesus, said in John 14:6, “’I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
Jesus didn’t say, “Hey, I’m an option.” He didn’t say, “I’m one way.” He didn’t say, “It’s a multiple choice deal.” He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.”
God is truth. That’s why he hates lying.
OUR CONDITION
Another reason that God loathes lying is because the telling and believing of a lie is what got us into our present day condition. Think back to Genesis chapter 3. Satan told a lie, Adam and Eve believed it, they acted on it and because of that, mankind has been sequestered from God. We have this gap, this chasm caused by the telling, believing and the acting out of a lie.
God is holy. He is truth. He is just. He cannot look at lying. He cannot wink at sin. Without Christ, God cannot look at me because I am a sinner. I’m a liar. I’m a moral foul-up, and so are you. Without Christ, we would get what we deserved—eternal separation from God. God cannot look at sin. He cannot look at lying.
So what did he do? He did something. Because of our lies, he sent his only boy, Jesus, to live a sinless life and to die a sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus offers us eternal life. We get to God through Christ. And once we appropriate what Christ did for us on the cross, then we’re brought into a right relationship with God. But it’s only because of the righteousness and the truth of Jesus that we get to God. So, it’s not by my merits. It’s not by my good works. It’s because of the grace and the power of God.
What do you do when your back is against the wall? What do you do when you’ve got to bag the client? What do you do when you’ve got to make the sale? What do you do when your boss is eyeballing you? What do you do when your coach is right up close to your facemask? What do you do? What do you say? Do you lie? Or do you tell the truth? Are you dishonest, or do you come clean? A lot of us are living behind layers and layers of lies.
NATURAL BORN LIARS
No one taught me how to lie. I just know how to lie. And I’m good at it. I just know how to tweak the truth and so do you. You’re in the same condition. You’re in the same deal.
When my son, EJ, was three years old, he hit his sister in the arm. LeeBeth ran up to me and she said, “Dad, Dad, EJ just hit me in the arm! Look.”
There was a big whelp right on her arm.
I asked, “EJ, did you hit your sister?”
He said, “No.”
He looked me square in the eye and just lied. “No, Dad.”
Then I got smart. I used some psychology on him.
I said, “EJ, where did you hit your sister?”
He said, “Right there on the arm.”
Now, I didn’t teach him that. He’s a natural born liar. I’m a natural born liar. You’re a natural born liar. So, let’s just be honest, because after all, we are in church. We’re all liars.
That’s another thing. I always get freaky when someone says, “To be honest with you…” If someone says that a lot, then you know that you are talking to a liar. “To be honest with you…”
We are all living under layers and layers of lies and a lot of us don’t even realize it. Well, today I want to expose the layers. I want to bring the layers out into the open, because I want us all to understand the greatness that God has for our lives.
You might not understand this or believe this, you might not have ever heard this before, but God is crazy about you. He’s thinking about you 24/7. If you saw the agenda God has for your life, you wouldn’t believe it. It is that awesome. It is that unbelievable. If we are going to reach it, we can’t live under layers and layers of lies. We’ve got to be truth tellers.
Jesus said in John 8:32, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
LAYERS OF LIES
Let’s label some layers of lies. And I’m going to warn you that these layers are pretty convicting.
THE ELEVATION LAYER
The first layer I want us to label is the elevation layer—the elevation lie. How do you lie at that level? Well, you pad your resume. You make up accomplishments that you’ve never really accomplished and you drop names of people you barely know. You might have passed a guy or girl in the hallway or given them a high five after the game, but you say, “Hey, I know her,” or, “I know him.” You think by saying that, by lying about that, or by elevating yourself that people will ooh and ahh.
You think they’ll say, “Ooh, aah! Look at this man. Look at this woman. They’re something! They’ve done this. They’ve done that. They know him. They know her. Wow!”
Speaking of name dropping, this past Sunday, I had lunch with an NBA player. While we were talking, he asked me about my basketball career at Florida State University. There was something inside of me that wanted to elevate myself and my career in front of this NBA player. Now isn’t that crazy? I didn’t really want to reveal to him that I rode the bench at Florida State. I didn’t want to reveal to him that I only started two games at Florida State. I didn’t want to reveal to him that my lifetime scoring average is 0.7. I did not want to tell him that. I wanted to tell him I was dunking on people and I was All-American. I wanted to say that. I couldn’t though, because that would be an elevation lie. So, I told him the truth. And sometimes the truth hurts, doesn’t it?
THE JUSTIFICATION LAYER
Let’s think of another layer of lying—the justification layer. We’re excellent at this layer. I’m especially good at this one.
We say things that we never really intend on doing like: “I’ll pray for you.” “I’ll help you move.” “Oh, I’ll go to the HomeTeam.” “I’m going to start tithing, giving to Fellowship Church, sure.” “You can count on me. I’ll volunteer in the Children’s Ministry.” “I’ll pick that up next time.”
Those are lies. We have no intention of praying for the person, no intention of showing up at HomeTeam, and no intention of giving. We have no intention of helping out. No, we’re liars. But we justify the lie by saying, “Well, I don’t want to hurt their feelings, you know. I don’t want to step on their toes so I’ll just lie.” But in reality we know that we’re not going to show up.
Do you know that people like that frustrate our leadership team immensely here at Fellowship Church? They will sign up but you don’t show up. Thirty percent of the people who sign up to volunteer in our Preschool and Children’s Ministry don’t show up. Are you ready for that? Let me just vent for a second. Is that pathetic? You’re liars. Let’s face it. We’re liars. It’s justification. We think, “Well, I’ll just justify it because I don’t want to hurt their feelings.”
THE RETALIATION LAYER
There’s another layer—the retaliation layer. We are Phi Beta Kappas at this one. Let’s say someone does something against us in the office, someone does something against us in the school, or someone does something against us in the neighborhood. We just trump up a lie about them as quick as a tabloid reporter. We just float it out there because we know that lie will hurt them. It’s the retaliation layer, the retaliation lie.
THE CONFRONTATION LAYER
Here’s another layer. It keeps going. The plot clots. The confrontation layer. We run from confrontation. You know, when the temperature is cranked up. And we don’t want to get into a confrontation with the boss, or a teacher, or Mom or Dad, so we just lie.
Do you remember Simon Peter from the Bible? He said, “Jesus, I am a tower of truth-telling power. I’m not going to lie about you. No, no, no. I’m the man! I will stand by you. I’ve got your back, Jesus.”
Jesus said, “Oh, really? You’re going to lie about me, Simon Peter, just like that [Ed snaps] over the next several hours.” And what happened? The heat was literally turned up. He was sitting around a campfire with some women and they said, “Hey, weren’t you one of the guys with Jesus?”
“No, no,” he started cursing. “No.” He flat out lied; he lied like a rug. Liar, liar, pants on fire, Simon Peter. He just told a white lie. He colored the lie a little bit. The confrontation lie.
We lie to get out of making an “F” in school. We lie to the police officer to get out of a ticket. “45? I wasn’t going 45. I was going 30.” We don’t want the confrontation.
THE EXAGGERATION LAYER
Here’s another layer—the exaggeration layer. We exaggerate.
We say, “The fish I caught was that big.” Was it really that big? That’s very convicting to me, because I love to fish.
“Oh, that’s the best. Oh, that’s the best.” Is it really the best?
“Oh, that’s the worst, the worst.” Is it really the worst?
“I jumped ten feet high.” Now, wait a minute…ten feet high?
Why do we do that? We exaggerate about how much we work. You know it’s really vogue these days to tell people how busy we are and how much we work.
We brag, “Oh, my work schedule is so busy. I work so hard.”
People will come up to me and say something like, “Ed, I’m sure you’re busy.”
And then I stop them before they get to the question and say, “No, I’m not.”
Most of the time they seemed shocked, “Uh, you’re not?”
“No, I’m not busy.” I love to throw people off like that, because we are all busy.
THE OMISSION LAYER
Let’s do another one. This is probably my favorite one right here—the omission lie, the omission layer. Now, with this one right here we say, “You know, I’ll tell the truth, but I’ll leave out a critical element of the truth.”
Let’s say that you’re a teenager. You’re male, 17 years old. You’re mom and dad are nice. They say, “Your curfew is at midnight. Read my lips…midnight.” Then you go to the game. The game is jammed and there is traffic after the game. You come back home at 12:45 am, and as you are strutting into the house, your mom and dad go on tilt.
They ask you, “Where have you been? Why didn’t you call? You had the cell phone.”
So, what do you do? You lie. You do the omission layer of lying.
“Mom and Dad, hey, man, the game was jammed with people. The traffic was insane.” And you stop. What you leave out is the fact that you stopped by Sonic and Starbucks on your way home with your friends. That’s a lie.
Maybe at work you’re manager says, “Wait a minute, I thought I gave you an hour for lunch. It took you an hour and 45 minutes to eat?”
Here’s where the lie comes in. “Well, you know I ate at Chili’s. I love Chili’s, but the service was slow. The manager had a hard time and he messed up my order.” That may true. Yes, it was slow. They did mess up your order. But you didn’t tell him that you took about forty minutes to run two or three personal errands on company time. You’re a liar. I’m a liar when we go through the omission thing.
SPEAK THE TRUTH, BUT DON’T COMMUNICATE ALL TRUTH
We’ve got to tell the truth. We’ve got to speak the truth. Life is too short to lie. I’ll ask you again, what do you do when your back is against the wall? What do you do when you’ve got to bag the client? What do you do when you are in the board room? What do you do when you are on the field? What do you do when your teacher locks eyes with you? What do you say? What do you do? Do you lie? Or do you tell the truth?
Everything we say, get this now, must be truthful, but we should not communicate all truth.
People say, “Yeah, man, I like him. Man, he just tells the truth. Whatever is true, he tells it.”
You’re stupid if you do that.
If you communicated all the truth, it would go something like, “Hi, how are you doing? Man, you have horrible breath and your outfit does not match.”
Or if I did it while I’m conducting a funeral, I would be standing there with the guy’s body right below me and say, “Hey, this guy was a nice guy but also he was a card carrying idiot because let me tell you what he did this one time…”
Do you know what I’m saying? We’ve got to speak the truth. But we don’t communicate everything that’s true. Some things are better left unsaid. But when it comes to answering to an authority figure, to others, we’ve got to speak the truth. And we’ve got to speak the truth in love. We hate to be lied to don’t we? But we don’t mind fabricating a lie when we need to.
What should we do? Maybe you’re thinking, “Wow, Ed, have you been following me around this week? You’re stepping on my toes. You’re reading my email. This is weird.”
Well, it’s not me. That’s the Holy Spirit of God convicting, pricking your spirit, looking over your shoulder saying, “Oh, there’s a layer. There’s a layer.”
A while back, I watched a young man grow up. I watched him develop and I knew a lot about his past. He began telling lies to his parents and to his friends just to get out of stuff, just to tweak the truth a little bit. No one ever really confronted him. He never came clean before God or others. As he developed and got older, he told more and more lies. And after he became an adult, it’s so sad for me to tell you this, this young man could not distinguish between fact and fantasy. He was the best liar I have ever seen. He lied to me. He lied to several of my friends. This guy was an amazing liar.
One day though, the truth whacked him and it was such a tragedy to see his life, to see his family explode, to see his marriage on the rocks. He was one prayer away, though, from becoming a truth teller. But he never could step up and do it.
You see, a lot of us are buried beneath layer after layer of lies and we don’t even know it. There’s the layer of guilt. If you’re a liar, you carry around guilt and it weights you down. There’s a layer of disconnection between you and God. There’s a layer of disconnection between you and others. Your character corrodes—that’s another layer. You don’t have any influence. You don’t make any indelible impression on other people’s lives, because you are a liar. Life is too short to live like this, friends. Life is too short to live a lie. Come clean. Come clean. Know the truth, Jesus said. The truth will do what? It will set you free.
The Book of Hebrews says this about the Bible in Hebrews 4:12, “For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edge sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
One day we are all going to stand face to face with the Lord and give an account of the words that we said. Did we tell the truth or did we lie? Were we honest or dishonest? Did we discover God’s amazing agenda or did we do life with layers and layers of lies and guilt and junk that kept us from achieving the greatness that God desires?
The choice is up to you and me. It’s been my prayer that we come clean and allow God’s Word to penetrate and to peel back layer after layer of lies so we can discover who God wants us to become.
You may be asking, “Well, Ed, how do we do that? I mean, how do I do that, because I’ve been living a lie. I’ve been doing the exaggeration thing, the omission thing. I’ve been doing the elevation thing for so long, is there hope for me?”
DO A WORD SEARCH
Yes, there is. Here are a couple of suggestions. Number one, regularly do a word search when you pray. We should pray everyday. And I challenge you to journal your prayers. When you journal your prayers, write down stuff. Just take some time and say, “Okay God, let me run through the rolodex of my conversations. Today or yesterday, did I do the elevation thing? Did I justify something? Did I do the retaliation lie the confrontation lie the exaggeration lie, or the omission lie?”
Just stop and listen to God, because he will bring that stuff up. And when he brings that stuff up, what do we do? We come clean. We confess. The word “confession” means that we tell the truth about our condition. When we confess and say, “Hey, God, I’ve done this or I’ve done that,” God is not going to say, “Oh, I didn’t know that. Really? You’ve been lying? Thanks for letting me in…” No. God knows. He’s omniscient. He knows everything. He’s omnipresent. He’s everywhere. He’s omnipotent. He’s all powerful. We’re agreeing with him.
We need to just admit it, “God, I’ve messed up. I’ve sinned.”
Then the Bible says we’ve got to repent. We’ve got to do a 180. We’ve got to make an about face and do a turn in the opposite direction. That is repentance.
Now the plot clots. This separates the tire kickers from the buyers. Christianity is not for people who need a crutch. It’s not for quiche eaters. Scripture tells you and me that if we lied, we need to track the person down we’ve lied to, lock eyes with them and we’ve got to say, “I lied to you. Will you forgive me?” Ouch! It hurts when you have to say that. I’ve had to that before when I’ve lied. All it takes is having to do it four or five times and you won’t lie anymore, baby! You’ll think long and hard about telling that lie about exaggerating, elongating, or pontificating. You won’t do it anymore.
INSTALL A LIE DETECTOR
Here’s the second suggestion. After doing a word search, install a lie detector. Do you have someone in your life who loves you for who you are? Do you have someone in your life who will encourage you, who will pray for you? Do you have someone in your life who will hold you accountable for what comes out of your mouth, who will hold you accountable to truth telling? We need to.
That’s why the church is all about one another. The Bible says we should serve one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, and support one another. We should be accountable to one another. That’s why we have small groups here at Fellowship Church. If you are not in a small group and someone asks you to join, don’t just say, “Yeah, I’ll show up.” Actually show up. Become a part of a small group and God will bring people into your life who will help you in this endeavor.
HIRE A GUIDE
Another suggestion is to hire a guide. Really God’s grace does this. The moment we become Christ-followers, Christ comes into our lives and he places the Holy Spirit in us. And the Holy Spirit works from the inside out to turn us into truth tellers.
THROTTLE BACK
Do you remember the story about me having lunch with an NBA player a couple of days ago, when I wanted to exaggerate? I felt the Holy Spirit saying, “Ed, what you are getting ready to do is going to be a lie.” So I throttled back.
Every time we throttle back, we build character. Every time we throttle back and tell the truth, we make an indelible impression on other people’s lives. Every time we throttle back, we become mature. Every time we throttle back, we become an awesome example for the world to see. Every time we throttle back, we discover God’s powerful purpose for our lives.
That’s why in John 16:13, the Bible says “But when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He (being the Holy Spirit) will guide you into all truth.”
Life is too short to lie.
About forty-two weekends a year, I speak five times between Saturday and Sunday. And I look over all of your faces. Every time I look at you, I know that some of you who are hearing my voice are living a lie. I don’t like to tell you that, but I’ve got to tell you that. I know some of you hearing my voice right now are living a lie. You’re believing a lie. The Evil One is the father of lies. It’s his native language. And you are believing his lie.
And the lie you are believing and living is leading you to an eternal separation from God. It’s leading you to hell. The Bible says hell is a real place. The Bible says all of us will spend eternity in either one of two places, either in heaven or in hell. God does not hurl anybody to hell like Roger Clemens hurls a fast ball. He doesn’t do that. We make that choice.
So if you ever say, “Well, I just can’t serve a God who hurls people to hell,” just know that God doesn’t do that. We make that call. Some of you, though, are believing a lie. And that lie is going to send you to hell. I don’t like to talk about it. It’s not popular to me. I don’t think, “Whoa, this is fun. Let’s talk about hell. Let’s talk about hell today.” I don’t like it, but I’ve got to tell you.
THE DENOMINATIONAL LIE
Some of you are believing the denominational lie.
You think, “Hey, my father was a Baptist deacon. So, I guess that must mean I’m in.”
Or, “Hey, I grew up Catholic. I was baptized in the Catholic Church. I was an alter boy.”
You think that because you were baptized Lutheran or Episcopalian, or Church of Christ that you’re in.
If you were, then good for you. Denominations are man made. When you go to heaven, that label will blow off. But when you go to hell, it will burn off. If you are counting on your denomination to get you to heaven, it’s not going to happen. A lot of you are believing that lie. Some of you are believing another lie.
THE GOOD GUY LIE
You think, “I’m a good guy,” or, “I’m a good girl. If I keep my nose clean, pay my taxes, throw a couple of bones God’s way in the offering plate, then I’m in like Flynn, man. Because God, you know, he grades on this cosmic bell curve and you know, I’m better than most people. You know, when I get to the end of my life, God will say, ‘Hey, you were a lot better than you were bad, so come on into heaven.’”
That’s a lie. You’re going to hell if you believe that, based on Scripture, not my words. It’s what the Bible says. I’m just telling you what the Bible says. You’re going to hell. If you want to go hell, just go ahead and believe that lie. You see, the Evil One is lying to you right now. A lot of you are being convicted right now. A lot of you know you’re facing hell and you don’t have the answer. And Satan is saying, “Man, don’t listen to Ed. He’s just fired up. Just throttle back, chill. You’re okay.”
No, you’re not. No, you’re not. No, you’re not. I cannot stand before God without Jesus. I’m a miserable sinner and so are you.
Maybe some of you think, “Well, Ed, you preach sermons and you…”
Who cares? I’m a sinner. So are you. If I’m banking on my goodness, then I’m going to go to hell, just to hell. Simple as that. What did God do? God can’t look at sin. He can’t look at lying. What did God do?
TRANSFORMATIONAL TRUTH #1 GOD IS CRAZY ABOUT YOU
Several truths you need to understand. First of all, God is crazy about you and you matter to God. You don’t even know how much you matter to God. He loves you so much that you can’t even comprehend it. He loves the world so much, that he gave his only boy to live a sinless life. He was truth and he is truth.
Jesus died on the cross for all of our sins, all of our junk, all of our lies, all of the elevation stuff, all of the exaggeration stuff, and all of the confrontation stuff. Jesus died for it. We don’t deserve it. He just did it. And then he rose again. The Bible says if we appropriate that into our lives, if we receive that, if we open the door of our hearts and allow Jesus to infiltrate our lives, what happens? Oh, this is phenomenal.
TRANSFORMATIONAL TRUTH #2 – AN EXCHANGE IS MADE
Here’s another transformational truth you need to understand. The righteousness of Christ, the grace the mercy of Christ, is transferred into our lives. All of our junk, our guilt, our sin, and our chicanery, is transferred onto the shoulders of Christ. So, I get to God through Christ. So now, God can look at me, because when he sees me he does not see Ed Young; sorry sinner, Ed Young; liar. Do you know what he sees? He says, “Man, that’s my boy. Because my boy, Ed, has appropriated what my son Jesus did for him.” When God looks at me, he sees the righteousness of Christ. That’s the only reason that I know I’m spending eternity with the Lord. It’s not because of what I have done or haven’t done. It’s because of what Christ has done for me and I’ve received that.
You’re not going to go to heaven until you make that decision. You’re going to go to hell. I don’t want you to go to hell. And God doesn’t want you to go to hell, much more than I don’t want you to go there. But I can’t force you to make the decision. You’ve got to make it yourself. I can tell you all day and night about it. I can say it and spray it (if you are on the front row, you probably felt the spray). I’m passionate about it because I know many of you are facing a Christ less eternity because you are living a lie. Life is too short to live a lie.
Bow your heads with me a moment. No one should be moving or stirring. If you’re moving, you’re quenching and disturbing the Spirit of God which is something that I would not mess with if I were you.
Just for a couple of moments, I want to give everyone an opportunity to make this decision. This is not my decision. I made this decision years ago in my life and I can’t make it for you. I cannot coerce you or force you or manipulate you. This is between you and God. I can tell you how to do it and I’m going to do that right now. If you want to mean business with the Lord and tell the truth about your condition, just say these words with me. Just say, “God, to the best of my understanding, I believe, God, that you sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for all of the junk in my life, all of my sin, all of my mistakes, all of my foul-ups, and all of my lies. And God, I turn from that and turn to you. I ask Jesus Christ, God, to come into my life, to infiltrate my life. I give him everything I am right now and everything I will ever be.”
All it takes is to say that to the best of your ability one time, and Christ will come into your life. He will come in. I’m just one sinner telling you, a bunch of sinners, where the truth is. That’s all I’m doing. So, just pray that prayer. Just say, “Jesus Christ, come into my life. I give it all to you.”
If you prayed that prayer with me, that’s the most awesome thing you will ever do in your life and I want to congratulate you. I want to challenge you to tell someone about it, so when I conclude this prayer time, just take out your worship guide and check off under the guest registry, “I established today to receive Christ.” Just jot your name down, your email and put that in the offering which is passed by a little bit later, and we will get back to you in a couple of days.
Maybe you’re saying, “Well, you know I want to talk to someone today about this decision.” If that’s you, great. After this service is over, make a B-line to the kiosk area in the lobby. We have men and women who would love to talk to you about this decision. I know that many have made this choice and again, I want to congratulate you.
A personal relationship with Christ is just like a marriage. It’s a decision followed by a process. You’ve made the decision, now Fellowship Church is here to help you with this process. Some others here have been believers maybe for a while, but for some reason maybe you’ve fallen into this elevation, justification, retaliation, confrontation, and exaggeration stuff. Maybe you’ve been living a lie. Maybe you’ve not been discovering and owning the kind of life that God wants. It’s my prayer that you install this word search, that you come clean and that you do the work that God wants you to do. Have the conversation with your mom, with your dad, with your co-worker, with your friend, or with your teammate about lies. Talk to them about the fact that you are going to install a lie detector and that you acquiesce and defer to the Holy Spirit of God.
God, I thank you that Fellowship Church is a place that teaches truth and teaches it in love. Continue, Lord, to work on us, to convict us, to challenge us, love us and encourage us as we think about the words to this next song called “The Truth,” because God, we know you are truth and we thank you for being out there for us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.