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Quest for Faith: The Whole Truth

A wealthy businessman lay on his deathbed. His preacher came to visit and talked about God’s healing power and prayed for his parishioner. When the preacher was done, the businessman said, “Preacher, if God heals me, I’ll give the church a million dollars.” Miraculously, the businessman got better and within a few short weeks was out of the hospital.

Several months later, the preacher bumped into this businessman on the sidewalk and said, “You know, when you were in the hospital dying, you promised to give the church a million dollars if you got well. We haven’t received it as of yet.”The businessman replied, “Did I say that? I guess that goes to show how sick I really was!”

Mr. Myrick had to go to Chicago on business and persuaded his brother to take care of his cat during his absence. Though he hated cats, the brother agreed. Upon his return, Mr. Myrick called from the airport to check on the cat.

“Your cat died,’ the brother reported, then hung up. Myrick was inconsolable. His grief was magnified by his brother’s insensitivity, so he called again to express his pain.

“There was no need for you to be so blunt,” he said. “What was I supposed to say?” asked the perplexed brother. “You could have broken the news gradually,” explained Myrick. “You could have said, ‘The cat was playing on the roof.’ Then, later in the conversation, you could have said, ‘He fell off.’ Then you could have had said, ‘He broke his leg.’ Then when I came to pick him up, you could have said, ‘I’m so sorry. You’re cat passed away during the night.’ You’ve got to learn to be more tactful.”

“By the way, how’s Mom?” After a long pause, the brother replied, “She’s playing on the roof.”

A few years back two men interviewed thousands of people, and they published their findings in a book called The Day America Told the Truth.

Of those surveyed,

      91% said that they lie on a regular basis.
      86% said they lie to their parents regularly,
      75% said they lie to their friends,
      69% said they lie to their spouses.
      50% said they regularly called in to work sick when they weren’t

Doug Sherman and William Hendricks compared the ethics of Christian and non-Christian adults. They found that almost as many Christians steal from work as non-Christians; Almost as many Christians use company phones for personal long distance as non-Christians and they found that Christians are just as likely to falsify their income taxes, commit plagiarism, give bribes to obtain a building permit, ignore construction specs, illegally copy computer programs, steal time from work, and selectively obey the law.

“You have also heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not break your vows; you must carry out the vows you make to the LORD.’[o] 34 But I say, do not make any vows! Do not say, ‘By heaven!’ because heaven is God’s throne. 35 And do not say, ‘By the earth!’ because the earth is his footstool. And do not say, ‘By Jerusalem!’ for Jerusalem is the city of the great King. 36 Do not even say, ‘By my head!’ for you can’t turn one hair white or black. 37 Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.” Matthew 5:33-37

This passage reveals some important reasons why we must live truthfully. Dishonesty undermines our relationships. When we lie and don’t keep our promises it destroys trust and trust is what healthy relationships are built on.

One thing that both of my parents stressed when I was growing up: Always tell the truth. There were times when I was young that I thought like the little boy who was asked what a lie was and replied, "A lie is an abomination to the Lord, but a very present help in time of trouble!"

1. Keep Your Promises…Even When They Seem Insignificant

A. When you start to justify a little dishonesty because it seems insignificant, be careful because you’re one step closer to doing what you never thought you would do.

The little areas test our integrity. God takes stretching the truth very seriously. Every time a casual commitment is broken, an incremental amount of damage is done

How many of you are familiar with these common “lies”?

  1. Honest, I only need 5 minutes of your time
  2. Your table will be ready in just a few minutes
  3. The check is in the mail
  4. We service what we sell
  5. If elected, I promise…

A busload of politicians were headed to a convention but because of highway construction, they had to take a detour down a rural road. The driver was having problems with this windy, country lane and lost control of the bus. It ran off the road and crashed into a tree in an old farmer’s field. The old farmer was driving to town when he noticed that that there was a gaping hole in his fence. He went to investigate and saw what had happened. He went back to his truck, got a shovel, and buried all the politicians.

Since the politicians never arrived at their destination, a state trooper was dispatched to locate them. He backtracked their route, followed the country road, saw the wrecked bus in the field, and looked up the old farmer that owned the property. The trooper asked the farmer where the politicians had gone. The farmer informed the trooper that he’d buried all of them.

The trooper said, “Didn’t you call the coroner? After all, not all of them might have been dead.” The old farmer replied, “Well, some of them kept sayin’ they weren’t but you know how those politicians lie!”

B. We might be very familiar with those lies but there are other lies that destroy our integrity:

  1. We lie to cover up our mistakes
  2. We exaggerate
  3. We mislead
  4. We give false flattery
  5. We deceive or cheat

Rodney Buchanan writes, “Who has not been startled to hear yourself say something that is an exaggeration without even thinking about it. It is not that you began the conversation with the intention of saying something that was not quite true, but before you knew it you found yourself embellishing a story. Are you honest about your age? Have you been thoroughly honest with your taxes? Have you ever been dishonest about the time you claimed you worked, or not given an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wage?

Have you ever cheated on a test? Have you ever lied to get out of trouble? Have you ever complimented someone when you didn’t mean it? Have you ever kept silent when you should have told the truth? Made yourself appear better than you are? Lied to gain an advantage or get your way? Misled someone to save face?”

The top 7 things to say about a gift you don’t like

  1. Hey! There’s a gift!
  2. This is perfect for wearing around the basement.
  3. If the dog buries it, I’ll be furious!
  4. I love it - but I fear the jealousy it will inspire.
  5. Sadly, tomorrow I enter the Federal Witness Protection Program.
  6. To think - I got this gift the same year I vowed to give all my gifts to charity.

    And the Number One Thing to say about a gift you don’t like:
  7. "I really don’t deserve this."

“21 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, 22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. 25 So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.” Ephesians 4:21-25

2. Keep Your Promises…Even When You Regret Making Them

Maybe you regret making a promise because things didn’t turn out the way you had hoped or maybe when you made the promise, you’d hoped that you would have more time, money, knowledge or energy

Maybe you made a promise to do something because you thought you’d get something in return: money, favors, popularity, or position but now it looks like you’re going to have to do what you promised and not get anything.

Some people think that if they don’t commit to anything, it’s easier to get out of the obligations and responsibilities implied. However, there are times when we have to make commitments. We have to promise to do certain things whether we like it or not. It’s our commitments that define who we are. We can make promises that we don’t like but fulfill them in ways that show integrity and fortify our witness for Christ.

Once there were two brothers who were very rich and very wicked. Both of them lived lives of sinfulness and debauchery and used their wealth to cover up a lot of their wickedness. Both were members of a local church and used their money to be in positions of influence. The old preacher at this church had retired and a new preacher had been hired. This preacher was a man who preached the gospel with zeal and courage and lived an exemplary life. The congregation began to grow at such a rapid rate that they needed to build a new church building.

At this same time, one of the brothers got sick and died. The new preacher was asked to do the funeral. The day before the funeral service, the surviving brother pulled the preacher aside and handed him an envelope. He said, “There’s a check in this envelope that is large enough to pay off the new building. All I want you to do is tell all the people at the funeral tomorrow that my brother was a saint. Do you think you can handle that?” The preacher shook the brother’s hand and said, “I will do precisely what you have asked.” The preacher immediately took the check to the bank and deposited it to the church’s account.

The next day, the preacher stood in front of the large group of people who had come to the funeral and said, “This man in the coffin was an ungodly sinner and wicked to the core. He was unfaithful to his wife and abusive to his children. He was ruthless in business and a hypocrite in the church. But compared to his brother, he was a saint!”

Maybe you regret making a promise because keeping your word ends up costing you more than you expected

Ps. 15:4 describes a righteous person as one “who keeps his oath even when it hurts.”

The brilliant Christian scholar and writer C. S. Lewis took that truth seriously. His biography tells of the suffering he endured because he kept a promise he had made to a buddy during World War I. This friend was worried about the care of his wife and small daughter if he should be killed in battle, so Lewis assured him that if that were to happen he would look after them. As the war dragged on, the man was killed. True to his word, Lewis took care of his friend’s family. Yet no matter how helpful he tried to be, the woman was ungrateful, rude, arrogant, and domineering. Through it all, Lewis kept forgiving her. He refused to let her actions become an excuse to renege on his promise.

Another problem is that we have trouble keeping our promises to our Lord. You may stand in front of a group of people and proclaim: “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God and I accept Him as my Lord and Savior.” We like the Savior part but we’re not too bothered about the Lord part. So we let our promise slip and other things become more important than fellowship with the Body of Christ

Watching TV or going to sporting events becomes more important than studying the word of God Talking to friends or business colleagues becomes more important than spending time in prayer. Our business becomes more important than God’s business

Dr. Seuss, Horton Hatches an Egg, tells the story of an elephant, named Horton, who promises to sit on an egg and hatch it for it’s mother, lazy Miss Mayzie. As the days and weeks go by, Horton just keeps sitting there on that nest up in a tree. All his friends encourage him to forget his promise and play with them. Do you remember his response? “I meant what I said, I said what I meant. An elephant is faithful, 100%.”

What could God do with a congregation that had that commitment?

3. Keep Your Promises…Even when you’re The Only One Who Knows

When you can keep a promise to yourself, you will tell the truth to others. Promises to ourselves are sometimes the hardest ones to keep. There is no accountability and seemingly no consequences. Once you start breaking promises to yourself, it becomes much easier to break a promise to others.

Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 5 that whenever we make a promise we do so in the presence of God. When we break a promise, we’re not just lying to others or ourselves but we’re also lying to God

In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees had developed elaborate rules governing when a man was bound by his word and when he was not.

If they were to swear by Jerusalem, they were bound by their words. If they swore towards Jerusalem they were not bound. Any promise they make using God’s name binds bound them, but if they would avoid using God’s name when they made a promise, maybe they wouldn’t have to keep their word they began to swear by anything that sounded like it might mean something.

We have similar oaths to swear we’re telling the truth: Cross my heart and hope to die (stick a needle in my eye) Oops, sorry. I had my fingers crossed, I swear on a stack of Bibles, If I’m lyin’, I’m dyin’, May lightening strike me if I’m not telling the truth, I swear by my mother’s grave…., With God as my witness…

Wayne Smith, “If you know you’re lying, and the Lord knows you’re lying, it’s the same as telling the truth.”

Jesus said in vs. 34-35 – “34 But I say, do not make any vows! Do not say, ‘By heaven!’ because heaven is God’s throne. 35 And do not say, ‘By the earth!’ because the earth is his footstool. And do not say, ‘By Jerusalem!’ for Jerusalem is the city of the great King.”

Some people have declared this passage to mean that Christians cannot take oaths in courts or anywhere else. The Old Testament records that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Jonathan all took oath. Jesus swore an oath in His trial by the Sanhedrin. Several times in the New Testament, followers of Christ swore oaths

What Jesus is wanting is truthfulness. all the way around. If you’re a Christian, then whatever you do should and will reflect God or on God. John Stott, Christian Counter-Culture: “However hard you try, Jesus said, you cannot avoid some reference to God, for the whole world is God’s world and you cannot eliminate him from any of it.”

God takes lying very seriously:

Proverbs 12:22 – “The Lord hates liars, but is pleased with those who keep their word.”

Rev. 21:8 – But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars–their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

How do I get better at keeping my promises?

1. Admit your struggle: At one time or another, we’ve all struggled with the truth. Sometimes it may just seem easier to fib. The down side is that our culture despises dishonesty coming from people who claim to be Christians. We can do some terrible damage to our witness and even the cause of Christ when we’re not people of our word. People are looking for authenticity wherever they can find it.

Admit that truthfulness can be a struggle but recognize that Jesus says, “No matter what, tell the truth!”

2. Monitor your promises:

  1. Reliability builds credibility: Can other people count on you to follow through and do what you say you will do?
  2. Do you ever say, “I’ll pray for you,” just because it sound like the right thing to say? Do you ever actually pray for that person?
  3. What about in business? Is what you advertise what you deliver?
  4. Under promise and over deliver

Eugene Peterson in The Message paraphrases our text: “And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ’I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ’God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ’yes’ and ’no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.” Just say, “yes” and “no.” It sounds simple enough. And yet we know speaking the truth is anything but simple.”

3. Examine your motives: Why am I making this promise? What do I really want?

  1. Do I want success at the cost of relationships?
  2. Do I want acceptance, even if it means being less than truthful?
  3. Ann Hibbard, Life at Work Journal: “The test of character comes when being truthful endangers what you want.”

Living an honest life and keeping our promises can be difficult.

Did you know that several of the Bible’s greatest “heroes of the faith” had an issue a time or two with lying?

Abraham lied to the Egyptian Pharaoh saying that his wife Sarah was actually his sister. Jacob lied to his father Isaac saying that he was actually his brother Esau, so he could receive the blessing meant for the eldest son. Peter lied to the servants and soldiers surrounding the fire outside the trial room where Jesus was being tried, convicted and sentenced to the cross, saying, “I tell you I never knew the man!” Paul, after his own fashion, was so blinded by his own arrogance that he sought to suppress the Truth of Jesus Christ.

However, the Holy Spirit can work miracles and change a liar into a person of integrity. Abraham came to a point and place in his life when he was able to trust God for everything, even the life of his beloved son Isaac. Jacob, after a night of wrestling with God, was able to trust God with everything he had, and so he returned to face his brother Esau whom he had cheated and betrayed.

Peter was able to trust God before the same crowd that had called for Jesus’ crucifixion when he stood up at Pentecost to proclaim the same name he had denied a mere 50 days before.

Christ calls us to a life of profound truthfulness. We live in a radically deceptive world, a world that that is deceitful at its very core. We are adrift in a seal of media deception. Men are told that if they dye the gray out they will be handsome and attractive again. Rivers of hyperbole and exaggeration flow through advertising and political campaigns.

It is not easy to be a truthful person in today’s world but it is necessary for both the church and the world. The world longs for freedom from dishonesty. The sad truth is that many people who have taken the name of Jesus and call themselves Christians have no better set of ethics and morals than the culture around them. Our integrity as followers of Christ can make all the difference to a dying world. “The avoidance of one small fib. . . . may be stronger confession of faith than a whole ‘Christian philosophy’ championed in lengthy forceful discussion.” When people know that you don’t lie, your testimony will have more effect than all the theology you could ram at them.

Col. 3:7-10 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Proverbs 12:22 The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful.

Proverbs 6:16-19 There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: 17haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, 19a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

3 This great choir sang a wonderful new song in front of the throne of God and before the four living beings and the twenty-four elders. No one could learn this song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 They have kept themselves as pure as virgins,[a] following the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been purchased from among the people on the earth as a special offering[b] to God and to the Lamb. 5 They have told no lies; they are without blame. Revelation 14:3-5

This whole sermon could be summed up in a sentence. God hates lying and you need to tell the truth always.

Have you told the truth? Have you told the whole truth?



2007/07/22