Lying

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Lord God, may the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you this day. We thank you that you spoke and you have spoken your truth and love in such a way that everything was created by the word from your mouth, Lord, your word. And we want to live aligned with your truth, the truth of the way that you set this world up, the truth of the way that you are arranging things, and the truth of our eternity where we are in fellowship with you and one another. And we pray, Lord God, that the words that we speak are such that we build others up, that we are able to be the people you want us to be, that we can be transparent and open and honest and forthright in everything that you want, Lord. We pray today, Lord, for this nation, that we'd be a people of truth and that we'd be a nation that looks to you. We remember this day, Lord, those who have fought for this nation, who have sacrificed and given their lives for it. We thank you, Lord, for the freedoms that we have because of their sacrifices. And we ask that you would teach us to honor those who give themselves in that way. And not just those who have fought in our wars, Lord God, but those who also are on the front line from law enforcement, but not only that, teachers these days, Lord. The front line who give of themselves and sacrifice of themselves in so many ways. We thank you for them. And we ask that we would be able to honor them, not only this weekend, but in the ways that we speak to them and encourage them in their callings as well. And we pray, Lord, that you just bless your church today throughout southern Florida and across this whole area, that we would grow and be renewed and that we too, Lord, would walk away from here knowing that you touched us with your presence today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So I think we've used this passage. I don't know. I keep coming back to it. We're going to be looking at a couple of different places in the scriptures today. First of all, Ephesians 4, but then also in 1 John 1. That'll come up later. But we're going to read Ephesians 4, 25 to 32 right now. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. How many of you would say that in the last 48-ish hours that you've lied? Just kind of raise your hand to the side in one form or another. That in the last 48 hours or so that you've lied, keep it up. Now look at all those who have not raised their hands and recognize this reality, though. They're probably lying right now. Because the truth is, on average, I'm not going to accuse everyone here of this, but on average, people lie approximately four times a day, research has shown. Yes, four times a day. The average person lies about four times a day. That's actually a slide, okay? Be calm. You're a liar. Keep calm, you know. Yeah. Now, this is interesting. Dan Eyerly wrote the book, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty, how we lie to everyone, especially ourselves. And he says this, there's one way to find out if a man is honest. Ask him if he says yes, he's a crook. We can laugh about it, but it's true. I think we all struggle with this issue. And I think it was Oscar Wilde who said, I don't have this up on a quote, but Oscar Wilde said, hey, if you can't win, if you lie, people will distrust you. If you tell the truth, people will dislike you. Which one do you do, right? But I think Paul's words here, beyond this reality of we all struggle with this idea of lying, is just amazing to me. In Ephesians 4.25, and we're going to kind of wrap ourselves around this, therefore, having put away falsehood, kind of like, okay, that's an old garment I used to wear. It doesn't fit anymore. It's not who I am anymore. Throw it away. Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Kind of like I prayed, this is the reality. When we are in relationship with others, God wants us to show and display and be people of honesty and truth and transparency, even vulnerability, the fact of openness, because that's how we have, and why? Because that is who our God is...