Liar, liar, pants on fire.
Acts 4.32. Now the multitude of those
who believed were of one heart and one
soul.
Neither did anyone say that any of his
things he possessed was his own, but they
had all things in common.
Isn't that amazing?
The multitude, those who believed, the believers were
of one heart and one soul, and neither
did anyone say that his things were his
own possession.
Now, this is a good reminder to remind
you, I remind myself, that our possessions are
really not our possessions.
You know, we think this is mine, and
really we're just stewards.
Your house, your children, your finances.
If you look at it as like, Lord,
you are the owner of this, how can
I better steward this?
It will change the way you spend money.
It will change the way you store things.
Now we've got too much storage in our
homes.
Now we've got garages with storage units.
Back when my dad bought his first house,
they didn't even have garages.
You had a little garage outside, now we've
got three car garages.
We put more stuff, and then after that,
we go and get a storage unit.
And then we have storage and storage, and
I know one of the concerns about when
the churches first came together here was people
would say, you know, what are they going
to do with the building?
And we just recognize this as stewards.
We're the stewards for the next 20 years
or whatever God does.
I'm not retiring early, but whatever God wants
to do, we are stewards of that.
So that changes the way you view things.
It changes, now you've got to save and
you've got to use wisdom, but we're just
a steward of what God has for us.
And that's what the early church had that
I think many of us are lacking.
They realized that they didn't own anything.
It wasn't their possessions.
They were of one heart and one soul,
and I find this interesting that unity, unity
is very common among people when they first
believe.
When a person believes in Jesus, they are
united with all of, oh, you're a believer,
me too, me too, and I remember back,
it was 1999, I came back to the
Lord, and that's what we say, you know,
if you come back to the Lord, the
prodigal son, and God radically changed my life,
and I was so united, and then you
start meeting people.
You know, that have been a Christian for
20 years, you know, and you can't read
that Bible.
You know, that's John MacArthur's study Bible.
He doesn't believe in the gifts.
Oh, okay, disunity, but you can't read Jack
Kafer because he does, and then people say,
oh, you can't read that, and I'm not
endorsing anybody, I'm just talking about how we
like to, now, there's nothing wrong with having
sound doctrine, and pointing out error, and being
united in the essentials of the faith, but
we have to be careful when we use
our certain beliefs, and now that's the gauge
on which we rate everyone else, so I've
noticed unity when people are young in the
faith, and then that unity quickly turns to
division as we get older, and more mature,
and more knowledgeable, and some division needs to
take place, of course, but be careful in
this area of unity.
I'm not endorsing those people I just said,
right?
I'm telling you, though, that we have to
respect differences.
I think it was Augustine, I didn't write
it down, but to have unity in the
essentials, and then love in all things, and
the quote goes on to say other things,
but we have to be united in the
essentials.
What unity involves is putting your own rights
and opinions down when they need to be
put down.
We don't always have to get the last
word in.
We don't always have to be right about
certain things.
I mean, there's people in this room we
could get in a long, heated debate on
eschatology.
That's the study of end times.
You could get in a long debate about
pneumatology, the work of the Holy Spirit.
You could get in a debate about soteriology,
about salvation, those who believe in Calvinism, those
who believe in Arminianism, man's free will versus
God's sovereignty.
You can get in debates forever.
Church government, the structure of church government, congregational
rule, elder rule, or pastor rule, women in
leadership, what role, what position, and the Bible
does speak about these things, but a heart
that's united wants unity, not fighting and arguing
and bickering and complaining and causing contention.
There is, though, a time to stand for
what is right.
There's a time to say, you know what,
I just wrote an article, hopefully, or maybe
it is in your bulletins, I think Susie
made copies, five reasons why Christians are divided
on gay marriage.
And just a couple days ago, the news
picked up, there's like 4,000 shares, and
you'll be amazed that the emails I get
are from Christians that are mad.
Pastors that are mad, that have reverend in
front of their name.
Sir, you are deceived, is what they tell
me.
According to Jude, you are deceived.
Really?
I don't know, I mean, you might want
to read the Bible, it doesn't change.
And so those things, there are certain things
that you can't, well, you're right, let me
just give you that one, and we'll give
you that one, and we'll give you the
atonement.
You can't just keep, you know, you've got
to stand for something.
What's the old country song?
Or you'll fall for anything, right?
So, but be careful, because I've seen in
my own heart, I've seen this many times
before, that that wonderful gift of unity can
be shattered very easily, and you have to
work at unity, because it does not come
naturally.
It comes supernaturally, by the work of the
Spirit.
The Holy Spirit's never divided, remember that.
33, and with great power, the apostles gave
witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and great grace was upon them all.
So unity equaled power.
Nor was there anyone among them who lacked,
for all who were possessors of lands or
houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of
things that were sold, and laid them at
the apostles' feet, and they distributed to each
one as the need arose.
So a need is different than a want.
Here's what he's saying, abundance, our abundance should
take the place of the need or lack
in the lives of others.
So you look at your abundance, you look
at what God has put on your heart,
and you say, can I give that to
those in need?
Verse 36, you ready?
And Joseph, who was also named Barnabas, or
Barnabas, I'm sorry, I got the wrong guy
in my mind.
Barnabas, by the apostles, which is translated son
of encouragement, a Levite of the country of
Cyprus, having land, he sold it, and brought
the money, and laid it at the apostles'
feet.
That's the right way to do it.
They sold something, they had this land, we
don't know much about it other than they
were able to sell it, they brought all
the proceeds to the church.
Now that's the right way because the heart
was right.
Now let's look at the wrong way to
do this.
Acts 5, but a certain man named Ananias,
with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and
he kept back part of the proceeds, his
wife also being aware of it, and brought
a certain part and laid it at the
apostles' feet.
But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled
your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit,
and keep back part of the price of
the land for yourself?
While it remained, was it not your own?
And after it was sold, was it still
not in your own control?
Why have you conceived this thing in your
heart?
You have not lied to men, but to
God.
So in a nutshell, piece of property across
the street, sells for $100,000.
They say, hey, I just sold a property
across the street, I want the church to
have it all, bless you brother, here's $50
,000.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
What happened?
You could just say, I sold it for
$100,000, here's $50,000, I'd like to
give the church, and that's fine.
Or give the church $10,000 or give
a ministry something, it doesn't matter as long
as you're honest about it.
What has God put in my heart?
Here's what I've done.
But they said, oh, we sold it for
such and such, but they really didn't.
They kept all the extra proceeds from that
sale.
So, a couple questions.
Why do we lie?
Now everybody in this room better be convicted
on this sermon, I'll tell you what.
Why do we lie?
We lie because of fear.
We lie because we want to get out
of trouble.
Right, is that one reason?
Just yesterday I saw my phone had a
big crack in the corner.
Like, how did that happen?
I didn't do that.
So I went and started asking my kids,
right?
And finally when I narrowed down who did
it, I went to her.
She's not here right now, she's next door.
But I said, you know what?
If you tell me the truth, you're not
in trouble.
What happened here?
And she goes, hmm.
I dropped it.
You know, I dropped it.
And I wanted to give her the opportunity
to say, listen, you're not always going to
be in trouble.
It's not a good thing.
You tell the truth.
Here's what happened.
Daddy's not upset.
You know, I'm glad you told the truth.
But why was she probably going to lie
if I didn't set it up that way?
To get out of trouble.
And that doesn't change from six years old
to 16 to 26 to 36.
Husbands, wives.
Where'd you go?
I just ran a few errands.
Just ran a few errands.
That's all I did.
Hmm.
Our credit card statement says Walmart.
Well, $50 at Walmart and $60 at Sports
Chalet and we don't want to get in
trouble.
Right, we just run errands, covers everything.
You're on a fast.
I ran errands.
Why is In-N-Out Burger and Coalstone
receipts in your car?
And we...
But that's...
We want to get...
This is not a funny sermon.
This is online.
It's serious.
And it is serious stuff.
But think about that.
I want to challenge us this morning.
I want to challenge us because these little
things turn into big things.
This little lie will become a bigger lie
and will become a bigger lie and become
a bigger lie.
We're afraid to get out of trouble.
A poor self-image.
People do lie because they have a poor
self-image.
That's why you often hear name-dropping.
You know, if anybody says name...
You know, oh, I would name-drop.
They drop this name because they have a
poor self-image and they want you to
think more highly of them.
To get our point across.
Don't we lie to get our point across?
This one cracks me up because we upset
a few people when we stopped Saturday night
service.
And somebody said, you know, people are upset
and this, we don't know what's going on.
There's a lot of people who feel this
way.
So I said, okay, I'd like to meet
these lot of people.
Let's sit down.
I'd like to hear what's on their heart.
Nothing else happened from that.
Where are these lot of people?
And that happens a lot.
Well, now there's a lot of people who
feel that way.
No, it's just you and the person you
gossip with.
Often.
And we throw that in there.
We throw, there's a lot of people that
feel this way.
That's lying.
If it's not, that's altering the truth to
get a point across.
I've been guilty of that myself.
You want to bump it up a little
bit?
You know, there's a lot of people here
who don't like this.
No, there's just me and my wife and
maybe somebody else.
And you know, and you bump that up
and that's not good.
That's called lying.
It's deceptive.
And many people do that.
Also selfish.
We lie because we're selfish and we want
our way.
We don't want to be truthful in many
areas.
But this person actually lied to appear spiritual,
in my opinion.
He was saying, here you go, here's a
hundred thousand, or here's fifty thousand.
That's what we sold the land for.
Really, they sold it for a hundred.
So he wanted to appear spiritual.
Look at what we, we're giving you everything.
Aren't we so spiritual?
And God obviously does not like that.
John Piper said, sin, by definition in the
Bible, is not wronging another person.
It is assaulting the glory of God, rebelling
against God.
The world doesn't understand how serious hell is
because they don't understand how serious sin is.
And sin is actually lying to God.
We're lying to God.
Why have you lied against the Holy Spirit?
Why have you lied and conceived this thing?
And it's interesting.
Jesus is the truth.
We are voices of truth.
We live by the truth.
The truth sets us free, so the truth
is a big deal.
This is a huge topic.
This is a huge topic in the Christian
community because we'll tweak things, we'll say things,
we'll have the self-image, we'll alter the
truth, and we walk around and we're actually
lying.
And I believe God wants a deal in
many of our hearts this morning to get
this little root of lying.
It takes on a life of its own
because if you lie about the little things
and you lie about something else, you never
get caught.
It's something else.
And we become liars, and not necessarily all
the time, but we have a tendency to
not tell the truth, and God is not
happy with that.
What about when David sinned with Bathsheba?
He said, Against you and you only have
I sinned.
Wait a minute.
You just got her husband killed, David.
You just had Uriah killed.
You just committed adultery.
What are you talking about, against you and
you only have I sinned?
Well, here's a clarification.
He wronged others.
He did wrong them, but he rebelled against
God.
God said, Don't do this.
He did it.
So yes, he wronged those people.
That was wrong.
But he, Against you and you only have
I sinned.
Because all sin, remember this, all sin starts
by rebelling against God.
I first sinned against God before I sinned
against others because when I'm sinning, in that
process, I'm actually rebelling against God.
And it's an affront to him.
Why has Satan filled your heart?
And we need to talk about this for
a minute because I taught in James on
Wednesday.
If you were here, you remember this.
But the devil doesn't do, the devil doesn't
make us do anything.
The devil doesn't make you do anything.
You can't blame the devil.
I hope that burst the bubble for some
people this morning.
You can't say there's a deceiving spirit.
There's a lying spirit.
There's a spirit of chocolate in my house.
There's a spirit of, of all the, and
we just, we just cave in.
Now the enemy will, the Bible talks about
deceiving spirits.
The Bible talks about a lying spirit was
sent out.
And there are different ways that the enemy
will come in, but he doesn't make you
do anything.
He simply presents the bait.
Just like a trout, when they see that
little, look at that little, little fish.
It's broken.
It's hurt.
I'm going to go eat it.
And then they eat that lure.
What happens?
Now they're the trout.
Now they're the bait.
Now they're the food.
That's the enemy does.
He just threw, so he probably threw that
idea in there.
I mean, that's a good idea for our
flesh, isn't it?
Hmm.
Yeah, I'll tell the church this and I'll
just, I'll keep the rest and I'll appear
spiritual, but I'll still have money.
So he filled his mind with that, but
he had the choice not to act upon
it and, and resist, lie against the Holy
Spirit and fulfill that.
And isn't that true in all areas of
life?
It's a daily struggle with the flesh.
I mean, at some point, I wish that
that flesh would just die and just be,
just leave me alone.
It's not going to happen on this side
of heaven.
It's, it's so as a word of encouragement,
just because there's that tension or that temptation
doesn't make it wrong or evil.
Like you get these thoughts.
You're like, why did I get those thoughts?
I'm such a bad person.
No, just don't act upon them.
The enemy could plant seeds in your mind
and thoughts.
And I'll tell you just a struggle I
had this week.
It's not a real big one, but hopefully
it'll help some people.
And many of you, some of you, and
I think I mentioned it in one of
the sermons that our neighbor likes to walk
his dog about six feet past my property
line.
And then, you know, it takes place when
people walk dogs and they just, they leave
it there for a week or two and
it builds up, right?
So the flesh is like, I'm knocking on
that door.
I'm not, and the Holy Spirit's like, no,
you're going to get a shovel and a
trash can and be quiet.
No, I'm knocking on that door.
This is rude.
What did they think?
No, you're going to pick up a shovel,
clean it up.
And no, and for two days, for two
days, I didn't do anything.
I just pulled up, saw it, man, pull
it.
Man, there's a struggle because the flesh want,
right?
I am human too.
The flesh want to knock on it.
Who do you think you are?
Six feet away from my, where my kids
are and play.
You know, what are you doing?
But I had to just say, okay, I'm
just gonna grab a shovel and trash can
and just do it.
And then yesterday I saw him walking out
there.
He saw it was clean and he hit
it, he head over across the street with
his dog.
So I'm like, okay, well, I'll take that
for now.
But it's a struggle, isn't it?
It's a daily struggle.
I like to fast before I preach.
I like to fast right now.
I'm fasting.
I don't eat just juice.
And wouldn't you know it, I want to
stop by McDonald's on my way here.
Everything was talking and I usually don't stop
there, but get a coffee, get a pastry.
Oh, that would sound so good.
The flesh is, no, you're not going, yes,
I am.
No, you're not.
And you, who are you going?
So that's what the devil does.
So the devil doesn't make you do anything.
Now, if you give into something and you're
in the world and loving the things of
the world, that influence will be much stronger
than if you're in the word of God
and serving God and fasting and worshiping and
reading his word, then that desire is not
as strong because the enemy doesn't have as
much of a foothold to pull you back.
So that's how the devil works.
He puts in thoughts into your head about
certain things.
Well, how do I know, You compare it
with the word of God.
You compare it with the word of God.
What does this say?
Well, I don't know what this says.
Well, then you better get into this because
if you're not in the word, the word
won't be in you.
That's how it works.
We don't just think that's a pretty good
book we should get to from time to
time.
No, it's a living and Aaron inspired word
of God that's given to guide us and
lead us.
And the more you have of that in
you, the more you know when to make
a right decision or a wrong one.
So just keep that in mind.
Blame shifting is very common when it comes
to lying.
People will blame shift.
They will lie.
Well, if they're lying and they're caught in
a lie, how do they usually get out
of that lie?
You know what?
You're right.
Let me repent right now.
No, they don't say that.
They build a different lie in a different
scenario and a different this and a different
that.
They blame shift or they'll blame the enemy.
People have to, Shane, there's a lying spirit
that will not let me go.
I just have to lie.
Or it's a person, the devil made me
get drunk.
No, you planned it when you left for
Las Vegas.
It's a four-hour drive.
You've got four hours to think about it.
He didn't make you do anything.
You got in the car, you turned the
key and you drove.
Now what are we going to hear?
Now that marijuana is legal.
The devil made me get high.
It's right.
No, it's you made that choice.
So be careful because a lot of times
we want to blame shift or blame our
spouse or blame our children.
I've had a hard week.
I've had a, and that's one way the
enemy will work.
I came across a story talking about the
pull of the flesh and wanting to make
wise decisions.
And it's a story of a little boy
named Alexander.
He was trying to save pennies so he
could buy a baseball bat.
And he was having a very hard struggle.
He said to God, he was praying, he
said, and his mom overheard him praying to
God fervently.
He said, oh Lord, please help me save
my money for a baseball bat.
Please God, help me.
Can you hear a little boy saying that?
I can.
Lord, help me.
Help me save my money for this baseball
bat.
And God, please don't let the ice cream
man come down my street anymore.
That's how it works, isn't it?
He's never gonna win that battle unless he
realizes, oh, I'm supposed to tell that ice
cream man.
No, I'm supposed to make that decision.
So verse five, I'm sorry, chapter five, we're
going to a new chapter now.
Then Ananias, hearing these words, what words did
he hear?
He heard, why has Satan filled your heart?
You're lying.
You're lying to us about this money.
So hearing these words, he fell down and
breathed his last breath.
So great fear came upon all those who
heard these things.
And the young man arose and wrapped him
up, carried him out and buried him.
No wasting time there.
Now it was about three hours later when
his wife came in, not knowing what had
happened, but she knew about the little conspiracy.
She was also going to say, yeah, we
sold it for such and such, but really
they didn't, they're keeping the money.
So she knew all about this, but she
didn't know that he died.
And Peter answered her, tell me whether you
sold the land for so much.
She said, yes, for so much.
Then Peter said to her, how is it
that you have agreed together to test the
spirit of the Lord?
And I don't know why, but I made
a note real early this morning on this
and it really jumped out that a lot
of times spouses will enable a liar.
Spouses will conspire.
I know they've got this issue, but they're
enabling, they're doing it together because if one
spouse says, this is not right.
I can't put up with this anymore.
You're hurting my family.
I need to take a stand.
You can stop that enabling.
Many times spouses who continue to lie, it's
because they are being enabled.
The spouse, even though they don't like it,
will kind of support it, kind of back
them, kind of, you know, well, you know
what I'm saying, right?
I mean, we don't want to put our
spouse down in front of others.
We've learned that many times before looking through
the scriptures.
We don't want to constantly, you know, badge
or anything, but at some point when you're
at home alone, you gotta say this is
enough.
Enough is enough.
I cannot keep conspiring with you on this.
I know your heart's not right in these
areas.
So they agreed together to test the spirit
of the Lord.
And he said, look, the feet of those
who have buried your husband are at the
door and they will carry you out as
well.
Then immediately she fell down at his feet
and breathed her last.
And the young men came in and found
her dead and carried her out, buried her
by her husband.
So great fear came upon all the church
and upon all who heard these things.
Now, that's where the question came in at
the beginning of the sermon.
Why did God do this?
Because if that happened today, I don't know
how many people would be sitting here this
morning.
I mean, think about it.
Oh no, I'm never like that.
How many people would really be here?
Would this place be empty?
What happened?
Well, a couple of things I want to
look at.
If you look at from, if you go
back from the flood to the children of
Israel in the promised land, to let's say
King Herod, to Ananias, there's a lot of
times that God did smoke people, like smoke,
killed.
He would remove them from office quickly.
He would kill entire armies.
He flooded the earth.
So there are times that you see God
intervenes and does things like this.
Now, we have to remember that his justice
cannot sleep forever.
His justice cannot sleep forever.
I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who said,
I tremble for my country when I realize
that God is just and that his justice
cannot sleep forever.
They even realized that a couple hundred years
ago, even today, even the early church.
So in my opinion, again, commentaries are divided.
I'll go through a lot of different issues,
but I have a feeling that this is
an area that God had convicted them in
before.
I don't think they were these righteous, holy,
good people in the church and that, wow,
they just blew it one day and just
kind of told a little fib so they
keep more money.
I think there was a pattern there, a
pattern of lying, a pattern of deception.
And I think God said enough is enough.
I'm removing this, especially the early church.
I'm removing that for the church.
Some people say, and which I agree with
too, is God was setting the example.
He was building the foundation of the church.
Nope, that's not gonna happen.
Great fear goes upon the whole church.
You better live holy.
You better walk righteously.
You better not build the church on these
types of foundations.
So that could be one area as well.
But the practical application for us is don't
tempt or test God.
Don't tempt or test God.
If we are continuing to lie, it's by
God's sheer grace and mercy that he allows
us to keep breathing or to keep being
involved in ministry or to keep doing things.
It's by sheer grace and mercy.
We can't keep testing that and tempting God
in that area.
I remember 1911, hearing a quote, I found
it again, in 1911, this was said in
1911, not even God himself could sink this
ship.
You know what they're talking about?
An employee for the Titanic said that, right?
The morning of its launch.
Not even God can sink this ship.
Well, hmm, we can look back now and
know what happened.
And that's what we don't want to do.
So the practical application, in my opinion, would
be that we don't want to tempt God
in this area.
If we know that lying is a problem,
if we know we are lying, we're using
maybe the church for certain things, we're using
people for certain things, we're conniving and being
sneaky and we're lying, that needs to end.
We can't keep allowing this to be in
the church or in our families.
We have to say, God, I want help
in this area, but you have to confess
it.
And this is one of the hardest sins,
because liars, what do they do?
They lie.
So how do you get a liar who
lies to confess and repent when their whole
pattern is lying?
It's very difficult.
God has to just open their eyes.
Open their eyes.
Yesterday, when I was talking to Randy, we
were talking to these atheists, I'm like praying,
Lord, you've got to open these eyes.
You've got, this makes no sense.
No, I took a little Tabasco thing and
said, now, obviously, a person made this, right?
Oh, of course, well, well, then how much
more of the human body?
How much more of the universe and the
oxygen, the hydrogen, all these elements that sustain
life?
Well, if you give it 4.5 billion
years, that could happen.
You can't just say, if you give it,
because they say 12 billion or 5 billion,
you can't just say, well, if you give
it enough time, no, it won't.
If you leave that rock out there, it's
not gonna be an elephant in 20 years
or 5,000 years.
It's not.
But there's blindness there.
I'm listening, how could anybody believe this?
Oh, my Lord.
But there's blindness, there's blindness.
They don't want there to be a God,
many times.
If there's a God, then there's moral accountability.
Then I've been wrong all these times, all
these years?
How could I be?
And that's what the issue, there's spiritual blindness.
So if you know, that's what I wanna
do at the end of the service also,
is pray for those we know who struggle
in this area, whether it's a spouse, whether
it's kids, whether it's ourselves.
We need to pray in this area that
spiritual blindness is removed.
Because you're not gonna just talk someone into
this.
God has got to move on their behalf
and show them.
That's one of the points of preaching.
And looking to God's word.
Psalm 32, David, he was keeping silent about
his sin.
Do you know David kept silent for about
a year on this massive sin of killing
another man and taking his wife?
And Psalm 32 says, when I kept silent,
my bones grew old through my groanings all
day long.
For day and night, your hand was heavy
upon me.
My vitality was turned into the drought of
summer.
Think about that, where are some of you,
can you relate to this spiritually?
Your bones even hurt.
Day and night, God's hand is heavy upon
you.
Your vitality has turned into a drought of
summer.
You're just dead spiritually.
You're moody, you're upset.
You're just angry.
What's going on?
It's because when we're caught in this sin
and we allow it to continue and fester
and build, it will destroy us spiritually.
We'll have this huge weight and we'll just
be grumpy and moody.
And because we're not supposed to carry this
weight, we're supposed to repent and confess and
give it to Christ to carry it.
My yoke is easy, he says, take it
upon you.
Confess your sins, I will carry that load
for you.
But when David finally confessed, he acknowledged, it
says, I acknowledge my sin to you and
my iniquity I have not hidden.
I have said, I will confess my transgressions
to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity
of my sin.
You know, I keep, ever since we started
the sermon, I kept wanting to read these
excerpts and I was holding to the end,
I just wanna read them now.
I think this might open the eyes for
some people.
I just pulled this off of online secular
sites about compulsive lying.
This person, Lexus Clark, wrote, though compulsive liars
often take extreme care to keep others under
the spell of their deception, once in a
while, the web of lies unravels and the
liar is seen as without any of his
dishonest walls.
When this occurs, the liar works quickly and
frantically to rebuild those walls, constructing more lies
in order to rebuild himself into what he
was previously seen as.
This often involves elaborate stories of being falsely
accused, constructing lie after lie with the intention
of defending his or her supposed innocence.
If this method, as well as any other
attempts, fail, then the compulsive liar is forced
to tell the truth, but he or she
will often do it with a great display
of anxiety or nervousness or they're uncomfortable.
They'll finally admit it, but there's just something
about that.
You agitated that.
Truth about deception wrote this, I have been
married to a compulsive liar for more than
25 years.
The lies range from simple ones that had
no apparent point to very complex deceptions made
to achieve a goal.
When confronted, she would deny lying, misdirect the
conversation and verbally attack me and try every
approach imaginable to avoid the truth.
If pursued long enough, she may tell the
truth, but with a great deal of resentment.
Anyone who has been shocked or devastated by
the actions of a liar knows the shame
that follows.
You are outraged, but deep inside, you feel
stupid and naive for having misjudged someone's character.
It can be deceptive and painful and downright
confusing.
That's what lying does to families.
And the word of God is saying, stop
it, stop it.
As believers, you have the ability to say,
God, I need to work in this area.
And if the truth be told, I would
say it's a majority of this room.
No, Shane, well, did you know backbiting is
lying?
Slander, gossip, those are all forms of lying,
embellishing, creating a reality that's not there.
That's all lying.
That's not being honest, that's being dishonest.
And I believe this is a huge area
that God is wanting to work in our
lives and in the church.
So back to this question of why did
God kill these people?
Other than what I just said, another answer
is sovereignty.
Sovereignty plays a role in this.
We don't know why.
We just know that God had had enough.
I believe that he warned them time and
time again, the conviction of the Holy Spirit,
they were believers.
Now in our own lives, we may not
die when we do this, but we lose
spiritual power.
We lose insight and we lose wisdom.
Our walk with the Lord is severely hindered
when we do this.
Another reason is possibly for fear purposes.
Twice it says, so great fear came upon
all the church and upon all who heard
these things.
See, there's nothing wrong when a church from
time to time fears something.
We should fear Almighty God.
We should fear his power, his presence.
We should fear things.
We should fear having sin exposed so we
repent.
That's one of the processes and that's one
of the reasons for Matthew 18.
If you look at Matthew 18 on church
discipline, first you go to somebody and you
discuss why they're caught in a sin.
They don't agree, they don't understand.
You bring a couple people, a couple witnesses,
maybe some elders, you've gotta go back to
your wife.
Stop living with your girlfriend.
This is wrong.
We cannot allow this.
Please, we're pleading with you.
We're pleading with you.
You do not allow this to continue.
And if he just mocks it and mocks
it and mocks it, then you bring it
to the church.
And you say, listen, we love this person
enough to, we have to disfellowship.
We have to cut ties because they are
tainting.
They are affecting.
They are that leaven, the leavens of bread.
We love them enough to pray for restoration.
And you expose the sin and people are
scared.
People are scared.
I remember, I wonder if we were able
to send out a massive text saying, you've
been found out, you better get home and
hide it.
How many people would run for cover?
Because that's what a lot of times God
will use fear to redirect people.
You see Christian leaders falling on the news,
fear.
Men, get your house in order.
You see another person fall.
Women, get your house in order too.
Coming underneath your husband's leadership and praying for
your kids.
And fear can be a great motivator.
I fear crossing that line when somebody's driving
65 miles an hour.
And I pull up to people even on
the freeway.
It's amazing.
They're driving with their knees.
Shane, why are they doing that?
And you fear those kind of people.
You fear.
What, is that what happens?
I'm the only one that sees that?
No.
People are texting every stoplight.
You'll watch now.
Cars, it's green.
The cars are still staying there.
What are they doing?
Oh, shoot, it's a green light.
No, go.
And you'll see these things.
And so you hear, and texting actually, they're
coming out with more ads now that shows
how dangerous that is.
So fear, God, we use fear to redirect
and to refocus us.
So this could have been what he was
doing.
So here's the exposure.
Again, that should prompt us to repentance.
If you have a problem in this area,
like David, don't keep silent.
Don't keep hiding from God.
It's heavy upon you.
God is using this type of sermon to
bring conviction.
You're spiritually dried up.
All you have to do, like David said,
acknowledge my sin and my iniquity.
I have not hidden them.
God, I'm bringing them to you.
This should cause our prayer room to be
full next door.
This should cause our prayer room to be
full next door.
After the service, I'm coming to you, God.
I need help in this area.
Or I'm praying for somebody.
I'm praying for my spouse.
I'm praying for my kids.
I'm praying for somebody to see the light
because they don't see the light very easily.
And I wanna just, while we're talking about
that, if you go next door and everybody's
tied up praying with somebody, did you know
you can grab the person next to you
and pray with them?
It doesn't say, when Pastor Shane is with
you and two or more are together, there
I am.
Or an elder, now you should go to
the elders and have them pray with you
and for healing and anointing and different things.
But you can just grab somebody and let
me pray for you.
If you've been a Christian and you wanna
pray with somebody, you can do that.
You don't have to wait for somebody necessarily.
You can pray with them and there's power
in that because there's fellowship.
There's coming together.
There's unity.
And here's probably where I guess my heart
is most broken about this topic is Revelation
21.8. If you believe the Bible, then
you believe this.
The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers,
the sexual immoral, those who practice magic arts,
the idolaters.
People are saying, oh, praise God, that's not
me.
But then it says all liars will go
into the fiery lake burning with sulfur.
This is the second death.
That's serious.
You can hear a pin drop.
Yeah, you should hear a pin drop because
this is very serious.
Unbelieving, idolaters, fornicators, all these things.
A liar will be cast into the fiery
lake of hell and be separated from God.
This is the second death.
What's the first death?
The first death is when you take your
last breath and the second death is when
you go before God and there's judgment and
you're cast away into hell because of lying.
Now people say, oh, wow, how does this
work?
Because I do lie and I, Shane, what's
gonna happen?
This is actually not as hard as you
think.
Lying in this sense is an habitual pattern
of lying.
You know it, it's who you are.
You've decided that's your MO.
That's how you're gonna operate.
You don't care what God's word says and
you're going to continue to be a liar.
It's not that liars actually go into hell
or adulterers or fornicators or all these other
things.
It's their lifestyle shows that they don't have
a relationship with God.
So that's why there's a whole list of
things, whole list of things from homosexuality to
lying to adultery to stealing, all these things.
If this is a habitual pattern and you
say, I don't care what God's word says
about it, it doesn't really matter to me.
This is who I am.
This is who he's made me to be.
Then whether you're a liar, whether you covet,
whether you're in the black magic or the
occult or whether you cheat and you, no
matter what it is, you will be cast
away from God because you don't have a
relationship with him.
But the person, there are Christians who struggle
with lying.
They struggle with it.
God, help me.
It reminds me of an analogy I think
I gave here when I first started speaking
of the pig and the lamb.
The mud represents sin.
The pig goes and wallows in the mud
and enjoys it and leads other people in.
But the lamb hates its miserable condition when
it's caught in the mud and it desperately
wants out.
So on one hand, I wanna severely warn
those who don't truly know God.
And they are a lying.
They don't drink, they don't do this, but
they are a liar.
They've never repented.
They don't have genuine faith that it's crystal
clear that you are not on God's side.
But I also wanna encourage those who struggle
with lying.
It's no different than struggling with any other
sin.
That disposition to sin.
You're a liar.
Another person is adulterer.
Another person is hooked on porn.
Another person can't stop drinking if their life
depended on it.
Another person's about ready to order some more
Oxycontin and be hooked for the next two
months.
The struggles are struggles are struggles.
But what do you do?
You don't say, oh, well, that's the way.
No, you say, that's not right.
I'm taking that to the cross this morning.
Like David, I'm crying out.
I acknowledge my sin to you and I
acknowledge my iniquity.
I've been hiding them from you.
God, I give you this area of my
life.
Please cleanse me.
Let me confess it.
Let me bring it to the surface because
sin can't keep growing when it's confessed.
Trust me.
Sin loves that little darkness, just grows in
that darkness.
But when you come like to the prayer
room or you come, you stay here during
worship and you tell Lord, I need help
in this area.
And this is an area I think most
people need help in.
Embellishing, gossiping, backbiting, hurting, saying, oh, everybody feels
this way.
Well, no, they don't.
And we built this image of lying.
And a lot of churches don't want to
address it.
You think a lot of churches are gonna
read that verse tomorrow or today?
I used to think I'm Saturday night.
But they're gonna read that verse tomorrow that
liars will be cast into hell if a
person is a liar.
And all they do is lie and lie
and lie.
And they don't wanna repent.
That's a scary spot to live.
See, me personally, I don't wanna live my
life with the question mark there.
I don't, oh my gosh, I don't know.
Am I saved?
Am I not saved?
You know.
You know if you've genuinely repented of your
sin.
So if this is a mark, if lying
is a mark of your life, I just
ask you to confess this morning and say,
Lord, this is an area I have to
work in, I need to work in.