Pants on Fire

Jonathan Barker

Big Ten • Sermon • Submitted 7 months ago • Presented 7 months ago

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PREACH GIVING HOPE AND FREEDOM

Liar Liar Pants on Fire.

If you’ve never heard The extended version of this playful rhyme, it referenced our beloved Pinocchio, who of course experienced a reverse nose job each time he embellished the truth… Liar Liar Pants on Fire. Nose as long as a telephone wire.

Because the expression pants on fire is not scriptural, I feel as though I can take poetic liberty in saying that perhaps your pants are on fire because a little bit of hell is coming after you for telling a lie.

Exodus 20:16 Reads like this… “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”

The essence of this verse undoubtedly focused on mis-communicating truth in a way that typically brought shame or guilt to your fellow human being or perhaps innocence to yourself… sometimes the goal was both or even contingent upon the other. Some of us don’t think that we lie. One Christian speaker said 20 years ago that the church of America would experience incredible revival if for only one month every Christian prayed for 5 minutes a day and didn’t tell a single lie. I don’t think he was speaking to how little revival takes, but how prayer-less we are, and how living out lies in our life are often woven into the very fabric of our being. See if any of these sound familiar.

Our plans changed.... Something came up.... I changed my mind....

What happens when your plans change and you can’t or don’t want to keep a commitment that you have?

We cancel appointments, we cancel commitments we should keep, to do what we want ,or simply just because we don’t want to keep them. How often do we consider the ramifications of our words or how others are affected when we don’t keep our commitments?

I’m not really coming to you today to prove to you that you are liar, to show you how much you lie, or condemn you for doing so. Instead I want to encourage you that you can be full of the truth, and the truth will set you free. The truth will give you peace. The truth will heal you.

Let’s start with why we lie, Why do we lie? Well, the simple answer... is that we don’t like the truth. We don’t like the truth about who we are, who others believe we are, or what we believe God thinks about us. Theologian R.C. Sproul said that TRUTH is reality as perceived by God. Truth is reality as perceived by God. We fall into a world of lies when we allow our perception to be informed by anything other than God, other than His word, other than the that which His Holy Spirit says about us. To start anything new is almost always to leave something old. If you want to live a life of freedom in God’s truth we must start by, no longer living a lie.

Quit Living a Lie

boot/sandal tension how many lies do we walk around with, outfits, shoes, makeup, filters online, forgive me for story of my younger days, Allison threw it away when we were dating, shirt computer monitor, better online, funny because true

- 1 John 2:4 say “The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;” To label ourselves as a Christian, or one who has come to know Him is to speak about ourselves as a good person, or a moral person. We want to be known by others as a generally good person. 1 John makes the statement that when you live in a way that is different than that which has been prescribed as a Christian, that you are a liar. I think generally speaking we are all ok with this. If we say we are Christians we should act like Christians, if not we are lying. fair enough? We know this principle so well, that our fleshly instinct is to present ourselves in a way that is not our authentic self so that we won’t appear a liar. We live a lie, so others don’t label us a liar. Confusing enough huh? Are you tracking with me? When we are living a lie, we live in constant cycles of lying to ourselves, lying to others, and lying to God, that will eventually leave us in a state of duplicity and instability where even we ourselves are unsure about what we believe about ourselves. Socrates said that to know thyself was the beginning of wisdom. The Bible says to fear God is the beginning of wisdom. I know the Bible to be true, and believe that Socrates statement is wise. Wisdom requires a healthy fear of God, and an honest perspective of yourself before Him. As we wrestle with the reality of what type of life we are living we must come to understand that we CAN change our truth.

Receive His Truth

The easiest way to change YOUR truth is to receive HIS truth.

As we study His word we can receive His truth. We rebuke the lies of the devil that tell us that we are inadequate, that we don’t measure up, that we have failed, that we can’t come back, that we won’t amount to anything, and we learn who we are in Christ and How He sees us.

Receiving His Truth means understanding that... I was chosen before the creation of the world

I am God’s child

I belong to Him

I am forgiven

I am redeemed from the curse of the law

I am born of God and the evil one cannot touch me Receiving His truth means… I am assured that all things work together for good I have been established, anointed, and sealed by God

I am confident that God will perfect the work He has begun in me and I am a citizen of heaven

Receiving His truth means…

I have purpose and hope, I am included I am alive with Christ I have peace I have access to the Father I am safe and secure from all alarm

Receiving His truth means…

I am a holy temple

I am a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit

GODS POWER WORKS THROUGH ME I can approach God with freedom and confidence I know there is a purpose for my sufferings

Receiving His truth means… I can have a new attitude and a new lifestyle I can be kind and compassionate to others I can forgive others I can understand what God’s will is I can give thanks for everything I can honor God through my marriage I can parent my children with composure I can be strong I AM NOT ALONE

I am PRAYED FOR by Jesus Christ

Receiving His truth means…

I am promised eternal life I am chosen and dearly loved I am set free I am more than a conqueror I am the righteousness of God I am part of God’s kingdom I am no longer condemned

I am healed from sin

I am not helpless I can overcome I can persevere I am protected I am born again I am a new creation

I am delivered

Receiving His truth means…

I am victorious in Jesus name.

The devil is a liar, and if he can cause you to live a lie he can keep you from claiming these truths from scriptures. Let me be clear today, God’s opinion of you is THE opinion that matters. YOU ARE WHO HE SAYS YOU ARE, YOU HAVE WHAT HE SAYS YOU HAVE, YOU CAN BE WHAT HE SAYS YOU WILL BE.

Yes you are a sinner, but according to Romans 3:23 we’ve all sinned and come short of God’s glory

I know you might be afraid, but God has not given you a spirit of fear, fear is a liar. the father of lies is a cultivator of fear.

I know that you are wounded, but His wounds were greater than yours so that you might be healed.

You can change the truth about who you believe you are. Too many today are believing a lie or multiple lies about themselves.

When we make it our goal to quit living a lie in different areas or every area of our lives, when we Receive the Truth of His word, we are freed and empowered to speak the truth in love. The remedy, the plan, the way forward to fulfill the commandment about lying and and avoiding acting as a false witness is to...

Speak the Truth in Love

OUR WORDS FRAME OUR REALITY

Because ultimately lying has to do with the words that we speak… Just 2 days away from election I urge you church to speak the truth in love. Truth spoken in hate or anger is simply a misrepresentation of the ultimate authority on truth which is Jesus Christ. When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, His answer was LOVE. Love for God and love for man and womankind.... Church.... I’m not as loving as I should be. We all want justice, we all want truth, but JESUS was moved by compassion. Speaking the truth without love is a lie. Because He who claimed to be THE way THE truth and THE life, is the same one who John in 1 John 4:8 when he said, “The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” So if He who says He is THE Truth, IS love, not as a metaphor or a description, but as a synonomous identification of Himself. For truth to rightly be proclaimed as God intended would always be motivated by love. One of my favorite books over the years has been Martin Luther King Jr.’s book entitled strength to love. The entire book characterizes the fact that it doesn’t take strength to be angry or hateful, though we often view those attributes as strong, but instead to be calm and loving takes the greatest strength at all. To not lash out at our enemies, to not violently respond and to react. Motivated by Dr. King’s and Jesus’ emphasis, we should then strive to be characterized by others as love. Is that Jonathan, no that’s love, is that Colton, no that’s love, is that Adrienne, no that’s love. Is that Jesus, Yes thats love. A synonomous identification of the son of God is love. When your life is full of the Holy Spirit, The love of Christ IN YOU will eliminate the lies you’re believing. The love of Christ IN YOU will stop the lies that come out of you. The love of Christ shed abroad in your hearts will give you a hope that is not ashamed and that will disappoint, so that you might rebuke every lie that the enemy, or this culture tries to infiltrate within your heart and your mind.

INVITE TEAM (RESPONSE)

We want to stop living a lie, we want to receive His truth, and we want to speak the truth in Love

Church let’s begin living our lives where we can tell the truth about who we are and who He is. Stop over committing, and devaluing others time and feelings, for the sake of your own. Say what you are going to do, and do what you say you are going to do.

Receive His Truth - Stop believing that when sin remains that we are better than we are, that we are not sick, but we also stop believing the lies within us that tell us that we are not good enough, trapped in a relationship, trapped in a job, God wants you to remember your worth, remember that You were made to do great things in His name. That we are more than conquerors through Him!

Continue in His word. For when we know the truth the truth will set us free. In your life you continue to be bound by a lie about who you are because you have not yet received all that the truth of His word has for you.

As we receive His truth we will become like the Psalmist who said in Psalm 34:1 “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

As we praise the Lord with honest and sincerity of heart, that same heart will continually be shaped into His character which is summed up in that one word, LOVE. God is Love.

We continue to lie and be lied to because the Truth of God is not present as it should be. So as we distribute God’s love in word and deed, we do our part to honor this commandment and speak the Truth in Love against the lies of the devil, the lies that we speak to others, and the lies others speak around us, and the lies we continue to believe.

Don’t leave here today lying to God… Promising God this for that. Stop pretending, stop bearing false witness, when the judge who holds the power of the gavel, prefers to absolve you with His love.

Television journalist Ted Koppel observed, "Our society finds truth too strong a medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form, truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder. It is a howling reproach." In other words, the truth will set you free but first it will make you angry! If you want to become a realistic thinker, however, you need to get comfortable dealing with the truth and face up to it.

83 years old from 1980-2005 one of most trusted men in the world, do you know why? Because we allowed him to speak to us the most?

Which voice you listening to the most?

PRAYER

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THANKS FOR APPRECIATING US ALL

kid power offering

Jacob, Wellston, Lead, Honor him, kayleigh not here, plenty of time, jacob address us at prayer service in december.