The Truth Shall Make You Free - Leland Zehr

Good morning. I do want to.

Greet you all in the name of Jesus and also

welcome all of you, especially you visitors that are here

for the summer to help glad that you're here, and

we wish you a safe and blessed summer, safe physically

and also safe spiritually.

Know that you're away from home.

And it's good, but there's opportunities and temptations that come

in that kind of a setting, and we just want

to be a blessing to you while you're here in Oregon.

And it's probably not proper for Gerald to welcome himself back,

so I'll welcome Gerald and Jewel back. Good to have

you back with us here today as well.

As you all know. This last week.

Was Independence Day, celebration of freedom for the country that

we live in. Freedom, I guess originally that started with

the independence from another country, Great Britain. Freedom to be

our own country, freedom to make personal choices, freedom to

operate and do a lot of things within the boundaries

of the law in our land. Freedom of worship, freedom

of obeying God as we feel that we should, freedom

to have our private schools.

All these things.

We grew up with and we barely think about it, Gerald,

You probably didn't think about it. Gerald, and his prayer said,

thank the Lord for freedom, that we could come here

and do this in this way. It's nothing special for us,

but it's very unusual for some parts of the world,

and we're.

Thankful for that.

Freedom is something that is hard to put a value

or a price tag on most of us. If we

had the time to ponder and think, I don't think

would in the end withhold anything, money, possessions to maintain

our freedom. If you don't have freedom, not much else

in life is worth living enjoyable. It's just a lot

of suffering and heartache. And we get that picture, that

meaning from the well known phrase by Patrick hen that said,

at the beginning of the independence a war there for

independence was give me liberty or give me death. And

he summed it up that way that he was willing

to give everything, his life and all that was else

that he had, for the opportunity for freedom. And so

I asked you a question this morning, or all enjoy

the benefits of civil freedom, but are you free this morning?

Are you a free man? Are you a free woman?

Are you free in your heart, free in your mind,

free in your conscience in your spiritual life. Are you

free from the slavery and the bondage of sin? And

although we live in a country that's amazing a free country,

we have a country that are full of spiritual and

mental slaves, people in bondage, bondage that comes from the

bondage that does not come from without, from our authorities

and laws and chains, but a bondage that comes from within.

And Jesus talked about freedom, and he talked about bondage,

and he understood the desire of the heart, in the

heart of every man and woman to be free. And

it's a good desire, and it's a desire that God

blesses and wants for us as well. And so I

say all this as just a little bit of some

thoughts to lead up to the message this morning. I'm

not necessarily talking I am talking about freedom, but not primarily.

In John eight thirty two, there's a phrase, and you

can turn to John eight if you care.

I'll read there in a few minutes.

But Jesus is having a dialogue and in John eight

thirty two, the last part of that verse is what

I want to use for the title, The Truth shall

make You free. And I need to just say up

front here that I have mixed feelings almost PTSD you

might say about the subject of truth. When someone gets

up and starts talking about truth, I tend to get

a little nervous. As important and as essential as truth

is in all areas of life, and for sure in

the spiritual life, it is just so easy for men

and women to misuse and to abuse truth by zealous

religious people, like we heard in the Sunday School lesson

at Munster too, all the way up to today. I mean,

you can't argue with truth. We all agree that truth

is truth. And so there's this seems like there's sometimes

this jocking and fighting.

To get truth.

On my bandwagon. So I just say that as a

personal struggle in case. But we come back to this

phrase that Jesus said. Is it a true statement that

truth shall set you free? And since Jesus said it,

it must be true. But there are times in life

when truth seems to be more trouble than free, where

it complicates things, where it embarrass it, where it's embarrassing,

where it causes awkwardness and feels like anything but freedom.

And so I want to talk about these two things

a bit this morning. John eight wasn't quite sure how

much to read here.

This setting comes the first eleven verses, is this well

known story of the scribes and the Pharisees bringing the

woman taken in adultery before Jesus, and they were testing

and asking Jesus if they should stone her, if she

should be stoned, and so Jesus through the story basically

says in the end, any of you that are without sin,

go ahead, you start, you cast the first stone. And

then as we know, one by one they laughed, no

stones were cast. But then starting in verse twelve, we

have the subject here that I'm focused a little bit

more on this morning about truth, and that is primarily

the focus of my subject this morning. Is more about

truth telling and all the different forms of truth and

all eyes than it is about freedom, although freedom is

definitely a part of that or bondage. Now, before I

read this, I want to I hope it's not too

big of a distraction right now, but I want to

show you the whiteboard and and there's a few words

on there I want you to think about as we

as we read this passage. There's there's a picture two

here as well, I'm not an artist, but I happen

to be friends with one that it is, So I'll

keep the name private just for.

The yeah reasons in our interest here.

But what I what I mainly want you to focus

about now, And I don't want you to get all

caught up in the cartoon picture here yet too much.

But it's simply a little visual illustration of what lies

and different kinds of lies, and a life of living

a life of lies is bondage.

And we'll see that.

But the words that I want you to think about

as we read or lies, darkness.

Death, and blindness.

Although some of those words aren't exact in this phrase,

they are are indicated and truth and light and life

and seeing those are very much a package of truth,

and they go hand in hand. They and they at

each other, and the end result is bondage. Jesus talks

about bondage and freedom in this passage. So think about

those words, watch for those words. And I'm going to

start reading in verse twelve, and I I may skip

a few of the verses here and then jump in

at thirty one. I plan to stop at verse forty seven,

then spake Jesus again, unto them and here we have it.

I am the light of the world.

He that foleth me shall not walk in darkness, but

shall have the light of life. And the Pharisees therefore

said unto him, thou bearest record of thyself.

Thy record is not true.

Jesus answered and said, unto them, though I bear record

of myself. Yet my record is true, for I know

whence I came and whither I go. For ye cannot

tell whence I come and whither I go. Ye judge

after the flesh. I judge no man. And yet if

I judged, my judgment is true. For I am not alone,

but I and the fought and the Father that sent me.

And it is written in your law that the testimony

of two men is true. I am one that bear

witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth

witness of me. Then said they unto him, where is

thy father? And Jesus answered, ye neither knew me, no

me nor my father.

If ye had known me, ye should have known.

My father also called jump in.

I'll just keep reading verse twenty. And these words spake

Jesus in the treasure, as he taught in the temple.

And no man laid hands on him, for his hour

was not yet come. And then said Jesus again, unto them,

I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and

shall die in your sins. Whether I go, you cannot come.

Then said the Jews. Will he kill himself? Because he said,

whether I go, you cannot come. And he said, unto them,

ye are from beneath. I am from above, year of

this world. I am not of this world. I said

therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins.

For if ye had believed not that I am he,

ye shall die in your sins. Then said they, unto

him who art thou. And Jesus said, unto them, even

the same that I say unto you from the beginning.

I have many things to say and to judge of you.

But he that sent me is true. And I speak

to the world these things which I have heard of him.

They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.

Then said Jesus under them, when you have lifted up

the son of Man, ye shall know that I am he,

and that I do nothing of myself. But as my

father hath taught me, I speak these things, and he

that sent me is with me. And the Father that

hath not left me alone. For I do always those

things that please him. And he spake these words. As

he spake these words, many believed on him. Then said

Jesus to those Jews. Kind of a shift here. But

then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,

if ye continue in my word, then ye then are

ye my disciples. Indeed, and ye shall know the truth,

and the truth shall make you free. Then answered him,

we be, We be abraham seed, and we never in

bondage to any man. How sayest thou you shall be free?

Jesus answered them, verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever

committeth sin is the servant of sin, and the servant

abideth not in the house forever, but the Son abideth forever.

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall

be free. Indeed, I know that ye are Abraham's seed,

But ye seek to kill me, because my word hath

no place in you. I speak the truth. I speak

that which I have seen with my father, And ye

do that which you have seen with your father. They answered,

and said, unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith

unto them. If you were Abraham's children, ye would do

the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me,

a man that hath told you the truth which I

have heard of God. This did not Abraham. You do

the deeds of your father. Then said they to him.

We be not born of fornication. We have one father,

even God. Jesus said unto them. If God were your father,

ye would love me. For I proceeded forth and came

from God. Neither came I of myself, but He sent me.

Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot.

Hear my word?

Ye are ye are your father the devil and the lust?

Ye are of your father, the devil and the lust

of your father?

Ye will do.

He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not

in truth, because there is no truth in him. When

he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for

he is a liar and the father of it. And

because I tell you the truth, you believe me not?

Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I

say the truth, why do you not believe me? He

that is of God heareth God's words, Ye therefore hear

them not because ye are not of God. I just

wanted to point out a couple things here in this

passage I think is worth One important note is simply

the conversation really ramps up there towards the end, and

Jesus accuses him of some very wicked things, being the

children of the Father devil. But the subject of truth

and lies the source. I'd like you to think about

that just the minute. Satan the Father of lies and

Jesus and God the Father. It feels in this passage

that Jesus and the Pharisees are kind of jocking for

who has the upper moral ground and who has the

authority and who has truth? And they're questioning him, and

Jesus is questioning and answering them. But the point that

I think they both agreed on is that Satan is

a father of lies and is untruthful. There is no

truth in him, and Jesus and God the Father is.

The source of truth, is the truth the source of

light in life.

And I want that to be clear, because as we

go forward, I don't it doesn't really matter how far

down the source the Triple is and how deluded it is,

if it's coming from the source of lies in any

way it is.

It is from the father of lies, the devil truth.

Like I said at the beginning, there is a is

a word that gets thrown around a lot, laid claim on,

denied thought, over abused. Truth is a tough little word.

Though.

You can't stomp it out, you can't kill it. You

can kick it, hate it, set it aside, deny it,

twist it, but it just lives on. And the reason

that truth lives on is it's simply the reality. It's

just the way things are. It doesn't matter how passionately

I or someone wish it was different. Truth about a

situation just is the way that it is. It's very basic,

I know, but I think sometimes we need to realize

it's reality. And maybe this subject on truth and lying

and falsehood seems a little bit like maybe more of

us children's lesson that we have been taught from little

up that you tell the truth and you don't tell lies.

And of course we know that, but I would like to.

I believe that maybe we need it a little bit

more than we're often aware of. And I would just

point out too that this conversation that Jesus is having

and had many with the Pharisees and the scribes was

with mature men. And not only then that mature men,

but they were religious men, leaders that were, and disciples.

And I'll just make another point here. I don't plan

to go into all of this passage here. It's just

a little bit more of a maybe a foundation on

the principles of truth. But Jesus here kindly offers these

men freedom, but they just looked at him and argued

with him and told him that they are not in

bondage and they don't need freedom, and they are free.

But they were blind to the reality that they were

in bondage. They were unaware, and you see that.

In verse thirty three.

And yeah, and they argued with the one that is

the way, the truth, and the life. In John fourteen,

we have that testimony about Jesus. And I'll just say personally,

for me, this subject has been something that I don't

even I think I know a few sources where it

kind of came into my consciousness a little bit more

Over the last several years, I've become more aware of

just the practical, every day oh truth, whether it's presented

or said or whatever.

It might be.

And I've tried to pay attention a little bit closer

to it, be aware of it, think about it. There

are many subtle ways that we can almost subconsciously distort truth.

If we're not careful and intentional, we can easily brush

it off. And our default setting is self justifications. We're

all pre programmed that way. Just if something happens, we

our wheels spin to deflect blame and problems. And so

it's something that we all can understand. I'm pretty sure

we can all relate to the struggle and I can

as well, And so this is this is something that

is something I've been thinking and working about.

Now i'd like to working on.

What I'd like to think too about two different kinds

of truth here. I'll just call it the capital T

truth and the small T truth. Capital T truth as

in Jesus the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And

then there's the small T truth, just truth in everyday

practical living, speaking the truth and all that goes with that.

So my main emphasis this morning is more on the

practical aspect of everyday small letter truth. But at my

first point, I just want to make a few comments

here about the importance of Jesus the Way, the Truth

and the life. Jesus is the embodiment of truth. He

is the way to ultimate and true truth. There are

many good people in the world today, and I give

this maybe as a bit of just a warning for

us that understand the important principles of telling the truth

and being honest. But they may not be followers of Jesus,

but they're very conscientious. They see the value of truth

in business maybe examples, and they understand that if you're

going to succeed in life, we need to be honest

in business because it builds trust, which leads to good

business practices and relationships and reputation. People understand the honesty

and relationships is essential if you're going to have a

law term relationship in marriage, in churches and institutions and

organizations and friendships. Dishonesty just it pulls the foundation right

out from underneath anything that can be built on that.

And so godless people can get that concept just they understand,

like it's a law like gravity, you got to work

with it. And so there is an element. There's earthly

benefits that come from the principles of truth, from God's word.

But people, many of these people.

Do not humbly surrender their own lives to the lordship

of Jesus Christ for the ultimate freedom of heart. And

we need to be careful with a lot of hard

hitting truth tellers, conservative news commentators, podcasters that our seemingly

tell it to you straight. And we appreciate that, we

like that, we like to hear the truth. And yet

if their own heart is not and attitudes are not

surrendered to the way the truth in the life of Jesus,

we need to remember it that to be careful about

their not taking their spiritual advice, let's say, because because

those lines blur, you can have a man that's that's

makes his fame on truth telling, but he doesn't believe

in Jesus Christ.

And that's that's just a little warning that I would

like to give. Here. Here's a quote from some book.

Truthfulness is the foundation of our lives.

On it rests our relationship with others, and our trust

and security in those around us, in our community, in

our institutions, and in our ability to organize, function and

govern our society. Without it as a foundation, we have

no firm basis to build our relationships or institutions.

Just a well.

Said paragraph of the essential foundational principle of truth. Okay,

my next point moving into some different areas of truth

is simply speaking the truth truth telling. This is probably

the biggest point in area that we think of in life,

is our speech, the words that we say. Do we

say the truth? We all know that telling the truth

is right.

But back to that.

Title, the truth shall set you free in real life.

Sometimes you know we believe this, but sometimes to telling

the truth gets us into trouble. Sometimes telling the truth

costs us money, Sometimes it.

Will make people mad at us.

Sometimes it makes us unpopular or even costs us friendships.

And we know that people have died for telling the truth,

have not been willing to denounce.

I think that sometimes my.

Small children will do something bad, something that they know

they should not do. There's lots of evidence laying around

of the crime and the criminals pretty clear, and I'll

just take them and I'll set them down and I'll

look at them and I'll ask them, did you do

this thing? And it varies sometimes, but sometimes it's like

there's just like in that split second, there's the eyes shift,

the wheels are turning, and they're calculating the their answer.

And weighing their options.

If they can convince Dad that they didn't do it,

then they will go free and they will go back

to playing just like they were.

If if they admit doing.

Wrong, then there's a good chance that there'll be some

unpleasant consequences.

And that all just happens in a moment.

And in that moment it does not seem like the

truth will set you free. It feels like the truth

is terrible, and it is because we have violated something.

And yet we know in.

That little snapshot moment that that child is worried about

the next three five minutes of what the consequences. But

as we step back and we look at that, we

know that for the good of that child, we must

teach them to be honest, to tell the truth, even

if there's a little bit of concert sequences that they'll

suffer in the moment. But for their freedom in life

and for their well being and their wholeness, it is

much much better and very essential that we train and

teach them to tell the truth, even in a hard

setting when the short term consequences are not freeing. And

as adults, we face those same kinds of tests in life,

and when we lie and when we take the easy

way out. There's a sense of freedom in the moment,

maybe that comes escape, but that burden of guilt in

our hearts, the invisible chains, the weight start to bind us.

And you know, there's a lot of work that comes

with lying and maintaining lies and falsehoods. It gets to

be quite a deck of cars words to keep balanced.

It's a lot of work once you take that path.

It's a burden, it's bondage.

So maybe you say, well, I mean, I don't think

I lie, and probably many of you and we don't.

I hope.

I'm not accusing you of being liars. I'm just I

want you to think about that. Our words are our words,

always trustworthy and dependable.

What is our reputation by others?

I don't know how you find that out besides maybe

asking someone, but that's risky. If you or I say something,

we tell a story, we give a fact, whatever it

might be. Do the people that we know that know

us believe it or do they need a little verification,

need someone more reliable? I want to read a few verses,

some more words of Jesus in Matthew five thirty three

on our speech, and this is about he's talking about

oaths and swearing. And I'll just read verse thirty three to.

Thirty seven again.

You have heard that it hath been said by them

of old, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform

under the Lord thine knows. But I say unto you,

swear not at all, neither by Heaven, for it is

God's throne, nor by the earth, where it is it

is his footstool. Neither by Jerusalem, for it is the

city of the Great King. Neither shall thou swear by

thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white

or black. But let your communications be yay, yay, nay nay,

for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil?

So what about oath? And what was Jesus saying here?

And what is an oath? Well? Oaths?

I won't go into a lot of that, but just

a little bit about my understanding of O's and swearing

of O's oath. It was something that people did in

the Old Testament's something that people do today, to swear,

often by some greater deity or thing or person, that

what I am saying.

Is indeed true.

People swear by God, they put their hand on the Bible,

different things.

But why why did they? Why do we? Why does

anyone need to.

Swear to tell the truth in certain situations? Well, it

was an attempt, I think, to vary, and it still is.

It's an attempt to verify and assure and also probably

most importantly, to bring consequences to bear if you are

caught lying and not telling the truth. But it's basically

a verification that this that you are saying, because you're

swearing and going through these things and saying certain things,

that what I say will be the truth.

Well, what that does is it creates.

A double standard, or a double level of truth telling,

because now you have when you're under oath, and you

have when you're not under oath. And when I'm under

oath it is very very important that I.

Tell the truth. But what about when I'm not under oath?

What if I'm just on the street, what if I'm

making a business deal or talking to my wife. The

simple fact that somehow sowaring an oath makes us more

credible under oath also means that often people that are

not under oath will not be telling the truth. You see,

oaths are needed because of untrust. A person that you trust.

I trust my wife.

I never have asked her to give me an oath.

I've just come to trust.

That what she says is true to her the best

of her knowledge, and so we don't need an oath.

In our laws.

I think that's the consequences of swearing under oath. Perjury

is is uh what probably puts teeth in it. You

can have politicians that if they're on a stand and

they're under oath and they get caught lying, can get

fines all kinds of things, maybe even imprisonment. But if

they're out on campaigns making promises, you can lie all

of you all you want, and people expect it another

thing that they do. It's just interesting fact that I

guess still happens today. You raise your right hand to

give your oath, and I don't know what all the

symbolisms and what that means. I tried to study and

read on that a little bit. But raising of a

right hand can.

Mean it's associated with truth and honor for one thing.

One one source was saying that at least in the

medieval way back, there was where if someone was caught lying,

they were they got a stamp on their hand or

or some kind of a scar or a mark or something.

So when you come before the sunder you put up

your right hand. It reveals if your hand is clean,

if you have a history of telling the truth, or

else if it's marked, that's a that's a warning of

a past liar.

Another thing about oaths. I just looked this up.

This is what you asked if you swear in a

in a court of law? Says, do you solemnly swear?

And what what what I get out of this is

I'll say it after I'm done. Do you solemnly swear

or affirm that the testimony you are about to give

will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but

the truth.

So help me God, And.

These words reveal how to me how there's different ways

of not telling the truth. They've formulated this paragraph to

try to close all the loopholes as well as they can.

So you can lie, you can just lie and not

tell the truth, or you can not tell the whole truth.

Or it says, and say nothing but the truth.

You can just fill the air with words and confusion

and all kinds of things to distort and confuse the facts.

That's another way. And then there's attaching God's name to

it that because our own name and our own reputation

isn't credible, that I'm gonna bring God into this and

swear by him that what I am saying is dependable

oaths and promises. And we could go into this and

I'm not nitpicking, but I would just say this for

you to think about, what about our little oaths?

I promise?

And you know, if you want to know the truth

and honestly, what if you didn't say honestly?

Is that different than if you just say yes or no.

I know some of those are habits, and I think

I say them at times as well, But just.

Little things that we're trying to reaffirm.

And credit are is kind of a bad pattern I

have found, not necessarily I don't know if here I

was thinking work, but maybe with guys that have to

say more words and explain why they're telling the truth,

is often the ones that maybe are not telling the truth.

It just takes a lot of affirmation. What is our

reputation and our level of honesty? What about telling we'll

call them small and white lies for social expectations. Now,

this one's a dicey one. And one thing I worry

about I'll just say here is I worry about those

that don't really deserve to be guilt guilted about their

speech and their lives. Because there are some people that

their intention is pure. They want to speak the truth,

and so there's this problem with the trouble with the

truth of just exact everything. That's not what I'm talking

about this morning. And if you're burdened with this, I

think God remember your intentions, and God knows your heart.

But we should be careful with our words and try

to be accurate. That's something that I've thought about more

is to be try. I'm not talking about grammar. I'm

terrible at grammar, as you know. Unfortunately I wish I

was better at that. But I'm talking about intent of

heart and words that best describe what you're trying to say.

To be careful with the words.

But what about this thing of small eyes? For social

expectations to be kind, to avoid awkward situations, to be polite,

to avoid a conflict, maybe to make myself look better?

Are telling untrues for good motives?

Acceptable?

You know, it's good to be polite, it's good to

be kind, it's good to avoid unnecessary conflict.

And some of us.

And some of this gets into personalities. Some just hate

conflict and would tend to lie to get out of conflict,

and others.

Would just.

Like conflict or wait into the middle of it for

the sake of conflict. Maybe so we have some of

those personalities that we.

Have to work with.

But it's I think we need to come back to

that Jesus was saying, mean what you say, and say

what you mean. Just try to tell the truth, try

to say how it is to the best.

Of your ability.

One of the most serious things about maybe social let's

just call it social lying is not necessarily what it

does to others and hurting others, but what it does

to us. And this is maybe where it gets a

little bit closer home. I think the gradual process of

eroding honesty and integrity within deep within our own hearts

and motives and minds. The words that we say affect

our thinking more than maybe we think, and so the

more that we justify, say expedient lying like your supper

was so delicious when.

I just didn't like it.

We need to be careful, we need to be polite,

but we don't just blatantly lie out of trying to

make peace. The problem with that when we start to

lie in little things and we get used to it,

and we justify it in our mind and start going

down that road, we gradually lose grip and care, and

all of our speech becomes expedient. It's what's good for

me and the easiest in the moment, and that can

just get worse and worse and worse until we barely

know what truth is because we have somehow justified and

lied our way through life and end up at a

spot that is not reality.

And this is not.

Something foreign to us and to our people and to

our churches. I have been appalled at times when people

just seemingly, I don't know, don't tell the truth just

I think it's for probably good intentions, but it's it's

not the.

Way that it is.

Maybe another a little practical example for those of us

that are conflict adverse.

We don't like it.

You know what, if someone does something to us offens

this offends me, I'm very upset, and I just I

just say, don't worry about it.

It's fine.

I don't it's no problem, it's not a big deal.

Pace a smile on it, move on and you know,

there is a side and I'll maybe get to this

a little bit, but there is a side where love

covers a multitude of sins. And I think that when

we mean those words, they're they're a blessing and that's good.

But when we don't mean those words, we shouldn't say

those words.

Those words are great unless we don't mean them.

And the problem with that is is when we move

on and we said that we're fine and it's no

problem and we don't have any issue, we go on

and we go on about our lives, and in our

hearts we brew towards that person eats on us. We

remember that we didn't forgive it. We're thinking, you know,

we're trying to but just and eventually what happens is

then that person does something again and then boom, we

blow up and there's a big problem.

And that person never knew all along that there was

a problem.

So it's always better, and this is something I have

to work on myself. But it's always better to have

a conversation based on truth than to have peace based

on lies. It's harder in the moment to have a

conversation of truth than to have peace based on lies.

The Bible says the wounds of a friend are better

than the kisses of an enemy, and that's hard.

To do to.

I would much rather have the criticism come to me

than for me to have to go tell someone and

work through something I had a problem with them about.

It's probably pride or something. But the wounds of a

friend can be a blessing if they're friendly wounds. The

same time, the wounds of an enemy and wounds that

are just not of a friend are not helpful. We

need to remember that as well. Okay, another one is

what about living a lie? Hypocrisy. Jesus talked quite a

bit about this. Hypocrisy is pretending or acting. This can

be done in many different ways and for different reasons.

Sometimes there's an ugly hidden sin in our lives and

it's shameful, and we put on this mask and we

hope nobody knows, and we go about our lives and

this thing is just rotting in our stomach, and yet.

We just present a different hypocrisy.

There's other there's other reasons, like maybe the Pharisees had

pious pretending to be spiritual and to have spiritual insight

and to have a relationship with God that we don't

have to impress others.

And I would just say that.

For us men leaders whatever, that Jesus was the hardest

on the Pharisees in this particular subject. Religious people and

leaders can be susceptible to hypocrisy, and I think one

of the reasons is is because people have expectations of us.

I mean, we're all of a sudden, we're in this position.

We don't know how we got here, we got whatever

it might be, and we're supposed to have the answers

and we're supposed to be able to tell people how

to live life and be the proper example. But maybe

we don't feel like we have answers, and maybe we

actually feel like we're a mess and we don't know

what ends up ourselves in certain situations. But we can't

let people know we're a mess. We can't, you know,

that wouldn't be right. And so there's this temptation to

be hypocritical and to present something that is not true.

It's a show, it's an act. I could say with that,

I think there's some people that just disregard feelings and

say I don't care what anybody says. At least I'm

honest and I'm just going to do what I want

to do, and I don't think that's Christian charity and truth.

There's things I'm doing right now for the sake of

other people. It's not necessarily my own conviction. And I

think some of that is okay. If we're honest with

the issue and with the thing we blend. That doesn't

mean we're a hypocrite, but we need to not pretend

it's something that it is not a few warnings about

the abuse of truth, coming back to maybe one of

my first points is simply the attitude that I have

the monopoly on truth, when really it's my strong opinion

or a desired outcome, and somehow we kind of take

a Bible verse and we take a little history, and

we take something else, and we build this case that

you know, it's almost wrong if we don't do this

thing when it's not.

It's a preference, it's an opinion. It might have some value,

but it's not rock solid truth. That's an abusive truth.

Sometimes, like I said, we want truth on our side,

and there's jocking and grabbing for truth. Even Jesus defended truth,

but he did not defend himself that and stood out

to me in different places in the passage that are

at He was like, I do nothing of myself, but

as my father taught me, I speak these things. He

was not all personally offended that they were poking him

as a man. He let their truth stand, and he

was very humble that maybe another one is just a

little bit. I guess it's abusing truth, but asking personal questions.

And being snoopy.

With at least when you're in certain positions that maybe.

Make the person you're asking.

Feel obligated to answer things and information that aren't really

your business. And so certain people get caught in that,

and that can be an abuse of supposed truth being

mean with truth being mean, and truth, at least Jesus

truth is not the same thing being rough and cruel

with truth. God's truth was never meant to be mean,

to weaponize, to manipulate people.

It was to set them free. It was truth with love.

Jesus was full of grace and truth, and that's always

just a beautiful combination. To me, Truth with grace is

very important. Another one distinguishing truth, excuse me, not discovering

truth disguised in sarcasm just still warning on that. Trying

to make a point to someone through sarcasm, you know,

this little bit, this humorous, backhanded comment to drive a

point home that's really kind of deep in your stomach

about that person. That method generally just creates hurt, a

little bit of confusion, and it's not helpful if we

have a problem with someone. It's best just to be

more straightforward and love and care. There's many other things

we could talk about. I'll just give a couple closing

comments here about this telling lies self deception. I think

the path to self decis option is often done through

small little patterns of lying. The fear of man I

didn't mention that too much, but I indicated it or

a fray to man that can really pressure us into lying.

But my closing thought I want to say here is

that what if we find ourselves like that guy. We

don't know how we got there. There's just guilt and shame.

We got kind of this pattern of lying, deceiving others,

putting a spin on things. But it feels like there's

no way out. It feels like there's too much history,

it feels like there's too many layers of lies.

You just you couldn't clean it up if you tried.

Just remember that James five fifty sixteen. I want to

leave this versus. Let's confess your faults one to another

and pray one for another that you may be healed.

Repentance and confession is something that God has given us

to unloose the burdens and bonds and chains of deception.

You know, secrets make us sick. We've heard that wrong

secrets hidden make us tend to be insecure, not have confidence,

can't look the world in the eye. But there's something

about confession on little levels and on big levels.

And I'm not saying you need.

To put all your dirty laundry out to everybody, but

there's something about confessing, whether it's to your spouse or

your friend, or some personal wrong or to the church,

that what confession is is it's finally simply accepting, admitting

and telling the truth about a situation that already was.

It's just letting the light shine in, and light and

truth break the power of bonds and bondage and untruth.

And it does more than just bring us freedom. Confession,

confession and coupled with true repentance, brings the healing process

if we walk in the light and stay in the light,

we can become healed. There's there's even just like therapy,

people that often have put past trauma, a lot of

this that is to get people to talk about that.

There's something about just verbalizing the things, the realities or

what feels like realities in my mind that bring healing

to a person's life. And the more we stuff it,

and the more we hide it, and the more we

resist it, and the more we deny it, the more

we become in bondage. If you continue in my word,

then are you my disciples. Indeed, and you shall know

the truth, and the truth shall make me free. And the

last comment I meant to say is that it's also important,

really important for all of us to work hard at

creating an environment, a setting where honesty can thrive, where

honesty is not punished we're honest, or there's not consequences

and negative effects when I try to be honest and

when I confess. And so that is something that we

all need to try to help one another with and

that ties into forgiveness. What we heard this morning, Thank

you all for your attention.

God bless you. Let's have a song, please,