Good morning everyone. Good to be here this morning.
Chris asked me to speak the
other day and I told him I'd do my best. So
here it goes. John chapter 18 verses 37 and
38. That's the text for this morning.
It's about truth. Over
2000 years ago, Pilate and Christ had a conversation.
We're going to read that
conversation. John 18 37 38. Jesus
before Pilate therefore said to him, are you a king
then? Jesus answered, you're not going
to say that I am a king. This
cause I was born of is cause I have come into the
world. That I should bear witness to
the truth. Everyone who is true of the truth,
here's my voice. Pilate said to him, what is
truth? What is truth? A
question to be asked today in many places is what is
truth? The truth can be used in so
many ways. People take the truth. It
sacrifices truth for peace. It
sacrifices truth for war. It
sacrifices the truth to make them look good. It
sacrifices the truth to make you look bad. It
sacrifices the truth to make money. It
sacrifices the truth to cost you money. It
sacrifices the truth to save themselves. Sometimes
it seems like some people just can't stand the truth.
They try to evade it, do
everything they can. They run from it, minimize its
importance, even explain it away. How
sad that is, but that's the way it is sometimes.
Now in Christ and early
Christian, we are just to tell the truth, period.
That's what we're supposed to do.
An example, think about this.
A woman stand before a judge
in a jury. She places her hand on the
Bible and now they're in the air. She
used to make a pledge before the judge and
everyone in the court. Next to me is this. God
is your guide. She'll tell the truth, the whole
truth, nothing but the truth. The
pledge you take when you go to justify. She's
a witness. She's not to expand and dilute
the truth. Her job is to tell the truth.
You've lied, you're interpret, the
judge is to resolve. The judge will be applying the
law. But the witness, what's the
witness to do? To speak the truth. She
does more or less, she may take the outcome on where
the other. Be truthful as she can. Let
her tell the truth and maybe justice will have a
chance. Because Christians are witnesses
too. You also make a pledge. Like
a witness in court, we're called to tell the truth.
John 17 to 7, the Bible says,
thy word is truth. We're called to do that. The
watching world is a jury. We're
the main witnesses. We're basically a subpoena by
Christ himself. In Acts chapter 8 and 1,
Christ told the apostles that the 1 and 8, Acts
chapter 1 and 8, they're called to be witnesses of
Jesus. You're a witness me. The
word witness is very clear there. Like
a witness in court, we're called to testify, to tell
what we have heard, what we have seen, and tell
what we know. We're not the whitewash or twist
of truth. You always remember the Great
Commission says, in Matthew chapter 28, 19 and 20,
Guree therefore and teach all nations, baptize them
in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy
Ghost. Teach them to observe all things,
whatever I have commanded you and lo, I'm with you
always, the end of the world. Teach
them all things that I have commanded you. The
witness in court eventually steps down to the witness
chair and takes her seat, breathes a sigh of relief,
but that's over. The Christian does not. The
Christian remains. We're a witness for the duration.
But we're tuned. You
went to war. Many of the members told they're
there for the duration. It's
the end. That's the same with those
Christians. As he claimed to Christ, we're
always on trial. The court seems is always in
session. That way, deceptions, lies,
coverups and division should never be an option in our
lives as Christians. Honesty.
You know, daytime has something very strange,
isn't it? It shouldn't be, but it is.
Honesty. And as they had chapter
53, verse 9, the Bible says this, being of Christ,
they made this grave with the wicked, with the rich
and his death, because he had done no violence. It
was he needed a seat in his mouth. The
word deceit means no untrue words, no lies to deceive
people. The English version has it, he
never lied. He did nothing wrong, he never
lied. Jesus was honest, bootily so
sometimes, especially with the Pharisees, called them
hypocrites. The leaders of the religious
war that time, Jesus was very, very blunt to those
people because they needed it. Trying
to give them a wake -up call. His
every word was accurate. You
know, altering accounts, he didn't stretch the truth.
He said, be told the truth.
This says no deceit was found
in his mouth. He had many times made people
like us face the truth in our lives. He
didn't just teach the truth, he made us face the
truth. It's hard to do that sometimes.
Matthew chapter 19, verse 16 to
22, the example of a young man, he made face the
truth. Very, very difficult. A
good person, a good young man. Matthew
chapter 19, verse 16 to 22, the Bible says this,
and then behold, came one and said to him, good
teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may
inherit eternal life? So he said to him, why do
you call me good? No one is good but one that
is God. If you want to enter them to
life, keep the commandments. Jesus
said to him, he said to him, which ones? Jesus
said, you shall do not murder, you shall not
commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not
bear false witness. On your father and your
mother, and you shall love your neighbors yourself. The
young man said to him, all these things that I kept
from my youth up, what so do I lack? Jesus
said to him, if you want to be perfect, go, sell
what you have and give to the poor, you'll come and
have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.
Well, the young man heard that
saying, he went away sorrowful, he had great
possessions, had been truthful with himself, a
good quality person. Jesus was no sugar coating, kind
but firm, a good man needed to face the truth
to straighten out his life. Sadly,
we don't have any evidence that he ever did, but it's
a good example we think about our lives. I
thought about something that people Jesus spent his time
with, I thought about calling the Jason home,
they're big time fishermen, they go to tournaments and
things. Y 'all know the fishermen's
stories, you know, the one this long, the one that
got away? Jesus spent a lot of his time
with some fishermen, Peter, James, John and Andrew.
People from the world, Jews he
called in to be his followers and to teach them
to tell the truth all the time. Probably
difficult for them, as it was for us. There's
been times in my life when I wish there was a truth
meter that I had when I could put on people. The
shop used to joke about that sometimes. Folks,
I know who it would fail the test real quick. It
would have been long for all the bells and whistles
to go off. And there is no such thing, we
used to joke about that. Sometimes
we're just outright lying all the time, you just
knew it. When they come to you talking
to you, you knew it. All done but, you all done but
guys. They all done but and they did
be, you know, the comical sometimes, you need an
audience to hear some of the stories they would have
to tell. We knew they were lying. They
knew they were lying. It's sad. Not
a day in time, it's sad this has to be even taught
on to be honest. Look at the corporate world.
Think about that. The
political world, we won't touch that one. Think
about that. What about religious world?
That's the sad, that's almost
embarrassing. The religious world, the
honesty, all the scandals, and lustation issues to
have in the religious world, all these different
face, have all these things going on. Big
of honesty, people getting caught doing these things.
Even more it's tough to know
who and what to believe. True
stretching lies seem to be the norm, not the accepted
many times. People ask me when I was raising
my children, one of the hardest parts about raising
children. The hardest part for me
personally is watching them lose their innocence. Look
at guys like Charlie walking around here, you
see them, they're great kids, you see them. You're
going to raise them, teach them to tell the truth,
teach them to write, treat people right, respect honor,
you teach them all these things you're supposed to
do, sit them out of the world that does none of
those things. They'll lose their innocence, they
have to survive in the world, but you lose their
innocence to do that. I'm watching my granddaughter
Macy lose her innocence right now, it's so hard
because I have a tender spot for some parts of
her. And she's losing innocence
little by little, that's difficult because the
world's not kind, the world's full of deceit,
full of lies, we send our good kids out into that.
So we need to teach that as
Christians, teach that it's still in the lies they
have that when they go out in the world that's already
in their form, it's part of their makeup. Being
honest though, what about all of those that's in the
church, the Christians at the time, are we different,
are we set apart like we should be for thinking as
Christians we should be, we're set apart, we're
doing pretty good with these things. Is
we never tell any lies? We all did sometimes as kids,
I guess story about my sister in a few minutes,
well we had a lot of times when we lied, who
did it, she did it, he did it, those things. Terry
had a lot of siblings, same thing. No
lies at all in our lives, no lies in our marriage,
no lies in our jobs, no lies in our family
relationships to anyone and then all. Not
even a few little white lies, be honest about this
one, it's a personal thing, don't lie in this one,
think about it. Christ says, as strict honor code,
from Genesis to Revelation, in Psalms 101 and 7, the
Bible says this, he who works deceit shall not
dwell within my house, he who tells lies shall not
continue in my presence. In Psalms 12 and Proverbs 12
and 22, the Bible says this, lying lips are an
abomination to the Lord, but those who deal
truthfully are his delight. In
Proverbs 6, starting in verse 16, noticing this
list of two of those things concerning lying,
these six things the Lord hates, he has seven are an
abomination to him, a proud look, a lying tongue, hands
that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked
plans, feet that are swift and running to evil, a
false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows
discord and mumbred. It goes all the way to
Revelation. Revelation 21, verse 8, the Bible
says, but the cowardly, unbelievable, unbelieving,
abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers,
idolaters, and all liars should have their part in
the lake with burnt with fire and brimstone. Also
in Revelations 22 and 15, the Bible says, but outside
are dogs and sorcerers, and sexually immoral and
murderers, and idolaters, and whoever loves and
practices a lie. It's interesting, lying in the
same class as all those others since according to
verses, sexual sins, worshiping idols, committing
adultery, people getting drunk, robbing folks, lies,
the same category as those, yes, telling a lie, it's
the same category as those according to the Scriptures.
Why is lying all that bad? Why
does little fibbing strip heavenly anger as much as
adultery and assault? We'll get to an example about
that in just a few minutes. Well
with a hard line in this, why such a tough stance is
this, in Hebrews 6 and 18, dishonesty is contrary to
the nature of God. According
to Hebrews 6 and 18, it's not possible for God to
lie. The Bible says about two
innumerable things, which was impossible for God to
lie, he might have a strong consolation. It's
not he's chosen not to lie, he can't lie. He
has to tell the truth. Titus
1 and 2 says, in hope of eternal life, life which
God that cannot lie promised before the world
began. That's scary, but it's reassuring.
God makes a promise, he keeps
it, our heavenly home for us, but we fail, he has a
promise for that too. He makes it covenant, he keeps
it, he makes a statement, he means it, he proclaims
the truth, we can believe it, and we can teach it
also. What he says is true is even
if we are not, in 2 Timothy 2 and 13 the Bible
says, if we are faithless, he remains faithful, he
cannot deny himself. As he's reassuring to us, in
the world we live in, we can go to a place where
the truth is always told. Satan,
on the other hand, finds almost impossible to tell
the truth. According to Jesus, he's the father
of all lies. John chapter 8 verse 44, the
Bible says this, you are of your father the devil
and the desires of your father you want to do.
Speaking of Satan, he was a
murderer from the beginning, he does not stand in the
truth because there is no truth in him. He
speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for
he is a liar and a father of it. The
father of lies. The Satan lies have been with
us since the beginning. The seat was the first tool in
the devil's bag in the Garden of Eden. Satan
didn't discourage Eve, he didn't seduce her, he'd
sneak up on her. Nothing happens. Genesis
3 verses 1 through 5, the Bible says this, now the
serpent was more cunning than any beast of the
field, which the Lord God had made. He
said to the woman, as God indeed said, you shall eat
of every tree of the garden. A
woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit
of the tree of the garden, but the fruit of the tree,
which is in the midst of the garden, God has said
you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest
you die. The serpent said to the woman,
you will not surely die, for God knows that in the
day you eat it, eat of it, your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and
evil. You know what verse 6 says,
with when woman saw the tree was good for food,
there was pleasure in the eyes, the tree to be
desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit,
ate, felt to get her husband with her, and he
ate. Who's a lie that led Eve to
sin? Never say lion's a big deal, the
sly is not a big deal, she fell for it, she poked
the fruit. The next paragraph, the husband
follows suit, and the joy of eating became a distant
memory for them, and just something we can study
about. Man was man, was made in the
image of God at that time, and he wasn't acting like
it, his honesty and deceit entered their minds, and
thought about it before, Satan made him think about
it. They didn't physically hurt
anybody, and our day and time, this was meaningless,
something that simple, but have a cost so high, this
seems no big deal. The big deal is man is the
image of God, when he lied, that image vanished.
That happened, the lie brought
that about. Denny Webster says this, there's
nothing so powerful as the truth, and often nothing is
strange. The devil seemed to be very
successful. Here's a few examples, I forgot
an example of a book psychology today, I don't
prescribe you this, I just have notes from it. More
than half say the tax return, just a good time
of year to say this, audited, you probably owe
the government money, because they cheat on their
taxes, they lied. But one of three people
lamented deceiving your best friend in the last year,
they've done it. 96 % of them feel guilty about it,
but they did it, just thinking you buy with
something, and now hurt your feelings maybe. You
only have to predict that if you scratch down the
corner parking lot, they drive away without leaving
a note. Although 89 % said it'd be wrong in
the morning. Think about that, put yourself in
these positions. What is the big lie? What
is the little lie? What's the difference? To
do a little lie, it will lead to a bigger one,
it'll happen. To question why does God
demand such honesty? Why does the man be so honest?
If we read in the Bible the
question should be this, why do we tolerate such
dishonesty? Why do we do that? Sometimes
we have to, out in the world, outside these doors,
we tolerate it, it doesn't have to influence me in
our lives, live in a world that has it, we don't have
to tolerate in our own lives. Maybe
Jeremiah was right, Jeremiah 17 and 9, the Bible says,
the heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked, who can know it? If
we have dishonest human lives, how do we explain
it to our children, our spouses, our fellow
Christians? Why do people lie mostly? Cover
their weaknesses and their sins, make us look good or
strong? The lies are about us, they're
about our images. A good example is in Acts
chapter 5, verses 1 through 11, of lies and
consequences. Again, this should not be a big
thing, but it really was. We'll
find out why. Acts chapter 5 verses 1 through
11, the certain man, the Amen, and I asked for his
wife's soul to possession, that he kept back part of
the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and
brought a certain part, let it be, Palsus' 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? What
remained was it not your own? After
it's soul, was it not in your own control? Why
do you conceive this thing in your heart? Have
you not lied to, you have not lied to men, but to
God? The Ananias hearing these words
fell down and breathed his last. So
if here came upon all those who heard these
things, on the amen arose, throughout them I carried
him out and buried him, he died. It
was about three hours later when his wife came in, not
knowing what had happened. If
Peter answered her, tell me whether you sow 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? Look the feet of those who have
buried your husband at the door and they will carry
you out. Immediately she fell down at his feet
and breathed her last. The woman came and found her
dead, carrying her out and buried her by her husband.
So great fear came upon all
the church and upon all who heard these things.
Just keep in mind some of the
proceeds, lying a little bit about it. They
lost their lives, they died. In
verse 11 says, but great fear came upon the church
and all those people. Why do you think such great
fear came upon them? Maybe some of them had not been
truthful. Maybe they thought they were
next. They did some white lies. Maybe
they just seemed a little bit. And
these two gone, maybe I'm next. Maybe
me and Paula next. Who knows who's next with this?
Got the exam in the cells.
Good example. So
one of them afraid, you're in the crowd, where would
you feel? Where would you be? Would
you think you were next? It's
just somewhat has changed. It's
just an example has changed. Not
God, not the book. Maybe our behavior, we think
about that. We don't just lie to people.
God's present. He
knows it. We could go on many other
reasons, folks lie, sacrifice your truth for
peace. I could go on and on and
on. It's 11 .15, I can't do that.
But basically this, many did
not like the truth. It's hard to take sometimes. You
shall know the truth, the truth to make you squirm
is not what John 8 and 32 says, but that's what it
does sometimes. The truth is very difficult
sometimes to take. And for not liking the truth,
many of us can relate to this story. Humor
is a little story, but it makes a point. We
get to the end of it in a few minutes. Fellers,
he had to call his wife, just he's about to fly
home from Europe. She said, how is my cat? He
said, dead. Oh honey, don't be so honest.
Why can you break news to me
more slowly? You've ruined my trip. He
said, what do you mean? You
could have told me that he was on the roof. Then
when I called you from Paris, you could have told
me he was acting sluggish. Then
when I called you from London, you could have said
he was sick. Then when I called you from New
York, you could have said he was at the vet. Then
when I arrived home, you could have told me he was
dead. So husband wasn't used to such
big deals about this. He's going to learn. He
said, okay, you do better next time. By
the way, how's my mom? If you're on a silence, he
said, well, she's on the roof. Truth
is hard sometimes. Both ends. Get
the truth. It's hard to tell it sometimes
in the right way. It's very, very difficult to do
this. I dislike that the truth
started when we were young. I
remember my mom walking in the room, my mom walking
in the room. My hands were in the head of
my sister and said, okay, what's your mom? Who
did it? It'd be one of these. Did
you hit your sister? Well, depends what you mean by
hit. I can't contact with her, but
you know, who did it first? They
did. You know, there's consequences.
Mom, music got the truth out of
us. She did. We
know if dad didn't get involved. We
didn't want that. Music and mom got the truth out
of us before dad got involved. But
we do, we're young. We learn then honestly has
consequences. Because then we learn to start
covering up. He hit me first, the blame
game, the Garden of Eden. We
learn early the truth is not fun. We
don't like it sometimes. Sort
of anti -sophia. But it's like fear to everyone
around the truth. I'm afraid. I
heard people joke over the years, speaking of these
things. I've had it said too that I'm
sure God doesn't strike people dead for lying
nowadays. I'm not so sure he doesn't.
Maybe in different ways. The
Bible says Romans 6 and 33, the wages of sin is
death. Gift of God is eternal. Seemed
to me the wages of sin or deceit is still death. Not
the death of the body. Maybe
the death of something else. A
marriage. Vault says it termites in the
trunk of the family tree. Think
of all those who can think of you examples. The
marriages of families who suffered from lies and
deceit. Cheating spouse telling lie after
lie. Turning on to the death of a
conscience. Which doesn't bother them anymore
to tell lies. They've done it so many times.
Trying to second lie is always
that each student needs to do another one. Students
have a way of having a life. It
becomes a normal, not a wrong. Like
those all done by guys that they shot. It's
a normal thing. Part of their life. Coming
to the death of a career. There's
that student who got kicked out of class for cheating.
An employee who got fired for
sitting or in bezel match. Think
about that. You can kill a career or you
can kill an education. Long term consequences. Getting
busted. We call them as a kid. You
got busted. Total lie and you got busted.
Going to the death of a faith.
Language of faith and language of
falsehood have two different vocabularies. Learn
the Bible. They don't sink. So
in the water. Turns like confession repentance.
Hard to pronounce. Hard
to put in the lives of those people. Confession
repentance for what? The callous. We
could go on with many others. Death
of intimacy. Intimacy. The death of trust. The
death of peace. Credibility. Self respect. There's
many other ones. The sometimes worst casualty of
death is our influence and our impact on other people.
Our witness. We
have in our life. Our lives we live outside these
doors. Think about that. A
court will listen testimony of a perjured witness.
Neither will the world. Why
would your coworkers believe you about the church in
Christ? They can't believe you about
other things. You can't believe what you say
at work. Why would they want to come to
church with you? Or they want to become a
Christian? Like we can't how we convert
family when they cannot trust us. Why
are our neighbors going to church with us? We
have been honest with them. Think
about those things. There's a little story a long time
ago. A man conned his way into an
orchestra of the emperor of China. He
wanted to be famous. He conned his way in. He
could even play a note. He was there. Now
with the group project performed he'd hold his
flute against his lips pretending to play but not
making a sound. Pulling everybody. He
can eat how they're made. He
received a modest salary. He
enjoyed a comfortable living. But
one day the emperor requested a solo from each
musician. He wanted to hear him for
himself. See how good they were. This
guy got nervous. There was not enough time to
learn the instrument. He pretended he'd pretend to
be sick. But the physicians and the
emperors, they weren't fooled. They
knew he wasn't sick. The day of his solo
performance, he took poison, killed himself. The
explanation of a suicide did defraud his way in our
English language. He refused to face the music.
That's what he did. He
couldn't face the music. The
curfew to see is simply this. To
face the music. Tell the truth. Is
it costly? Yes. But not telling the truth
down the road is more costly in many many ways.
In this life and the life
that comes after us. The lives of Anis and Sapphires
held their deaths. The seatfulness of David,
Bathsheba, let the death of their baby. Poor
Uriah. You know that story. Some
have buried a marriage. Some
have buried family. Some have buried parts of
conscience. Even parts of their faith. All
because honesty doesn't seem to be that important
anymore to people. Basically out in the world. Let
us not infiltrate the church, please. The
ripple of today's lie is tomorrow's wake and next
year's flood. There's a time when it's okay to
soften the truth. To be more encouraging to
someone. Remember the cat and the roost
story? There's times. My
daughter, LaMagan, was killed in that car wreck.
I was shot from my toolbox.
I got the phone call. I
had to go home and tell my wife and my son.
There's people about her. The
gentlest way to do that. There
is no really right way. There's
wrong way to do it. There's
really no right way to do it. When
you have a pet died and you've got a kid over
here. To explain to your kid their
dog died. There's times when you have to be
compassionate. You maybe just soften your
approach. You still tell the truth. We
shouldn't be brutal like Christ was with the
Pharisees, religious leaders. Jesus
wasn't always brutal with the truth. He
was subtle sometimes. But he was there. He
told it. He got his point across. This
is who we are. Whether it's a gentle way or a
brutal way, we all should know how we're supposed to
tell the truth. Remember Jesus told the truth? It
really, really cost him. Think
about that. What did it cost Jesus to tell
the truth? It cost him his life. What
kind of world was he living in? What
were his trial they called false witnesses? People
to lie about him? They're deceiving him. Say
he was Caesar's king. Probably
being a king. Caesar king. Compare
him to Caesar. All these things. All
the seats for the tricks they're all trying to throw
around. Getting Christ crucified. All
the Jews. All these rotten things are
doing. All the Bible says not to do.
He's the religious leaders of
the world at that time trying to do these things.
You know in the trial for the
crucifixion Christ could have lied. He
could use the seat. He could have maneuvered.
Everybody else was. You
know he could have blamed it on Peter. Peter
wasn't far away. With eye contact. We
know that for sure. Because Christ looked at him. I
have a lesson on that gaze and that look. Call
it the look. Think about that. Christ
knew he was there. It'd be easy to tell a small
tale. Save us on the hide. Peter
was when they cut off Malcolm's ear when they
came to get him. It was a good ammunition. If
he just could have put this up he could have told
a good story. He could have got out of it.
Peter may have wanted to be
crucified with them. He might have got out of it.
He could have tried all kinds
of things. But he didn't. He
didn't have any distress. No
deceit was found in his mouth. I
put myself in that position. It
would be tough. I couldn't say I could do
that. I would try. I
would do my best. I could say that. I'd
do my best. It'd be tough. To
examine yourself today. Ask yourselves some tough
questions. Am I being completely honest
with my spouse and my kids? Am
I relationships all truthful and honorable? Let
my work and my school environment. What
about that? Am I honest with my dealings?
Am I a trustworthy student?
We're all going to face Lord one
day in judgment. He'll be presenting us the truth.
Everything secret we made known the
Bible says. The truth of our lives will be
present before God. This is not a living a lie.
Matthew chapter seven. From
21 through 23. And now everyone says to me,
Lord, Lord, you enter into kingdom of heaven. Be
he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Maybe
you'll say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, having a
prophesied in your name. Counts
out demons in your name. But
then many wonders in your name. Then
we'll declare them. I never knew you. You
apart from me. You who product lawlessness.
King James, George, use word
iniquity. You apart from me. These
people had the truth. They rejected it. They've
been living a lie. And they're going to pay the
price for it. Let's not be in that house of
people. Let's not do that. If
you had to face the music this morning, what would
your life be? You closing one to read two,
two songs. And I'll be done. So
I'm 51 through three in the King James version says
this, Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who
shall dwell on that holy hill? He
that walketh up brightly and worketh righteousness,
and speaketh the truth in his heart. He
that backbideth not with his tongue, nor doth he
who doeth his neighbor, nor takeeth approach against his
neighbor. That kind of person. So
I'm 19, 11 through 14. This
is the NIV. By them as your servant
warned, and keeping them, there is a great reward.
Who can discern his errors?
Forgive my hidden faults. Keep
your servant also from his willful sins. Lying
is that category, isn't it? Willful
sins. That they may not rule over me.
Then will I be blameless,
innocent of great transgression. In
closing it says, May the words of my mouth and the
meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Let's
be honest with ourselves this morning. The
invitation song is saying. The
kind of people we need to be. Christians.
It would be a good thing this morning, but it would
be a good thing for you to change a little bit of
your life. Clean it up a little bit. Save
more truths. Make some things right. Be
true from here on in. Probably
a good thing. Jesus 4 .17 says, There are
people who know what they're good and do what
they're not. Him is a sin. These
things are important and they're very serious. Face
this day and time when we live in a world where
there's so many lies being told at every corner of
the world. It's hard to get the truth out
of anyone. Months ourselves, our families, our
church members, our world we live in. Let
there be some truth that we go by. Let
there be part of our lives. There
should be part of our lives. We
shouldn't let the world run its way in. If
you remember the church, God bless you. I'm
glad you are. If you strayed away, you've
done some things wrong. You think you're not right.
You've fallen away from some of
these things. You want to make things right?
So you can restore yourself
this morning. Come forward and have the
brother pray for you. Make some prayer for the
righteous. It's going to be out of much.
I pray I'll be the righteous
person to do that. If not, I'll call someone else
to pray for you. You do not remember the church.
You need to think about this
time. Because there's no difference.
You're in the, you're christening
or not. One of the two. If
you become a Christian this time, you get started a
life, a life of truth. Living
the truth, speaking the truth, teaching the truth
about Jesus to others. Be the example you should be.
So church may grow a number
of spirits it should. But if you're asking for it
this time, always stand while we sing. We
thank you for listening to our podcast put on by the
Church of Christ at 2215 Plans Road in Bakersfield.
If you would like any
additional information or you would like to receive
a free Bible correspondence course by mail, please
email us at info at churchofchristbakersfield .com.
Our service times are Sundays
at 10 30 a .m. and 5 p .m. and
Wednesdays at 7 30 p .m. Please
make plans to join us. We would love for you to be
our honored guest.