Sermon Tone Analysis

Jerry-Proctor and Gamble

How far we have fallen even since then.

How far we have fallen even since then.

Fact or Fiction.com.

Verifiably false.

Cavanaugh—shouldn’t have anything to say about it.

Weren’t there.

Feathers

There was a pastor in a small town who was well loved by his congregation.

One of the members of his church, became one of the pastor’s closest advisors and one of his closet friends, sadly though, eventually his friend got offended and left the church.

After he left he told all kinds of lies and half truths about the pastor.

He allowed people to believe lies…most of the congregation turned against him due to these lies...so much so that eventually the pastor had to leave his beloved church.

A few years later the lying manipulative friend began feeling convicted and he went and apologized to the pastor.

He asked what can I do to make things better?

How can I fix what I have broken.

The pastor said, I want you to take your favorite pillow, the pillow that you love, that you can’t sleep without, I want you to cut it open and take it outside on a windy day.

I want you to shake it out and let all the feathers from your favorite pillow blow away in the wind.

When you have done that come back to me.

His friend was sad to destroy his favorite pillow, but he figured this was some kind of symbolic penance as his pastor friend was known for his parables.

He did what the pastor asked and went back to him and said I did what you asked.

The pastor said, ok, now, I want you to go gather all the feathers and put the feathers back in the pillow, sew it up, make it like it was before, so you can again use your favorite pillow.

He said that’s impossible.

The pastor said, exactly my point.

The damage was done.

Trying to fix the damage done by lying, by innuendo, by half truths, by gossip, was like trying to find all those feathers that had been blown away by the wind and stuffing them back into the pillow.

How do we get the feathers of truth back in the pillow?

How do we get the feathers spread out all over the development…all over social media…all over back in the pillow?

:

The ninth commandment can be simply understood as “do not lie”.

Underground Railroad and Do I look Fat

Ethical Debates: Underground Railroad

Cavanaugh...

We love to take commandments like this one and get into ethical debates about what is lying and what isn’t lying.

In other words, we are looking for the exception clause.

So when we hear, do not lie, we are quick to say well what about during the civil war, when people in the south were hiding slaves in their homes from the Confederate soldiers, and were helping slaves escape to the north in the underground railroad.

Would it be ok to lie to save one of the slaves?

Well, I don’t see any slaves today, I don’t see any underground railroads, and third, you are trying to distract from the main issue, which is your heart and the way that you lie.

Or, is it ok for me to lie when my wife asks me if she looks fat in a dress?

Number one, it depends.

Number two, say NO without even looking or even a second of delayed response.

We are always looking for the exception clause instead of focussing on main issue which is the subtle and not so subtle ways that we lie.

It’s really serious.

Lying is the same as physically assaulting someone.

Sometimes it can be worse.

Feathers

The ninth commandment can be simply understood as “do not lie”.

There was a pastor in a small town who was well loved by his congregation.

One of the members of his church, became one of the pastor’s closest advisors and one of his closet friends, sadly though, eventually his friend got offended and left the church.

After he left he told all kinds of lies and half truths about the pastor.

He allowed people to believe lies…most of the congregation turned against him due to these lies...so much so that eventually the pastor had to leave his beloved church.

A few years later the lying manipulative friend began feeling convicted and he went and apologized to the pastor.

He asked what can I do to make things better?

How can I fix what I have broken.

The pastor said, I want you to take your favorite pillow, the pillow that you love, that you can’t sleep without, I want you to cut it open and take it outside on a windy day.

I want you to shake it out and let all the feathers from your favorite pillow blow away in the wind.

When you have done that come back to me.

His friend was sad to destroy his favorite pillow, but he figured this was some kind of symbolic penance as his pastor friend was known for his parables.

He did what the pastor asked and went back to him and said I did what you asked.

The pastor said, ok, now, I want you to go gather all the feathers and put the feathers back in the pillow, sew it up, make it like it was before, so you can again use your favorite pillow.

He said that’s impossible.

The pastor said, exactly my point.

The damage was done.

Trying to fix the damage done by lying, by innuendo, by half truths, by gossip, was like trying to find all those feathers that had been blown away by the wind and stuffing them back into the pillow.

Jesus talked about the seriousness of lying and where lying comes from:

Maybe that is why Jesus said that lying is satanic.

Satan’s native language is lying.

The very first sin, was borne out of a lie.

Satan approached Eve, with Adam sitting silently by and said.

Remember in the garden:

Gensis 3: 4

When Peter caught church members in a lie, listen to what he said...

When Peter caught church members in a lie, listen to what he said...

Acts

John says in Revelation that liars are left outside of Heaven:

We can all agree that the Bernie Madoff’s of the world, the one who defrauded investors of 50 billion dollars through a Ponzi Scheme, or the cyclist Lance Armstrong who won seven Tour de Frances while on illegal drugs and later said that he actually believed himself when he would lie…we can all agree that these people are liars and breakers of the 9th commandment, but what about us?

What about the more respectable and understandable lies?

Bernie Madoff…he developed a Ponzi Scheme that defrauded investors out of 50 billion dollars.

Later it was said, “it was one big lie.”

Lance Armstrong-believed the lie

Charles Dawson

Jerry/Proctor Gamble—How Far We have Come

In the 20th century after Charles’ Darwin’s origin of species was written, there was a mad scramble to find the so called missing link…a human/ape transitional life form.

And one man Charles Dawson, not Charles Darwin, but Dawson, claimed to have discovered a skull that was the missing link—it was a skull with stained teeth…the skull made worldwide news and Dawson to his dying day claimed that it was authentic.

However, it was later shown to be from a 600 year old orangutan and the teeth were glued in to the skull and even stained to look old…a total lie.

Nazi Lie—was that the Jews were responsible for all of Germany’s problems including the loss of World War I, Hitler claimed the Jews had killed and eaten Christian children in the Middle Ages.

It’s second nature and that’s a problem because Satan’s nature, his native tongue Jesus said is to lie.

Hitler and his cronies orchestrated what they called “the big lie”…that no matter how a lie is, or because the lie is so big, if it is repeated enough, people will believe it.

Hitler said that everyone tells

small lies, but very few people have the courage to tell huge lies.

Hitler said that since a big lie is so unlikely people will actually come to believe it.

Especially in age of social media where what we put out there is instant, constant, global and permanent.

And we can agree that the great liars of history break the 9th commandment.

And we can even agree that we break the 9th commandment when we tell lies which we all do.

Depths of requirements of 9th

Way deeper than we thought.

The ninth isn’t just telling the truth, but loving the truth.

Not just telling the truth, but telling the truth for the right reason.

Listen to how one person from church history put it:

So what are some of the ways.

We love to take commandments like this one and get into ethical debates about what is lying and what isn’t lying.

So when we hear, do not lie, we are quick to say well what about during the civil war, when people in the south were hiding slaves and were helping slaves escape to the north in the underground railroad.