Sermon Tone Analysis

7 Deadly Sins - Lying

Video

Intro - Today as we continue in our series of 7 Deadly Sins we are going to look at the sin of lying.

Proverbs 6:16-17

Proverbs 6:16-17

Introduction -

Video

Big Idea - God is truth and wants His people to live life in the goodness of truth.

God hates lies, because they hold his creation back from Himself and what is good.

What is a lie?

The deliberate covering up of the truth.

This can be done by telling something that is completely wrong.

Telling only part of the truth.

Or it can done in silence by holding back truth that should be shared.

Transition - Why is lying so bad?

Lying is wrong, because it goes against the very nature of who God is.

I. God is Truth

One of God’s great attributes that cause us to trust Him is that He is truth and He always tells the truth.

When God speaks you can count on what He says.

You can take it to the bank.

In God’s great truth He builds with us a great deal of trust or faith.

Our trust - our faith - stands on the fact that He always tells us the truth.

Truth is who God is.

Truth is a communicable attribute.

That is a big church word that means that this is an attribute of God that God’s people can also take on themselves.

God blesses us with truth.

There is a trust and peace because God is truthful.

God calls you and I to be like Him … to be truth tellers.

I have a question for you.

Are you a truth teller?

Are you someone who blesses others around you with truthfulness or do you choose at times to bend the truth?

Are yo someone who is satisfied telling lies, not just big lies, but those smaller lies that seem to have no consequence.

Or do you take on the character of God by being a truth teller?

God calls that person who tells small lies one thing - He calls you a liar.

If you are a liar, you are not like God in truth telling, but instead you are like The Father of Lies - Satan.

Speaking to the Religious Leaders Jesus said this ...

Transition - God is truth (it is part of His beauty), but He hates not only Satan, but God hates lying.

II.

God Hates Lying

I want you to listen to these scriptures.

You’ll see that God doesn’t just think lying is something you shouldn’t do like eating too much cake.

God really hates lying.

He detests it.

, "There are six things which the Lord hates, seven which are an abomination to him: haughty [proud] eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and a man who sows discord among brothers."

, "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord."

What is an abomination?

An abomination is something that is detestable to God and brings His judgement.

And so we see how serious God takes lying

Sometimes

Transition - One of many reasons that God hates when you lie, is not only does it offend His pure character, but ...

, "He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he shall be my son.

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

(Cf.

21:27; 22:15.)

III.

Lying hurts the people around us.

Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 12

Intro - The Bible tells us of when Abram (to later be re-named Abraham) and Sarai (later to be re-named Sarah) struggle with lying

Story tell Abram and Sarai

, "The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death."

-There was a great famine [Crisis] and Abram and Sarai go to Egypt to get food.

-Abram’s wife is beautiful.

Abram was afraid that the Egyptians would kill him so they could take his wife.

-Abram told Sarai to tell the Egyptians that she was his sister, so they would not kill him.

-Apparently Abram and Sarai were from Alabama, because this lie was partly true.

Abram married his half sister Sarai.

-Pharoah heard of Sarai’s beauty and called for her.

-To make Abram happy Pharoah gives Abram sheep, oxen, donkeys, camels and servants.

Abram gets rich, but Pharoah is courting Abram’s wife and getting ready to place her in his harem.

-Pharaoh’s family/court gets a skin disease as a curse from God for Pharoah taking in Abram’s wife.

(Boils/Leprosy)

Look what God does

Truth of the passage -

Abram did not trust God to take care of his need for food or to take care of his family.

Abram took control of the situation by dealing in lies.

People were seriously hurt because of Abram’s lie.

When we lie - others get hurt.

In the short run or in the long run - others get hurt.

Illustration - I was told this story by a student of mine in Augusta.

Transition

Story - Korean boy who was brand new to the U.S., brand new to the English language, new to U.S. culture comes as a foreign exchange student to a Christian camp.

-Korean Foreign exchange student who was a Christ follower flies to the U.S. just a few weeks before school begins.

-His Christian hosts sign him up for their Churches Summer Camp so the boy can meet some new friends and be spiritually encouraged.

-This 14 year old young man is excited.

-There was a mistake made.

-Every large youth group has a few boys who go to camp, not for spiritual reasons but for recreation time and the girls.

-This young man was placed in a room with these kind of boys.

-The first day of camp the boys realized that they had a young nieve roomate they could take advantage of.

-They asked him if he wanted to make friends and show honor to those he met.

He was eager.

-So they taught him some inappropriate greetings that he had never heard of before.

Greeting that included 4 letter words.

He didn’t know the words were bad and was happy to use these special greetings.

-Instead of waving at people, these roommates taught him how to encourage and make others happy by telling them that they were number one.

Not by lifting his first finger, but his middle finger.

-So this foreign exchange student would go around camp happily greeting all these new Christian friends by lifting up one finger and with a big smile on his face and his strong Korean accent greeting them with curse words and insults.

-Really confused with the new Christian Korean kid the other youth finally reported to the counselors about a day into the awful prank.

-As you can imagine, the boys who took such terrible advantage of the kid were sent home from camp.

-The new Korean was devastated and very embarrassed during his first days of being in the U.S.

Lying hurts the people around us.

Lying offends the perfect character of God.