#2: Give Up - Lying
Colossians 3:9-11 Victory Fellowship
March 16, 2025 - Rev. Roderick Grabski
I. INTRODUCTION:
a. Our scripture lesson today refers to the conversion we experience when we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior. Lent can be experienced as a season of conversion: we acknowledge the ways we have turned away from God in our lives and we focus on turning our hearts and minds back toward God.
b. Lent Series – What to Give Up?
c. My sermon focus in these six weeks before Resurrection Sunday will suggest attitudes or conditions that, with the power of the Holy Spirit, we can and should give up. - Not just for 40 days.
d. We need to cultivate a habit of not doing these things:
Worrying Over Things We Cannot Control
Enduring Sickness w/o Prayer & Anointing
Lying / Holding a Grudge (Unforgiving)
Prideful Arrogance
This week the focus is on giving up Lying
The story is told of a store manager who overheard his clerk telling a customer, "no, ma'am, we haven't had any for a while, and it doesn't look as if we'll be getting any soon." Horrified, the manager came running over to the customer and said, "of course we'll have some soon, we placed an order last week." Then the manager drew the clerk aside. "Never," he snarled, "Never, never, never say we're out of anything--say we've got it on order and it's coming. Now, what was it she wanted?" "Rain," said the clerk.
I. RELATING THE TEXT
a. Colossians talks about a change that has occurred. It doesn’t matter who we were or what our previous background was, a relationship with Jesus Christ changes us.
b. Paul and Timothy remind the church that lying –especially to other Christians-is a wicked deed.
i. They suggest “putting on” our new nature – indicating that it is an intentional process.
c. If you can consistently lie w/o feeling convicted, it calls into question the sincerity of your conversion to Christ.
i. Simply put, if you can continue to lie w/o feeling guilty about it -and trying to change- you are not saved.
II. The book "The Day America Told the Truth" (1991 James Patterson & Peter Kim) reported that 91 percent of those surveyed lie routinely about matters they consider trivial, and 36 percent lie about important matters; 86 percent lie regularly to parents, 75 percent to friends, 73 percent to siblings, and 69 percent to spouses.
What are Lies – As reported in USA Today, Jerald Jellison said, "Each of us fibs at least 50 times a day." He explained that we lie about our age, our income, or our accomplishments. And we use lies to escape embarrassment. A common reason for "little white lies," we're told, is to protect someone else's feelings. Yet in so doing, we are really protecting ourselves. According to Jellison, here are some of our most commonly used fibs: "I wasn't feeling well." "I didn't want to hurt your feelings." "I was just kidding." "I was only trying to help."
A lie has no legs. It requires other lies to support it. Tell one lie and you are forced to tell others to back it up. Stretching the truth won't make it last any longer. Those that think it permissible to tell white lies soon grow colorblind. Austin O'Malley.
a. Sly Flattery, intentional deceit; Falsely accuse or spread gossip; Urban legend emails; Facebook or Twitter posts sent on w/o verification; Wrong change not reported when received, Wrong age given for children, etc., etc., etc.
b. God’s Word says in Proverbs 6 that God HATES a lying tongue, A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers. In Proverbs 19:22 that it is better to be a poor man than a liar.
i. Our call to Worship Proverbs 12
ii. Over 120 times the Gospels record Jesus as saying, “truly I tell you.”
c. In John 15:26 God the Father is called the Spirit of TRUTH. In John14:6 Jesus is called the TRUTH. In John 14:17 the Holy Spirit is called TRUTH and in John 16:13 we are told that the Spirit of Truth will lead us into all TRUTH.
d. CHRISTIANS DO NOT TELL LIES. If they do, they feel bad about it, repent to God, make amends, and try not to do it again.
PRAYER:
Father God, in Jesus' name, make me aware of even the smallest lies that proceed from my mouth. Help me to honor You with all my words. Help me to avoid gossip and slander and to speak only truth - and that in love. Amen.
SONG: Truth Be Told
Colossians 3:9-11 NLT
9Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.
