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Fierce Church Sermons
We Need an Honesty Renaissance | Applause of Heaven
What if true freedom isn’t about getting ahead—but about being honest? 🤔
In a world where lying seems like the easiest way to protect ourselves, Jesus calls us to something higher: an honesty renaissance. When we’re honest with God and ourselves, we unlock boldness, peace, and a clear conscience.
In this message, we’ll explore:
✅ Honesty with God – How truth unlocks deeper intimacy and boldness in prayer
✅ Honesty with Yourself – Why self-deception holds you back from true freedom
✅ Living with Integrity – How turning to God’s truth brings clarity and peace
🎭 Storytelling Elements:
The Woman at the Well – How her honesty with Jesus led to transformation
The weight of self-deception – How living in denial creates spiritual exhaustion
Confession and freedom – How admitting the truth to God and others brings peace
I don't know if you know who the Liver King is. The Liver King is an online influencer and he's kind of famous for what he calls the ancestral lifestyle, and what this lifestyle includes is, he would claim he's so buff and so like that because he eats raw animal organs, especially liver. Okay, so raw liver, he eats it, and he's claimed up and down, this is why I'm so strong. I don't take any steroids or anything like that. However, some emails were leaked of his receipts for $11,000 monthly for anabolic steroids, and so I'm sure maybe he does still eat the liver, but steroids are helping, okay, and he was claiming that it wasn't helping and that's just. That's just how it rolls.
Speaker 1:Man, everybody sometimes it feels like, has a story, and there's a hidden part of the story, especially in today's day and age, where there's always a spin, there's always a twist. There's an entire generation that is now kind of like constantly feeling like they're supposed to entertain everybody, they're supposed to capture everything online. Everywhere they go, they're thinking about how do I get the pictures, how do I get the story and how do I share it in the most pretty way, even if the rest of that time is not necessarily so pretty. I want to talk to you today about four areas. We need an honesty renaissance. Four areas we need an honesty renaissance. The problem is it's not only them out there, it's us in here. There's misinformation out there, but there's misinformation in here. There's subtle spin to. So I'm going to say it just right. So in some ways I'm not technically lying, but I'm leaving you with the impression that something is this way. But it's not actually that way. We're not only around it, we're trained by it and we do it. And it causes us to do a little trick on the inside. And that is, we not only occasionally lie to other people, sometimes on accident, but sometimes on perfect. We not only do that, we even lie on the inside. We tell ourselves well, that's mostly true. So I decide that it is true and we're not tricking anybody. We're especially not tricking God. We would do this probably most of us, because there's some reward attached to the lie being told or the spin being spun. There's some way that I'm avoiding a negative consequence or I'm, you know, getting something good if I just shape it a little bit different. Whether maybe that's just praise, whether that's likes, but the truth is, maybe most of us are not quite as honest as we think.
Speaker 1:Let me just give you a little challenge. Let's say that your health depended on you never embellishing the truth constant, 100%, pure purity. Would you be sicker than you are right now, or would you be the same? Most of us say if I was really going to get less healthy every time I said anything that was less pure, yeah, I wouldn't be as healthy. What if your paycheck was tied to? How often you didn't tell the truth? What if every time you know it just happened Every time you said something that was slightly that's not really how it was, and you knew that it wasn't and you just that's 50 bucks, right there. Another 50 bucks, another 50 bucks. How many? Think real quick. You'd get real honest. You'd think about this a little bit more because you don't want to lose that money. That's kind of the situation here that Jesus is talking to us about.
Speaker 1:Back in the Sermon on the Mount, we're back in the applause of heaven. We've got three more, I think, in this chunk of the Sermon on the Mount. Then we're going to do a series called Hot Takes right after Easter. I think you're going to like it. Talk about more controversial stuff, but right now we're talking about being honest, and some rabbis had passed down over time not all of them, but some of them they'd said you know, god has commanded us to take oaths, and take oaths meaning sometimes things are so serious that you want to tell everybody God is my witness.
Speaker 1:God would say this is true also, and so they take an oath, and people take an oath in the Bible Even. In fact, paul takes oaths, jesus himself takes an oath. There's nothing necessarily wrong with taking an oath. But these folks were twisting it. They were saying okay, I think we can work around this a little bit, so let's just make it. If you swear by God himself, then for sure you got to tell the truth. But if you just swear by something less than that like maybe you swear by the temple, or maybe you swear by your own head, or maybe you swear on your mother's grave, whatever it is if you swear that way, it doesn't really count. Okay, it's not really the sin against God of betraying your oath. You're just, you're sounding really like it's a big deal, but you know, on the inside it's not really a big deal.
Speaker 1:The problem is not everybody knew this, and so people would be taking oaths and they'd be making vows that are not really vows, but they're presenting them as like they are. So that's what Jesus is talking about. That's what he's dealing with today. So let me give some examples. Let's say the merchant. He's selling some grain on the street and somebody comes up and the merchant says this is the best grain you're going to find. It's the lowest price, it's the healthiest, it has the least GMOs in it. Like it tells all this stuff he's really selling it up. He says I swear by the temple, this is the best deal you're going to get. Now in his heart there's a little voice that just says this is the best deal that I know about. Doesn't really know that. No one told him that he's deciding. It's probably true that this is the best deal. The person who's going to buy the grain he's like he swears by the temple. That's a big deal. Someone's going to swear by the temple. That's God's temple man. He must be telling me the truth. He goes on, he buys the stuff Down the road. It's for sale Same stuff just cheaper.
Speaker 1:The person who sold it thinks that they obeyed because they didn't take an oath to God. But Jesus is saying you didn't obey, you just found a clever way to lie. You lied to yourself first and then you lied to this other person. Second Works the same way.
Speaker 1:Let's say somebody's in a court of law, back in this time they're supposed to present evidence. Hey, this is the way it was. I swear by my head. This is how it went down. People are like, wow, the judge says he swears by his head, he wants to keep his head, so that must be a big deal to him. Okay, he swears by his head.
Speaker 1:Now something because he swears by his head, the wrong information isn't included. There's some kinky stuff that wasn't pointed out, and so maybe the villain goes free. Whatever it is, there's real life consequences, because someone decided I'm going to not really all the way lie, but I'm going to present reality as different than it actually was. So I can either get out of a negative consequence or I can get something that I want. Is this sounding familiar at all to anybody so far in our generation?
Speaker 1:So now, now, hopefully, you can hear Jesus's words a little bit better with that backdrop, because here's what Jesus is going to do. He's going to challenge us, just like he has throughout the entire Sermon on the Mount series. He's going to challenge us. I want a higher level of morality on the inside of my people that are being reformed and saying that I'm their king, my kingdom people. I want them to have a higher level of morality on the inside, not just the exteriors. I don't want you to just be legally possibly close to right, not just the exteriors. I don't want you to just be legally possibly close to right. I want you to actually be a Jesus representative on planet earth. So that's what he's going to challenge them to do. That's what we're going to take a look at Matthew 5, 33.
Speaker 1:Again, you've heard it said to the people long ago do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows that you have made. Fulfill to the Lord the vows that you have made. But I tell you, but I tell you, but I tell you. There he goes again. He said it all the other times. But I tell you he's saying look, I'm not just a teacher, I'm not just an interpreter of law. I am the authority on everything God means. I was there in the writing of the law. I'm the one who told Moses what to write down. I am the law giver, not just the law interpreter. I'm telling you God's heart behind what your speech looks like. I'm interested in the inner person of the heart. I don't just want you acting a certain way, I want you living a certain way. We understand that. Let's take an example. You got to flow with me here because I don't want to offend the wrong people.
Speaker 1:Today let's talk about mercenaries back in medieval times or mercenaries back in feudal times. What a mercenary was? Many of you know this is just hired muscle. It's someone's got. Hey, you pay me, king, I'm going to go and I'm going to fight in your war and I might die but I might get paid. Your war and I might die but I might get paid. So that's worth it to me. I don't have any necessary allegiance to your kingdom. I have allegiance to money. I will do the thing you want me to do, but I'm not dying for the ideals of the kingdom. I'm just dying because it's what I'm possibly dying, hopefully living because you're giving me money and it's what I'm supposed to do. Contrast that with the person who's not even maybe as skilled as that mercenary is. But they're fighting because they believe in the nation. They're fighting because they believe in those ideals, in their people, in the king. They're fighting for a different purpose. They're fighting for the kingdom itself.
Speaker 1:And that's what Jesus is asking, saying don't just get it exteriorly right, don't just be a mercenary. Be someone who says I'm fighting for my king himself, I'm obeying, I'm being honest on the inside for the king himself, not just so you think I'm honest because I want his approval, I want his high five, I want him to think man, that dude really does love me. But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is God's throne, or by earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And don't swear by your head. You can't make even one hair black or white. One of the things Jesus is saying is when you swear by, let's say, the earth, yeah, well, that's connected to God, dude, god made the earth, so you can't swear by anything and not really be swearing to God. So, just if this makes you lie, if you have to lie when you take oaths, just don't take them.
Speaker 1:Maybe a different way to say it is make everything an oath. Be so honest. No one's ever going to question you Because you always tell the truth. There is no space in your heart that you create for well. This is like, mostly true, but here's vow level true. No, jesus says just make everything true, just always talk so that everyone's like. You don't need a guarantee with that. You don't need a guarantee because it's guaranteed, because they're saying it.
Speaker 1:It goes without saying that girl, she always tells the truth. It goes without saying. There's nothing you need to suspect about that guy. I don't know, maybe some of these other folks, but when he says it, dude, I'm telling you, I've known him, it's just going to happen. That's how it goes. Meaning don't verbally cross your fingers, don't ever, on the inside, be like well, I'm saying this, but I mean that Jesus is saying don't do it.
Speaker 1:What does he say instead? He says all you need to say is a simple yes or no. Anything beyond that comes from the evil one. He says because you're always before your heavenly father. Your heavenly father, in his mercy, is a divine record keeper. He's keeping tabs on everything you think and say. He knows all of it. So it's never really hidden. It's not that nobody actually sees it, you're just thinking he doesn't necessarily see it. And when you do this, if you fail to do this, you remind me. What does he say of the evil one? We don't think about it like that, though, right, like we don't think. When I fudge the truth a little bit, that reminds Jesus of Satan, because he's the one who twists, he's the one who says one thing and means another. He's the one who's trying to trick everybody. And Jesus says that's not who you are, that's not a citizen of my kingdom. You're acting like the opposite side. So just instead, just have nothing hidden.
Speaker 1:And when you do this, this is the advantages that you and I get we get a clear conscience. We get a clear conscience. That is powerful. Sometimes we forget what it's like to even have a clear conscience because we're so used to bending the truth. And once we've come clean, once we've told everybody, once we said look, it was really this. Now we have a new confidence.
Speaker 1:Here's some things that confidence does. One it gives you boldness before God, meaning you don't feel like there's anything between you and God. It gives you boldness to speak for God. Okay, so when maybe you're called upon in your work situation, god's leading you to say something about Jesus, and if you haven't filled your soul with half-truths, you have a little bit more confidence to say I know God's sending me. So I'm just going to say this it may be that if you keep a clear conscience, you're just going to have more confidence in prayer, because you know there's been times you didn't have confidence in prayer because you're like, yeah, but I really jacked that up, like just yesterday, like my conscience knows, I did X, y and Z, so I'm feeling less confident. It's not even necessarily that God wouldn't answer the prayer, but you're less confident about it. In addition, I mean I've just found this to be true Okay, whatever you get by deception, you've got to keep by deception.
Speaker 1:See, this is why it doesn't make sense to lie to get ahead, to lie to get more money, to lie to get more money, to lie to get x, y or z, because whatever you got to do, if you had to lie to get that now you got to keep up the lie. Plus, I mean, I don't know how it is for ladies, but for guys it's just hard to remember all those lies, and so if you just don't lie, you don't have to remember anything. You just say what happened. What do we do? Well, we confess to God and we confess to others, and that's going to be the hard part. That's where we need an honesty renaissance. Everybody wants to do that, but the hard part is doing it.
Speaker 1:If we can get a value for honesty on the inside, the internal version that Jesus is talking about, we can have a renaissance in some areas. Let's talk about what they are. Number one we need an honesty renaissance with God. We need an honesty renaissance with God. Jesus was talking to the woman at the well and she's talking to him. She's a little bit uncomfortable and she changes the conversation.
Speaker 1:Well, let's just talk about worship, because that's kind of a you know something we don't always necessarily see eye to eye on, eye to eye on. I'm a Samaritan, you're a Jew, you guys think the right place to worship is in Jerusalem. We think a different place is the right mountain to worship on, and Jesus says whoa, let me stop you right there, because the time is coming indeed is here now when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth. The father's looking for those who worship him that way, in truth, in truth, there's a couple of ways this plays out. If we're going to worship in truth, first, I would encourage you, anytime you're worshiping in here or anywhere else that you are. Just do what's real. Just do what's true.
Speaker 1:Some of the first years of my walk with God it didn't mess with my whole walk with God, but it messed with the worship part. I was in a very demonstrative church, but it was so demonstrative it was like unreal. It became like a demonstration competition. It was a little bit like reality TV. People would try to come up with the most outlandish ways to prove that they truly loved God. Now I've seen people do some pretty wow things as they worship God.
Speaker 1:I'm not talking about when it's real. I'm talking about when the tone in the room is everyone's trying to do something to be more pleasing to God, and that's a joke and a lie and it's not what Jesus just said. First, you don't need to be more pleasing to God with your own stuff, because that's not going to work. You need Jesus's stuff to be pleasing to God. But what does the father want? He's seeking worshipers that will just say hey, dude, whether you like to throw up your hands, whether you like to run around the building, whether you like to shout from time to time hallelujah, whatever you want to do, it's all great, as long as it's true, do it, because that's actually what you want to do. So can I just invite you? If you've been messed up, if your worship has been you kind of think I got to do special things so God likes my worship, just forget all that. You don't need to do that at all. All you need to do is worship in spirit. That means with his help and in truth.
Speaker 1:And when we're honest with God, that means I'm open to God. I'm open to his conviction, because the Holy Spirit is sent to convict the world of sin. We don't remember that about the Holy Spirit. Sometimes he's an advisor, he's a helper, he's an advocate, he's a strengthener, he's an encourager, but he's also he was sent to convict the world of sin. We're still in the world. He still wants to convict us of sin. When we're honest with God, we're saying just, you know, I'm open. You tell me whatever you want to tell me and I'm going to believe you. I'm going to be open to that. I'm ready to be convicted. Instead of argue with you like you're not right, I'm saying ahead of time God, whatever you, however, you convict my soul of sin, I'm going to say you're right. I'm going to say you're not lying, you're right.
Speaker 1:Some of you, like me, maybe occasionally, when you were a kid in school, pretended you had an invisibility cloak. I would daydream sitting in my fourth grade desk. Wouldn't it just be cool if I had an invisibility cloak and I could just no one would even know. I just put it on, I just walk right out. I don't have a great relationship with school right now and it'd be great if I could just walk right out and no one would ever know.
Speaker 1:Some of us feel like that sometimes, right now, some of us sometimes act like when it comes to our sin, we have an invisibility cloak on. No one knows. No one knows that I'm not quite truthful about this. No one knows that I'm saying it this way, I actually mean this way, but they asked it this way, so I'm just going to, I'm just going to say it that way. We're wearing an invisibility cloak, but not to God. God sees right through that cloak, yo, he knows who you really are, he knows what you're really doing. That means so when we say, when the spirit of God convicts us, that was an outburst of anger right there, and we say, no, lord, no, that was me blowing off some steam because I'm stressed it wasn't. I don't need to repent for that, because that wasn't really sin. This is what it was, god. That's dishonesty with God. No, he's right. We stay open. Oh, it was Lord. Oh, forgive me. In Jesus name, I repent. Please forgive me.
Speaker 1:Or when we tell somebody something and we're keeping part of it back and we know they want to know the part we're keeping back, but they didn't ask it that way, we're lying in our relationship with God. First. We're lying on the inside, just like those merchants on the street. We're lying on the inside and say I'm just going to decide that they're really asking this, even though I know it's not. I think there's also a time when we're not being honest in our relationship with God, and this is dangerous for church people. Okay, so flow with me.
Speaker 1:It's dangerous for church people to think that because I go to church which is very healthy and very helpful to your soul because I do that, I'm good with God. That's not true and that's not what God says is true. What God says is true is every one of us has fallen short of God's glorious standard. We've all sinned in a way that we can't get back to him and the only thing that can save us is him. And when we try to add to that and say, well, no, I'll help God, though, because I'm good and I went to church and I did good things in the planet Because of that, then he'll say no, no, no, that's a lie, that's not true. Believe God Instead, let go of all that and trust. No, god is right. My helping God won't work. That's not a good plan. That's not going to lead where I want it to go.
Speaker 1:So we need to be honest in our relationship with God. But what about this? We need an honesty renaissance with ourselves. Behold, you delight in truth, in the inward being. You teach me wisdom in the secret place, or sorry, the secret heart. I like the secret heart translation because it reminds me that there's a place that no one else can access except for God. There's a place inside you that God can get to, that nobody else can get to. That's where he wants truth.
Speaker 1:That means, even though you might not think so all the time, god actually wants you to tell him the truth about how you feel, even if it's harsh, even if you think like it's inappropriate. He says no, no, no, don't pretend to do what you think I want Tell me how you actually feel when you're sad. I want to know that you're sad. When you're feeling envious, I want to know that you're envious. When you're feeling tired, I want you to say you're tired. Don't just say the rote things that you always say. Come to me with your stuff. And this is why prayer is so powerful. When we come to God and we start to ask and talk to him about our sin, he reveals sinful attitudes that we can say, ah, that's right, it's not even just something I did, god. This is a way I'm thinking and you're right. I do feel that way and I do think that way. Would you help me? Would you walk with me? Would you help us get rid of this thing?
Speaker 1:There's a closet in my bedroom. It is the walk-in closet. Now I recognize that it is a privilege to have a walk-in closet. I remember when Kenzie and I had a closet that was so frightening. It was dark and dank and you didn't know what lived in there. And so now we have a nice closet and if you walked in our room, it's relatively clean most of the time. Okay, but the closet is a different story. Now. Kenzie's awesome because she cleans it every few months, like she makes it look beautiful. It's spick and span, but life takes over, okay, and we're in and out of that place and we're I'm trying on this, but I gotta go, so I throw those clothes. Over there there's a pile of wrapping paper. We don't have time to put that back together into some corner, and so there's just stuff that builds up and there's. We just call it clutter. There's just clutter in that closet until Kenzie says, not today, devil, and she goes in there and she rearranges and she reorders.
Speaker 1:My friends, there's little clutters in our heart, in our secret heart, in the secret place that we don't even always know is there, and we invite God. Would you help me tell you the truth about what's in here? I need you to reorganize this. We need to get rid of that old stupid thing that's dumb. We need more of this. This is really good. We've all got a closet that God sometimes just needs to clean. We just have to invite him into it. That means we're honest. See what we'll do, and you guys do this, I do this. We'll say that didn't hurt. I'm tougher than that. And the Spirit of God says yeah, it did that hurt. Don't tell me it didn't hurt. I know that it did hurt and I can minister to you, if you'll call it what it is, all right If we say I'm not burnt out because people like me are so powerful and productive.
Speaker 1:We don't get burnt out. That's a lie. You're trying to lie yourself into thinking that. But God says that's not true. You're burnt out and what I need you to do is come along, come unto me. You say I'm not lonely, I don't need people, I'm fine. And God says that's not true. You're lonely and I can help with that, I can lead you to courageous steps with that. But if you won't admit that, you're being dishonest with God when you say well, you know I'm divorced, so now I'm broken and what might've happened for my life can just never happen, and God will tell you the truth. So I know you feel that way, but also I bring my glory through broken jars of clay, sometimes the best, because it shows off how awesome I am. God will tell you the truth about you if we'll just be honest with him.
Speaker 1:Here's number three. So God, ourselves and we need an honesty, renaissance with our family and our found family and people in our lives, the folks we're with Ephesians 4.25. So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. Tell our neighbors the truth. I have found I don't know about you guys. Sometimes it's the closest people it's hardest to tell the truth. I have found I don't know about you guys. Sometimes it's the closest people it's hardest to tell the truth to, because that might affect the future. And so it takes a lot of courage to say I'm gonna trust God and I'm hopefully gonna build relationships where I can trust them. I'm gonna tell you the truth, even though it's a hard thing to do.
Speaker 1:We need to have vitally healthy relationships in our lives, and if you can't tell the truth, you can't have that. If you can't tell the truth, you're never really dealing with reality. Everyone's just saying stuff that they don't quite mean and they're dodging what they do mean, and so you're relating to people but it's not even true relationship entirely, because you're not able to name it. So we need to be courageous, and this is where I think this is the hard part, this is the okay. Lord, we need to do this and I don't want to do this, and people have responded bad about this in the past, but I'm going to trust you and here we go and we need to be candid because we know that there might be a cost. But we need to be clear and we need to do it in such a way that it's not de-dignifying, that it's not a slam Some of you remember I don't know if people even know what this is anymore but Jerry Springer, yeah, y'all know about that.
Speaker 1:I'd say, google it, but maybe not. Okay, what it really was, guys, it was just sucker punching with truth for the sake of beating people down, slash entertainment, in other words. It wasn't really restorative. It was like look at these crazy people, we're going to make them tell the truth and they would hurt each other on TV. That's not the kind of candidness that God wants us to operate with. He wants it in a safe relationship where we can tell the truth to our kids and our co-workers and our neighbors and we can name it. But we're not trying to hurt them on purpose. We even maybe give them a heads up. This might hurt. I don't want it to hurt, but I want us to be tight more than I want to avoid this. So let's hold hands. We're going to do it right now, together. It's because I love you that I say it, not because that's why I don't withhold it.
Speaker 1:Honesty is a little bit different. Let's just clarify, we're almost done. Honesty is a little bit different than transparency, entirely Okay. So think about this. Sometimes we talk about transparency, but if we were truly transparent, that means share everything and everything with regard to that thing that you know about. That's not what honesty is really.
Speaker 1:God is honest with you, but he's not entirely transparent about everything. Can somebody say amen, he knows about the trials you're gonna have in two years. Now he knows they're gonna be very painful and it's gonna take you two weeks to get through it. He doesn't tell you now because like, oh geez, I don't want to think about that for two years. If he was totally transparent, he'd tell you now all the things are going to happen. But he's not going to tell you now because he'll be your shepherd then he's going to be you.
Speaker 1:Every little thought I've had with regard to this. Sometimes I think you're a real butthead. I don't need to say that right now, because that's not a bill. That's closer to Jerry Springer type talk. I don't need to say that. That would be transparent. But that's not what we're trying to do here? I, that would be transparent. But that's not what we're trying to do here. I'm trying to just tell you the things that you're asking, that we're trying to know together and share. Amen Now. So it's a little bit different. Here's what I found. That's curious and wonderful.
Speaker 1:Proverbs 28, 13 says people who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they'll receive mercy. Every time I'm tempted to not tell the truth about something, I gotta go tell my wife something. I gotta go tell my friends something. I try to think of that verse and be like I know it's. My body and my spirit and my devil are all telling me don't tell them because it's gonna go bad. But God says it's most likely, most of the time, that you're gonna find mercy for telling them. So just go ahead and do it. It takes a lot of courage, takes a lot of candidness, but if we do it you're just gonna have a clear conscience and you're gonna live in power with God. Here's one more God, ourselves, our family and, number four, our money. We need an honesty renaissance with money, for where your treasure is there, your heart will also be Wherever your treasure is Now, this takes a little math and I'm not a great mather, but I can work a spreadsheet a little.
Speaker 1:It takes a little math to find out what percentage of your income are you actually spending on these different things, because where your money is, there your heart is. I'm so encouraged. Sometimes I'm like doggone. We spend so much on streaming anymore. Golly, what is up. And then I go look at the budget and I'm oh, it's only 1%. I feel a lot better. You might say, well, that's too much. Well maybe, but I'm feeling like it's 20% with all the shows everybody watches. But I feel better because it's really only 1%. But what did I do? I got a perspective. What is it, though? What is it I want to know so I can look at what is my generosity level look like and I can be truthful about where's my heart actually? Am I just saying that? Am I just lying to myself about my generosity, or am I actually being generous? As important, it should get our attention to ask that question.
Speaker 1:Proverbs 11, 28 says those who depend on their wealth will fall like the leaves of autumn. That just means they're gonna wipe out. That's what it means, and they ain't pretty. They're gonna wipe out, but the righteous will prosper like the leaves of the summer. All that to say God cares about how we get stuff, not just that we get stuff. God has all kinds of treasure for us. He has all kinds of prizes, he has all kinds of things that he just wants to give you just because he loves you, but he cares about how we get them. And so if we're faithfully managing our money in ways that are righteous, we're not trying to scooch along the side, we're not just trying to get stuff, that really that you're trying to take a shortcut to get something that you shouldn't even have yet, if we're doing it above board, god says I will reward that, but you're going to be like an autumn leaf if you try to do it without me. I'll give you two examples.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you might be prompted in a worship experience like this. God says I want you to give this much money. And we might lie to ourselves right in that moment and say that's the devil. He wants me to give. It's not the devil, probably. The devil hates God's kingdom and he doesn't want it to advance, so he's not going to tempt you to give, so don't buy that lie. Here's another one, though, that I hear much more often. If it's on sale, I'm actually saving money. Yeah, guys, that's dishonesty about our money. That's third grade math will get you out of that one. That's not even a little bit true, okay. But we got to be responsible and truth tellers to ourselves. We got to do it. We got to tell the truth. In truth, there's freedom.
Speaker 1:Jesus was before the Sanhedrin. He's being tried. They're looking for a reason to kill him. They only need one. They just need him to say that he's the son of God. They just need him to claim deity. And they're like we got him, let's do it. And so Jesus has an opportunity right now to either not answer their question or just say it in a way that they're not going to, you know, bring the consequences that they want to bring.
Speaker 1:Mark 14, 61,. But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again, the high priest asked him are you the Messiah, the son of the blessed one? Verse 62,. I am, just the same way that the spirit of God told Moses I am, that I am. Jesus says bloody beard pulled out already. Beat, beat, beat. And he says I am, and you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven. The high priest tore his clothes. Why do we need any more witnesses? He asked. You've heard the blasphemy. What do you think?
Speaker 1:They all condemned him as worthy of death. First of all, I just want you to know, in case anybody any person on TikTok ever tells you Jesus never claimed to be God. Read that, because he just did. That's why they put him to death. They can't just put him to death for anything. They're putting him to death because he claimed to be God.
Speaker 1:But also, I want you to notice that Jesus told the truth and he could have gotten out of it. He didn't even have to lie. He could have just said a thousand angels kill all these people, and it would have been done. He could have just vanished. He could have done probably a million other God-level things, but he didn't do any of them. Instead, he took the consequence for telling the truth.
Speaker 1:And here's what's powerful. Jesus told the truth to cover your and my lies. Are you discouraged a little bit after a message like this? Geez, I can't. I don't even know if I am honest. Take heart, my friend, be encouraged. The Son of God died to cover your lies. He told the truth when he didn't have to to cover all the lies that you told, maybe even when you wanted to. The son of God has got you. All you have to do is trust him and put all these dishonesties in his hand and say, god, help me be more like the servant of the mouth, help me be more truthful, help me have an honesty renaissance. Let's bow our heads, god.
Speaker 1:This is one of those messages that I feel like it's easy to say amen to and it's really hard to do. It's really hard to even keep Like. Maybe we'll think about it for the next three days, but then we'll lose it. So I pray for staying power. I pray you'd keep this in our hearts. I pray that the conviction of the Holy Spirit would come quickly, that because we're so appreciative of Jesus telling the truth and experience the consequences for that for us, that we're willing to boldly, bravely, sometimes, with not perfect outcomes we're gonna take the step into honesty. When we could get something out of bending the truth a little bit, we're gonna pull back. When we could leave out information, we're going to put it back in. Father, in Jesus' name, make us representatives of the kingdom of the beautiful, wonderful, self-sacrificing King In Jesus' name, amen. Hey, thanks for tuning in today. If God has used the ministry of Fierce in your life, please consider paying it forward with a financial gift at fiercechurchgive Amen.