Exodus 20:16 Don’t bear false witness against your neighbor.
It’s been said that liar’s don’t go to hell when they die. They go to congress.
This week the Democrats blocked the Republicans from sending out a mailing to their constituents regarding the health care bill being worked on. The reason for blocking it was because the Democrats say it’s untruthful. Republicans, for their part, are calling for a flag on the play because they believe it’s very truthful. Each side is accusing the other of lying.
It’s fascinating to me how both sides can say that the other side is lying. Somebody has to be telling the truth right? It’s especially confusing on an issue like health care that is a monumental problem with a lot of moving parts.
As best I can tell it’s not so much that either side is lying in the traditional sense of the word. Rather it’s that they both take a simple piece of accurate information from a very complex situation and declaring it the whole truth.
Of course convoluted problems require convoluted solutions; solutions that can’t be communicated in a 30 second sound byte. Instead we get a piece of the truth, told it’s the whole truth, and are expected to believe it.
It’s my position that taking a piece of truth and declaring it as the whole truth is in and of itself a lie.
More specifically I think it’s an example of bearing false witness.
The only example in scripture where the phrase “false witness” is used as an example is in Matthew 26. . As Jesus stood accused the chief priests and Sanhedrin sought out false witnesses to testify against Him. The ones that they finally found some one who testified that Jesus said He would tear down the temple and rebuild it in 3 days.
That is what He said. It was a piece of the truth but not the entire truth. Another way to put it is that it was the right information but the wrong implication.
He was talking about his body and the resurrection from the dead in 3 days. In fact the disciples would look back to that statement as a foundation of their belief in Him. (John 2:19-22) It was an early example of “gotcha” politics.
Bearing false witness is definitely lying but it’s deeper, it’s more dangerous, it’s being tricky with the truth.
It’s not just politics of course. It’s a part of our every day lives.
Every time you or I say the words, “ you know (INSERT NAME), they’re really good people BUT”. This is always followed by something that completely negates that fact that they’re a “really good person. The justification for this is usually that it’s true. We somehow feel justified in sharing bad information about each other as long as it’s true.
It’s a part of the truth, but not the whole truth. It’s the right information, but the wrong implication. The whole truth is that person who is a brother or sister in Christ that I am “speaking the truth about” is a blood bought, robed in righteousness, positionally pure (I know positionally isn’t a word but it sounds good) and engaged to be the Bride of Christ. They are someone that Jesus loves very much; that He is very passionate about.
When we do this we’re aligning ourselves with the one that Jesus himself said is a liar. Revelation 12:10 records that Satan accuses us before God himself. The stuff that he says about me, well it’s a piece of the truth. “God you know Darren lied about” or “Darren stole” and that part is true. But it’s a piece of the truth, and if it’s declared as the whole truth it’s a lie. The whole truth is that Jesus paid the price of that lie and that theft.
Here’s the great news.
1 John 2 says if any man sins, know this, we have an advocate or a defense lawyer with the father. John goes on to call Jesus the “good and faithful witness.” Jesus tells the whole story. Yes they have sinned but my blood has cleanses them, and the father says case dismissed, lack of evidence.
So the question for me is am I a false witness like Satan or am I a true and faithful witness like Jesus? Acts 1 records that some of Jesus last words was calling you and I to be His witnesses. A true and faithful witness is called to tell the truth, the whole truth, not just a piece of it, or just being tricky with it, but the whole entire truth.
I love my wife very much. If someone says, “well you know Shannon, I really like her but you know (INSERT SNARKY COMMENT)” that is going to infuriate me. It’s going to cause me to come to her defense. To put it simply, it’s not going to go over well.
How should I expect that Jesus would respond with me trash talking His bride?
Are we being good and faithful witnesses for our colleagues, the people we work with, our friends and family? Am I telling the truth? Maybe instead of the “you know Darren, he’s a really nice guy BUT”. Maybe we can just stop with the “but”. Don’t go any further than that.
And if you’re thinking, well it’s not true! Be a good and faithful witness on behalf of Jesus, He’s the one that makes it true about you, and He’s the one that makes it true about the person we’re so tempted to speak badly about.
We’ll dig more deeply into this tomorrow night at Conduit. I hope you can join us.
Darren
www.darrentyler.com
Feeding a child in Haiti is only $15. Amazing. Basically the cost of 3 trips to Starbucks. Pray about sponsoring someone full time. We have a waiting list of kids that we can be feeding, sending to school, clothing and mentoring to Jesus in Jacmel, Haiti.
If you’re giving a regular offering or sponsoring a kid or feeing a kid know that we don’t hold your money. We’ll put it to work immediately. You can donate or sponsor a child at
www.conduitmission.org
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Conduit July 20- Stealing Time
Jesus Himself said that unfaithfulness is the only thing that makes it lawful for a marriage to break up. The church is called the Bride of Christ. I don't think it's accidental then that Jesus would in another place say He'll never leave me nor forsake me. In my own unfaithfulness He'll never leave me. He gives Himself the out, and then doesn't take it. What an awesome God we serve.
That was last week.
This week we hit Exodus 20:15. Thou shalt not steal.
When you dig deep into the Hebrew. When you exegete the original Hebrew language you see that this phrase really says, "don't steal". It's pretty simple. Straight forward. If you're like me, you probably would be inclined to check this one off your list and get on with the "no false witness command." Hang with me though.
Would you consider spending time at your work on Facebook or other personal internet adventures as stealing? If your employer is paying you for your time there and your taking that time and using it for something else, doesn't that count?
A survey in 2005 by www.salary.com found that the average employee confessed to spending 2.09 hours per day on the internet for personal reasons. And that was BEFORE FACEBOOK! The survey tallied up that personal time wasted is costing employers $759 Billion Dollars. That's the entire amount of the stimulus package.
If you've ever taken longer on your lunch break than you're allowed, or fudged your numbers on your tips when reporting for payroll, or just straight up taken something that isn't yours it's all stealing.
Of course, Malachi 3 says that a man robs God himself by with holding his tithes. Yikes.
Paul says in Romans 7 that part of the reason for the law is that it shows me where I'm wrong. It's not that the law is wrong. It's me that's wrong and the law just points it out.
Paul says in Ephesians 4:28 that he who has been stealing should steal no more. He doesn't leave us hanging. He gives us a game plan.
Paul goes to tell us the way to overcome this by working hard, but also, by giving to those around us who are in need. It makes sense why Zacheus who had given his life to the Lord would respond by giving half of all his possessions away to the poor. He was living out what Paul would later write about.
Conversely, it's interesting to me that the rich young ruler told Jesus that he had kept the commandments, and specifically named stealing. And yet when Jesus told him to give away his possessions "to the poor" and follow Him that the young man couldn't do it. He walked away. Perhaps stealing was more a part of his life than he was willing to admit.
Stealing is a way of me saying to God that He is not taking care of me in the way that I think He ought to. It's taking matters into my own hands. Out of a fear of not having enough I take more.
Living generously is saying to God that I trust that you're taking care of me and that when I give this away that you'll provide me with more.
Of course that's what we're doing at Conduit. We're living generously. It's a great vehicle for you to participate in giving to those that are in need. If you've sponsored a child in Haiti already thank you so very much. Some of you have sponsored more than one.
If not, I would ask you to prayerfully consider it. $32 a month will take one of the kids off the waiting list in Jacmel Haiti. It'll put them in school, clothe them, feed them, and most importantly put them in a constant position of being mentored by Pastor Rodrigue and the brothers and sisters at Restoration Ministries in Jacmel, Haiti.
If the Lord is leading you, go to www.conduitmission.org and you'll find a link there for sponsoring a child.
If you don't have the resources, remember that just $15 will feed a child for a month.
Make up for that facebook time at the office. Feed a kid in Haiti. (ok technically that was a guilt trip and Paul in 2 Cor 8,9 says you don't have to give if you're doing it out of guilt)
Hope to see you tomorrow night at 730pm. Journey Chuch in Building 8 in the Factory in Franklin, TN.
Darren Tyler
www.darrentyler.com
www.darrentyler.podomatic.com for the podcasts
ANNOUNCEMENT- Tomorrow night Ben Holeton has asked if he could share a little bit of how his own personal life intersected with what we learned last week. He has felt the Lord leading him to speak openly about his experiences. Due to the sensitive nature of the conversation we won't be webcasting or recording that portion. Hope you can make it.
That was last week.
This week we hit Exodus 20:15. Thou shalt not steal.
When you dig deep into the Hebrew. When you exegete the original Hebrew language you see that this phrase really says, "don't steal". It's pretty simple. Straight forward. If you're like me, you probably would be inclined to check this one off your list and get on with the "no false witness command." Hang with me though.
Would you consider spending time at your work on Facebook or other personal internet adventures as stealing? If your employer is paying you for your time there and your taking that time and using it for something else, doesn't that count?
A survey in 2005 by www.salary.com found that the average employee confessed to spending 2.09 hours per day on the internet for personal reasons. And that was BEFORE FACEBOOK! The survey tallied up that personal time wasted is costing employers $759 Billion Dollars. That's the entire amount of the stimulus package.
If you've ever taken longer on your lunch break than you're allowed, or fudged your numbers on your tips when reporting for payroll, or just straight up taken something that isn't yours it's all stealing.
Of course, Malachi 3 says that a man robs God himself by with holding his tithes. Yikes.
Paul says in Romans 7 that part of the reason for the law is that it shows me where I'm wrong. It's not that the law is wrong. It's me that's wrong and the law just points it out.
Paul says in Ephesians 4:28 that he who has been stealing should steal no more. He doesn't leave us hanging. He gives us a game plan.
Paul goes to tell us the way to overcome this by working hard, but also, by giving to those around us who are in need. It makes sense why Zacheus who had given his life to the Lord would respond by giving half of all his possessions away to the poor. He was living out what Paul would later write about.
Conversely, it's interesting to me that the rich young ruler told Jesus that he had kept the commandments, and specifically named stealing. And yet when Jesus told him to give away his possessions "to the poor" and follow Him that the young man couldn't do it. He walked away. Perhaps stealing was more a part of his life than he was willing to admit.
Stealing is a way of me saying to God that He is not taking care of me in the way that I think He ought to. It's taking matters into my own hands. Out of a fear of not having enough I take more.
Living generously is saying to God that I trust that you're taking care of me and that when I give this away that you'll provide me with more.
Of course that's what we're doing at Conduit. We're living generously. It's a great vehicle for you to participate in giving to those that are in need. If you've sponsored a child in Haiti already thank you so very much. Some of you have sponsored more than one.
If not, I would ask you to prayerfully consider it. $32 a month will take one of the kids off the waiting list in Jacmel Haiti. It'll put them in school, clothe them, feed them, and most importantly put them in a constant position of being mentored by Pastor Rodrigue and the brothers and sisters at Restoration Ministries in Jacmel, Haiti.
If the Lord is leading you, go to www.conduitmission.org and you'll find a link there for sponsoring a child.
If you don't have the resources, remember that just $15 will feed a child for a month.
Make up for that facebook time at the office. Feed a kid in Haiti. (ok technically that was a guilt trip and Paul in 2 Cor 8,9 says you don't have to give if you're doing it out of guilt)
Hope to see you tomorrow night at 730pm. Journey Chuch in Building 8 in the Factory in Franklin, TN.
Darren Tyler
www.darrentyler.com
www.darrentyler.podomatic.com for the podcasts
ANNOUNCEMENT- Tomorrow night Ben Holeton has asked if he could share a little bit of how his own personal life intersected with what we learned last week. He has felt the Lord leading him to speak openly about his experiences. Due to the sensitive nature of the conversation we won't be webcasting or recording that portion. Hope you can make it.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Conduit July 13- Naked And Unashamed
When Jesus started talking about marriage he said these words that are recorded in Mark 10:5"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. 6"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.'[a] 7'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8and the two will become one flesh.'[c] So they are no longer two, but one. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
Interesting choice of words; “for this reason”. What reason? Maybe it was because of their hard hearts. In Matthew 5 Jesus says that if I look upon a woman and lust that I have already committed adultery in MY HEART. (emphasis mine) It's a heart issue. Adultery is just a symptom of a sickness in my heart. Just because I haven't shown symptoms doesn't mean I'm not a carrier.
He goes on to say that in the beginning this was how it was meant to be; one man one woman. And when I look back at the Genesis account I see that they were “naked and unashamed”. (Gen 2:25) They were together. After Adam and Eve had been together for the first time, it says that God called their name “Adam”. (Gen 5:2)
From Song of Solomon to Hosea to Revelation, God would over and again use the picture of husband and wife as the picture for His relationship to us. (It stands to reason why there will be no more marriage in Heaven since the picture will no longer be needed.)
When all is right in a marriage, those moments of intimacy is as close we can come to on this side of heaven to understanding the picture of our relationship with God. With that in mind we see why it is that God would ask so much of us in marriage and why the enemy would attack it so fiercely. It’s the very picture of God and us. Tearing it apart damages the picture.
As an aside; It’s easy for us to sit and throw rocks at those we think have it all wrong, specifically in terms of sex. We go to Romans 1 and can dish out some serious theological rocks and declare them as “fools”. (Matt 5:22 If you missed last weeks teaching feel free to download it and see why Jesus equated that with murder)
What we skip is that Romans 2 Paul goes on to say that we shouldn’t be passing judgment. It’s not that what we’re seeing is or isn’t sin, but he says that in passing judgment we’re doing God’s job. I guess in short, He doesn’t need Holy Ghost Junior. If you want a good look at what Romans 2 is talking about, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_hSyYfY9kc&feature=channel_page
In John 8 it’s recounted that there was a woman caught in the act of adultery that had been brought to Jesus. They didn’t bring the man along so we know that they weren’t really interested in the law as much as they were trapping Jesus in his own words. (Deut 22 and Ex 22 both say that BOTH should be killed)
If He said let her go, it would’ve been fodder for their fire as Jesus being a law breaker. By the same token saying to stone her would undo the message of grace He was bringing. Of course Jesus did neither. He said, let “he who is without sin, cast the first stone.”
You know the story. He bent down and wrote on the ground. The very finger of God that wrote the 10 commandments, bent down to write again. It’s not recorded what exactly He wrote, but what we know is this. One by one, from oldest to youngest, they all left. Of course we don’t know, but I kind of wonder if he was writing down the names of each individual there and right alongside of the name, the sin they were guilty of.
He looked to the woman and said, “woman where are your accusers?” She said that they had all gone. Every last one of them. And here was this woman, who was no doubt naked since she was caught in the very act of adultery standing there.
It’s not lost on me that she was standing there as it was in the beginning. She stood there naked, and maybe for the first time in her life: Unashamed.
There is much more to discuss. There isn’t one of us whose lives have not been affected or indirectly affected by adultery. There is so much hurt, destruction, and grief. There is also restoration. We’ll talk about all of that.
Monday night at 730pm. Hope to see you there.
Blessings,
Darren
LUKE CALDWELL FROM ESTERLYN WILL BE LEADING WORSHIP TOMORROW NIGHT. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW LUKE A LITTLE BETTER YOU CAN GO TO WWW.ESTERLYN.COM YOU CAN DOWNLOAD BOTH OF THEIR ALBUMS FOR FREE. NO GIMMICK. DIGITAL COPIES OF BOTH RECORDS. FREE.
1. Don't forget you can feed a child for a month in Haiti for $15. so easy. just click on www.conduitmission.org and you can donate online. Just skip Star Bucks for a couple weeks and you've got a kid covered for the month.
2. Pray about sponsoring one of our kids in Haiti full time. It's $32 a month to feed, clothe, educate and shower a child with the Love of Jesus. You can do this at www.conduitmission.org as well.
3. We had another lemonAID stand in Dallas, TX this week. special thanks to our friend Michael Slaughter and the people at Nations Church. If you're planning on doing the lemonAID stand this summer let me know so we can report back.
Interesting choice of words; “for this reason”. What reason? Maybe it was because of their hard hearts. In Matthew 5 Jesus says that if I look upon a woman and lust that I have already committed adultery in MY HEART. (emphasis mine) It's a heart issue. Adultery is just a symptom of a sickness in my heart. Just because I haven't shown symptoms doesn't mean I'm not a carrier.
He goes on to say that in the beginning this was how it was meant to be; one man one woman. And when I look back at the Genesis account I see that they were “naked and unashamed”. (Gen 2:25) They were together. After Adam and Eve had been together for the first time, it says that God called their name “Adam”. (Gen 5:2)
From Song of Solomon to Hosea to Revelation, God would over and again use the picture of husband and wife as the picture for His relationship to us. (It stands to reason why there will be no more marriage in Heaven since the picture will no longer be needed.)
When all is right in a marriage, those moments of intimacy is as close we can come to on this side of heaven to understanding the picture of our relationship with God. With that in mind we see why it is that God would ask so much of us in marriage and why the enemy would attack it so fiercely. It’s the very picture of God and us. Tearing it apart damages the picture.
As an aside; It’s easy for us to sit and throw rocks at those we think have it all wrong, specifically in terms of sex. We go to Romans 1 and can dish out some serious theological rocks and declare them as “fools”. (Matt 5:22 If you missed last weeks teaching feel free to download it and see why Jesus equated that with murder)
What we skip is that Romans 2 Paul goes on to say that we shouldn’t be passing judgment. It’s not that what we’re seeing is or isn’t sin, but he says that in passing judgment we’re doing God’s job. I guess in short, He doesn’t need Holy Ghost Junior. If you want a good look at what Romans 2 is talking about, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_hSyYfY9kc&feature=channel_page
In John 8 it’s recounted that there was a woman caught in the act of adultery that had been brought to Jesus. They didn’t bring the man along so we know that they weren’t really interested in the law as much as they were trapping Jesus in his own words. (Deut 22 and Ex 22 both say that BOTH should be killed)
If He said let her go, it would’ve been fodder for their fire as Jesus being a law breaker. By the same token saying to stone her would undo the message of grace He was bringing. Of course Jesus did neither. He said, let “he who is without sin, cast the first stone.”
You know the story. He bent down and wrote on the ground. The very finger of God that wrote the 10 commandments, bent down to write again. It’s not recorded what exactly He wrote, but what we know is this. One by one, from oldest to youngest, they all left. Of course we don’t know, but I kind of wonder if he was writing down the names of each individual there and right alongside of the name, the sin they were guilty of.
He looked to the woman and said, “woman where are your accusers?” She said that they had all gone. Every last one of them. And here was this woman, who was no doubt naked since she was caught in the very act of adultery standing there.
It’s not lost on me that she was standing there as it was in the beginning. She stood there naked, and maybe for the first time in her life: Unashamed.
There is much more to discuss. There isn’t one of us whose lives have not been affected or indirectly affected by adultery. There is so much hurt, destruction, and grief. There is also restoration. We’ll talk about all of that.
Monday night at 730pm. Hope to see you there.
Blessings,
Darren
LUKE CALDWELL FROM ESTERLYN WILL BE LEADING WORSHIP TOMORROW NIGHT. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW LUKE A LITTLE BETTER YOU CAN GO TO WWW.ESTERLYN.COM YOU CAN DOWNLOAD BOTH OF THEIR ALBUMS FOR FREE. NO GIMMICK. DIGITAL COPIES OF BOTH RECORDS. FREE.
1. Don't forget you can feed a child for a month in Haiti for $15. so easy. just click on www.conduitmission.org and you can donate online. Just skip Star Bucks for a couple weeks and you've got a kid covered for the month.
2. Pray about sponsoring one of our kids in Haiti full time. It's $32 a month to feed, clothe, educate and shower a child with the Love of Jesus. You can do this at www.conduitmission.org as well.
3. We had another lemonAID stand in Dallas, TX this week. special thanks to our friend Michael Slaughter and the people at Nations Church. If you're planning on doing the lemonAID stand this summer let me know so we can report back.
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