Robert Morris – RELAT10NSHIP – The Principle of Honesty

all right turning your Bibles to psalm 32 and we're still in the series on the Ten Commandments we're on the ninth commandment so we have one more next weekend but the scripture I'll show you today one of the scriptures will be in psalm 32 if you want to turn to that scripture so if you're joining us we're in a series called relationship through God's top 10 and what I'm doing is I'm looking for the principle that's behind each of the Ten Commandments the principle of relationship I believe God gave us the Ten Commandments for a couple of reasons but for one is one of those reasons is for us to be able to have a better relationship with him and a better relationship with others all right so the the ninth commandment is Exodus chapter 20 verse 16 you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor now many times we shortened this to you shall not lie and that's okay that's suggest of it but I think we need to really look at what the actual commandment is and talk about it for a moment and I want to clarify something that your neighbor in Scripture is not the person that lives beside you it's any person you come in contact with and here's how I know that because jesus said they said what's about most important commandment he said love God with all your heart mind soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself and they said who is our neighbor and he told the famous story of the Good Samaritan do you remember that hello okay I thought y'all already dozed off we got like 10 minutes before you doze all rights ok so so he tells the story of the Good Samaritan then it's basically whoever you come in contact with that's just walking down the road and comes in contact with a person who needs help and he says at your neighbor that's your neighbor okay so this is everyone then I want you to notice about this you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor I want you to remember that God was establishing a society a civilized society we're looking at the principles behind the commandments but these Ten Commandments are the foundation for a civilized society a civilized society is a society that is governed by moral laws that's why by the way it's important what laws our government passes whether they're moral or not and you say well what is morality and I don't wanna get into a long thing on this but morality is not subjective it is not whatever you think is right if there has to be absolutes there has to be an objective morality and that morality is based on the Bible on God's Word so we have to have an absolute to base that morality on but this was a a legal commandment you have to have noted he's actually saying when you go to court don't perjure yourself that's really what he's saying bear false witness bear means testify our answer when you're asked a question answer false means course false or lying and witness means testimony don't give when you ask the question do not answer with the lying testimony that's really what he's saying now the reason I'm saying this it's important to understand that God was trying to help them set up a society or they could love him and love each other and these commandments are about that and when you think about this this is an extremely important commandment because Howard disputes settled in those days disputes were settled what they would call the elders of the city and an elder by the way was a male over 50 sorry I'm just telling you what they what it was okay and so it was the men over 50 of a city or a tribe or a clan and they would come together then at the gate of the city and they would hear the case and one man would present it another man representing his side and you know what scripture tells us about that one sounds right till another one comes along right so how would be the main way you would decide guilt or innocence I want you to think about this this is before there were criminologists this is before there was DNA evidence this before fingerprints so the main way that cases were settled how witnesses witnesses that's the main way I mean what what there wouldn't be that much evidence you might have a dead body but how do you know who did it so it's witnesses this is why God says get your own bare false witness it's very very important and it was always on the mouth of two or three witnesses rather than just one witnesses this is what happened with nabe off when Jezebel wasn't killed she hired two false witnesses and then he was murdered because of that but you need to understand that because Israel was a capital punishment Society if you lied in a capital case and then it was found out that you bore false witness that you gave a false witness you then committed murder in other words this person died because of your witness so then because you committed murder now you were killed by the way the witnesses if a person was to be stoned to death the witnesses the witnesses had to cast the first stone I was in the law that it also brings to light a little more of Jesus saying in John 8 with the woman caught in adultery let him who is without sin cast the first stone so if you were going to witness that someone was guilty of the death sentence you better be right other ancient cultures had stiff perjury laws as well in ancient Greece if you live in understand you're given a very very stiff penalty a heavy fines that you had to pay and if you did it three times you lost all of your civil rights in Egypt if you lied on the stand under light under oath you they amputated your ears and your nose so it's kind of easy to tell the the liars in society you know in ancient Rome you were hurled off of a rock that was 80 feet high called the Tarpeian rock you can look this up is named after a woman named harpeia who was the daughter of a commander that tried to betray Rome and was found out she was hurled off the rock and that's why they called it the Tarpeian rock so there were stiff penalties this is where we get the oath that is taken most of the time but now they're trying to get it out but you used to in America put your hand on a Bible right and say I swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing much truth so help me God this this is where this comes from so you need to understand that there was a moral code that God was trying to implement through the Ten Commandments but as I settle many Commandments I'm not that concerned that you are going to lie under oath and send someone to the electric chair I'm not that concern that some of you are going to murder people or commit adultery or set up wooden idols in your homes and bow down and worship them but I'm concerned that all of us violate the principle that's behind the commandment so then I think the 9th commandment I believe is the principle of honesty I think God is trying to put in us to be honest when I was um going in my 20s the first time I ever went through some what we would call freedom ministry we had they gave us a little booklet that kind of helped you repent and it had questions in it like is there anyone you need to forgive and it just had beside it yes or no it didn't say like one one question to be like have you had impure sexual thoughts yes or no it did you couldn't put sometimes or once you know you couldn't you just injured yes or no and then there was a question that I want to show you and I loved the way they phrased it so I'm going to show it to you look at this question it says are you alive be honest because I remember as soon as I saw that are you a liar I was ready to say no and then it said be honest and I couldn't put sometimes sometimes I have a tendency to exaggerate sometimes I tell stories a little bit to favor me a little more you follow me I think we've got to come to place with sin that we call sin sin and that's what I think that the ninth commandment is about so I want to give you three simple ways to develop honesty in your life to a greater degree or greater level than you have now here's here's number one be honest with yourself be honest with yourself now I told Debbie when I was four preparing this message I think this might be one of the most difficult messages I preached because dishonest people are dishonest now what I mean by that is I can be preaching on dishonesty and they convince themselves that they're not dishonest as a matter of fact the hardest people to help are dishonest people people who won't be honest until I've even told Debbie I can't help that person because he won't be honest about himself it's never his fault can't pin him down he's always got an excuse or a reason there's just no way to help him I tell you something - um God won't help you if you won't be honest about yourself and here's the problem though what I found is that some people are so hurt and so wounded by their past that they've not experienced the healing that God has for them yet that they have to be dishonest almost about themselves because they can't face the truth you know you talked to you you met people like this you say to someone you made a mistake on that report you turned in and they say something like yes I know I'm a terrible person now I didn't say you were a terrible person I said you made a mistake on the report you turned in you thought have you ever dealt with someone like that and there's such a perfectionist that they can't admit fault they can't admit when they've done something wrong and I'm telling you if you can't be honest about mistakes you're never going to get free um a while back someone on our television crew made a mistake and so I had to go back into the studio and rerecord some things I had already recorded they got erased and this is a great guy he's a great guy been on staff for many years and very excellent at his job and there are several there are a lot of people in the room when I'm doing recording and he just took the blame and said in front of everyone pastor Robert it's my fault I'm sorry you had to come back in to rerecord and I want to ask you to forgive me and I said well I absolutely forgive you I didn't I don't know for sure how many years he's been here but I just guessed around 12 and I said you know 12 years you're your you know your you can have one mistake it's okay but then I decided to say something and it kind of shocked you the first thing I said he was almost thinking I'm about to get a little chewing out here I said to him but have you ever thought about what kind of a person makes mistakes like these it got kind of quiet in the room you know and he said uh no pastor Robert what type of person makes mistakes like these I said humans I just noticed after 37 years of pastoring humans humans make mistakes like these but if you can't admit it if you can't be honest with yourself I told you a few weeks ago hi told Debbie you know I have a problem when I was in my 20s again trying to get so many things straightened out my life I said I have a problem you know looking sometimes at women I shouldn't look you know help me with this you know and her you know she said I will you know and she did and so buddy like I but on this I decided the same thing I thought I have a tendency to exaggerate and so I said to her I the tendency to exaggerate we like saying that better than lie I'm a liar but I said I have a tendency to exaggerate and so will you help me she said yes I'll help you so back then remember I travel in preached revivals and things like that at churches and so we were leaving a church one time and she said hey you asked me to help you you know when you exaggerate and I feel like you exaggerated in the message tonight and I said really I said well what I say he said well you said that last week in the revival there were 200 people saved and there were seven [Laughter] thank you but it started helping me I actually started under estimating crowds and decisions and please hear me you can do this and people will be gracious if you'll say when you catch yourself exaggerating if you'll say no no wait I'm sorry that's not right have you ever done that or you ever had someone do that you don't get mad at them for that you just think they're trying to be Integra super so when you catch yourself doing it be accountable with some other people be honest with yourself if you catch yourself just say oh I'm sorry that's not right I am I was mentoring one of the young creatures here at Gateway who pastors a great Church now and but he had a tendency to use expressions I was trying to think all inclusive terms in other words he would say something like every person was crying at the end of the service and so I was talking to about it and I said you know you say some things that they don't sound truthful to me and you don't mean them that way but you do he said well like what I said well like you said everyone was crying at the end of this service and I said I want don't you thing like this are you sure everyone I mean every person because I know some men that it's tough to get them to cry and did you really take a survey and see that all 800 people there were crying he said well you know it's it's like an expression that's it on but it's a lie it's an exaggeration and I remember saying to him you're training people that you exaggerate because you do a lot of these things you say everyone and ones in everyone and I remember I remember him saying to me very like this I've never thought about it that way he said thank you and again this is a great pastor now of a great church but we've got to learn to be honest in everything we say and everything and it starts with being on [Music] here's point number two be honest with others be honest with others have you ever been talking to someone in the person say well to be honest with you then they both see fit to be honest with you what or here's here's one I'm going to be honest with you now now what what have you been I'm going to be honest with you now again it's an expression and some of you might have this expression I change it if I read it because you don't want to say sometimes now I'm going to lie to you I've been honest but now I'm going to lie look at that let me show you how far God takes this being honest with other people James 5:16 says therefore confess your sins to one another confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed okay why did he have to say that I mean why doesn't the Bible say confess your sins to God only under your breath make sure no one hears and make sure you don't have a microphone at the time confess your sins only to God why would he say confess your sins to one another because of humility and accountability it's called being honest with others so they can be honest with you in hi I know I love strength fighters by the way I don't know I mean have you taken the strength finders okay I like not saying things negative I just noticed there's no sin finders test and I notice nobody puts their sins at the bottom of their emails lust hate jealousy envy and pride these are my top five cents now I'm not saying we need one but you need to get in a group a small group somewhere and be able to confess your sins and talk to some people you need to be able to talk to someone about what you're going through you need to be honest because here's the other thing you do you bring it out of the darkness into the light so the best things you can do is to get honest with someone else I told you a moment ago I can't help people who are dishonest and what I found out is that some people are so wounded that they just cannot look at themselves honestly but I've also learned some more dr. Henry cloud who's been here wrote a book called necessary endings if you're in any type of management or leadership you ought to read the book because he said anytime you're dealing with people are overseeing people leading people you need to know what kind of person you're dealing with and he talks about three types of people that the Bible talks about wise foolish and evil and you need to decide which one that person is wise foolish you're evil don't say a wise person you can correct correct a wise man he'll be wiser still you can correct the wise men as a matter of fact when you take the truth - a wise person he will adapt himself to the truth he'll say this is a truth I'm going to change to line up with the truth and he'll actually thank you he'll thank you but not a foolish person a foolish person will make excuses a foolish person many times we're turning around on you a foolish person will actually adapt the truth to himself and say well now that's not actually what happened and does it up and and he won't receive it that proverbs nine eight says do not correct the scoffer of foolish person lest he hate you rebuke a wise man and he will love you so what I found out is that they're just some people they're just their foolish and and by the way here's what Henry says up you cannot correct it with words you can only correct them the consequences and I know I'm helping some of you right now and they're a management because you have talked and talked and talked and talked with this person and you can't talk to a foolish person what I'm telling you the bottom line is you have a dishonest person he has something in his life that he cannot be honest about and so he kept me honest about himself by the way an evil person you you reject after the second warning Titus 3:10 says reject the device of man after the first and second admonition or definition means warning so if you have a person who's just downright evil you get rid of them you can't have you can't work for the person like that so here's what I'm saying start getting honors for people please this is a principle I'm you can imagine the freedom that comes in your life you don't have to be two people anymore you can't imagine how many people are two people there one public and one private that's a dishonest person you don't have to be dishonest anymore just be who you are let God help you let someone else help you when I talk about being the two people there was a pastor friend of mine one time that had an immoral failure and so I met with him to help him after this and the Lord gave me I feel a revelation and so I said to him you know how we talked about two people like one public one project and he said yes I said well I think the Lord showed me that there are it's like three of you now I'm not talking about multiple-personality really like yeah I'm just told me it's just listened to the analogy I said there's like three of you I said one is a man who loves gone and loves his family and I've known that guy for years and years and years and I know that he's there he's in there I know him the other man is a man who's got who failed and got caught in a morality and wants to get free but the third person is a liar and a deceiver he's been lying to his wife and he has been lying to me he's been lying to his friends and I said I need you to understand something I can help the first two I can't help the third one this one has to die if you continue to lie to me or if you continue to lie to your wife during this process you'll never be restored I can't restore you that person s tonight but I can help the other two people and by the way great news he was honest with me honest with his wife honest with an accountability group and he's restored now in pastor area you have to get honest so be honest with yourself be honest with others and here's number three be honest with God can you imagine how God feels when you're dishonest with him don't you think that expect let's say that you blew it last week let's just say you blew it but you talk to God like three or four times since then but you've never mentioned it well like he doesn't know I mean like you ever had a child you know hold something behind his back and you say what he had bag you back nothing are you thinking you're five years old I'm smarter than you pal how you think God feels but here's the amazing thing he's already paid for it he not only knows about it but he knew you'd do it and he's already paid for it in full but you won't tell him about it the problem is you learn to be dishonest with God the other thing is you're learning to be prideful because you can deal with this without bringing him into it I can deal with this on my own it's the exact opposite if you only get free from something he could've bring God into and he already knows I've told you this story before but I think it bears repeating Debbie said to me one time she said I'm concerned about something I said what she said I don't have a desire to read word like I used to I said you need to talk to the Lord about it she said I don't want to tell him I said he might have heard you tell me right now he already knows okay so I asked you turn to psalm 32 so look at psalm 32 verse 1 psalm 32 verse 1 blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered notice presence is forgiven is covered presence in city is and forgiven and covered past him see it's already been thinking here blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity we understand about the word impute here and in whose spirit there is no deceit now watch verse 3 this is David talking when I kept silent my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long for day and night your hand was heavy upon me my vitality was turned into the drought of summer I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity are not getting I said I will confess my transgressions to the two to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity my sin here's what he's saying until I confessed it I felt horrible I had no vitality I no Street I know no joy no peace until I confessed it and what he's saying is what took me so long to confess but let me show you what took him so long to confess okay because we missed this one little phrase verse 2 blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity now watch this and in whose spirit there is no deceit ok now what I've been trying to tell you is that violating the commandments affects your body your soul and your spirit in order to hate someone or have an idol in your heart or get involved in some sort a sexual sin you have to be deceitful we talked about this you have to be deceptive this is what happens when you're dishonest you're deceived in your spirit there's deceit in your spirit what I'm trying to say to you is bring it out in the open get it out in the open be honest big fully transparent be vulnerable with God and with others I remember the first time I lied and got caught there was some money on the counter of our kitchen and I took the money and my parents were omniscient they knew all and saw all were omnipresent and so some so my dad knew that I took it and so he said what's happened that money that I put on the counter I don't know so he said well I know it's here somewhere in the house so we're going to look for it until we find it lives in my pocket you know so so we look and look I think well eventually don't give up he said now we're not quitting until we find it cuz it's here somewhere he's hoping you know I confess so finally I remember slipping out of my pocket behind the living room chair it wasn't a good plan and and I said all I found it must have fallen out of your pocket you know or something you know so so he said to me you took it didn't you he said I know you took it that's all you think okay okay I took it so he takes me out of the room he said I'm gonna spank you for stealing so he spanks me for stealing then he says now I'm going to spank you for lying and I got two spankings now my dad did a great job he did the right thing but I mean I realized now what happened in that moment safety he put a thought in my mind I didn't know then he was saying but here's the thought that came in my mind after that second spanking I need to get better at like i'ma have to work out the details of the story a little better I'm left to go through this in my mind and I got good at it now I'm just asking I'm just I'm trying to be real with you I'm not that don't recognize you'd raise your hands I bet some of you got good attitude you learned how to like you learn how to turn the story where it favors you you learn how to do it so the best thing for me was to really get honest I felt like the Lord told me to people that's to get honest with one pastor old and Griffing that's sitting on the front row here that was my pastor and Debbie and at separate times I got with each of them I'd written down on a piece of paper everything that I've ever done that no one knew and I just thought this is the best way for me to to come clean I remember with would that be I I was seven years into our marriage I was going through a restoration process and I said to her I need to tell you who you're really married and I want to tell you everything that I've ever done that no one knows everything and it took several hours I told her everything we got down to the end and I said that's it that's everything that I can remember that I've ever done that no one knows I'll never forget what she said she said Robert I knew you were bad when I married you I didn't know you were that bad but I knew you were bad but I loved you and I saw in you a person that wanted to deal with the sin he was involved in and she said I loved you then but I love you more today because you've been honest with me do you know the hardest thing when I work with couples that have had infidelity in the marriage the hardest thing is not the immorality but for dishonesty God is saying I want you be honest once you be honest with yourself I want you be honest with others once you be honest with me this is one of the most freeing principles you'll ever allow into your life it's to start being an honest person I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes the end of every message we just simply pray a little prayer and I ask everyone to pray this everyone at every campus we just in your heart you'll have to do it out loud but in your heart will you just say Holy Spirit what are you saying to me through this message just take a moment ask him Lord what do you say to me through this message and he might answer you immediately he might even point out a few specific things or he might answer you over this next week in your quite time where we are listening to a worship CD or something but what's God saying to you it may be that the breakthrough that you need is around the corner to you breaking this stronghold in your life of dishonesty so we want to pray for you now I know when I'm real specific with a message like this many people think well I don't want to go for prayer today because it's things like then that this is what I'm asking for prayer for and you might need to ask for prayer in this area but one of the whole points of walking with the Lord is to swallow our pride that's for prayer when we need prayer but but we want to pray for everyone so I want you to understand that if you need prayer for any area of your life finances health family a job relationships any area of your life that's what prayer at the end of the service is born so if you need prayer for any area of your life that in just a moment every campus we're going to stand we're gonna have one more worship song and and when we stay on that makes it easy for you just to slip to the aisle and to come to the front we'll have leaders at the front of every campus and every overflow room if you need prayer for any area of your life let me say to get in any area of your life then you come and let us pray with you and if God's put his finger on something in this area seal it today with prayer let us pray with you alright but in the area okay so Holy Spirit I pray you'll draw every person at every campus that needs prayer right now in Jesus name Amen

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Keywords: gatewaypeople, Gateway, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert, Relat10nship, sermon, Dallas, Texas, Southlake, relationship, Jesus, God, Honor, love, The Principle of Honesty

Id: qaFPdCRlTzI

Length: 35min 26sec (2126 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 10 2017