When We're Honest - Making A Difference Series

[Music] so so [Music] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] uh doing well but we miss him so he's gonna be commenting online you'll see him there uh samantha powell says happy sabbath church family happy sabbath to you to samantha as well as rhea and howard irby are tuning in roman raimi gloria webster we are so glad all of you are here and we have quite a few of you in house already this morning who have checked in now let's see if i can get the names with the with the masks john raphael is i think in the lobby but he's here we have beatrice in goji hey i got it you guys okay beatrice is here we're very excited and ezekiel right next to her score we got fred who's helping greet in the lobby thank you fred you're amazing we have destoy who's registering everyone so if you're on your way you are going to be greeted by tashoi this morning to be uh registered and checked in we also have stacy and ariel ross i think stacy is helping with our kids and we have our amazing tech team here as well cliff and philip and favruk and cj doing an amazing job making it possible for you guys to see and hear us online we do have a few announcements this morning the first is a reminder that we have a blog every friday night or sabbath morning a new blog drops and it rotates through all of our pastoral staff and i believe that pastor joel wrote our latest blog which dropped last night and it is titled change so if you go to stonemountainsda.org blog you will find it right there our next announcement is for disaster relief for haiti so we know there was an earthquake we know that there was the hurricane that came through again they've been through a lot and they need assistance and so for the month of september we are going to be collecting funds for disaster relief in haiti so if you'd like to give you can market on your online envelope your virtual envelope or if you're in person you can say haiti disaster relief and it will get to the right area we have food pantry that is going strong 12 to 5 on tuesdays if you need food if you know someone that needs food if you have a neighbor who can't get out and you can bring them food swing by it's easy it's quick you don't even have to get out of your car and you will definitely be blessed your family your friends will be blessed and if you have the opportunity to serve come i believe volunteers start showing up at about 10 a.m on tuesday morning so we'd love to see your bright and shining face here last but definitely not least we also have life groups we have a new life group starting today for women it's called awesome relationships it's for 20 and 30 year old women and kenyatta i believe she was interviewed last sabbath with pastor joel and she's going to be leading that group it starts this afternoon at four so if you fit in that group if you want to be a part you can head over to our website which is flash amazingly on the screen by our really cool tech team and you'll be able to find the life group that i'm talking about or a different life group you say ah saturday afternoons not work for me but i can do wednesdays awesome we have groups that meet on wednesdays we'd love for you to be a part we also have some birthdays this week on september 5 we had peter casimir jean weekly in daisava and sandy wilk so happy birthday to each of you for those of you who don't know jean-wee-cliff in daisava he goes by jean is our pastor in our kinowanda church and he does an amazing job there and so we're wishing him a very happy birthday september 7 anthony dorsey and flora herrera turned another year older and we praise god for him blessing you with another year and we're eager to see what he's going to do in the next and the last birthday we have was on september 8th and that was justin wilkins happy birthday justin happy birthday to each of you we are so thankful that you're here with us and that god is blessing you with life i see we have a few more check-ins we have natoya hightower who where is she hello natoya there's the lovely one and then who is with you i cannot find the name that came in with you there you're stacy ross hello i thought you were back with the kiddos you're here you're in church praise the lord i'm so glad both of you are worshiping with us this morning we also have let's see we have joy damon who is going to be worshiping with us on our praise team as well as brian fabian i know i saw him in the back he's going to be working with us as well i think gabby is here she's going to be singing so we have we have a lot of amazing people here and we want to see you here too if you feel comfortable coming we would love to see you here we have social distancing protocols we all wear masks in the sanctuary we we want to see you here and if not we understand we love seeing you seeing your names your comments your interactions with us online and on that note we have a few more people who have reached out online to to check in and be included in this morning's worship so we have a crystal k happy sabbath crystal k we're so glad that you're tuning in we have my mama hey mom does tout awesome glad you're here we have chaplain gerdin de lambert she's a hospice chaplain in the area so we're really glad that she's checking in happy sabbath my dear we have val armstrong good morning and sheila coney oh saying happy birthday to all those who had birthdays this week so an extra happy birthday to you now we are continuing our series making a difference this month is when we're going to finish that and if you have a story of how god has been making a difference in your life you have been making a difference in someone else's life myself our pastoral staff would love to hear we would love to hear how god is working sometimes it's easy to get caught up in our own stuff and forget that in everybody's life god is doing something absolutely amazing so if you have some ways that you could share that someone has made a difference for you or you've made a difference for others we would love to hear how god is working in just a minute we're going to invite the praise team up but before i do that i'll check our registration and online one more time and we have beverly russell saying a happy sabbath to all of you she's tuning in online we also have a few more who have checked in let's see we have dorla ellis where's dorla hello she perfect timing i think darla's going to be praising the lord with us on our praise team this morning i believe i mentioned erin clark joy kazakimana helps on our tech team she's here in the back making this possible so welcome joy we also have karedna who has been faithfully coming i see you lovely we're so glad you're here and we have violet who's also helping greet so each one of you makes a difference i know that you might just hear your name and be like cool they said my name no you individually make a difference you individually being here matters and it's important and you are a blessing your presence online and your presence physically here makes a difference so thank you we're really excited to worship and at this time we're going to invite the praise team off up to kick us off in worship this morning [Music] [Music] good morning church please stand as we sing come before his presence [Music] come before his presence with thanksgiving enter into his course with praise and be thankful unto him and be thankful unto him [Music] [Music] forever [Music] unto [Music] of him praise lord the lord is good [Music] [Music] worthy [Applause] [Music] is [Music] you may be seated good morning stone mountain good morning oh let's try that again good morning stone mountain good morning i'm so glad to be in the house of the lord we came to magnify the lord today we came to praise his holy name is that all right you guys ready to worship all right come on and put your hands together with us [Music] [Music] is [Music] is foreign for his name is worthy we're so glad to praise the lord today we're so glad to have left his name today amen and amen we're gonna sing that again is we will defeat the enemy with the praises who are gone for his name is worthy come on give god some praise today his praising us is glorious shout it out make it love and make it louder no other one is like our god lift him high lift him up lift him higher is [Music] [Music] is [Music] make it louder is [Applause] them [Music] [Applause] higher one more time [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] we want to keep this praise and worship going today this week i listened to a sermon and it was talking about the mystery of jesus christ and that mystery is that long before he created this world he already had planned to make a way for us he already had planned to die for us long before he even created this world from the very beginning he planned to come down here to this earth that's how much he loves you that's how much he loves us and we're gonna sit when we're gonna sing today we're gonna praise and worship him because he loves us so much and because he's such an awesome god that he thought of us before we were ever thought of by anyone he came down to sacrifice his life come on [Music] [Music] open my eyes [Music] you [Music] so here i am here i am [Music] [Music] all together wonderful [Music] oh [Music] glorious in heaven [Music] [Music] became [Music] you are my god [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] how much [Music] [Applause] i'll never know how know how much [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] here i am [Music] worthy [Music] so here i am [Music] lovely you're all together worthy you're all together [Music] amen amen can you hear me amen happy sabbath everyone here this morning we are here to worship our god to praise him because he's been good to us amen what a blessing it is that each and every sabbath uh we can come we can worship we can praise him because he is worthy he's worthy of all praise amen this morning in my cyber school class the lesson this week reminding us that this world is a wilderness of war it is a wilderness of will there are so many challenges so many things going on right now right now we need to be praying because from what i understand uh you know some of our members are not able to hear us online so as we continue to worship let us continue to pray for that also um you know so this world is is has so many different challenges and some this week i was asking myself i was praying lord how do we get through how do we cope and god brought me to this wonderful passage in romans chapter 5 and i love what paul says here he says here in romans chapter 5 verse 2 and 3 he says because of our faith christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing god's glory amen and he says i like this part he says we can rejoice too when we run into problems do you rejoice when you get into problems we can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials for we know that they help us to endure they help us to develop endurance and endurance develop strength of character and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation amen and so with everything that we're going through right now in this wilderness of war we have the hope that burns within our heart the hope and the coming of jesus christ do you have that hope this morning amen and jesus has promised us that he is going to be bringing us through he is going to see us through no matter what we go through in this life we want to be praying this morning there's a lot again there's a lot of things going on here in our church community i was hearing this week that shakira honore has come down with covid and i believe a couple of our members are also afflicted with us we want to be praying for that we also want to keep in prayer uh the nation of haiti uh we realized that a couple weeks ago they had an earthquake there uh you know they need a lot of prayer over there we want to keep it in prayer the families and the churches there as we pray so this morning i'm going to invite you guys to stand as we go to god in prayer this morning we just want to bring all our burdens our concerns our cares no matter what it is we are going to go to him in prayer today let us pray father we come this morning dear god we are grateful we are thankful oh god that you have given us life that we are in our right minds that we can see another blessing on our sabbath again dear god we can come to worship you because you are our god and all praise is all everything is due to your matchless and holy name father as a church community we come this morning we ask for forgiveness of our sins lord this week if we if we have messed up in any way your god if we have not come conformed to your will in any way this week your father we invite oh god that you'll wash us and cleanse us dear lord we desire to have more of your holy spirit in our lives dear father we desire to to walk in your will and to share your goodness and to be a blessing in our families in our communities dear god so lord we pray that as we are in this life uh in this world where we have so many different challenges there god we pray that you will strengthen us we pray that you will fill us with your holy spirit we pray that you will guide us into your everlasting truth father in a special way i pray for our stone mountain family this morning dear god lord we are hearing that shaqiri and there are others here in our church community who have come along with covid and father we still believe that you're a god who works miracles amen your god you're still in the healing business dear father so lord even at this time for each and every individual case i ask that your holy spirit your healing power will reach out even now and touch those who are or not well dear god and restore them to full health father we believe that all things are possible father we just want to pray even for this nation and and for the challenges that corvid has brought to the different communities all around your god father clearly these things are signs that the end is near so help us lord that even as we as we pray for each other that we will encourage those who have not yet accepted you as lord and savior father i just want to pray this morning for each and every family here who are represented here at stone mountain church i ask that you will bless i ask that you will encourage your god and i pray that at the end of the day at the end of the journey dear god that all of us will be saved in your kingdom so father i pray that you'll fill this place with your spirit fill us with your holy spirit i pray that individually lord o god that all of us here we will demonstrate in our lives the fruit of the spirit dear lord father we long for jesus to come back your god and father lord help us as a community that we will love and we will continue to encourage each other in a special way dear father lord be with the work here at stone mountain church be with the leaders and the ministries here in this church dear god we ask that you will give us that vision that you will guide us that you straighten us and that you will bring us together as brothers and sisters in christ father in a special way this morning we pray for our speaker i pray that you will just hide her behind the cross this morning dear god you have used her before to encourage your hearts and lord i pray that you can just use her today to bring a word that will encourage us dear god that will strengthen us along the way thank you oh god and lord we know already your presence is here we know already that your holy spirit is here and father we continue to worship you we continue to surrender everything to you this morning in jesus name i pray amen god deserves our worship do you guys believe that i'ma say that again god deserves our worship amen amen and even in our brokenness even when we don't understand even when we don't feel like worshiping even though we are unworthy [Music] he still takes our worship and so i will always sing hallelujah you know [Music] [Music] we are an author of broken stones but you delight in the offering you have a hell of us to call your home but you abide in the [Music] that will never cease but hallelujah from here below is still your favorite [Music] hallelujah we sing hallelujah [Music] [Music] i [Music] [Music] is [Music] she [Music] is is [Music] [Music] oh what a wonderful day to come when every knee bows be for your name but we will not wait until it dries like a [Music] hallelujah [Music] hallelujah jesus christ jesus christ [Music] [Applause] is [Music] we see come on and get that in your spirit today we sing hallelujah [Music] hallelujah [Music] we are we are join in and sing hallelujah [Music] hallelujah [Music] we want to thank god for all he has done for us you say thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus [Music] thank you we're gonna take it up i want you to stand on your feet and stick with us [Music] lord we love you [Music] lord we love you [Music] man [Applause] you [Applause] you [Music] we [Music] you are worthy to [Music] hallelujah our god is worthy to be praised because he's alpha and omega and i know there's a lot going on in church but when the saints hallelujah when the saints worship stuff happens and no matter what you're going through worship through it even when you don't feel like it worship through it because god works in our praise god works in our worship and that's why this song is so awesome because when the saints go to worship that's when the king of kings come coming when the saints go to worship that's when the king of kings will come me when the saints go up in praise that's when the spirit shall inhabit these places [Music] [Music] mighty is [Music] [Music] call will take place [Music] [Applause] every trap [Applause] [Music] that's when the [Music] is [Applause] [Music] say [Music] will take place and we [Applause] our erasers [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] come [Music] we [Music] to come [Music] this [Music] to come [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] r [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] this is [Music] [Applause] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] invited [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you're the king [Music] to go hallelujah [Music] thank you praise team he is so worthy amen worthy of all our praise worthy of us to just stop and admire his goodness and his grace thank you for that today is a solemn day in our nation right 20 years ago today a terror attack happened it's 9 11 right it was a terrible day and a day that changed the world the day that changed our lives forever i'm sure most of us can remember exactly where we were when we found out that those towers fell that day almost three thousand people lost their lives over six thousand injured and today as we remember we thank god that we're here that we have life and this morning sent something by a friend and i want to read it to you it says the bible is filled with admonitions to remember remember our identity remember god's promises remember what we've been delivered from and today we remember again not only the lives lost the heroic acts and the communities forever changed but we remember that evil does not own our narrative that violence does not have the last word and that darkness has not and cannot exhaust the light mourn but not as those without hope i want us to start our time together with a prayer in remembrance of all of those who have been affected by this event so it's power heads father we thank you for life we thank you for the breath in our lungs and that we can be here today we know that 20 years ago our lives changed forever and the lives of so many others changed forever god for those who are grieving still draw close to them holy spirit comfort them encourage them remind them that this is not the end for those who are still impacted physically emotionally that they have nightmares that they have ptsd god draw close to them heal them encourage them let them not be shaken or trapped by this memory but be able to move forward in you and father we pray for our nation as they lead as they make decisions holy spirit please lead them lead our leaders work in their lives we pray in jesus name amen so before we open the word i would like to encourage you as we do every sabbath to spend time with jesus daily i'm glad you're here 100 this is awesome and i'm glad we get to open the word together but it's not enough you have to have that intimate walk with jesus that's where things change that's where the difference is really made so stop and pause and take that time with him we're continuing our making a difference series and today's sermon is titled when we're honest when we're honest i want to have one more word of prayer as we get into the sermon father not i but you in me please take my lips my my mouth the words my heart my mind and use them as a vessel for your glory holy spirit open our hearts to what you are saying to us and give us courage to walk in that we pray in jesus name amen so for those of you who have been here for a minute you may remember that on mother's day i told on myself and said that i'm a pretty good liar not that i'm proud of it right but like when i was a child i used to lie a lot and today you know with when we're honest being our topic i figured i might tell another story that would show the repercussions of my actions we've all lied so i'm sure you can think of your own story while i briefly share mine and the repercussions that they had in your life this one i was in seventh grade loved math hated english and english was the class that was going to be my nemesis because this year we had a huge project and this project was worth such a large portion of my grade that if i failed it i would fail the class now being the perfectionist that i was i could not fail but i really didn't want to do this project and what was on my side well for for better or worse was that this teacher was notorious for losing assignments so i figured out how i could use that to my advantage if i didn't want to do an assignment in a timely manner i could just say she lost it and i would get extra time again not proud of this definitely not my finest moments the lord did not have talks and their repentance has taken place don't worry but through that with the project coming up my first thought was oh the deadline's coming and i haven't even started and all of my classmates all of my friends were talking about how oh well i'm writing this poem and i'm writing this short story and i've did aubry what have you done it's like um i'm working on it i wasn't working on it i'm working on it don't worry about it you worry about yourself and we kept going on and the closer we got to the project the more i lied oh yeah yeah i have my poems done yeah i have my short stories done don't worry and the day it came due to turn it in i didn't turn anything in now by this point i have built a web of lies if my if with my friends alone but now i've not turned anything into the teacher three days four days past she finally finishes grading all of the assignments and she pulls me aside after class aubry i recognize there was no project from you what are you doing and i was like oh what are you talking about of course i did the project of course i did the project teacher aubry are you sure are you sure you handed it in oh yes yes i'm sure you need to go home and check i i know that sometimes you lose things like the shade i was throwing in seventh grade was not okay i know sometimes you lose things she's like well i will check but you need to go check too like hint i know you might be lying and i was like oh no no no i turned it in don't worry and this is you know back in the day when we did everything by hand we didn't use computers because that was that just didn't happen and so i did everything by hand so at this point she never comes she doesn't find it all my classmates have their grades they're asking me what was your story about and i'm like i don't know what was your story about like trying to cover up and try and the more lies and and the stronger the web got the more i started to fall apart inside right the more my life started to disintegrate my joy started to wane because i was afraid that somebody was going to find me out and i didn't want to get in trouble i still don't want to get in trouble to this day who wants to get in trouble nobody wants to get in trouble i don't want to get in trouble then and i didn't want to disappoint anyone and i didn't want to make my friends mad and so i just kept building the lies and it got to the point where my mom had to get in on it now she didn't no she didn't she wasn't in on it on my side right but the teacher called my mom your daughter didn't turn this in i was like mom she lost it i mean i was i had sold this lie so hard to myself that i was going to sell it to everybody else too and my mom being the loving mom that she was somehow agreed to fight for her child and i was like man i have really messed up i've really built this web strong now and anyways it ends up coming that the teacher says fine i can't find it you say you handed it in do it again so now i actually have to do it for the first time i only have like four days to do it because the quarter is coming to a close and somehow miraculously i get it done and nobody really finds out but the effect even though what he really found out like the teacher never officially knew like she knew but she didn't know right because i kept lying and saying i'm like my mom probably suspected but she didn't really know that i had lied but i knew and i was falling apart my life was just i was distancing myself from others afraid that i would mess up my web of life i was distancing myself at school from my friends life became existing instead of living when life becomes existing instead of living we have a problem in this story if i had be on if i had been honest i would have saved myself so much trouble so much heartache so much fear so much integrity and i would say that that's the difference integrity is the difference between living and existing integrity is the difference between living and existing because living says i'm going to live my life to the fullest and existing says i'ma just make it and survive piece by piece living says i'm going to be intentional with my life i'm going to choose how i live my life and existing says i'm just going to let it happen to me i'm just going to float through life living says i will have a unified life i will live my life holistically and honestly throughout every area and existing says i'm gonna try to remember where all the fat fragments are and hold them as tightly as i can god never wanted us to simply exist right he has called us to integrity yet we so often settle for existence he wants us to live a full life and in john 10 10 jesus says the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy but i have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly or this version says to the full so god desires that we live a full life so are you living a full life in every area or existing when it comes to your family your job your schooling your walk with god your relationships every single aspect are you living or existing integrity also includes this idea right that we do the right thing when nobody is looking when nobody can keep us accountable because integrity isn't just how you interact with others but it's how you interact with god and yourself being honest is moment specific i almost preached this sermon strictly on honesty but then i was like you know what it's something bigger it's not just honesty it's integrity it's holistic if this isn't just a moment this is a life so being honest is moment specific and it's part of integrity but it's not the whole picture integrity says i will be honest in this moment and i will live an honest life all the time in all areas i will integrate that honesty into how i view myself how i work how i talk how i think into my whole life that sounds really good doesn't it like it sounds good but when we're honest with ourselves we have to admit that we lie in fact we lie all the time i can't just be talking about myself but i mean i'll take it but i know that we lie right we lie to our kids we lie to our spouse we lie to our parents we lie to our siblings we lie to our boss we lie to our coworkers we lie to our classmates we lie to our friends we lie i'm not saying you're all pathological liars okay but we lie we are not immune to this and we still do it even if we don't want to we even lie as i said earlier to ourselves and with every dishonesty with every lie something in us dies our credibility lies when we lie our potential dies when we lie our self-esteem dies when we lie and if integrity is all about integration all about being a whole person living an honest life then every dishonesty disintegrates us right we're talking about integration integrity every single part and yet when we're dishonest we start to crumble we start to disintegrate we feel less and less whole and we lie piece by piece of our life away think of a building when i was reading on 9 11 this week as i remembered i read a lot about building integrity structural integrity right and when a disaster strikes the news often talks about the building's integrity whatever building was affected a building in haiti by an earthquake the buildings in 911 with the planes right and when they're talking about building integrity they're asking the question well how sturdy was it how sound was it was it a really safe good sturdy building with no problems before the accident was was the integrity questionable were there cracks were there problems were there weak spots because if there were if the building had cracks if disintegration had started prior to the disaster that building is often in the ground in pieces on the news because the integrity of the structure of the building couldn't withstand it and our lives are like these buildings every time we laugh a little bit of structural integrity that starts to disappear little cracks weaknesses in our lives and eventually we are more susceptible to catastrophic damage when things start to crumble because our integrity wasn't solid to start with so living a full grounded life living a life of integrity requires integration it requires doing the right thing when no one is looking living a completely honest life being whole and not divided so how do we practice integrity what does it look like the first verse that i thought of which i'm sure has come to your mind by now is john 8 32 which says then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free right truth sets us free truth provides freedom being honest makes difference for our state of being and if you want to live life to the fullest and be free you have to be honest and being honest starts with yourself the first person you need to be honest with is you and sometimes that's the hardest one first john chapter 1 verse 8 the verse right before the one we all know says if we claim be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us we are not perfect and yet we claim we can achieve perfection we claim that we don't have enough time to do something yet we don't make time to do it we claim that we're not enough we're not good enough strong enough brave enough blank enough you fill in the blank with whatever your enough is right and yet god says we are more than enough that you are so enough he was willing to die for you in your messed up sense and you were still enough for him to die for we fall into traps the lies we tell ourselves the way we deny reality right all or nothing is one that i often find right everything's great or everything's terrible okay let's get real not everything is great all the time and not everything is terrible all the time even when most of life is terrible you still might have a friend or a parent or a sibling or a spouse that loves you very dearly and is with you in it right even when things are absolutely great you still might be sad that someone you love can't be there this all or nothing thinking we we create realities in our heads we deny the truth and when we deny our own reality we decide to live in a fantasy world and it it disables our feelings we are unable to feel what god has put in our heart we become numb to the world around us and when we deny the truth we are drained of precious energy that god has gifted us with we stunt our growth we lengthen our pain because we deny the reality sometimes it's easier to lie to yourself it's easier to lie to myself than to face the truth because if i face the truth i might have to change i don't want to change so i just i just won't face the truth it's not there if i ignore it it's not real if you and i want to live life of integrity we have to choose to be honest with ourselves because it makes a difference for example if you have cancer if one of us if all of us we're pretending okay we have cancer right now but nobody officially has been diagnosed we don't know does it mean that you don't have cancer of course not you have cancer you just don't know yet so you start to have symptoms you start to have pain or you start to have lethargy like you're tired or something happens some kind of symptoms start to creep up and you're like oh that's not normal hmm probably should go to the doctor no i don't want to i'm sure it's fine i'm sure it's fine it'll go away i don't have anything wrong and the symptoms get worse and sometimes get worse the symptoms get worse and you continue to ignore the problem surely it isn't real surely i have no problem surely it will go away but just because you don't have a diagnosis doesn't mean it isn't there and as much as you can rationalize it away as much as it's easier to ignore the symptoms the cancer is still growing and getting worse if you don't go and find out the truth you can't treat it right if you're not willing to look at the truth as ugly as hurtful as painful as frustrating as disappointing as it may be whatever the truth is then there's no healing from it because you won't even recognize that it's there so if our analogy with cancer right if you recognize okay i have this i can start a treatment plan it's not going to make it go away instantly it's not going to make it healed instantly but now i know what the problem is and i can take steps toward healing and when we recognize the lies that we tell ourselves the lies that we have come to believe the lies that other have told others have told us that we accept as truth when we realize them when we accept them for the lie that they are that that is not the truth we can start to recover from whatever the lies were that we were telling ourselves the lies that knocked us down the lies that tore down our self-esteem our self-worth or our made us fearful or made us feel as if we were lacking something we can then when we see the truth we can deal with it with god it can give you the ability to capably step forward and work towards integration so the first person we have to be honest with is ourselves you have to be honest with you i have to be honest with me because being honest with any and everyone else after that will only come after what you kill yourself so the second one we must be honest with is god right god knows all so i don't have to be honest no god knows all and he wants you to be honest because he knows all you can't hide from him there's nothing that he can't see on your heart or in your mind in your life he knows you inside and out and loves every bit of you and then if you're like me sometimes you come before god and you just think yeah yeah i got this thing i don't really talk about that thing so if i just start in it it's cool like god and i won't have to deal with it like it's still there i'm not going to be like god i didn't do it because i don't want to directly lie to you because we're cool but i'm just going to kind of admit it because i don't want to deal with it that's still lying you're still holding back from god the god who knows anyways who are you kidding the lies you tell your i know as we're talking in honesty just because i'm encouraging us to all be honest with one another does not give any of us permission to leave this room and tell people what for just what we think okay we have to think about how we're honest with one another and be tactful all right so question a little white lie doesn't count here right it's just a lit just a little white lie that that does not count in what i'm saying right no but someone told me two weeks ago a lie is a lie is a lie and i was like i was like but it was just a little y lie they're like it's a lie i was like oh i felt so called out i felt so pierced in the heart but it's true and the little white lies they come up in so many different ways when we're insecure we talked about that we embellish when we are afraid when we are a lacking when we lack something and we want to be appearing as if we have it right so even when we cover up our insecurities with these little white lies there's so many we found out lies away and god says that everything concealed will be brought into the light right the things that we lack the things that we make up for with our little white lies that try to make everything better our god says you lack nothing because i provide for all of your needs and with our fears we sit in our fears and so we make ourselves look big and strong and brave but god says if i am for you who can be against you why are you afraid be strong be courageous and yet it's so easy to sit here and preach it right you're probably looking at her like yeah looking at me like yeah she can sit up there and stand that and stand and say that easy peasy yeah you're right saying it is easier than doing it it's another thing entirely to live this out but when we're honest with others we build bridges of trust and opportunity and i know we've all seen it we've all experienced what it is to tell a lie to someone and the consequences of those lies and to tell the truth to someone and the consequences of that truth we might think in the moment but i don't want to get in trouble i don't want to let them down i don't want to hurt them no one likes getting in trouble no one wants to disappoint someone they love or they work for and sometimes the truth hurts like these are all realities but how much more trouble will it cause in the end if you don't share with integrity if you aren't honest how much more disappointment and pain will there be think of a time when someone was honest with you it might have been hard to hear but it most likely strengthened your relationship right when they were honest with you and when you are honest with your wife or your husband or your child your parent your friend your co-worker your classmate anybody when you're choosing honesty you're choosing to live a life of integrity because honesty is road to integrity integrity kind of to me at least seems sometimes like this abstract object words this abstract thing that i should attain i should have integrity that's good for me but like how and honesty is how being honest with myself being honest with god being honest with others that is the road to integrity with god so this call to be honest isn't always easy we do sometimes lie but the consequences don't go unseen forever and abram is a great example of that he not only does this once but twice we're just going to look at the first account you can look at the second on your own it's in genesis 20 at home if you would like but today if you turn or tap with me in your bibles to genesis 12 we're gonna look at the first example of how abram royally messed up and lied his way into a rough situation genesis 12. we're going to start in verse 11. but let me set this up for you if you read the beginning of genesis 12 you're going to see a really cool conversation the lord comes to abraham and he's like i have plans for you i'ma bless you i'm gonna bless your whole nation you're gonna have all these people under you all these descendants it's gonna be amazing and i want you to move you just gather up all your stuff all your family all your herds take your nephew too we'll take him too take lot and you go to the land i lead you not telling you where that is yet but i'm gonna start leading you and you just walk and he's like okay i i can do that and he does it right like he's excited the lord is gonna bless me he's promised all these things to me i'ma just go where he says so he's going and as abram and his wife and nephew set out for this new land they come towards egypt and as they come towards egypt they realize that a famine is setting in all around them and they need a place to settle down for a while they need a place that's going to provide for them on their way to wherever god wants them to be right so they're like okay let's let's set in egypt but here's where things get interesting verse 11 of genesis chapter 12. it reads as abram was about to enter egypt he said to his wife sarai i know what a beautiful woman you are when the egyptians see you they will say this is his wife then they will kill me but they will let you live say you are my sister so that i will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you so what abram is really saying is like come on like you're drop dead gorgeous and i love you and all but i'm not trying to die today i'm trying to live and so i'm gonna need you to just tell this little white lie because because you are kind of my sister like you're my half sister but you're my wife but let's just not tell them that you're my wife so that i can live and you can live and we'll all be happily ever after and she was like all right she agrees so as she goes into enter egypt they have all the guards and they're at the gate and they're walking in and all these officials are there and i'm not sure what their version would have been but i'm sure a cat call could have been involved whatever their their version of the day was right and that they would have all stopped what they were doing and turned their heads because she was drop dead gorgeous and everyone would have seen it abram knew this that's why he prepared this live right and so as they're they're greeted and they say what was this oh this is my sister oh i see we gotta tell the pharaoh tell everyone that she's here this is she's gorgeous she he's gonna want her to be his wife go go go and they run and they tell pharaoh how amazing this woman is that this could be his woman because she came with her brother no worries so the officials got her brought her to the palace and because pharaoh told her because pharaoh was told that abram was her brother he was preparing to marry her he ready for a happily ever after he didn't know any better it's not his fault right and abram all along he's alive and wealthy he's getting cattle he's getting all kinds of animals sheep goats all these wonderful animals he's just acquiring all this well happy as can be and pharaoh and sarai are going to be married soon everything's going well right of course not in the web of lies that abram built was about to come tumbling down the lord was not situation the lord knew you know abram did not talk to the lord about this lord would you like me to lie about going in with sarai to go see pharaoh would you like me to lie about that no that conversation was bad like imma just keep this to myself and you know the lord will deal with me later yeah well the lord is going to deal with him he was not pleased but what's interesting is that the lord inflicts the house of pharaoh he inflicted a disease on pharaoh and his household and in genesis 12 18-20 this is his response genesis 12 starting verse 18 so pharaoh summoned abram what have you done to me he said why didn't you tell me that she was your wife why did you say she's my sister so that i took her to be my wife now then here is your wife take her and go then pharaoh gave orders about abram to his men and they sent him on his way with his wife and everything he had the grace of god is definitely evident here because abram didn't deserve none of that okay abram royally messed up and god was still like keep your wealth keep your wife go i'ma deal with you later like but their lack of honesty still cost them greatly right it cost abram the integrity within himself it cost abram the integrity with his god who had just promised him all these amazing things it cost abram integrity with sarai because now their relationship was strained it caused a lack of confidence and distrust within the officials in egypt this messed up every part of abram's life and he had gone from living a full life in what god wanted for him to living a life that was just an existence just getting by trying to hold on to all the pieces god was merciful with him and god is merciful with you and he's merciful with me even when we deserve it even when we're dishonest but he desires for us to be honest in our whole lives because when you're honest with yourself and god and others you are able to be free free from the lies that hold you captive restraining you like a prison freedom is possible and when you're honest with yourself and god and others you can experience peace because lying is exhausting and it takes energy energy that you can't afford to waste you're honest with yourself and god and others you're able to have healthier relationships meaningful relationships that are built on trust and love and growth instead of lies integrity is what brings us that integrity with ourselves with our god and with those around us brings us freedom and peace and meaningful relationships so be honest it's a simple plea for you and me this morning be honest because when we're honest we grow in jesus right when we're honest we have a healthy relationship with the ones we love when we're honest our lives don't fall apart into pieces when we're honest we are whole human beings we experience peace when we're honest we experience joy when we're honest you and i and god can all have the abundant life together so my plea to each one of us is be honest choose to be honest with yourself be honest with god and be honest with others be honest thank you [Music] and one of the ways we can be honest is to surrender our all to jesus because when we give him everything he knows us inside out so to be honest with ourselves means to be honest with god [Music] hmm all to jesus [Music] freely [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] surrender all [Music] [Music] oh [Music] amen [Music] um [Music] [Music] our church has a website which is dot stonemountainsda.org all right so you can go there uh go to the donut button and actually make make a contribution there or you can even drop off your title often here at the church all right and so there are so many ways that you can contribute to the work here of the church we also want to let you know that our church that we have established a haitian disaster fund right uh as we learned a couple weeks ago that uh katie had a couple of basically an earthquake there and we as a church for the month of september we want to see what we can do we want to see if we can reach out and help and so you can actually make your monetary contribution i can get one of these envelopes i could write the amount write your name of course any amount on the envelope and actually leave it here and of course again you can give online all right just go to the donate section and um select disaster relief and of course the amount that you want to give so god bless you thank you so much for your contributions in so many ways and may god continue blessing keep you amen [Music] as we close out our service i apologize as we close out our service today i want to remind you that we are being ushered from back to front so wait for the usher to dismiss you and our team will continue to sing uh i will greet you outside but i will not touch you while i'm just doing like the wave from afar so that you know we're all covered safe um so let's bow our heads father thank you for the opportunity to come and worship together today as we leave this place we ask that you're your presence would continue to work in our lives bless the offerings that have for your use and your glory in doing the work as we move forward and i pray over each one that the lord may bless you and keep you may his face shine upon you and be gracious to you and give you rest in jesus name we pray amen [Music] oh praise him [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus jesus [Music] rising up [Music] is is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] oh i just ran from the top of stone mountain all the way here you know that's a lie how was your week you guys was it good i know mines was good i was a little tired but i'm good i am so good before we get started how about we pray i love praying dear jesus thank you for this awesome week thought thank you for allowing us to see another day another sabbath bless us and protect us and help us to do what's right in jesus name amen now have you guys ever told a lie before yes we've told a lie sometimes in our minds with our eyes with our mouth we've told a lie and then we tell another lie to cover up that lie and then another lie to cover up the lie like i said i ran from stone mountain no i did not i just ran from right there to right here so that's my life but i know a lot of us we lie like i said in different ways there are no big lies some people think they're white lies some people think i don't know what a white lie is in the black light i don't know some people say they're big lies and little eyes i don't know do you think they're big lies and little lies a lie is a lie and we're to find out about that but you know god says to us in proverbs 12 22 he said lying lips or abomination unto the lord that means he doesn't like the lion lips but what makes him happy is when we tell the truth and i told you the truth that i didn't run from stone mountain i just ran from right over there to right here okay so i have some people that's gonna help me tell talk about a lie and also show us what a lie could look like okay and i hope that we learned something from it you think you can think about it because i think you will already and i am going to go back and run up stone mountain ready set okay alrighty i want to say hello to danielle dixon book of me fool me i am miss drina misses you juliana and jaden you guys i'm gonna call you next week so we can be on video with everybody else okay hi elia i miss you you guys have been gone for a long time and i miss you and my other aliyah and madison i hope you're feeling better okay madison hawkins madison samuel and madison osborne all my medicines hello everybody and moms and dads love you guys i want to say hi to jayden and juliana say hi to elijah i want to say hi to your dad i want to say hi to my sister [Music] all right christopher i want to say hi to my um dad he's in texas i want to say hi to jayden and juliana i want to say hi to my auntie named auntie miriam i want to say hi to my mommy i want to say hi to my dad i want to say hi to my grandma i want to say hi to juliana is there such a thing as a big lie or a little lie yes and there's something that's a big one what happens when you lie when you lie you have to cover up your other lie when people just think that they found out what she did and then shayna tell me a type of life okay are there different kinds of lies no because if someone tells you not to do something and you do it and they find out you're in very big trouble and you and lies are the same thing get rid of sin because jesus died on the cross somebody take name a liar in the bible name a liar in the bible judah does it make a difference between what a lie is it does make a difference because when you lie once and you forget that first life then you have to lie a second and then it keeps on going i'm going and going and then soon you just can't hold it so it does make a difference joseph can you explain to us what we have in front of us what happens when you lie well this is supposed to show what happens when you lie and what happens when you lie is that that life goes into another lie and again when you can't remember that lie you have to make another lie which goes into another life um [Music] she gives up my passion in life is to know you may all of the goals bow down [Music] oh jesus you've showered your goodness [Music] so freely there's one thing you

Channel: Stone Mountain Adventist Church

Views: 285

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: p3PZbsNEkfU

Length: 120min 54sec (7254 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021