June 4, 2025 • 26 mins
Today on BOLD STEPS with Pastor Mark Jobe, we’re learning how to stay in favor and keep our hearts soft as we walk in victory. As we conclude our study, Mark’s going to be taking us to Exodus chapter 20 … to show us why lying isn’t simply about the words we use! Join us as we learn about the 4 things that happen whenever you tell a lie. Our message is called, Thou Shall Not Lie.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:00):
Today on Bold Steps with Mark job, we're learning how
to stay in favor and keep our hearts soft as
we walk in victory.
S2 (00:08):
You show me someone that is a believer and they
have a lot of fog in their mind and hardness
of heart, and they're confused about things that seem very
clear and simple to most people. And I'll tell you,
someone that's either bought into lies or someone that's practicing lies. Why?
Because it's the language of darkness.
S1 (00:41):
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark job. Mark is president
of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of New
Life Community Church in Chicago. And I'm Wayne Shepherd. Today,
as we move forward in our study, Mark is going
to be taking us to Exodus chapter 20 to show
us why lying isn't simply about the words we use.
Our message is called thou shalt not lie. And if
(01:02):
you've missed any of the previous messages in this series
on rock solid living, you can catch up online by
going to our website Bold Steps. Now, with a brief
recap from yesterday's message, here's Mark Jobe with today's bold steps.
S2 (01:18):
It tells us in Genesis chapter three that the serpent,
the way he wiggled his way into Paradise, was through
the language. What language? The language of beguilement or deception?
Notice what it says in Genesis chapter three, verse one.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the
(01:41):
wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to
the woman, Did God really say, you must not eat
from the tree in the garden? What the serpent did
is he put in question the truth of God. God
had not said that they couldn't eat from any tree
of the garden. They could only not eat from one
(02:02):
tree in the garden, so he he misled Eve in
his statement. It was only half true. He had said,
don't eat from one tree. Not all the trees. He
lied about the righteousness of God. The serpent said, God said,
you shall truly die. But. But I don't think you will.
(02:25):
He lied about the goodness of God. God doesn't want
you to eat from this tree, because if you do,
you will be like God. Listen, he sowed seeds of
deception before he brought in the culture of darkness. Are
you tracking where I'm going with this? Before the kingdom
of light comes in, truth comes before the kingdom. Before
(02:48):
someone comes to Christ, they hear the gospel, they hear
the truth. And then the culture of the kingdom invades
their life. Before the kingdom of darkness comes the lies
of the enemy come. And as soon as the language
of the enemy is starting to be spoken somewhere, then
the culture of the enemy starts to be present in
(03:10):
that place. Language comes before culture, but it opens up
the door for the culture that follows. Now, why is
this so important? Because some of you love Jesus. Follow God,
carry your Bibles, come to church, raise your hands on
Sunday and worship of God. And you consider yourself a
follower of Jesus Christ. But you where you go, you
(03:35):
speak the language of darkness through deception that you don't
think is an important thing. You're bending the truth, lying
about this, lying about that, and what you're really doing
is you're spreading the kingdom of darkness. You're opening up
doors for kingdom of darkness. Although you follow God, you're
violating the ninth commandment, and you are speaking the language
(03:55):
of the devil. And you wonder why he has a
foothold in your life. Well, pastor, it's no big deal. I.
My wife asked me where I was. I told her,
you know, there's a lot of overtime at work. Because
if I tell her that I'm at my friend's house
playing pool and drinking a Bud Light, she's going to
(04:16):
go through the roof. I want to tell her that.
Where were you, honey? I was. You know, babe, work
is so crazy these days. I'd love to be home
with you and sit down and relax. How they got me.
Why do you smell a little bit like a little
beer on your breath? Well, you know, I got to
(04:37):
do a little something at work. I mean, they gave
me a little break. The boss said here, here, here.
You know, just to keep you awake. And that's what
I did, honey. And you say, pastor. Well, pastor, you know,
it's not a big deal. I'm just protecting her. She
doesn't understand. No, no, let me tell you what the
big deal is. The big deal is that you are
(04:59):
sowing lies. You're speaking the language of darkness. And you're
giving the enemy a foothold in your household. Because we're
the language of deception is spoken. Then the culture of
darkness comes in and you speak lies into your marriage.
You start deceiving one another, bending truth. And I can
(05:21):
guarantee you that you are giving the enemy a huge
foothold in your household and in your marriage to begin
to bring the culture of the kingdom of darkness there.
Each time you lie, you speak the language of darkness
into your world. So therefore you may consider it a
(05:41):
petty lie or a white lie. But from God's perspective,
you're giving the enemy a landing place into your household.
You say, well, I never lie to my wife, but
you lie at work. You're giving, you're speaking darkness. You're
giving the language of darkness into your work and giving
a foothold there. I never lie to my wife, but
(06:05):
you know, with my kids, you're speaking into your kids
life deception. Listen to me, teenagers. You say, well, I
don't want my parents to know everything that I'm going through.
They won't understand. They're old fashioned. They just, you know,
stuck in their ways. And they think we're living in
the 1920s still. But this is the modern world. And
(06:29):
so they just wouldn't understand. So I just lie to
them about what I'm doing and how I'm involved and
what's going on in my life. And and so they
kind of questioned me. They interrogate me and but they
just don't understand. So why would I tell the truth?
Let me tell you what's happening. Every time you lie
into that relationship, you're sowing Kingdom of darkness culture into
(06:51):
the relationship. And you wonder why the relationship with your
parent is poisoned. You wonder why there seems to be
a confusion, a disconnect, a soul that can't connect there.
Because if you have deceit and lying that you sowed
into that, then it begins to cloud the closeness that
(07:13):
can be there, the vulnerability that can be there. And
it begins to it begins to cloud what God is
trying to do until there is honesty and truth that represents.
Because as soon as you start becoming honest, as soon
as you start speaking the truth, then you clear up
the environment and it allows room for the Kingdom of God,
(07:34):
atmosphere and culture to invade your parent child relationship as well.
Four things happen every time you tell a lie. Number one,
each time you lie, you step out of God's place
of favor. Favor. I don't know about you, but listen,
(07:55):
the older I get, the more what I want is
God's favor. Well, this person's not going to like you, pastor. Well,
this guy's not going to like what you do. You know,
more and more the older I get, the less I
care really about that. And the more I just want
to know, God, am I walking in your favor? Because
if I have the favor of God, if I know
(08:17):
the favor is man, the favor of God is worth
a lot of friendships. The favor of God. When I
know that God is happy, God is content. My spirit
is clean and he knows the favor of God is
the blessing of God. It's the goodwill of God flowing
towards us. I want God's favor and to be honest
with you, I don't want anything that will mess with
(08:39):
the favor of God. Seriously. So listen to what God
has to say about about, uh, petty lying or about
bending the truth. Proverbs chapter six verse 16 says, the
Lord hates. Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. You say, pastor,
(09:00):
is God allowed to hate? Did you know God hates
certain things? Let me say that again. Did you know
that God hates certain things? He says I hate it.
And hate is a strong language, isn't it? Hate is
one of the strongest emotions that you can have towards something.
(09:24):
And that's the language that God uses in Proverbs chapter 616.
It says the Lord hates. It's detestable to him. Haughty
eyes and a lying tongue. Haughty eyes are proud, full
eyes that look down at other people. Oh, you're. Who
are you? Sit over there, please. Haughty eyes are people
(09:49):
that look down at others that you don't feel like.
Measure up. You're not my education level. You're not my
skin color. You're not my economic status. You're kind of
lower class. Please don't bother me. It's hot. God hates that.
Hates it. But you know, just as much as God
hates that, God hates a lying tongue. God hates deception.
S1 (10:19):
That's Mark job on bold steps. And we'll get to
the final half of our message in just a moment.
But let me remind you that all of these daily
messages are available for listening anytime on our website. Bold steps.
And if you'd enjoy hearing these Bible lessons on the move,
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Find us on most podcast platforms by searching for bold
(10:41):
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(11:02):
biblical insight to help you grow in your faith and
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scenes look into the studio where we tackle relevant and
timely issues, and answer your questions about faith and life.
So visit youtube.com to subscribe today. That's youtube.com. Now let's
(11:28):
jump back into today's message. Mark gives a few more
points you'd like to make about not bearing false witness
against your neighbors.
S2 (11:40):
It tells us in Proverbs chapter 12 verse 22, the
Lord detests. That's another strong word. The Lord detests lying lips,
but he delights in men who speak. Speak truthfully when
God sees a lie. Even a petty lie. Small lie.
White lie. Pink lie. Blue lie. Come out of our mouth. God. just.
(12:00):
It detests it. It makes him. It makes him sick.
He can't stand when lies come out. It. God detests
those lies. So Psalms 101 seven says, no one who
practices deceit will dwell in my house. No one who
speaks falsely will stand in my presence. What I want
you to understand is that the language of God is truth,
(12:22):
and therefore, when truth is not there, God says, I
hate it. Why? Because he hates it. Because he knows
what follows. It's not the language of God. It's the
language of the enemy. And all of the garbage that's
in the enemy's camp comes in via, uh, words of
deception or lying. Number two, jot this down. Each time
(12:43):
you lie, you harden your heart and lose spiritual clarity.
It tells us in Romans chapter one, verses 24 through 25,
that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie
and worshiped and served, created things rather than the creator,
and as a result of that, their minds became depraved
(13:07):
and they became confused about who they should worship and
about their sexual identity and about their values and everything
else in life. Why? Because they bought into lies and
they spoke lies. It's the language of the enemy. The
moment you start lying. Listen to me. Well, this is huge.
Hear me well. The moment that you start lying, you
(13:33):
bring in a hardness to your heart and you start
losing spiritual clarity. Fog starts to set upon you. You
can't tell right from wrong anymore. Why? Because your heart
becomes hard and because clarity and spiritual discernment become foggy.
(13:58):
You show me someone that is a believer and they
have a lot of fog in their mind and hardness
of heart, and they're confused about things that seem very
clear and simple to most people. And I'll tell you,
someone that's either bought into lies or someone that's practicing
lies because it it fogs the clarity and discernment of
(14:21):
your mind. Why? Because it's the language of darkness. Second
Timothy 313 says, while evil men and impostors will go
from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived, it's talking
about the end times that the language of the end
times will be the language of deception. So number one,
each time you lie, you step out of the place
(14:43):
of God's favor. Number two, each time you lie, you
harden your heart and lose spiritual clarity. Number three, each
time you lie, you set yourself up for future failure.
How does it work? Well, look at what it says.
Proverbs has a lot to say about this Proverbs 12
verses 13 through 14 evil men are trapped by sinful thought.
(15:05):
Proverbs ten verse nine. The man of integrity walks securely,
but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.
In other words, when you cheat, lie, you will eventually
be found out. Number three Proverbs 1720 he whose tongue
is deceitful falls into trouble. Have you ever seen someone
(15:29):
that lies and thought they are absolutely 100% getting away
with it? That ever happened to you? Someone at work
just straight out lies. I mean, just blatantly lies. And
they just get away with it and you're like, they're
getting away with it. They straight up lied and it
(15:50):
seems like no one's catching them. Makes you want to lie, too,
because you think if they're getting away with it, it's
a shortcut. Cut. Maybe I should lie. Have you ever
seen someone just totally fabricate a story? And you think, whoa,
look at them. They're lying. I'm going to tell you something.
They may temporarily get away with it, but eventually every
(16:14):
lie that we speak entraps us. It'll eventually come back
to us. That's the word. The Word of God says
that eventually it becomes a pitfall to us and it
comes out like a boomerang. It comes back to get
us people that may seem to be getting away now.
They don't get away in the long term. So. So
(16:35):
don't envy liars. Don't be tempted to play their game, uh,
or to cheat like others are doing because they seem
to be getting away because the Word of God says
ultimately it will entrap them. And number four, lastly, each
time you lie, you open up the door for darkness
to invade your situation. Proverbs 11 verse three says the
(16:59):
integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are
destroyed by their duplicity. I was talking to my son
this morning, Josiah, and he reminded me of the story
in the New Testament of Ananias. Ananias and Sapphira. Does
(17:21):
anybody remember who Ananias and Sapphira was? You want to
read a story that scares you about lying? Read Ananias
and Sapphira in the book of acts. Ananias and Sapphira
were a married couple. They decided because a lot of
people were giving to the cause of God, they had
a piece of land, and they decided that they were
going to take their piece of land and sell it
(17:43):
and bring it to the apostles and say, listen, we
decided because God led us, that we're going to sell
all this and give it to the church. It was
a noble cause, but they decided that they wanted to
keep some of it for themselves, which was totally their
right to do. They didn't. No one was telling them
they had to say, but because they wanted to act
(18:04):
like they gave everything, they decide, they made up a
story together and say, we're going to keep some of it,
but we're going to lie and tell the apostles that
we're giving all of it. So Ananias comes to Peter
and he says, hey, we were so touched by your message. Oh, man,
we're in this all the way. Consecrated. We took our
(18:28):
big piece of land. We sold it. Here's all the
money from the prophets. Here it is. Because we are 100%
for this cause. Peter looked at him, inspired by the
Holy Spirit, and said, what has caused you to lie
to God and to the Holy Spirit? And immediately when
he talked to Ananias was struck dead. Boom, pass. And
(18:54):
he says he called the young men to come and
drag his body out. I'm thinking, God, that's a little harsh.
I mean, it seems like. Whoa. To strike him dead
seems pretty heavy, Lord. I mean, how about the mumps
or measles or something like that? How about a broken leg? But, dad.
(19:21):
And they're dragging him out. And by the time they're
dragging his body out, the Bible says that Sapphira, his wife,
came in and said, hey, Peter, here we are. Oh,
we love Jesus so much. Guess what? We sold all
our property. Did my husband tell you? And we're giving
everything to the church, man, because we love Jesus so
much and we're so committed to this cause. And he said, Sapphira,
(19:42):
your husband was just dragged out of here dead. And
then she starts choking, convulsing, falls dead, and plops dead
the same way. Both of them killed dead the same day.
For what? For lying. And I look, I read that passage,
and I thought, God, that just seems like out of control.
Here's knocking people down, left and right. You started doing
(20:03):
it at our church. We'd all be dead in this place.
I mean, we'd we'd have there'd be no one left
to do funerals. I'm like, hey, can the pastor know
they're dead, too? Everybody's dead in this place. God, that
seems like. Wow. Very harsh. Why would you do that?
And here's what here's what I, I started understanding the
reason that God did that is that the church was
(20:24):
at a point where they were about to do some
incredible things. They were expanding, and God wanted purity at
this time. He wanted there to be integrity of heart.
And so he came down strong on lying because it
brings in a culture of darkness. And God knew that
he allowed a culture of darkness to invade the early church,
(20:45):
that it would it would it would crash all the
plans that God had for the mighty harvest that he
wanted them to experience. The language that we speak invites
the culture to follow it. Listen, I believe God has
(21:10):
plans for us. Oh man, I do. But I believe
we're at a time of huge harvest. Great opportunity, probably
more than ever before. I there's visions in my heart
greater than I've ever sensed it before. Challenges in our
heart than ever before. And at the same time, with
these great challenges and visions that God has placed on
my heart, there's a, a a growing sense that along
(21:33):
with great passion, great vision, there needs to be great
holiness among us. And that doesn't happen on our own power.
It happens when we come to God and say, God,
help me to walk in holiness, I want integrity. God
uses a church that rises up as our passion grows
our holiness for God has to grow as well. And
(21:55):
as we begin to pursue great things for God, the
the fire of holiness begins to grow amongst us as well.
I can hear some of you saying already, pastor Mark.
A little white lie shouldn't be a big deal. But
(22:19):
I want you to hear the heart of this message.
Holiness is a big deal, and compromise and deception of
any kind will start to pollute your soul and start
to compromise your conviction and silence the voice of the
Holy Spirit in your life. So what you consider a
(22:42):
small maneuver on your taxes that's not quite honest, or
a compromising of the truth at your job, or what
you've told your spouse? It may not seem like a
big deal to you, but it has consequences on your soul.
(23:03):
So I want to challenge you to make a commitment.
By God's grace, I will walk in integrity and truth.
S1 (23:12):
That is an important challenge. Thank you for that, Mark.
And maybe you are not fully engaged as you should be,
and God is calling you to do something more this year.
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out of your slump by joining with us to help
share the life changing message of the gospel. Mark with
those who need to hear it. We need to be
that conduit.
S2 (23:30):
Yeah, God has opened up so many doors for us
to just expand the broadcasting of bold steps in South
Africa around New York. I just had someone at church
on Sunday tell me, he said, you know, my sister
is listening in new Jersey.
S1 (23:45):
To Bold Steps, and.
S2 (23:46):
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(24:06):
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S1 (24:13):
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(24:36):
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(24:58):
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(25:20):
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Untangling Life Without Losing Your Peace. Thursday on Bold Steps
(25:43):
with Mark John. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio,
a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
Today on Bold Steps with Mark job, we're learning how
to stay in favor and keep our hearts soft as
we walk in victory.
S2 (00:08):
You show me someone that is a believer and they
have a lot of fog in their mind and hardness
of heart, and they're confused about things that seem very
clear and simple to most people. And I'll tell you,
someone that's either bought into lies or someone that's practicing lies. Why?
Because it's the language of darkness.
S1 (00:41):
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark job. Mark is president
of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of New
Life Community Church in Chicago. And I'm Wayne Shepherd. Today,
as we move forward in our study, Mark is going
to be taking us to Exodus chapter 20 to show
us why lying isn't simply about the words we use.
Our message is called thou shalt not lie. And if
(01:02):
you've missed any of the previous messages in this series
on rock solid living, you can catch up online by
going to our website Bold Steps. Now, with a brief
recap from yesterday's message, here's Mark Jobe with today's bold steps.
S2 (01:18):
It tells us in Genesis chapter three that the serpent,
the way he wiggled his way into Paradise, was through
the language. What language? The language of beguilement or deception?
Notice what it says in Genesis chapter three, verse one.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the
(01:41):
wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to
the woman, Did God really say, you must not eat
from the tree in the garden? What the serpent did
is he put in question the truth of God. God
had not said that they couldn't eat from any tree
of the garden. They could only not eat from one
(02:02):
tree in the garden, so he he misled Eve in
his statement. It was only half true. He had said,
don't eat from one tree. Not all the trees. He
lied about the righteousness of God. The serpent said, God said,
you shall truly die. But. But I don't think you will.
(02:25):
He lied about the goodness of God. God doesn't want
you to eat from this tree, because if you do,
you will be like God. Listen, he sowed seeds of
deception before he brought in the culture of darkness. Are
you tracking where I'm going with this? Before the kingdom
of light comes in, truth comes before the kingdom. Before
(02:48):
someone comes to Christ, they hear the gospel, they hear
the truth. And then the culture of the kingdom invades
their life. Before the kingdom of darkness comes the lies
of the enemy come. And as soon as the language
of the enemy is starting to be spoken somewhere, then
the culture of the enemy starts to be present in
(03:10):
that place. Language comes before culture, but it opens up
the door for the culture that follows. Now, why is
this so important? Because some of you love Jesus. Follow God,
carry your Bibles, come to church, raise your hands on
Sunday and worship of God. And you consider yourself a
follower of Jesus Christ. But you where you go, you
(03:35):
speak the language of darkness through deception that you don't
think is an important thing. You're bending the truth, lying
about this, lying about that, and what you're really doing
is you're spreading the kingdom of darkness. You're opening up
doors for kingdom of darkness. Although you follow God, you're
violating the ninth commandment, and you are speaking the language
(03:55):
of the devil. And you wonder why he has a
foothold in your life. Well, pastor, it's no big deal. I.
My wife asked me where I was. I told her,
you know, there's a lot of overtime at work. Because
if I tell her that I'm at my friend's house
playing pool and drinking a Bud Light, she's going to
(04:16):
go through the roof. I want to tell her that.
Where were you, honey? I was. You know, babe, work
is so crazy these days. I'd love to be home
with you and sit down and relax. How they got me.
Why do you smell a little bit like a little
beer on your breath? Well, you know, I got to
(04:37):
do a little something at work. I mean, they gave
me a little break. The boss said here, here, here.
You know, just to keep you awake. And that's what
I did, honey. And you say, pastor. Well, pastor, you know,
it's not a big deal. I'm just protecting her. She
doesn't understand. No, no, let me tell you what the
big deal is. The big deal is that you are
(04:59):
sowing lies. You're speaking the language of darkness. And you're
giving the enemy a foothold in your household. Because we're
the language of deception is spoken. Then the culture of
darkness comes in and you speak lies into your marriage.
You start deceiving one another, bending truth. And I can
(05:21):
guarantee you that you are giving the enemy a huge
foothold in your household and in your marriage to begin
to bring the culture of the kingdom of darkness there.
Each time you lie, you speak the language of darkness
into your world. So therefore you may consider it a
(05:41):
petty lie or a white lie. But from God's perspective,
you're giving the enemy a landing place into your household.
You say, well, I never lie to my wife, but
you lie at work. You're giving, you're speaking darkness. You're
giving the language of darkness into your work and giving
a foothold there. I never lie to my wife, but
(06:05):
you know, with my kids, you're speaking into your kids
life deception. Listen to me, teenagers. You say, well, I
don't want my parents to know everything that I'm going through.
They won't understand. They're old fashioned. They just, you know,
stuck in their ways. And they think we're living in
the 1920s still. But this is the modern world. And
(06:29):
so they just wouldn't understand. So I just lie to
them about what I'm doing and how I'm involved and
what's going on in my life. And and so they
kind of questioned me. They interrogate me and but they
just don't understand. So why would I tell the truth?
Let me tell you what's happening. Every time you lie
into that relationship, you're sowing Kingdom of darkness culture into
(06:51):
the relationship. And you wonder why the relationship with your
parent is poisoned. You wonder why there seems to be
a confusion, a disconnect, a soul that can't connect there.
Because if you have deceit and lying that you sowed
into that, then it begins to cloud the closeness that
(07:13):
can be there, the vulnerability that can be there. And
it begins to it begins to cloud what God is
trying to do until there is honesty and truth that represents.
Because as soon as you start becoming honest, as soon
as you start speaking the truth, then you clear up
the environment and it allows room for the Kingdom of God,
(07:34):
atmosphere and culture to invade your parent child relationship as well.
Four things happen every time you tell a lie. Number one,
each time you lie, you step out of God's place
of favor. Favor. I don't know about you, but listen,
(07:55):
the older I get, the more what I want is
God's favor. Well, this person's not going to like you, pastor. Well,
this guy's not going to like what you do. You know,
more and more the older I get, the less I
care really about that. And the more I just want
to know, God, am I walking in your favor? Because
if I have the favor of God, if I know
(08:17):
the favor is man, the favor of God is worth
a lot of friendships. The favor of God. When I
know that God is happy, God is content. My spirit
is clean and he knows the favor of God is
the blessing of God. It's the goodwill of God flowing
towards us. I want God's favor and to be honest
with you, I don't want anything that will mess with
(08:39):
the favor of God. Seriously. So listen to what God
has to say about about, uh, petty lying or about
bending the truth. Proverbs chapter six verse 16 says, the
Lord hates. Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. You say, pastor,
(09:00):
is God allowed to hate? Did you know God hates
certain things? Let me say that again. Did you know
that God hates certain things? He says I hate it.
And hate is a strong language, isn't it? Hate is
one of the strongest emotions that you can have towards something.
(09:24):
And that's the language that God uses in Proverbs chapter 616.
It says the Lord hates. It's detestable to him. Haughty
eyes and a lying tongue. Haughty eyes are proud, full
eyes that look down at other people. Oh, you're. Who
are you? Sit over there, please. Haughty eyes are people
(09:49):
that look down at others that you don't feel like.
Measure up. You're not my education level. You're not my
skin color. You're not my economic status. You're kind of
lower class. Please don't bother me. It's hot. God hates that.
Hates it. But you know, just as much as God
hates that, God hates a lying tongue. God hates deception.
S1 (10:19):
That's Mark job on bold steps. And we'll get to
the final half of our message in just a moment.
But let me remind you that all of these daily
messages are available for listening anytime on our website. Bold steps.
And if you'd enjoy hearing these Bible lessons on the move,
whether you're out traveling or exercising, you'll love our podcast.
Find us on most podcast platforms by searching for bold
(10:41):
steps with doctor Mark Jobe. Remember to hit subscribe and
leave us a five star review with a comment to
help others discover the show. Also, be sure to check
out pastor Mark Jobe's YouTube channel, where you'll find encouraging
video content on real life topics like overcoming addiction, navigating grief,
and managing your money wisely. Each of these videos offers practical,
(11:02):
biblical insight to help you grow in your faith and
face life's challenges with confidence. You'll also find our new series,
Bold Steps TV on March YouTube page. A behind the
scenes look into the studio where we tackle relevant and
timely issues, and answer your questions about faith and life.
So visit youtube.com to subscribe today. That's youtube.com. Now let's
(11:28):
jump back into today's message. Mark gives a few more
points you'd like to make about not bearing false witness
against your neighbors.
S2 (11:40):
It tells us in Proverbs chapter 12 verse 22, the
Lord detests. That's another strong word. The Lord detests lying lips,
but he delights in men who speak. Speak truthfully when
God sees a lie. Even a petty lie. Small lie.
White lie. Pink lie. Blue lie. Come out of our mouth. God. just.
(12:00):
It detests it. It makes him. It makes him sick.
He can't stand when lies come out. It. God detests
those lies. So Psalms 101 seven says, no one who
practices deceit will dwell in my house. No one who
speaks falsely will stand in my presence. What I want
you to understand is that the language of God is truth,
(12:22):
and therefore, when truth is not there, God says, I
hate it. Why? Because he hates it. Because he knows
what follows. It's not the language of God. It's the
language of the enemy. And all of the garbage that's
in the enemy's camp comes in via, uh, words of
deception or lying. Number two, jot this down. Each time
(12:43):
you lie, you harden your heart and lose spiritual clarity.
It tells us in Romans chapter one, verses 24 through 25,
that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie
and worshiped and served, created things rather than the creator,
and as a result of that, their minds became depraved
(13:07):
and they became confused about who they should worship and
about their sexual identity and about their values and everything
else in life. Why? Because they bought into lies and
they spoke lies. It's the language of the enemy. The
moment you start lying. Listen to me. Well, this is huge.
Hear me well. The moment that you start lying, you
(13:33):
bring in a hardness to your heart and you start
losing spiritual clarity. Fog starts to set upon you. You
can't tell right from wrong anymore. Why? Because your heart
becomes hard and because clarity and spiritual discernment become foggy.
(13:58):
You show me someone that is a believer and they
have a lot of fog in their mind and hardness
of heart, and they're confused about things that seem very
clear and simple to most people. And I'll tell you,
someone that's either bought into lies or someone that's practicing
lies because it it fogs the clarity and discernment of
(14:21):
your mind. Why? Because it's the language of darkness. Second
Timothy 313 says, while evil men and impostors will go
from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived, it's talking
about the end times that the language of the end
times will be the language of deception. So number one,
each time you lie, you step out of the place
(14:43):
of God's favor. Number two, each time you lie, you
harden your heart and lose spiritual clarity. Number three, each
time you lie, you set yourself up for future failure.
How does it work? Well, look at what it says.
Proverbs has a lot to say about this Proverbs 12
verses 13 through 14 evil men are trapped by sinful thought.
(15:05):
Proverbs ten verse nine. The man of integrity walks securely,
but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.
In other words, when you cheat, lie, you will eventually
be found out. Number three Proverbs 1720 he whose tongue
is deceitful falls into trouble. Have you ever seen someone
(15:29):
that lies and thought they are absolutely 100% getting away
with it? That ever happened to you? Someone at work
just straight out lies. I mean, just blatantly lies. And
they just get away with it and you're like, they're
getting away with it. They straight up lied and it
(15:50):
seems like no one's catching them. Makes you want to lie, too,
because you think if they're getting away with it, it's
a shortcut. Cut. Maybe I should lie. Have you ever
seen someone just totally fabricate a story? And you think, whoa,
look at them. They're lying. I'm going to tell you something.
They may temporarily get away with it, but eventually every
(16:14):
lie that we speak entraps us. It'll eventually come back
to us. That's the word. The Word of God says
that eventually it becomes a pitfall to us and it
comes out like a boomerang. It comes back to get
us people that may seem to be getting away now.
They don't get away in the long term. So. So
(16:35):
don't envy liars. Don't be tempted to play their game, uh,
or to cheat like others are doing because they seem
to be getting away because the Word of God says
ultimately it will entrap them. And number four, lastly, each
time you lie, you open up the door for darkness
to invade your situation. Proverbs 11 verse three says the
(16:59):
integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are
destroyed by their duplicity. I was talking to my son
this morning, Josiah, and he reminded me of the story
in the New Testament of Ananias. Ananias and Sapphira. Does
(17:21):
anybody remember who Ananias and Sapphira was? You want to
read a story that scares you about lying? Read Ananias
and Sapphira in the book of acts. Ananias and Sapphira
were a married couple. They decided because a lot of
people were giving to the cause of God, they had
a piece of land, and they decided that they were
going to take their piece of land and sell it
(17:43):
and bring it to the apostles and say, listen, we
decided because God led us, that we're going to sell
all this and give it to the church. It was
a noble cause, but they decided that they wanted to
keep some of it for themselves, which was totally their
right to do. They didn't. No one was telling them
they had to say, but because they wanted to act
(18:04):
like they gave everything, they decide, they made up a
story together and say, we're going to keep some of it,
but we're going to lie and tell the apostles that
we're giving all of it. So Ananias comes to Peter
and he says, hey, we were so touched by your message. Oh, man,
we're in this all the way. Consecrated. We took our
(18:28):
big piece of land. We sold it. Here's all the
money from the prophets. Here it is. Because we are 100%
for this cause. Peter looked at him, inspired by the
Holy Spirit, and said, what has caused you to lie
to God and to the Holy Spirit? And immediately when
he talked to Ananias was struck dead. Boom, pass. And
(18:54):
he says he called the young men to come and
drag his body out. I'm thinking, God, that's a little harsh.
I mean, it seems like. Whoa. To strike him dead
seems pretty heavy, Lord. I mean, how about the mumps
or measles or something like that? How about a broken leg? But, dad.
(19:21):
And they're dragging him out. And by the time they're
dragging his body out, the Bible says that Sapphira, his wife,
came in and said, hey, Peter, here we are. Oh,
we love Jesus so much. Guess what? We sold all
our property. Did my husband tell you? And we're giving
everything to the church, man, because we love Jesus so
much and we're so committed to this cause. And he said, Sapphira,
(19:42):
your husband was just dragged out of here dead. And
then she starts choking, convulsing, falls dead, and plops dead
the same way. Both of them killed dead the same day.
For what? For lying. And I look, I read that passage,
and I thought, God, that just seems like out of control.
Here's knocking people down, left and right. You started doing
(20:03):
it at our church. We'd all be dead in this place.
I mean, we'd we'd have there'd be no one left
to do funerals. I'm like, hey, can the pastor know
they're dead, too? Everybody's dead in this place. God, that
seems like. Wow. Very harsh. Why would you do that?
And here's what here's what I, I started understanding the
reason that God did that is that the church was
(20:24):
at a point where they were about to do some
incredible things. They were expanding, and God wanted purity at
this time. He wanted there to be integrity of heart.
And so he came down strong on lying because it
brings in a culture of darkness. And God knew that
he allowed a culture of darkness to invade the early church,
(20:45):
that it would it would it would crash all the
plans that God had for the mighty harvest that he
wanted them to experience. The language that we speak invites
the culture to follow it. Listen, I believe God has
(21:10):
plans for us. Oh man, I do. But I believe
we're at a time of huge harvest. Great opportunity, probably
more than ever before. I there's visions in my heart
greater than I've ever sensed it before. Challenges in our
heart than ever before. And at the same time, with
these great challenges and visions that God has placed on
my heart, there's a, a a growing sense that along
(21:33):
with great passion, great vision, there needs to be great
holiness among us. And that doesn't happen on our own power.
It happens when we come to God and say, God,
help me to walk in holiness, I want integrity. God
uses a church that rises up as our passion grows
our holiness for God has to grow as well. And
(21:55):
as we begin to pursue great things for God, the
the fire of holiness begins to grow amongst us as well.
I can hear some of you saying already, pastor Mark.
A little white lie shouldn't be a big deal. But
(22:19):
I want you to hear the heart of this message.
Holiness is a big deal, and compromise and deception of
any kind will start to pollute your soul and start
to compromise your conviction and silence the voice of the
Holy Spirit in your life. So what you consider a
(22:42):
small maneuver on your taxes that's not quite honest, or
a compromising of the truth at your job, or what
you've told your spouse? It may not seem like a
big deal to you, but it has consequences on your soul.
(23:03):
So I want to challenge you to make a commitment.
By God's grace, I will walk in integrity and truth.
S1 (23:12):
That is an important challenge. Thank you for that, Mark.
And maybe you are not fully engaged as you should be,
and God is calling you to do something more this year.
I hope you'll consider taking a bold step and break
out of your slump by joining with us to help
share the life changing message of the gospel. Mark with
those who need to hear it. We need to be
that conduit.
S2 (23:30):
Yeah, God has opened up so many doors for us
to just expand the broadcasting of bold steps in South
Africa around New York. I just had someone at church
on Sunday tell me, he said, you know, my sister
is listening in new Jersey.
S1 (23:45):
To Bold Steps, and.
S2 (23:46):
She loves it. And so God is opening up so
many doors. But we really do need, especially at this moment,
this time of the year. It's our final month in
our fiscal year. We need partners to step up and say, hey,
I will support by a one time gift, or it's
even better if you can become a monthly partner. We
(24:06):
call it our bold step partners. This is a great
time to do so. We appreciate your prayers and your encouragement.
S1 (24:13):
Or ask to become a bold partner when you call us.
The number to call is (800) 356-6639. That's 800 Moody. When
you give today, we'll say thanks by sending you a
copy of our latest bold step gift. Boys and girls
may both need truth, but they often receive it differently.
That's why it lies. Boys believe features adventure based storytelling,
(24:36):
visual elements, and interactive challenges that resonate with boys and
how they learn and process information. The books design, with
its bold graphics, puzzles and illustrations, captures the attention and
maintains the interest of boys in ways that typical books
often don't. Request this specially crafted bold step gift and
watch as the boys in your life eagerly engage with
(24:58):
God's truth. Again, this resource is our gift to you.
When you sign up to become a bold partner, or
when you give a single donation of any amount. Again,
go to Bold steps.org and find all the convenient ways
you can donate and request this book. And then before
we go today, don't forget to connect with us on
our social media platforms. You'll find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok.
(25:20):
Just search for Bold Steps Radio. We look forward to
seeing you there. I'm Wayne Shepherd. That's all the time
we have today. But coming up on the program tomorrow,
we'll begin a study from the book of Philippians all
about learning how to untangle the messes we face in
life and relationships. Join us for this new message called
Untangling Life Without Losing Your Peace. Thursday on Bold Steps
(25:43):
with Mark John. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio,
a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
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