Pastor Fredo Ramos: My day had been going good, for the most part. Had a nice morning until I got to the point where I looked down on my watch and I realized I had just a few minutes to actually get to class. And so, I realized I had just enough time to throw on some Nikes, of course. Have my last sip of, like, my 3rd cup of coffee, grab my backpack, get out my door, high step it down a few flights of stairs, and get out of my building. Then I was briskly walking across the courtyard to make it to class on time.
A lot of you guys know how you walk like this. You you try to walk in a way that's quickly, but you don't wanna communicate that you're late, you know. It's like, is he late? Does he have to go to the bathroom? It's one of those two things.
And ironically, I was actually on the way to a class that I enjoyed. I really like this class, but you can never tell because I barely showed up on time. And I sat down, said hello to the roommates, professor got started, and, as he normally did, he opened up with kind of a question. A question that would kinda get us to dialogue, process together, and and think about how it would impact Christianity, our churches, our faith, and obviously our teaching. Because at this time, I'm 24 years old.
I'm in seminary. I've been a Christian for 3 years, and so I'm right at that point where I know everything. And so my presence in seminary is primarily just to be a blessing to both the professor and the students, and to to know enough to be dangerous, but not gentle, as a pastor, honestly. And so, for whatever reason, I raise my hand to answer this question. I never do this.
I'm not Chaplain Charlie. I usually am in the back and quiet, But for whatever reason, I answer the question, I get going, and the professor just he stops me. And he said, I I need to stop you because I'm afraid that you're at risk of breaking the 9th commandment. Now like many of you, I'm like, shoot, what's what is the 9th commandment? And then and then my second thought was, well, what did he what did he mean by that?
The 9th commandment. And he went on to say that, look, as you were kinda presenting your case and giving your perspective with all your wisdom, you actually began to inaccurately describe somebody else and their perspective. And the way that you were representing them, speaking about them just simply wasn't true. Breaking the 9th commandment in class, in seminary, to be a pastor. Fast forward to today, and I have a hunch that the 9th commandment is one that you and I often break and we don't even realize we're doing it.
Because we have become so naturally good at speaking about people in ways that is just false. It's false. You've been in a conversation with someone. Oh, you know, did you hear about so and so? This person.
Did you see what they posted? Like how did they go there? What are they doing? What are they up to? We are so good at speaking falsely about people.
And to put it plainly, I I think it's the problem. Like, Christians, we just talk too much about the wrong things. And so the 9th commandment, I think God has a word for us today. Because truthfully, I think God wants to speak to you and I today concerning the way that we have been speaking about other people. And so I'm gonna ask that if you are willing and able, wherever you are at, whether you're at a campus or you're watching this online, that you would just take a moment, that you would pause.
And if you are willing and able, that you would stand with me as we read God's word together. Exodus 20, the 9th commandment, Moses writes this, and then I'll pray for us. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. This is God's word. Let's pray together.
Spirit of God, as we have gathered here today for service, we want to acknowledge in this moment of prayer that you have gathered with us too. God, you are here. And we ask that you would speak to us now. That as Jesus said, you would give us ears to hear. You would give us eyes to see, and that you would open our whole self up so that we can receive all that you have for us.
And that you would make us what we are not yet in Jesus. We pray these things in his name. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much.
You can be seated. As you may know, over the last several weeks, we have been in this series, old rules for a new life, where we've been, reexamining the 10 Commandments to see what God has to say to us as we seek to live a new life in Christ. Now the first few focus a lot about our relationship to God and how we connect to God. The last few you might have noticed focus a lot on how we relate to people in our worship to God. By that, I mean, we worship God in the way that we honor and value all of life.
We worship God in the way that we honor our bodies, and our sexualities, and our relationships to our spouses. That's command 7. And then last week as pastor Matt reminded us that, as he so eloquently put it that we are to enjoy what we have earned and not steal what we can't. So we talked about the 7th commandment. I'm sorry, the 8th commandment.
I can't even get them right. The 8th commandment. And so if the 8th commandment is is about protecting the rightful possessions of our neighbor, then I think it's fair to say that the 9th commandment, we're called to protect the reputation of our neighbor by the way we speak about them. And I said, this is probably the one that we are most at risk of breaking, and we're not even realizing that. But in short, this command is saying to us that we are not to destroy our neighbors through lies and falsehoods.
Now here's the rule. Just plain and simple. The rule coming out of this command is this, that the truth matters. That the truth matters about God, truth matters about our people, our neighbors, and truth matters about us. The truth matters.
And here's why. First of all, truth matters because God calls us to protect, as I said, the reputation of our neighbors. You see, in ancient times, to better understand this command, there were no, there were no supreme courts. There's no Judge Judy with her good hair, waving her finger, right. And so if a dispute happened, if there was an issue, if there was a crime, if if a matter had to be settled, the parties involved in that matter would go out in the wilderness, meet with an elder, and on the basis of a testimony of a witness, a decision would be made.
Right? And so, you know, no one out there in the wilderness as they come out of Egypt are walking around listening to a true crimes podcast. Try to figure out how they're gonna solve this. They go out in the wilderness. And on the basis of a testimony of a witness, a decision's made.
Now here's the problem, what if you don't like the person that you gotta testify against? What if they just bother you? What if in the past, they did something to you and now you gotta give an account? God's commandment is clear. Speak truthfully about them on this matter.
Do not give a false testimony, regardless of what they've done to you. And the reason why is because in some cases, if you were to speak falsely, it can result in their death. They can be punished. And so to speak falsely is to diminish the well-being of a neighbor. A neighbor who could look like you.
A neighbor who might vote differently than you do. A neighbor who has a different perspective on life than you do. Regardless of who that neighbor is, what they do, what they believe in, how they act, how they identify, we are to speak truthfully about our neighbors. If we are to live a new life as we follow Jesus, we are to be marked by the truth at all times regardless of the situation. And in a moment in this world in which we are constantly pulled by polarization and division, we are to be marked by people who speak the truth.
That's how we're to be marked. Now things have changed for sure, but the the principle remains the same. We are to be concerned with the effects that our speech has on our entire community. And so think for a moment. How does your speech and how does the way you talk about people impact your home right now?
How does the way that you speak impact your workplace? How does the way that you speak impact your church and the people you worship God with? Because there is a risk that in breaking the 9th commandment, you are damaging their reputation, diminishing their value, harming another person, speaking falsely against them. The 9th commandment reminds us that our words, our speech absolutely matter in the way that we speak about people. We can harm them.
The Proverbs give us this really, very just vivid picture. Proverbs 25:18 says this, telling lies about others is as harmful as hitting them with an axe, wounding them with a sword, or shooting them with a sharp arrow. That's a vivid picture of what our words can do to someone. But I think we all know what that feels like. Because all of us at some point, when you think about it, have had our reputations on the line because of what somebody else has said about us.
And so this picture makes sense. As gruesome as it is, we can understand it. We can understand that in breaking the 9th commandment, we can be very destructive with our words. And I think there's kinda 3 ways that we break the 9th commandment that are very destructive. The first is this, we destroy both our neighbor's reputation and our relationships.
That's key when we number 1, misrepresent or intentionally misrepresent what they say or do. Intentionally misrepresent what they have said or done. Now unfortunately, we live in an incredibly divided world in which clickbait just pays better than honesty does. And so edited videos, clips, posts, retweets, all of those things. Man, we don't value the The truth doesn't matter.
Views do. Attention does. My perspective does. My voice does. Some of us even say, God's kingdom does, so I gotta get this out there.
As if we're fighting some ugly culture war. Culture wars don't make converts, they only make casualties. But clickbait, it just pays, man. And so we give into this temptation to intentionally misrepresent others. The second way this happens is through our slander and our gossip.
We slander and gossip people. Gossip, to be really clear, is when you and I are speaking unjustly about another person, not giving equity to that individual, not bringing value to them, but dimension to them by the way we speak about them. Now what we have all done in some degree or another, because we're so good at just being Christians in Christian culture, is we don't call it gossip. This kinda comes in the form of prayer requests. We need to pray for this person.
Did you hear what happened? This isn't gossip. I we're just doing this to pray. Right? And then we'll we'll we'll do like the cherry on top is this line.
We just want what's, you know, God's best for them. Well, maybe God's best for them is you not talking about them. Right? And so we need to be careful the way that we slander and gossip people. We're at risk of breaking the 9th commandment.
Again, if you just surveyed all of the ways that you talk about people, how many times would someone like my professor interject and say, hey now, you're at risk of breaking the 9th commandment. How often would that happen? Because of our gossip. Because of the way we speak about people. The third way that we destroy both our neighbor's reputation and our own relationship is plain and simple.
As you zoom out of this principle, it's just we speak lies. We speak falsehoods. And what this command is getting at is that a new person, a freed person out of Egypt, someone who's entering into a new life is to be marked by telling the truth. But in your own mind, I want you just to take it for a second and to think about just this last week, how many lies you told. Was it through a text?
Was it through a post? An email? There's a stat that says that on any given week, we will 90% of us will tell a premeditated lie. Some Some of you are like, well, that stat is lying. I don't know.
And of course, these could be like little, you know, gray area things, white lies, Stuff like, man, I'm busy. I'm busy. You wanna hang out? I'm busy that day. Or one, I use all constantly, let's connect soon.
I mean, man, shame on me how many times I have told people when I was at Palm Avenue, let's connect soon. With zero intention of connecting soon with them. Other than I wanna see them next Sunday. Oh I know, I mean I'm looking around this room, I know some of you in here have gotten the 5 minute out text from me. Like I'm 5 minutes away.
I'm looking at Justin specifically like, Justin I'm 5 minutes out, which really means I'm 5 minutes away from being 10 minutes away. So I'm like 20, Right? No. Not 20. What?
5, 10, 15. Math in public is tough, y'all. We say things like, I didn't see that text, or I didn't get your email. Did you you got my email? Is that the right one?
Alright. We we say things all the time. We lie constantly. Like, if you had just enough courage right now to sit back and think about all the ways that you just throw throw them out there. They've gripped our world.
We see this. Pastors lie. Government leaders lie. Media outlets lie. Right?
We we if there's anything we are good at being right now as a people, it's suspicious. Because we have experienced time and time again the wounds of liars. People in power, lying. People with importance, lying. People with influence, lying.
We're so good at living with lies. About the smallest thing, like even how you're doing. How you doing? I'm great. But when was the last time you were just honest about your sadness?
Maybe a deep weight that you've been carrying. We just don't got time for sadness. So we just, I'm good, you know. I don't have time for your sadness. I got time for sadness on TV, right?
I got time for the sadness of The Last of Us, but I don't have time for your real life sadness. But when was the last time you were honest about the doubts that you've had, even your doubts about your faith? When was the last time you were honest? Now here's the thing, not every lie is as consequential, but every lie damages relationships And it damages it does something to your very own soul. And in any any given week, we have the opportunity to speak the truth and we so often don't do it.
Why is it? Why is it? I think first and foremost, it's because most of us in here, I think, and all of us watching, to some degree, we just want to be decent people. And we're afraid that the truth is going to hurt someone. And we don't want to hurt anyone.
And I've experienced this in my own life, in my own marriage, you guys. I'm a bit even just feeling vulnerable to to share this, but I think at this moment, you guys don't need a perfect pastor. You you just need an honest one. And so early on in my marriage, I struggled with just regularly telling white lies all the time to Ashley. And one of the things that I would tell myself in this was that she couldn't handle the truth.
I didn't want to hurt her. Be too much for her. Her. Like that Jack Nicholson scene in A Few Good Men, you can't handle the truth. Right?
But but in that moment, I was projecting my own problem on my wife. Because it wasn't her that couldn't handle it. I couldn't handle the truth. It was on me. And so I justified constant little things all the time that deeply damaged our relationship.
We lie to avoid the conflict. We lie to avoid the pain. And here's, I think, what becomes so dangerous is that we go from telling lies listen now to becoming a lie ourselves. Because telling lies is a symptom of a much deeper disease of someone who was bound and wrapped up in a lie. Our whole existence has become this because we're so used to doing it about ourselves, about other people.
We don't even know that it's consumed our whole life. Which is why Paul says in Ephesians 4, listen to his language. Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor. For we all members of 1 body. He almost repeats the entire 9th command, but then says this phrase, put off falsehood.
In other words, he's not saying just stop lying. What he's saying is you need to remove out of yourself, out of your identity, this, this kind of posture and spirit of lying that has consumed all of who you are. You need to be freed from that. Which leads us now to the second reason why the truth matters. It matters not just because God calls us to protect another person's reputation, but the truth matters because without it, we are still enslaved to lies.
A free person lives in the truth. Someone who is a slave lives in a lie. It's that simple. Which is why I think Jesus in John 8 gives to us a very famous saying. A saying that has really become foundational to our church, to Sandals Church.
When he says there in John 8, If you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciples. In other words, if you believe what I'm saying, if my teachings shape you, you are my students. You are my apprentice. You are my disciples. You're my followers.
And then he says this. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Free. What Jesus is reminding us here is that to the degree that we walk in truth, will be to the degree that we are free people. Now truth.
That's a whole other sermon. But simply put, I think I think we can view truth like this. Truth is that which corresponds to reality, and reality not as I see it, but as Jesus sees it. As God sees it. Truth is that which corresponds to reality, the way things are, but the way things are as God sees them, not as we do.
Because Jesus says if you hold to my teachings, then you're my disciples. And then you'll know the truth. And that truth will set you free. Now keep in mind, this conversation is birthed out of a much larger one that Jesus is having with both his disciples and those who are challenging him. John 8 is a very long dialogue and one of the controversial statements that Jesus makes there is that he claimed to be the light of the world.
And anyone who followed him would no longer walk in darkness, but would embrace his light and his life. And his challenges are bothered by that. Who are you claiming to be, Jesus? Who who can testify? In other words, who can defend your position?
And he says, my father in heaven. Now that really bothers the Jews. What you mean your father in heaven? We we we know who that is. Don't you know our father is Abraham?
We're descendants of him, and we've never been bound or enslaved to anyone. And Jesus says, no, that's actually not the case. He goes on to say, notice what he said there in verse 43. Why is my language not clear to you? Now that's a question from Jesus I don't think any one of us want to hear.
The man woke up ready to go that day. Listen to what he says, because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil. Jesus wants all the smoke. Free smoke coming for all of us, right?
And you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth for there was no truth in him. Notice how he describes the Satan. When he lies, he speaks his native language for he is a liar and the father of lies. So according to Jesus, the devil's tactics are primarily to distract us, warp us and deform us by his lies in such a way that we no longer hold on to God's truth because we're holding on to something else and believing that instead.
We're enslaved to that. When you think about it, lies are the main way that evil acts in and through us as people. They're the primary way. And so all of the destructive lies in the world that are working in and through people, the lies that are working in and through systems and and issues and large, problems facing our world are all rooted according to Jesus in this one person, the father of lies. That is our enemy.
And his desire, his long and the business that he is in is in the business of getting us to slowly but surely embrace those things. To the degree that we are not free people, because we're not holding on to God's truth. And so if we're not careful, these schemes and lies, they can get into our minds, and then they can get into our hearts. And if the devil can get into our hearts, then he can get into our actions. And so we have to be constantly aware of the way that we are consuming information, consuming media, consuming stories, consuming facts, because you know facts don't have feelings, and all that stuff we see out there today.
And be thinking about the way it's shaping us and deforming us away from the free life, the new life that Jesus is calling us into. We need to be careful, because all of these things begin to slowly marinate in our minds. And over time, it's just not the devil who can convince us to believe these lies, but we can do them to ourselves too. And some of these lies sound like this. You are a disappointment to God.
If you distract yourself from the pain, it'll just go away eventually. Or the lie that you need to produce in order to be valued, to be seen, to be praised, to be successful. Make something. Or you are alone in this world. One more visit to that site surely can't hurt you.
It's not gonna kill you. Or how about this one? If you expose your sin, they surely will not accept you. You will lose everything. You see these seeds of falsehood, they get planted and they grow into a life that is completely rooted in a lie.
You see, here's the basic point. Lies are spoken 1st and foremost because lie, a lie has been believed at the root, which is why you no longer become someone who's just speaking them about yourself or other people, but you are one yourself because what you're wrapped into. And so those statements, you know I am a disappointment to God, turns into my attempts just to try to avoid him at all cost. Because I'm a disappointment to why would I wanna spend time with him? Why would I wanna read my bible?
Why would I wanna go to church? Why would I wanna pray? I'm a disappointment to the one I can't ever seem to get right. Or you know what? I am alone in this world.
Why why should I go to community? So I'll just say things like, you know, I'm tired. It's been a week. It's been a hard week. I'm tired.
We're all tired. Show up. Show up for people. Show up for God's people. Or or the lie, man, you know what?
Because of my sin, I I am unleveled. I am unacceptable, completely unacceptable. That eventually turns into you hiding, concealing things, avoiding opportunities just to freely confess and name what needs to be stated, and then you construct a false version of yourself that you think will be accepted by people. Or if you just ignore this bad habit, I'm sure I'll grow out of it eventually, and that turns into mental, emotional, and spiritual and health. Now all of those statements I gave to you are actually statements I had to write yesterday.
Because in my own preparation for writing this sermon, I had a wall. And I had no idea what I was gonna say today. Literally, was FaceTime and Ashley about to cry, like, honey, I don't know where this is going. This is terrible. But my dog, Jordy, is right there, so she kind of likes it, I guess.
And I realized that in order for me to move forward, I had to confront my own sense of dishonesty. And the lies that I had been believing so long. The little things that are just built up. And so I wanna ask you right now, what are the lies? Ask yourself this question.
What are the lies that I am believing today? What are those things? What are the lies that you're believing? Lies about your career. Lies about your family, lies about your past.
Lies about what you won't be good at. I mean, one of the hardest ones for me, even as a pastor that I had to deal with, and this is gonna be kind of crazy to say, was I struggled to see myself as a good enough pastor unless I planted my own church. And it actually took a season of therapy to actually process that I had such a twisted view of success. That if I wasn't writing my own books, leading my own church, then I was not what I was supposed to be for God. And I regularly have to bring that ugly lie before God and say this isn't necessarily true.
I need to embrace what God says actually. But what lies are you believing? I mean, imagine what your life would look like if you just took 5 minutes in prayer and said, God, would you help me to see the falsehoods that I am believing about myself? Maybe about you? About other people?
And just name those things. One of the deep lies that I think I see in our culture today is this lie that you need to create within yourself your own truth, and your own meaning, your own identity and purpose. And we need to be liberated from that. Why? Because we were never designed to create our own truth.
That burden is too great to try to conjure up our own sense of meaning and purpose. Which is why John says in the beginning of his gospel, Jesus has come to us full of grace and truth. The search is not within, but from without. Someone who comes to us and invites us in. Another pervasive lie I think I see even in Christian circles is this lie that God's kingdom is dependent upon a certain political party.
As if Jesus didn't say in Matthew 28, all authority in heaven and on earth has already been given to me. We need to sink that truth deep into our hearts so that we don't constantly cave to a very promising but also very broken democratic system. The kingdom is already here and it's coming. Release that lie. Release that lie.
Do your part in society. By all means, work for justice. By all means, bring the gospel to every nation. By all means. But the kingdom is already here.
We don't need others in that sense, in that regard. But what lies are you believing today? And our invitation is to take those lies, as they're slowly revealed to us, and to not just cut them off, to not just kind of stop lying, truth. And here is the truth that matters the most, that we are unconditionally loved by God. Unconditionally loved by God.
When you think about the bedrock truth in all of reality, it's that God is love. All of life is predicated. When you think about it, all of life came into existence because God loves life. The created world, the act of creation, the reason why you are here and I am here is because we were created in love. Creation was an act of service, an act of love.
It was an overflowing of God as triune, father, son, and holy spirit loving. It's not a chaotic experience. It's not a mysterious one that we just don't know how it happened. No, a loving God made all of this, which means the bedrock, the center point, the focal point of reality is that God is love. That is the deepest truth in the known and unknown parts of the universe.
God loves you. He loves you. And that's the deep truth that we need to embrace. Listen to how first John 4 puts it. Or John puts it in 1st John 4.
Y'all got what I meant. He says, and so we know, and listen to his language, and rely on the love God has for us. Imagine that. We we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.
He goes on to say, whoever lives in love, lives in God and God in them. That is almost verbatim from John 15 when Jesus says to abide in him and I will abide in you. In other words, what he's saying is when we sit in the reality of God's love, not only do we make our home in Christ, but God makes his home in us too. This is an embodied presence of perfect love. And then he goes on.
This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment. He says, in this world, we are like Jesus. In other words, he's saying, Jesus lived with this kind of love. Jesus lived with this kind of confidence. There is no fear in love.
So the next time that you are tempted to lie, either about yourself, about somebody else, ask yourself this question. What am I afraid of right now? What am I fearing that's actually leading me to be tempted to tell a lie? To speak a falsehood and to take that fear and confront it with the unconditional love of God for you. Because John says, perfect love drives out fear.
Because fear has to do with punishment. And the one who fears he says, is not made in perfect love. And so when you are tempted to lie, ask yourself why am I afraid right now? Love consumes me. I'm loved by God.
God would you help me to have that love be perfected, in other words made whole. Would your love with your unconditional, unfailing, never ending, faithful love, consume me so much to the degree that I'm actually able to walk in the truth right now, and not be tempted to give over to this lie. And when you do this, man, it it doesn't matter what people might say because your identity isn't based on what other people think about you. No longer are you bound by other opinions. No longer are you concerned with future judgment.
Why? Because Jesus took that for you on the cross. I mean, when you really think about it, when Jesus was being crucified, people were breaking the 9th commandment. Falsely accusing him to the very point of him being crucified, and yet he suffered anyways. And so you and I are able to say, man, my life, my value is no longer dependent on what I could accomplish, because he's already accomplished that for me.
And the gospel says that man, if I can live in the truth, that God loves me, I won't have to live a life that's marked by lying constantly. Because you are already unconditionally loved by God. And so as we prepare to take communion as a church, I wanna invite you guys as we have in our hands both the bread and the cracker. Your pastor will lead you in a moment. I want you to think about the lies that you have been believing, and to name those things in this moment of confession.
To name maybe the ways that over the years, over the last few years especially, you have been so caught up in the the toxic communication of the world that you break the 9th commandment the way you speak about other people. Confess that. Maybe you need to just confess the ways that you have embraced certain lies about yourself and to name those things. And and if you find yourself in a position where you're holding that cracker and that grape and you're thinking to yourself, does God actually love me? My question back to you is this, can you taste that cracker?
Can you taste that juice? Because as real as that experience is of tasting, there's so much real of God's love for you. The the part of Jesus instituting communion was that we would, as he said, be reminded of what he's done for us so that in the act of eating and drinking, we are tasting with our bodies what our souls can taste in God's love for us. Do this in remembrance of me so that as you are physically nourished, your soul, your whole self might be nourished by my love for you. And so as as real as that cracker and as dry as it is, and as small as that cup of juice is, allow that to be a small reminder that in that moment you are unconditionally loved by God, and now free to walk in truth and no longer alive.
Let's pray that in together. Heavenly Father, as we come to you, we want to say God that we are sorry. We confess God that as your people who should be marked by truth, we speak lies. We speak lies about ourselves. We speak lies about other people.
God have mercy on us. At times we have spoken lies about you and misrepresented you. And we ask now for your forgiveness and your grace. We ask now that you would, as we enter into this sacred moment with you and with others, that we would once again be reminded of all that you have done for us, Jesus. So that we in turn can live new lives, free lives that are marked by the deep truth that you love us unconditionally.
We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
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