Power of Truth

Key Scripture: “If God were your Father you would love me…Why can’t you understand one word I say?  Here’s why. You can’t handle it. You’re from your father the devil…He couldn’t stand the truth because there wasn’t a shred of truth in him.”  John 8:44 The Message

Power Point:

There have been many times over the years when I wished I had owned a “lie detector”.

Did you ever go somewhere to buy something and the salesman gives you all sorts of great promises, which unfortunately turn out to not be true? Wouldn’t it have been great to slap a wristband on that salesman, connect him to the machine and let the lie be detected?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if on every infomercial we watch on TV, the salesman’s nose would grow like Pinocchio when he exaggerates or tells an out and out lie?  What if the banner across the bottom of a newscast said, “Liar, liar, pants on fire!” What about politicians? What a thought!

We know that Jesus described Himself as the Truth. That means that every word out of His mouth is faithful, sincere, and dependable. It means that you can trust everything He tells you. And He is the best "lie detector" around because He knows the truth.

The things that we think about God when we are not in a crisis situation are sometimes very different from what we think when we are faced with challenges to what we have heard. When you are in trouble, the father of lies will show up immediately to whisper everything he can think of to steal your faith. He will try to get you to move away from the Truth that you’ve heard and get you to doubt God’s faithfulness and His reliability and dependability.

He says things like:

-This disease is too big for God and besides He wants to use it to discipline you so that you can love Him more.

-The economy is so bad that you will never get back what you’ve lost. You’ll probably lose everything!

 -You’ll never be good enough for God to help you. All your mistakes keep you out of God’s blessings.
-oh-and my favorite: if you'd just work harder at being good, God would love you more!

When you hear those kinds of things you can be sure that the Father of Lies is hard at work. That’s when you jump into the Truth with everything you have.  You fight lies with Truth. You replace lies with Truth. You have to listen only to the voice of Truth and you have to refuse to listen to the father of lies. If it’s good-it’s truth. If it’s not, well, you know.

Come on Beloved, fight for the Truth, and listen only to the Truth. Get out your truth-o-meter and check out what you believe. Is it a truth or a lie?

Power Thought:

There’s usually a shred of truth in a lie. That’s why we believe it.