River Church NOLA
2026 Oct 4 Honesty
  • Trading My Sorrows
  • You Never Let Go
  • The Way
  • Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
  • Intro
    How would like it if your phone updated tonight and had a new feature on it.
    Pic of Phone updating
    Every time you typed something that wasn’t true, your phone corrected it before sending it.
    You type, “I’m five minutes away.”
    Your phone changes it to, “I’m still looking for my keys.”
    You type, “Sorry, I just saw your message.”
    Your phone changes it to, “I saw it yesterday. I was hoping you would forget.”
    You type, “I have read and agree to the terms and conditions.”
    Your phone says, “Let’s not start our relationship this way.”
    How many of you would turn off automatic updates? We appreciate technology that corrects our spelling. We might be less excited about technology that corrects our honesty.
    Bubba was applying for a job at a new factory in Cedartown. The application had a question on it. Have you ever been arrested? Bubba writes “no.” The next line said, if not, why not? Bubba thought for a minute and wrote, “Never got caught.”
    Well at least he was honest about it.
    In January of 2024, a finance employee at a big international engineering firm got a message from the company’s chief financial officer in London. It said there was a confidential transaction that needed to happen quickly. He was suspicious, so he did the smart thing: he asked for a video call. And there on his screen was the CFO. He recognized his face. He recognized his voice. Several other colleagues he knew were on the call too. They talked it through, and he did what he was told. Over the next few days he made fifteen transfers totaling about twenty-five million dollars.
    There was just one problem. Nobody on that call was real. Every face and every voice had been generated by artificial intelligence. It was a deepfake. The only real person in the meeting was the man who got robbed.
    We are living in a world where you can no longer believe your own eyes. Photos can be faked, voices can be cloned, reviews can be bought, and the person you are texting may not be a person at all. And if we’re all a little anxious about it, We should be.
    The most dangerous deepfake in your life isn’t on a screen. It’s in the mirror. It’s the version of me I present to other people that isn’t quite the real me. It’s the small edits, the little filters, the “I’m five minutes away” when I haven’t left the house. The technology is new. The problem is as old as the Garden of Eden.
    We’re in our series Values That Last, and today we come to a value everybody says they want and very few of us practice consistently: honesty.
    The Bible has a lot to say about honesty. It gives us examples of people who told the truth and people who didn’t, and what happened to both. The most dramatic is a couple in Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira, who lied to the Holy Spirit about an offering and dropped dead on the spot. Aren’t you glad God doesn’t handle it that way every Sunday? If He did, I don’t think any of us would be here.
    So what’s the problem?

    Problem: Truth is in trouble.

    Here’s the irony. We all say honesty matters. Ask parents what quality they most want in their children, and honesty is always at or near the top. But in practice, we give it very little value.
    A few years ago researchers at the University of Massachusetts put strangers in a room for a ten-minute get-acquainted conversation and recorded it. Afterward they had each person watch the video and point out anything they’d said that wasn’t accurate. Sixty percent of them had lied at least once in just ten minutes, and on average they told two or three. And these were people who had no reason to lie. They were just trying to seem a little more interesting.
    Think about how many opportunities you have in a single day to shade the truth. Here are a few of the great modern American lies:
    “I’m on my way.” (Translation: I’m looking for my keys.)
    “I have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions.”
    “Sorry, I just saw this.”
    “Your call is very important to us.”
    “No, it’s fine. I’m fine.”
    Pastor that was a great sermon…
    Dishonesty wears a lot of different faces, but it always produces the same result:

    Dishonesty slowly strangles the life out of us

    So let’s look at where this problem of dishonesty comes from.

    Where Dishonesty Comes From

    1. Dishonesty is promoted in our culture.

    We live in a culture that doesn’t just tolerate untruth; it markets it. We have come to expect it. We expect some spin from politicians. We expect some exaggeration from advertisers. We expect the burger on the billboard to look nothing like the burger in the bag.
    Social media has turned all of us into advertisers for ourselves. We post the vacation, not the argument in the car on the way there. We use the filter that smooths out the wrinkles, takes weight off or gives us muscles.
    pic of me and the boys
    Online reviews became so full of fakes that in 2024 the Federal Trade Commission had to put a rule in place banning companies from buying or inventing them. Think about that: it takes a federal regulation to get people to be honest about whether they liked a restaurant.
    In business, we’ve watched the headlines. Wells Fargo employees under pressure to hit sales quotas opened millions of accounts customers never asked for. Theranos raised hundreds of millions of dollars on a blood-testing machine that didn’t work the way its founder said it did. FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, collapsed in 2022 and its founder was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for fraud. Different industries, same root: somebody decided the truth was costing too much.
    It shows up in our schools. In 2019 the country learned about the college admissions scandal, where wealthy parents paid to have test scores faked and even had their kids’ faces photoshopped onto athletes’ bodies so they could be recruited for sports they didn’t play. Guys that can’t make the boys teams are trying to be girls and play in girls sports. And now teachers everywhere are wrestling with students turning in essays written by artificial intelligence. The tools change. The temptation doesn’t.
    And, sadly, it shows up in the church. Over the last twenty years we’ve watched well-known Christian leaders fall because of hidden lives and cover-ups. Every one of those stories makes it harder for somebody out there to believe the gospel.
    From the White House to the schoolhouse to the church house, truth is in trouble. And it isn’t limited to any age group. It affects all of us.

    2. Dishonesty is present in our nature.

    Why does dishonesty spread so fast through a culture? Because the culture is made up of people, and dishonesty is in our nature. It’s deeper than our environment. There is something bent in the human heart that is drawn toward untruth.
    A few years ago a well-known research paper claimed that if you ask people to sign an honesty pledge at the top of a form instead of the bottom, they’ll be more truthful. It was cited all over the world. Then in 2021 investigators found that some of the data in that study had been fabricated, and the paper was retracted. The research on honesty wasn’t honest. You can’t write a better sermon illustration than that.
    None of this surprises anyone who reads the Bible. In Genesis 3, some of the first recorded words of the enemy to humanity are a lie, “You won’t die!” And the first thing Adam and Eve do after they sin is hide and shift the blame. We’ve been doing it ever since.
    Here is what the Bible says about our nature.
    Jeremiah 17:9 NLT
    9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
    Galatians 5:17 NLT
    17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
    We are wired to something untrue.

    3. Dishonesty is part of a spiritual battle.

    It’s not only in our culture and in our nature. Dishonesty is part of a spiritual war much bigger than any of us. The Bible describes a real conflict between light and darkness, and at its core it is truth versus falsehood. God is the God of truth. And Jesus told us exactly who stands on the other side.
    John 8:44 NLT
    44 For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.
    The Bible doesn’t sugarcoat it. God is on one side, the enemy is on the other, and every one of us chooses every day whether we will follow the culture or follow the Creator.
    And here is how God feels about dishonesty: He hates it. That’s strong language, and Scripture doesn’t use it often.
    Proverbs 12:22 NLT
    22 The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in those who tell the truth.
    Why does God hate lying so much? Because God is truth. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Every lie is a small counterfeit of His character. God doesn’t just want us to avoid lying. He wants us to fall in love with the truth.

    What Dishonesty Does to Us.

    Somebody says, “Okay, God wants it. But what difference does it make in my life?” Look at what dishonesty has cost us.

    It makes us skeptical.

    We’ve been lied to so often that in the back of our minds we’re always asking, “Is that true?” We fact-check our friends. We read the reviews of the reviews.

    It breaks down trust.

    Pew Research has found that about two-thirds of Americans believe our trust in one another has been shrinking. We don’t trust our leaders, our media, our institutions, and more and more, we don’t trust each other.

    It makes us insecure.

    Remember as a kid saying, “Cross your heart and hope to die”? Even children understand that relationships need something solid under them. When we don’t have truth, we don’t have security. At home, at work, at church, we’re left frustrated and disillusioned.

    It wounds the soul.

    Why is it that when someone lied to you years ago, just hearing their name still stings? And why can you remember lies you told decades ago? Because a lie leaves a mark. And the more we walk through that door, the more a callus forms over the conscience, until one day we can lie without feeling anything at all. That is the most dangerous place a person can be.
    So honesty isn’t just “a nice idea.” It’s a command from a God who loves us and knows we cannot have healthy relationships without it. But I also believe something else: as fallen as we are, we are still created in the image of God, and deep down, we want the truth. So let me give you some steps toward an honest life.

    Steps Towards an Honest Life

    Proverbs 23:23 NLT
    23 Get the truth and never sell it; also get wisdom, discipline, and good judgment.
    Solomon says truth is worth buying. In other words, it will cost you something, and whatever it costs, pay it. It’s worth it. So what does it cost?

    1. Take an honest inventory of my truthfulness.

    This is hard, because for some of us deception has been part of life so long we don’t even notice it anymore.
    Have you ever had the check-engine light come on in your car and you just kept driving? After a while you don’t even see it. Some folks have been known to put a piece of electrical tape over it. Problem solved! Except it isn’t. The light was never the problem. It was trying to warn you about the problem.
    Your conscience is that light. An honest inventory means pulling the tape off and taking a look under the hood.
    Proverbs 14:9 NLT
    9 Fools make fun of guilt, but the godly acknowledge it and seek reconciliation.
    Ask yourself three questions.

    Q1: Where am I being dishonest?

    In my marriage? At work? With friends? With God? With myself? That last one is the trickiest. “I don’t have a problem. I can quit anytime. It’s no big deal.”
    That’s called denial, and it’s the lie that keeps us from dealing with every other lie. God is big enough to forgive any sin, but denial keeps us from bringing it to Him.

    Q2: How am I being dishonest?

    This is where most of us climb up on our high horse. “Pastor, I’ve never robbed a bank. I’ve never cooked the books.” Good. But honesty is a lot bigger than that. Look at some of the quieter forms:
    Protecting others. Somebody walks up at Walmart and says, “You probably don’t remember me.” And you say, “Oh sure, you look familiar!” No, they don’t. We want everybody to feel good, so we say something that isn’t true.
    Slander and gossip. They’re cousins. Gossip is passing along what you don’t know to be true, or what isn’t yours to share. Social media has put a megaphone on it: one screenshot can travel a thousand miles before the truth gets its boots on.
    Exaggeration. Making myself look better than I really am. The fish gets bigger every time Bubba tells the story. And a résumé or a LinkedIn profile is a great place to promote yourself from “helped with” to “led.”
    Silence. When I know something that would help you, or protect you, and I keep quiet because it’s uncomfortable. That’s not permission to say every thought in your head. The Bible says to speak the truth in love. But silence can be a lie… like when you allow a co-worker to take the blame for something you did.
    Deceit and shading the truth. The white lies: letting the call go to voicemail and then texting, “Sorry, just saw this.”
    Flattery. Flattery isn’t kindness. It’s saying nice things to get something back. Proverbs 29:5 says, “To flatter friends is to lay a trap for their feet.”
    If your wife tries on an outfit and asks, does this make me look fat? Your next words are important. Say the wrong thing and this might be you.
    Pic of the man in the dog house
    Use of time. In 2024 a major bank fired more than a dozen employees for using devices to fake keyboard activity so it looked like they were working from home when they weren’t. If you’re paid for eight hours, honesty means giving eight.
    Cheating, compromise, and justifying. The cashier gives you too much change and you think, “Their mistake, not mine.” Justifying is what calms our conscience and quiets our conviction. We tell ourselves, “It doesn’t hurt anybody.” But it does. It breaks down trust, and it grieves God.
    PASTOR’S NOTE:  This is a good spot for a brief, self-deprecating personal story about a small, everyday shading of the truth (a “you look familiar” moment, a stretched excuse, etc.). It lowers defenses before the “Why” question.
    My with I’m fixing to get on the bridge…

    Q3: Why am I being dishonest?

    Get to the root. The Bible shows us the reasons people lie.
    Peter lied out of fear.
    Cain lied out of pride and anger when God asked where his brother was.
    Potiphar’s wife lied out of rejection and revenge.
    Joseph’s brothers lied out of jealousy.
    Most of our lies grow from the same roots: fear, insecurity, pride, greed, convenience, or just wanting to avoid a hard conversation.
    Here’s the bottom line:

    Nobody makes us lie. We choose it.

    So try this at the end of each day this week. Before you fall asleep, ask, “Lord, how honest was I today?” It won’t always be comfortable, but it’s a lot better than letting the disease spread.
    2nd step…

    2: Make an honest evaluation of my gains and losses.

    Let’s be honest about dishonesty: sometimes it pays, at least at first. You can fudge on your taxes and keep more money. You can stretch the truth and get the job, the deal, or the reputation. The Bible never pretends lying has no short-term payoff. It just tells us the payoff doesn’t last.
    Pic of Lance Armstrong on a bike
    Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France seven times in a row. He was a hero, a cancer survivor, a symbol of grit. For years he looked people in the eye, sued people who accused him, and denied doping. Then in 2012 the evidence came out. He was stripped of all seven titles and banned from the sport for life. A few months later he sat across from Oprah Winfrey and admitted he had lied about it for years.
    Every one of those gains was temporary. The loss was permanent.
    Proverbs 13:21 NLT
    21 Trouble chases sinners, while blessings reward the righteous.
    Circle the word blessings. We’ll come back to it. But first,

    What do we lose when we are dishonest?

    We lose character.

    There’s a difference between reputation and character. Reputation is what people think I am. Character is who I am when no one is looking. Integrity is when those two line up.
    In 1925, the greatest golfer in the world at that time, Bobby Jones, was playing in the U.S. Open. On one hole, as he got ready to hit out of the rough, his ball moved slightly. Nobody else saw it. The officials didn’t see it. Nobody in the gallery saw it. But Jones called a one-stroke penalty on himself. He finished the tournament tied for first and lost the playoff.
    When reporters praised him for his honesty, he said, “You might as well praise me for not robbing banks.” To this day the USGA’s highest award for sportsmanship is named after him. People don’t remember who won that year. They remember what Bobby Jones did when no one was watching.
    And character is the one thing you get to pass down.
    Proverbs 20:7 NLT
    7 The godly walk with integrity; blessed are their children who follow them.
    The real test of character isn’t what people say at your retirement party. It’s what your kids and grandkids say about you when you’re not in the room. Home is where people know the real you.

    We lose spiritual maturity.

    Ephesians 4:15 NLT
    15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.
    Notice the connection: speaking the truth leads to growing. When I’m dishonest, I’m not facing the sin that’s holding me back. When I’m honest, I finally deal with it, and that propels me toward Christlikeness. You can’t grow past something you won’t admit.

    We lose security and freedom.

    Proverbs 11:6 NLT
    6 The godliness of good people rescues them; the ambition of treacherous people traps them.
    Mark Twain wrote in his notebook,
    “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
    There’s freedom in that. A liar has to keep track of what he told whom. An honest person can sleep at night. Nobody can blackmail you with a truth you’ve already told.
    After you’ve weighed the gains and the losses, ask yourself two more questions: What will it cost me to be honest? And, Am I willing to change? 1 Chron 29:17
    1 Chronicles 29:17 NLT
    17 I know, my God, that you examine our hearts and rejoice when you find integrity there. You know I have done all this with good motives, and I have watched your people offer their gifts willingly and joyously.
    Circle the word rejoice. God doesn’t just tolerate honesty; He celebrates it. Is God rejoicing over what He sees in your heart this week?

    3. Love God and pursue a relationship with Him.

    What does this have to do with honesty? Everything. The closer I am to God, the harder it is to lie. When the Holy Spirit lives in me, He sends a signal when I start to drift from the truth. When I’m far from God, I stop hearing it.
    And let me say this clearly: if you’ve felt a little uncomfortable this morning, that’s not me. My job isn’t to convict anybody. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job. Conviction is a gift. It means God loves you too much to leave you where you are. The person to worry about is the one who hears a message like this and feels nothing at all.
    Psalm 51:6 NLT
    6 But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there.
    Here is where grace changes everything. We don’t become honest so God will love us. We become honest because God already does.
    Why do people lie? Mostly because they’re afraid of what happens if the truth comes out: rejection, shame, losing love.
    But in Christ, the worst truth about you has already been exposed at the cross, and God still said, “You’re mine.” You don’t have to hide anymore.
    Paul puts it this way: Col 3:9-10
    Colossians 3:9–10 NLT
    9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.
    Notice he doesn’t say, “Stop lying so you can become new.” He says, “Stop lying, because you are new.” Honesty isn’t how you earn your place in God’s family. It’s how you live like you belong there. That old you is dead.
    When you are secure in God’s love, these statements start to make sense:
    • God created me. I don’t need to invent a better version of myself.
    • God is concerned about my heart, not my image.
    • God really loves me, even with the filter off.
    • God can handle the truth. Nothing I confess will surprise Him.
    • God delights in the truth, and He delights in me when I tell it.
    Proverbs 19:23 NLT
    23 Fear of the Lord leads to life, bringing security and protection from harm.

    4. Practice Honesty.

    At some point you just have to do it. But you won’t practice it well until you’ve done the inventory and the evaluation.
    James 1:22–24 NLT
    22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.
    Circle fooling yourselves. Hearing a sermon on honesty and changing nothing is its own kind of lie. So here are
    Three ways to practice this week:
    1. The 24-hour correction. If you catch yourself stretching the truth, go back within a day and fix it. “Hey, earlier I said I’d read that. Actually, I haven’t yet.” It’s humbling. It’s also freeing.
    2. The nightly check-in. Before bed, ask, “Lord, where was I less than honest today?” Then confess it and receive His forgiveness (1 John 1:9).
    3. One honest conversation. Is there a truth you’ve been avoiding with your spouse, your boss, a friend, or God? Take one step toward it this week, and do it in love.

    The Blessings of an Honest Life.

    Remember the word we circled: “blessings reward the righteous.” Not because we earn God’s favor, but because this is how His world works. God blesses honest living in at least three ways.

    He guards me.

    Proverbs 2:7 NLT
    7 He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.
    God becomes a bodyguard for the honest. It won’t always be easy, but you won’t be alone

    He directs me.

    Proverbs 11:5 NLT
    5 The godly are directed by honesty; the wicked fall beneath their load of sin.
    Honesty clears the fog. When you aren’t managing a web of stories, you can see God’s path in front of you.

    He sustains me.

    Proverbs 12:19 NLT
    19 Truthful words stand the test of time, but lies are soon exposed.
    In 2013, a homeless man in Boston named Glen James found a backpack in a shopping mall. Inside was about $2,400 in cash and nearly $40,000 in traveler’s checks. He had nothing. Nobody would have known. He turned it all in to the police. When the story got out, a man in Virginia who had never met him started an online fundraiser, and people from all over the world gave more than $150,000 to help him get back on his feet. Asked why he did it, he said that even if he were desperate for money, he wouldn’t keep a penny that wasn’t his.
    God doesn’t always reward honesty with a check. But He always honors it. Truth stands the test of time.
    Closing- two fires
    I want to close with the story of a man who knew exactly what it felt like to lie, and exactly what it felt like to be restored.
    It’s the night Jesus was arrested. It’s cold, and in the courtyard of the high priest the servants and guards have built a charcoal fire. Simon Peter is standing there warming his hands. This is the same Peter who, just a few hours earlier, had said, “Lord, even if everyone else deserts you, I never will.”
    A servant girl looks at him in the firelight and says, “Aren’t you one of His disciples?” And Peter says, “No, I am not.” Somebody else asks. “No.” Then a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off in the garden says, “Didn’t I see you out there with Him?” And for the third time Peter says, “No.” And right then, a rooster crows. Luke tells us that the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter went out and wept bitterly.
    Why did he lie? Fear. Same reason most of us do. He wanted to protect himself. And now he has to live with it. The man who was supposed to be the rock of the church is a liar and a coward, and he knows it.
    A few weeks later, after the resurrection, Peter has gone back to what he knew. He’s back on a boat, fishing all night and catching nothing. At dawn a man on the shore calls out and tells them to throw the net on the other side. The net fills up. And John says, “It’s the Lord!” Peter doesn’t wait for the boat. He jumps in the water and swims for shore.
    And when he climbs out of the water, soaking wet, you know what he sees? John 21:9 says, “They found breakfast waiting for them: fish cooking over a charcoal fire.”
    Here’s something you might not know. That word for “charcoal fire” shows up only two times in the entire New Testament. Once in the courtyard where Peter lied. And once on the beach where Jesus is cooking him breakfast. That is not an accident. Jesus is bringing Peter back to the scene of the crime, the smell of the smoke and all, not to shame him, but to heal him.
    Three times Peter had said, “I don’t know Him.” So three times Jesus asks, “Simon, do you love me?” And three times Peter answers, “Lord, You know I love You.” The third time, Peter is hurt, and he says, “Lord, you know everything.” In other words: You know the truth about me. You know what I did. You know it all.
    And Jesus doesn’t say, “Then you’re finished.” He says, “Then feed my sheep.”
    River Church, that is what Jesus does with liars. He doesn’t pretend the lie didn’t happen. He brings us back to the fire, lets us tell the truth, and then gives us a future. The man who lied by one fire became the preacher who stood up on the Day of Pentecost and told the truth about Jesus to thousands of people.
    Maybe you’re standing at your own charcoal fire this morning. There’s a lie you’ve been living with, and the smoke still follows you around. Hear me: Jesus isn’t waiting to condemn you. He’s standing on the shore with breakfast on the fire. He already knows. He knows everything. And He still loves you.
    The truth about honesty is this: you can tell the truth, because you are fully known and fully loved.
    Invitation and Prayer
    If you’re here today and you’ve never trusted Christ, this is where it starts, with the most honest prayer a person can pray. The Bible says all of us have fallen short. Compared to other people, we might look pretty good. Compared to a holy God, we need a Savior. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” You can pray right now, in the quiet of your heart:
    “God, I haven’t always been truthful, with others, with myself, or with You. I’m sorry. Thank You for loving me anyway. Thank You that Jesus died for my sin and rose again. Forgive me. Come live in me. Make me a person of truth. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
    Altar time
    Let’s pray together.
    Father, we are made in Your image, and we long for the truth. We confess that we have edited ourselves, shaded the truth, and hidden behind filters of every kind. We see what it has done to our trust, our families, and our own hearts. Thank You that the worst truth about us has already been answered at the cross. Thank You that Your love isn’t based on our past but on the finished work of Jesus. Holy Spirit, pull the tape off the warning lights. Give us the courage to be real this week, at home, at work, and before You. Make us people who speak the truth in love, so that we grow more and more like Christ. We pray in His name, amen.

      • Jeremiah 17:9NLT

      • Galatians 5:17NLT

      • John 8:44NLT

      • Proverbs 12:22NLT

      • Proverbs 23:23NLT

      • Proverbs 14:9NLT

      • Proverbs 13:21NLT

      • Proverbs 20:7NLT

      • Ephesians 4:15NLT

      • Proverbs 11:6NLT

      • 1 Chronicles 29:17NLT

      • Psalm 51:6NLT

      • Colossians 3:9–10NLT

      • Proverbs 19:23NLT

      • James 1:22–24NLT

      • Proverbs 2:7NLT

      • Proverbs 11:5NLT

      • Proverbs 12:19NLT

River Church NOLA
robert@riverchurchnola.com
504-578-8317
https://riverchurchnola.com
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