Honesty Before God and Each Other: A Spiritual Practice

``Proverbs says, you know, whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. I think at a core level, the reason we don't we aren't honest is because we don't feel safe. So we find all kinds of means to get safe. But at the deepest level of our being, like, safety is only most true in the love and embrace of God. But usually what we do is we skip over this and we jump straight to, What do I do? But often, we're actually just doing that out of a place of deep insecurity and brokenness. So step one is actually regrounding that as we are, we are beloved of God. [00:59:36] (53 seconds)  #SafeInGodsLove

Because I think often when it comes to dishonesty, let's say it's withholding because we want to be accepted by others, or we're unloading on someone because we're afraid we're going to be hurt, so we attack. Like, both of these are self protective mechanisms, often grounded in the fact that we're not securing our own identity, that God loves us. And it's actually from this deep place of security in who we are in the love of God that we can actually operate as honest people set free in the world. But when we actually haven't internalized at a deep, deep level that we are actually accepted as we are by God, we're going to operate out of all these self protective mechanisms that we've learned growing up and in life. [00:58:40] (56 seconds)  #HonestyFromSecurity

It ends how you like, I think sometimes when we read psalms, we think of it sort of like a bait and switch. It's like, yeah, sure, the psalmist was angry at the beginning, but by the end, he's still with everyone else like, oh, praise the Lord, you know? You know, like begins intense, but it ends joyful, and we're like, yeah, I knew it, you know? This is how Psalm 88 ends. My companions have become darkness. End of Psalm. This is how God teaches people to talk to him. It's pretty profound. [00:30:57] (39 seconds)  #PsalmsTeachHonesty

But if you think about it just through the lens of honesty, the Psalms invite us at the most radical and ruthless level to say what we actually think before God. Like, read the Psalms, and you'll be like, this can't be prescriptive in the sense of this is how I should feel. Right? They are fundamentally descriptive, saying no matter what you feel, don't stop talking. At a real bedrock level, our conversation our relationship with God is built into conversational honesty. [00:33:03] (38 seconds)  #SpeakHonestlyToGod

Paul says this because he believes that there is actually a threat to the kingdom of God, the ministry of what God is doing, and Peter is giving into fear and not living into faith, and it's going to have massive implications for people and their ability to follow Jesus. So Paul's like, hey, we can't have this. He confronts Peter. He does it out of love though, I think. He does it out of a place of, hey. I don't want these Gentiles that have experienced the grace and mercy of God to now have to adopt sort of this burden of gospel plus, whatever the other things are. [00:38:35] (49 seconds)  #ConfrontForTheGospel

But when Paul talks about honesty and not lying, what he's not saying is, hey, you know what I think you should do? Is just sort of unload on people. Right? This is that person who's like, I was just being honest. Have you ever, like, been in a conversation with someone and they're just being a jerk and they finish it with, I was just being honest? Like, that is what every jerk says. Just saying it how it is. Or that one. Right? That's the colloquial version. But this is not about building the church up or another person. This is not really even about love. It's mostly about me. [00:52:57] (42 seconds)  #HonestyIsNotRudeness

Paul writes, right, Do not lie to each other, right? Don't be dishonest to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices. Like, there's this assumption of, like if you said it the other way, like, be honest with each other since you have put on your new self and its practices. Right? God, and I think through Paul, wants us to be a people that live out of this deep place of trust in God so that we can live out of freedom and honesty with each other, with ourselves, with God. But it's not that easy, is it? [00:42:25] (42 seconds)  #LiveHonestyInNewSelf

Some of us come in this morning, and we have burdens that we are carrying, but we haven't let anyone in on them because we're maybe afraid that they won't help us or they'll judge us. Some of us are stuck in patterns of sin, and we're, like, not sure how to get out, but we don't know how to let anyone in either. And this is why I think, actually, this move towards honest communication is actually intimately connected connected to to our our growth growth as as individuals individuals and and as as a a body. Body. [00:40:59] (34 seconds)  #HonestyEqualsGrowth