We're talking about truth and lies. We're talking about technology and misinformation, disinformation, fake news. And we're trying to figure out how do we separate the truth from the lies, and how do we make sure that we're using our technology to spread the truth and to stand against the lies?
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Most people would still rather be told the truth than a falsehood. But those are the kinds of things. And Americans, I think it was something like 75 % of Americans said that when they tell a lie, it's really just to not hurt somebody's feelings. And so we might call these the more noble of the kind of lies that we tell one another. Then there's other kinds of lies that are a little bit different than that. They're lies that are aimed at helping us kind of protect ourselves to not get punished or not to feel guilty or bad or ashamed or something else.
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We have two people on our staff here at Resurrection who each were in prison for more than 25 years. And they were arrested. There was somebody who claimed that they were the guilty party in something. In both cases, I think it was a murder.And there was a prosecutor who didn't do their homework very well.And there were people who were willing to lie because they were negotiating their own early release from prison or something else. And consequently, two people who were not guilty spent 25, and in one case, over 30 years in prison because somebody lied. And they only got out when there was somebody else who came forward or evidence came forward that they were not the one who was guilty of the crime. And they were exonerated. But they lost 25 and 30 years of their life in prison because somebody told a lie.
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This is what in the Bible is talked about as false witness. Like we're claiming something about somebody else that isn't true. And you remember, this is one of the big 10, right? One of the big 10 commandments. We read the ninth commandment, actually. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.False witness against your neighbor. This is true not only of those crimes that could end up with somebody in jail or losing their life, but really in our daily lives, this should be the rhythm of our lives. Let's not bear false witness about somebody else. Let's try to tell the truth all the time because people get hurt when we lie.
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The devil, the serpent, is a liar.And he's going to whisper things into your head or into your ears. And not literally, but you're going to hear these thoughts that come into your mind. And when they're thoughts of doing the wrong thing, they're never from God.And they're always, you know, from that dark force in our world.
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From Genesis to Revelation, we're finding that deceit, dishonesty, and the consequences of it have deadly consequences for us in our lives. And so we're not to lie. God hates lies. We have to hear that today.
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What's happening today with our technology is that we have, and we talked about this last week, we have the ability to magnify what we're saying. You see the cones that cheerleaders would use to shout out there. Well, that's, in essence, what we have with technology, is we can take our lies and we share them on social media, and all of a sudden, it's not just me whispering this to somebody else. It's me whispering this to my 200 friends on social media, or 10 ,000 friends, or 60 ,000 friends, or whatever. You're spreading falsehood that can bring real harm to other people.
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The technological age has magnified our ability to tell lies or spread false information and make it harder to discern the truth.
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False news spreads six times faster than true news. Imagine that. Why does it spread so much faster? Well, because the true news is kind of boring. There's nothing really that salacious about telling the truth. You know, it's something obvious. You've told the truth. Nobody's upset about it. You know, or, you know, it's been taken care of. You confessed it, and somehow it's being addressed. But false news is often salacious.
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As Christians, we should have the integrity. If you're a Christian, even if you're not a Christian, I mean, as a human being, we should have the integrity to say, I'm not going to say anything out there about anybody else that I haven't checked on and researched to make sure it's really true. And often we shouldn't say anything anyway, right? And our mom's taught us that. If you can't say anything good about somebody, don't say anything at all.
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This is what's gonna happen. I mean, we're the church of the resurrection. We're gonna stop believing in the resurrection? We not only believe it, we're counting on it.But, you know, this spreads. And then how do you stop a rumor like that? And so you can say, no, we aren't. I've said that across the country. No, we're not. I've written all kinds of things about this. No, we're not. This is what we believe. We're gonna hold onto those things. I don't hear anybody saying they wanna change those things. But, my gosh, once somebody whispers that to somebody else who whispers it to somebody else, post it on social media, what you find is a whole lot of people are afraid. What's happened to my church? I think we better go join that other church because, you know, we're not gonna believe that anymore.
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We have got to do better than that. And Christians have to do better than that because God hates deception. God hates falsehood. The people who spread lies are actually kept out of the kingdom of heaven and cast into the lake of fire. I mean, all of those are ways of saying that this is simply not okay with God, that we pass on false information.
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Before hitting send or share, please take time to really look at the information. If it sounds outrageous, that's often because it is. Are there any sources cited to back it up? And if so, are they credible? Is there a way to contact the source? Is there any document? In other words, is there an email connection somewhere back to the source? Is there any documentation provided to support the allegations? And what is your motive for sharing it?
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Technology is racing forward so fast and doing things today that we just never thought possible 10 years ago and making it even harder to separate truth from fiction.And so in these cases in particular, you really need to do your research.
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We have to do our homework. We have to ask questions. We have to research. We have to be skeptical when we see things that seem, seem outrageous.Ask the right questions of what we see.
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I love this in Matthew 10, 16. Jesus says, look, I'm sending you a sheep among wolves. Therefore be wise as snakes and innocent as doves. What does he mean? Why is the snakes? I mean, that was a metaphor in Jesus day, you know, a saying.that had to do with be smart, be crafty, be intelligent when it comes to people trying to deceive you or trying to say things that aren't true or what you see going on in your world around you. Jesus calls us to do this. Be wise as serpents and gentle or innocent as doves.
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There's something about us innately. We are wired to be suspicious. That's part of how we protect ourselves. We, we look around for possible threats. And when we start sharing, you know, conspiracy theories, this, this sort of appeals to that part of us that is afraid that the world is not safe. Life is not safe. And we don't know what to believe. And we don't even know where to research and go. And, and sometimes, you know, we are suspicious of the government or we're suspicious of some organization.And so we find ourselves drawn to conspiracy theories, and there's been a lot of them in the last few years.
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If we're spreading something that's not true, and it's a conspiracy theory that ignites the hearts of people and then turns people against one another or causes some kind of terrible harm or crimes to be committed or whatever it might be, we played a part in that simply by passing on this information. We are culpable and held accountable by God for this.
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We've got to be better than this as Christians.
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Technology is awesome. I love technology. You know, we can use it for so many good things. But if we're not careful, the human condition that we struggle with is just magnified when you put a computer or a cell phone, a smartphone, or a tablet in front of us.
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Proverbs 14, 15 says this, the naive believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps. Let's not be naive. Let's be prudent. And let's also be the people, maybe this doesn't really apply to us, but it can apply to us when we speak up and we hear something and say, you know, I just don't think that's true. And I've done the research on this. And this is what I found for somebody to be able to speak up and say, hey, this isn't right. I've done the research. I've done the homework. And I simply don't believe this is true. That has to be.what we're like as followers of Jesus Christ, that other people aren't being hurt by the misinformation around us.
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And then I love this, what Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.And what is the truth?Well, ultimately there are facts underneath all of these stories I'm telling you about, but beneath all of those is the one whose very life and teachings is the essence of truth. And that is Jesus.So I want to live my life in a way that honors him. I want to live my life in a way that serves him. And I want to live my life that expresses his love, his light, his joy. I want to love my neighbors, but I also want to love my enemies. And I want to love the people who hold different political views than I do. And I want to assume the best of people, not the worst of them. But when it comes to things that sound a little outrageous, I want to assume that maybe this might not be true and I at least need to do my homework.
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Like the idea I take from this is that the technology is meant to help us spread Christ's love in the world.We are not meant to do anything that is inconsistent with love.And I want to ask you, is that true for you?We can use our technology to spread gossip, lies, misinformation, or we can use it to spread love. Which will you do?
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