Unmasking Self-Deception: The Path to True Freedom

1) "True freedom actually begins where the lies we tell ourselves end, because we tell ourselves a lot. We really, really do. We learn that God cannot heal what we are determined to consistently hide. It requires confession. It requires repentance. The Bible says, if we confess our sins, we're going to talk about that at the end today, but it is a pivot word. It means that if we don't, then he won't. But if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. So when we come clean and get honest and transparent with God and ourselves, we find hope, we find forgiveness, and we find peace." [07:42] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "Could the answer be that we just don't see it in ourselves? Could the answer be that the hardest place to find deception is in the mirror? This is the danger with self-deception. Those who don't know, don't know, they don't know. No. Those who don't know, don't know, they don't know, and that's pretty scary. I thought a lot about this. There's multiple examples from my own life, but I thought about this one. It's kind of funny when my friends and my family, for years, I lived under the misconception that I had a normal tone of voice like everybody else." [09:35] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "I've learned over the years that distorted lenses create distorted images. It's just true. You say, Pastor, what are you talking about? What I'm saying is the longer we view ourselves through a distorted lens, the more likely we are to believe a distorted truth. King David in the Bible knew well about self-deception. He himself had been the victim of it many times in his life, if you know his story at all. He writes about this. He says, I want to read it in the message translation. Eugene Peterson translated the Bible into what we call the message. It's kind of like a commentary on the Bible, but he really, really does a great job of expounding it in everyday language so that we can understand, and here's what he said in Psalm 36. He has smooth-talked himself so much that he can't even detect or despise his own sin." [12:12] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "Many times, the things that we are the quickest to defend are the things that we are deceived about the most. I'm gonna be quiet. It's gonna be quiet. Y'all know this is true. You know this is true. You probably, you probably experienced it in your own life. It's when somebody who really does love you say, you know, man, you're being stubborn, and you're being prideful, and we fire back immediately with, no, I'm not. I'm just, I'm just convicted and passionate about this or about that. It could be anything, but it's when we are confronted with a real issue, and deep down, we know we struggle with it. We are sometimes the most aggressive to defend it." [16:14] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "It doesn't matter how much you hear the truth, and I'm going to show you that it doesn't even matter how much you know the truth. It's not knowledge that changes your life. You can know all about bread and starve to death. You can know all about water and die of dehydration. It is applied knowledge. It is what you do with what you know that actually creates transformation and change, but I want to show you three biblical things, super simple, but not small. Let me say it again. Super simple, but not small about this issue of self-deception. How do we overcome it? Let me start here. Number one, you got to pray honestly." [18:51] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "Praying honestly means to be receptive. Listen, it means to be receptive to whatever God says. It means we truly are ready to receive what the Holy Spirit impresses upon our heart. In fact, the word confess is a Greek word. The word confess is a word. It's homologeo, homologeo. And what it means is to say the same thing. That's what it means to confess. And the implication of that in 1 John 1 and 9 is, that when I pray and God reveals to the thing in me that's not like him, I am not going to resist it. I'm not going to reject it. I'm not going to say, God, you're wrong. I'm going to say the same thing that God says about me because I believe that he knows more than I know." [21:39] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "Listen legitimately. Here's what I mean. Many times God doesn't just speak to us through impressions of the Holy Spirit of the scripture, certainly does, but many times God will speak to us through people in our lives that love us and that care about us. And we have to be open and honest. My wife and some of my closest friends and mentors have all helped me see things in me that I could have never seen in myself. I had blind spots like everybody else. And over the years, when I was open to listen and, finally, receive it, God began to do a work in my life. So when I say listen legitimately, I mean to listen with humility, not pride, to listen humbly, to listen to have a heart to understand rather than listening the way we normally listen, only to form a reply and build a defense." [24:21] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "Faithful are the wounds of a friend. How can that be? If they're your friend, then how can they wound you if they're a friend to you? Faithful, the Bible says, are the wounds of a friend. You need to thank God for the faithfulness of a friend who loves you enough that will not allow you to walk a path of destruction because they see what it's going to do to your marriage, your kids, and your family, and your soul. God says that's a true friend. I heard it said this way one day, that a real friend, a real friend will never stab you in the back and betray you. They're willing to stab you in the chest to correct you. They're willing to stand in a moment of confrontation because they love you and say, brother, this is not the way. Sister, this is not God. This is not the way of the Lord. He has called us to something bigger and better." [25:53] (61 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "You got to pray honestly. You got to listen legitimately. But then without this one, nothing I just said really matters. Bro, you got to change intentionally. You actually got to do something with what you hear. You actually got to do something with what you know. When God shows you an area of your life that you've been hiding behind, acknowledge it. Repent of it and then change because it will not happen on its own. It will require intentional decision and a strategic change of direction. That's what repentance really is. Repentance is recognizing when we are going the wrong way and then making a course correction to make it right." [30:03] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10) "If you really want to be free, if you really want to know freedom, if you really want to know what God has in store for you and the best that he has for your life, drop the masquerade. Stop living a duplicitous life. Stop living a double life. You know what the Bible says in James? A double-minded man is unstable in not some of his ways, but all of his ways. The reason he says that is because he says once a man is willing to compromise at one level, it's just a matter of time before he will compromise and live duplicitous at another level. Eventually, it will not stay compartmentalized. If you'll lie here, eventually you'll lie with more important things over here. If you're going to cover it up here, eventually there will be a time you'll cover it up at a deeper level where things are more significant." [34:14] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)