Preach "The King Has Come" 3-Part Series this week!
Preach Christmas week

Sermon Illustrations

HONESTY (OR NOT) IN AMERICA

In the book, The Day America Told the Truth, of the people surveyed, the authors found these results –

91 percent of American lie about trivial matters;

36 percent of Americans lie about important matters;

86 percent regularly lie to parents,

75 percent regularly lie to friends,

73 percent regularly lie to siblings, and

69 percent regularly lie to spouses.

Here’s what was intriguing about the study: People no longer seem to care about lying. We accept it. It doesn’t bother us. We don’t get upset anymore when someone exaggerates, falsifies, fabricates, or misrepresents the truth. We live in a day when we’ve been bombarded with erased tapes, tampered evidence, loophole lies, illicit cover-ups, padded resumes, and exaggerated ads, to the point that we’ve pretty much given up on truth ever being told.

Of course we have many different ways of speaking about lies. We call them White lies, Bold-face lies, Flattery, Slander,

Gossip, Excuses, Propaganda, Spin, Exaggeration, Half-truth, Saving face, Falsehoods, Shading the truth, Perjury, Misrepresenting the truth, False advertising, Embellishment.

(Source: Daily Bread, 8/28/1992. From a sermon by Michael Deutsch, "Liar! Liar!" 7/6/2009)

Related Sermon Illustrations

Related Sermons

  • The Truth About Lying

    Contributed by Derrick Tuper on Oct 26, 2012
    based on 2 ratings
     | 14,300 views

    Although the movie, "Liar, Liar" is a comedy, the issue of lying is anything but funny. Max’s birthday wish was for his father to stop lying. God has that same desire for us. He understands how serious of an issue lying is and how important it is for his

  • A Failure Of Faith Series

    Contributed by David Owens on Jun 12, 2017
    based on 1 rating
     | 13,863 views

    No one is perfect. Even the greatest of Biblical characters are sinners. When Abraham faced the first crisis since deciding to walk with God, he defaulted to his old ways of falsehood rather than walking by faith.

  • Which Bridge Is Safe?

    Contributed by Bruce Ball on Apr 8, 2015
    based on 4 ratings
     | 13,497 views

    Using the analogy of a bridge crossing a chasm, we discuss that even though there seems to be many bridges available, only one really leads to the other side and we must be careful when deciding which bridge.

  • Accentuate The Positive Series

    Contributed by Dennis Davidson on Mar 7, 2013
    based on 4 ratings
     | 12,936 views

    Prudent, accurate, honest, sensitive communication is a major theme threaded through Proverbs. This emphasis is mandated because words & actions are the way we relate to one another. Basically, we need to accentuate the positive & eliminate the negative.

  • The Value Of Honesty

    Contributed by Dennis Lee on Nov 17, 2019
    based on 4 ratings
     | 10,496 views

    Today's Message is looking at the value of honesty in our series on building lasting values in our lives as we build up God's house within us. We also look at several steps to help us out in the process.