5: Speaking The Truth In Love Series

Back in 1997 a Jim Carey movie came out called Liar, Liar. Carey plays the title role. He is an attorney, a very successful attorney. But the movie opens with his little boy at school on the day when the children are giving reports on what their fathers do, and his son announces, “My daddy’s a liar.” His teacher doesn’t know what to do with that, but as the little boy explains, the teacher says, “No, you mean he’s a lawyer.”

But as the movie develops you see that his Daddy really is a liar. He specializes on getting crooks out of trouble by helping them lie to the court. He blocks his secretary from getting a much deserved raise by lying to her. He has an office affair with one of the partners of the firm in hopes of getting a promotion, even though he despises her.

He can be very charming. When he’s with his son he’s very warm and a lot of fun. He flatters all sorts of people with totally dishonest, empty flattery. And he is making a lot of money for this firm of crooked lawyers.

But the tragedy is that he keeps promising his son that he’ll be there for him, to pick him up after school, to play baseball, for his birthday party, but he never fulfills his promises. He always gets involved with a case at work and doesn’t even bother to call. Any words that came out of his mouth were worthless. And the next day he would always try to cover it up with a lie. As the movie starts, his wife has already divorced him, maybe a year before, and is on the verge of marrying another man and moving to another city far away. And his son is broken hearted because he loves this Dad in spite of all the lies. And even though it was his son’s birthday, and even though he had promised to be there and his son was really looking forward to it, when the time came, he didn’t show. So when his mother brought out the birthday cake and he blew out the candles and made his birthday wish, his son wished that for just one day, just 24 hours, his father would be totally incapable of telling a lie. And his wish came true.

And that led to 24 hours of total chaos for Jim Carey, as only Jim Carey can do. When he opened his mouth for what had always been empty flattery before, the words that came out were exactly what he felt towards people in his heart. And he got slapped on the face. His secretary, who had always covered for him when he lied to others, walked out on him when she heard the truth about how he had lied to her to avoid giving her a raise. He had prepared for a big case, the case that would probably earn him a partnership in the firm, depending on nothing but lies. Two of his superiors came to watch. But on this day he couldn’t lie. One by one his dishonest tactics fell apart because he couldn’t lie. And in desperation he had to come up with an honest argument to win the case. And he did it, in the nick of time. He could be an effective lawyer and be honest at the same time.

And during this 24 hours, when total honesty forced him to be accountable for his behavior, no excuses allowed, the chaos forced him to recognize what he was doing to his son. He was changed. He couldn’t lie to others. He couldn’t lie to himself.

And the movie closes with another birthday party, a year later, and he’s there with his family, where he belongs, and his ex-wife is starting to trust him again and love him again and it’s a happy ending. It was just 24 hours of the strict discipline of telling the truth that forced him to recognize the truth about himself, and made it possible for him to become a new person.

How do churches grow? We’ve looked at a number of key ingredients for a growing church in the past weeks. Churches grow by setting their targets on maturity in Christ, on helping people become real disciples. Churches grow by equipping their members for effective ministry. Churches grow by understanding that they are a living body, in which each member works to build up the other members. Churches grow when there are strong ligaments of loving relationships that bind them close to each other. And finally, today, churches grow by speaking the truth in love.

Please stand for the reading of God’s word, Ephesians 4:11-16.

11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.