Lip Syncing Christians

Say this with me: “God is good. All the time. To me!” Amen!

How many of you remember Milli Vanilli, the R&B duo from Munich, Germany? Founded in 1988, the group’s debut album Girl You Know It’s True achieved international success and earned them a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1990.

When the duo did their first live interview with MTV, an executive noticed their poor English skills. Those present began to doubt whether they were the voices singing on their records.

The first public sign that they were not the voices came on July 21, 1989 during a live MTV performance. As they performed the song “Girl You Know It’s True” the record jammed and began to skip, repeating the partial line “Girl, you know it’s ...” over and over through the speakers. They continued to pretend to sing and dance for a few more moments then ran offstage.

They eventually confessed to not singing the songs and were later stripped of their Grammys.

What is lip syncing? A person moves his lips silently – mouthing the words – in synchronization with a recorded soundtrack. This is not an uncommon practice. Today many vocalists pre-record the National Anthem before performing it before large outdoor gatherings like the Super Bowl and MLB playoffs games.

And it makes sense because there are too many variables you have to control, unless of course you are Whitney Houston! When she sang the national anthem for the Super Bowl – it was amazing!

However, in the case of Milli Vanilli, they were lip syncing the voices of other singers. They were pretending to be people they were not. Let me repeat that. They were pretending to be people they were not.

The person who lip syncs, and I want you to hear what I am about to say, the person who lip syncs is a shadow of the real. They have not done what it takes to be authentic, to be genuine, to be the real thing – to be who they say they are.

What is “Christian lip syncing”?

You know what to say and how to say it, but what you say is not who you are. You are living a lie and you are deceived. We’re going to look at some examples. These are passages you’ve read before, but I want you to see them in the context of this teaching – saying the right things but not getting the results.

Turn to Acts 19. We’re going to read verses 13 through 16.

(13) Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjourn you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.

(14) And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.

(15) And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?

Ladies and gentlemen, just because you know what to say does not mean there is power behind what you say. And many of us in the Body of Christ, we don’t understand that. We think just because we know what to say, just because we know how to say it, that there is going to be something that will happen as a result.

The Bible says faith is what makes things work. It’s not what you say. It’s what you say with faith that makes things work!

So we have these seven sons of Sceva and the evil spirit sees them. He says “When Jesus speaks, I know it. When Paul speaks, I know it. I hear what you’re saying and it sounds like Jesus, it sounds like Paul, but you’re not with them. You’re not with them. You’re lip syncing! You’re mouthing the words, but they’re not coming from your heart because you don’t really know God.”

(16) And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

In a way, this is an apt description of most of the Body of Christ. When they speak the Word, they are not speaking it from a place of faith. They’re not speaking it from a place of knowing who their Father is. They are not speaking from a place, listen to me, of love. If you listen to what most Christians say, would you say they are speaking out of love? For the majority of them, no way. No way! And they wonder why the enemy of soul is doing to them what he does.

Turn to Romans 16.

(17) Now I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.