No Alibis Needed: Like Him In Our Faithfulness

No Alibis Needed

Like Him in Our Faithfulness

TCF Sermon

October 24, 2010

Most forms of unfaithfulness are not always newsworthy. It happens around us every day and most of the time we never hear about it unless it’s in a form that involves us personally.

But the more well-known a person is, the more his or her unfaithfulness makes headlines. We see politicians breaking their campaign promises. We see other public figures and celebrities of all kinds, sadly and all too often including high-profile ministers of the gospel, breaking their wedding vows, or getting into some sort of legal trouble.

We see people cheating or lying or breaking oaths. We see employees cheating their employers. Unfaithfulness is all around us, and despite the fact that many kinds of unfaithfulness still bring almost universal condemnation, even that is changing.

It’s amazing what I find sometimes in the course of my sermon preparation. I came across a company that actually capitalizes on the idea of unfaithfulness. It’s called the Alibi Network. On the front page of their website, you find that they’ll create excuses for some fairly innocuous things, such as helping you plan a surprise birthday party without letting the secret out, or buying a surprise gift, or other things that we wouldn’t classify as unfaithfulness.

But dig just a bit deeper, and you find that they also provide ways for you to be truly unfaithful and deceptive in a variety of contexts. For a price, of course.

Here’s a sales pitch from their website:

Married but looking for more? Well, you are not alone. The "married but looking" population is quite large. Or do you need to communicate certain things to your spouse to get your relationship back on track? Please call us at 1-877-ALIBI-ME or visit our contact page if you have any specific questions or concerns regarding our services. We will assign to you a Personal Alibi Specialist available 24 hours a day who will assist you throughout your case. Whether you are married but looking for a discreet affair or have a sensitive situation that you need to resolve, we have a solution for you!

Of course, none of these “solutions” are free. The custom alibis for affairs pricing “depends on individual circumstances.” The “virtual hotel service,” which gives you receipts from a different hotel than perhaps where you’re really staying, or even allows your unsuspecting spouse to call the hotel you’re supposedly staying at to show that you’re in Camden, NJ at a convention, rather than in Miami having an adulterous affair, starts at $175.

You want to be an unfaithful employee, and call in sick when you’re not? They have a solution for that, too.

Call In Sick Service provides clients with cast-iron sickness alibis. We would call a place of your work for you and pretend to be your doctor /dentist or a spouse, etc. and tell your boss that you can’t come in. So you will not have to fake it on the phone!

How about this handy alibi?

Do you need a new part-time or full-time job so you have a valid reason to be away from home? Are you embarrassed to be unemployed and want to create an impression that you have a job or even own a business? You can use the cover of being an employee of one of our many partner companies. We will provide you with all necessary infrastructure such as business cards, work phone number, email and personal secretary if needed.

Sir Walter Scott wrote:

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive”

How true this is. And how unlike a true follower of Christ. But, we don’t need alibis if we’re really following the Lord. Because God has shown us a better way – be faithful to Him, and be faithful to what He has commanded.

The Word of God proclaims God’s faithfulness to us. Again and again we see examples of God’s faithfulness in all of His dealings with us.

A few weeks ago, Andy Obrochta shared in our house church a testimony of the things that have happened in his life over the past six years. At the end of his talk, all I could think about was the faithfulness of God, and how God had proven Himself faithful in Andy and Dorothy’s lives through the most challenging time of their lives.

Deuteronomy 7:9 (NIV) Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

I could quote dozens of Psalms that testify to God’s faithfulness. But I’ll just cite a few here now:

Psalms 33:4 (NASB95) For the word of the LORD is upright, And all His work is done in faithfulness.