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.
(18) For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple (the hearts of the immature is another way of reading that).
They are saying the right things, ladies and gentlemen, otherwise the immature would not listen to them. But they’re leading the people off of the path. They’re saying just enough right to lead people away. Isn’t that what Satan did in the Garden of Eden? He said just enough that was right to get Eve to consider something that God had not said. Satan was lip syncing. The people here in Romans 16 are lip syncing. They say just enough right but they don’t believe a word they’re saying.
Hebrews 10. We’re going to read verses 23, 26 and 38.
(23) Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering: (for he is faithful that promised;)
So many of us in the body of Christ profess that we believe Jesus, profess that we trust Him. What was the song we sang? “Jesus the Center of It All.” We sang that song! But is it true? If that’s not true, when some of us were singing that song we were lip syncing. We were. And I will admit that I was doing some lip syncing because I know He’s not the center yet because there are too many other things that I am letting get in the way. So, if you’re just honest about it all of are probably lip syncing to a degree.
We have to pay attention to the words of songs that we sing. When we sing the words to songs that are not absolutely true for us, we’re lip syncing. If we singing “Jesus is the center of my life and that everything revolves around him,” then people should see this in how we live. If Jesus says, in His Word, there is something you should be doing and you’re not doing it, then your life does not revolve around Him. You are lip syncing.
Take Lee as an example. Jesus is not going to say “Lee, I don’t want you to go to work today because I want you to do this.” Come on! He’s not going to do that. Let’s be honest. He’s probably going to ask Lee to do something he really doesn’t want to do.
Lee gets home from work. He wants to sit in the easy chair after a hard day at work. Jesus says “Lee, I want you to spend time with Me. Go into your closet for an hour.” Do you think Lee is going to think twice about that? Lee may say “Lord, I’m tired I’ve been working all day.” And Jesus will simply say, “But I thought I was the center of your life?” Lee says. “Yes sir.” Jesus says “Hit the closet.”
So Lee obeys but he’s not excited. But he obeys. He gets to the closet and once he gets there the Lord is able to put into Lee what He desires. Just because Lee didn’t go with enthusiasm, but he went. Do you hear me? Lee went. So many of us just don’t go! We ignore Him. Jesus would much rather we go without any enthusiasm than not go at all.
So many of us don’t understand God. God knows we can be stubborn. But He also knows our hearts and that we are going to be obedient. So we may be obedient the first couple of time with little or no enthusiasm. He knows that. That’s okay. Remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane?
(26) For if we sin willfully (We are very, very stupid if we sin willfully.) after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, their remains the no more sacrifice for sins,
When you sin willfully, what you are doing, in the context of this message, you have been lip syncing God’s Word the whole time. You words, listen me, are not lining up with your actions!
Now look at verse 38. “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”
Draw back from what, ladies and gentlemen? Faith. He emphasizes that point when he says “I shall have no pleasure in him” because Hebrews 11:6 says “And without faith, it is impossible to please God.” All of who say we have faith in God, we’re believing God for this, we’re believing God for that – we’re lip syncing.
We’re believing God to do things when God has given us the ability, when God has given us the power, when God has given us the authority to do those very things. We’re lip syncing because we want God to do it instead of us disciplining ourselves – mortifying our flesh, drawing a line in the sand – and doing for ourselves what we want God to do.
We lip sync because what we say is not truly what we believe. But the wonderful thing is this: the more we say it on purpose the more we begin to manifest who we are. And that’s what we want.
Look at James 1.
(5) If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
(6) But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
(7) For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
(8) A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
I need to point something out. Verse 6 says let a person ask in faith, nothing wavering. Do you see that? It’s not that the person is not using all the right words. It’s not that he’s not quoting all the right scripture. But, he has to use the right words and quote the right scripture in faith.
A “double minded man” is a person who suffers from divided loyalties. On the one hand, he wishes to maintain a religious confession and desires the presence of God in his life. On the other hand, he loves the ways of the world and prefers to live according to its mores and ethics. He’s describing most of the Body of Christ.
Look at Second Peter 1. Let’s read verses 16 through 21.
(16) For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
(17) For he received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
(18) And this voice which came form heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount.
(19) We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place,, unto the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts.
(20) Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
“Knowing this first.” Every time we take the Bible and make it say what we want it to say, we are lip syncing because it says that no prophecy in the Bible is up for private interpretation.
(21) For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they moved by the Holy Ghost.
Do you know there are Christians who really don’t believe this is God’s Word? Do you know there are many Christians who believe men wrote the Bible? It would break your heart to realize how so many who don’t believe the Bible is God’s Word, that it is God’s breathed, that it is as much God as God is God. God gave who He is.
Do you know why many Christians believe men wrote the Bible? Because there are things in the Bible they don’t like so men had to write it. Surely God wouldn’t write anything they don’t like. “Let him that stole steal no more but rather let him work with his hand that he may have to give to him that needed.” Oh, no that did not come from God! God helps those who help themselves, remember?
Sometimes in my imagination I can hear God say “Don’t get me started on the Body of Christ!”
Look at 2 Peter 3.
(14) Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye m ay be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
(15) And account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you.
(16) As also in all his episodes, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, (Now I want you to listen to this next part.) which they that are unlearned (or they that are immature spiritually, they that are unskilled in handling the Word, they that are still on milk – have I painted the picture? And yet these are individuals who have leadership positions.) and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
In other words, they’re taking verses out of context and making them say what they want them to say. They take verses out of context and force them to say what they don’t say.
I want to share something with you that I just shook my head when I read it. When Christians start thinking like the world, they are going to start making decisions like the world.
US University Declines $3M Donation in
Order To Keep LGBT Group
A little over a year ago a well-known university declined a $3M donation that was offered on the grounds that the university deny students the right to form an LGBT group on campus.
(What I’m going to read next should make you so sad. It should break your heart.)
The university, which was founded by the religious organization, was offered the donation by state churches with the caveat that they deny a student’s request to put together an LGBT group.
The state church group that made the offer, the religious organization, said it was "saddened" that the university had "voted to affirm the recognition of a student group that identifies with values contrary to biblical teachings on sexuality".
The president of the convention as well as the executive director of its board of missions, issued a joint statement in which they said "We strongly believe that the Old Testament and New Testament each speak unequivocally against homosexuality. When addressing same-gender sexual relationships, the Bible without exception never affirms such behavior as an approved lifestyle."
The University opted to voluntarily deny the $3M donation, which had been scheduled for January 1st, rather than deny the students their group.
(This is lip syncing ladies and gentlemen. They know what the Bible says. They teach what the Bible says. But they don’t do what the Bible says.)
“I believe the action taken by our trustees is something that both parties have been anticipating for some time and will serve the best interests of both the university and the religious organization’s State Convention,” said the university’s president.
He also added that he would like the university to discuss topics related to sexuality and "other important issues at the intersection of Christian understanding and cultural reality".
(In other words, where Christian doctrine disagrees with what the culture is teaching, then we need to have a discussion and come to an understanding. No. No. No.)
Upon the announcement that the donation would be denied, the convention reaffirmed its opposition to the LGBT group on campus.
"The matter of recognition of the student organization is in the hands of the leadership of the university.
(That’s, well I can’t use the words I want to use. But this is stuff the Apostle Paul calls dung. If you are the parent organization and you have a university that is doing something you don’t agree with, do you not have the right to take corrective action? Do you not have the right to go in and tell that president “You’re fired? You are not upholding what the Bible says.
Ladies and gentlemen, the governing body is just as bad as the university. They’re lip syncing too. We know what the Bible says and we disagree with the university, but it’s there decision to make. You don’t want to get me started!)
“The matter of recognition of the student organization is in the hands of the leadership of the university. They know our concerns about the organization as expressed in person and in print," said the president of the religious organization’s Convention.
(In other words, we are not going to do anything to uphold what the Bible says. That is what he is saying. “We’re just going to express our concerns and let the university do what it wants to do.” Ladies and gentlemen, they need to thank God that Barry is not the head of that organization. I would go in and clean house.
God holds the parent organization, the Convention, responsible for what happens at that university. But the Convention is saying we’ve done our job by complaining. You haven’t done diddly.
So how do we rid ourselves of lip syncing when it comes to our Christian walk?
Turn to Second Timothy 3.
(16) All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
(17) That the man of God (the woman of God) may be perfect (mature spiritually), thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
How do we rid ourselves of lip syncing? We do by making the Bible our rule book, by the standard by which we live.
Psalm 19:14 says “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”
Do you want to rid yourself of lip syncing? Just make sure that the words you speak and the words that you meditate on are acceptable to God.
We’re in Psalms. Turn to chapter 42 and we’re going to read verse 5. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.”
Psalm 119:97 says “O how love I thy laws! It is my meditation all the day.”
And finally, Proverbs 16:13. “Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right.”
When you lip sync, you are saying what needs to be said, but it is not manifesting in your life. All of us have lip syncing in our lives. Let’s just be honest about it. But the more we put on God’s Word, the more we make it the meditation of our heart, the less and less lip syncing is going to occur.
When you get rid of all the lip syncing, then the power of God will begin to manifest in your life because there will nothing disagreeing with it. So all you former lip syncers please stand.
