The Honest Liar 06/26/2016

Summary: Ephesians 4:23–25 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. 25 So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. I find myself lying, but its not really lying, and I think we all do it. When we lie we are not thinking long term but we are thinking irrationally. We see lying in sports with athletes emphatically denying they use steroids only to be found out later. We’ve seen lying when the government has claimed that their are weapons of mass destruction. We’ve seen the NSA lie about the information they collect from U.S. citizens. We’ve seen the leaders of the tobacco industry lie about the dangers of smoking. We’ve seen U.S. Presidents promise to shrink big government during their campaigns only to enlarge it during their presidencies. We’ve learned that presidential candidates hide their real views while trying to please their diverse constituencies. Bill Clinton is quoted as saying, “Nearly everyone will lie to you, given the right circumstances.” No one wanted to admit that U.S. soldiers were dying over a commodity like oil in the Gulf War so we were told it was about the freedom of Kuwaitis and throwing down a tyrannical leader. Nearly everyone condemns lying, but nearly everyone does it everyday. Their are two primary ways of lying, to conceal and to falsify. EARTH IS FLAT: But what is a lie? Someone might say, “the Earth is flat.” Is this a lie? Actually, if the person is from the Flat Earth Society it is a statement of belief that happens to not be true. So the essence of a lie, as we usually think of it, is the “intention to mislead.” How many here have lied since the beginning of 2016? How many here think of themselves as good, honest people? How can liars think of themselves as honest? It comes down to how we rationalize it. We want to look in the mirror and think of ourselves as honest, but on the other hand we want to benefit selfishly from being dishonest. As long we tell ourselves we are only lying a little bit or for a good cause we can still think of ourselves as honest. We make allowances for ourselves and these are places where we grant ourselves permission to sin, but still consider ourselves good. We tell ourselves its OK to break the speed limit, to cheat a little bit on our taxes, or to exaggerate on a resume or job application. Things that allow us to make greater allowances for ourselves to lie, cheat, and steal, include things like: Everybody’s doing it Conflicts of interest I’m not hurting anyone Lying for others Lack of supervision Social norms Fatigue Distance from the crime Self-deception Everybody’s doing it- What if you were pursuing a career in professional sports like cycling or baseball and you discovered that in order to compete you would have to take steroids just to keep up because the elite in the sport were already using steroids. Would you be willing to changes careers, to either give up on that dream or be willing to be the last in the field? The MATRIX EXPERIMENTS (Dan Ariely) 20 simple math problems, but the testers aren’t given enough time, only 5 minutes. After 5 minutes grade your own paper. The tester will receive $1 for each correct answer. They go to the front, collect their money, and then shred their test. What they don’t know is that the shredder didn’t really shred their paper. On average testers solved 4 problems but reported to solve 6. Over 40,000 people participated in this series of experiments. Nearly 70% cheated. There were 20 big cheaters, those who cheated all the way, and said they solved 20 problems. They stole a combined total of $400 from the test givers. There were also 28,000 little cheaters and they stole a combined total of about $50,000 from the test givers. What the test givers learned from this is that the economic impact of little cheaters is incredibly high. The IRS is cheated out of more than 15% of its yearly tax revenue. Insurance fraud in the U.S. is estimated to be more than $40 billion per year. Healthcare scams cost the U.S. government more than $200 billion per year. The MATRIX EXPERIMENTS- Creativity Another way we lie to ourselves is by telling ourselves things that are not true. The vast majority of people think they are better than average drivers. The vast majority of people think they have less chance of dying from a heart attack and cancer. We have these overly optimistic beliefs about ourselves and we convince ourselves that these beliefs are actually true. Self-deception starts off as we know that we are lying to ourselves, or we are aware that we are engaging in a rationalization to ourselves. After a while we just believe what we are telling ourselves and its seen in 80% of the population. Experiment: People are given a test to take, and some people don’t have the answers and they see how well they do, and they are hard questions so they don’t do very well. Other people are given the same test and are given the answers at the bottom and are told to check them if they want, its up to them. They do terrific on the test, but then they are given another test. The test givers tell them, “Here are some new questions, and by the way, there’s no answers at the bottom this time. How well do you think you are going to do?” The testers don’t correct at all, they just think that they’re amazing test takers now. The testers can even be paid. The test givers say, “Look, if you guess how many you’re going to get right we will give you a lot of money.” The test givers find that there is no change at all. They just believe still that they are amazing test takers even though they cheated on the first test, and their opinion about themselves, that they are amazing test takers, are based on that test where they cheated, they still answer that they are going to get many more right than is possible. The test takers have deceived themselves into thinking, “I’m the greatest trivia test taker in the world” and the test givers can’t get them to stop doing it. The process of deceiving ourselves is so strong, and it happens to us so quickly. We may have a quick doubt of “maybe I cheated,” and then, “No, I didn’t. I’m a genius,” and then “I’m a genius for the rest of my life.” The test givers learned through this experiment that the impulse to deceive ourselves is powerful. Children today are more and more encouraged to be someone other than who they truly are. One of the results of this is that students misrepresent themselves on their college applications and even resort to having someone else take their SAT’s for them. ANIMALS Scientists say that all animals have deception as part of their armory in order to survive. So for instance animals that can camouflage themselves. They say the bigger the brain, the larger the capacity to lie. Chimpanzees have been known to lie where they may lead their group away from where the food is so that that one particular chimpanzee can come back to the food later on and have it to themselves. LIE DETECTORS Lie detectors detect emotional arousal or when we feel uncomfortable. When scientists asked people to lie for themselves the lie detector caught them, but then the scientists asked them to lie for a charity, and the lie detector was silent. Why? Because if we can justify our lie to ourselves, that we are doing something good or for a good cause, then there is no conflict, no emotional problem. So this is like when a parent lie about where their children live so that they can go to a better school and be a part of a better school district. VENDING MACHINE EXPERIMENT: A vending machine was set up so that people would get their candy and they would get their money back. Then a number was placed in large print on the machine for people to call if there was a problem with the machine. The scientists received no calls and the average number of candies stolen was four. They concluded later that the rationalization people were using was what they called a vending machine karma. Some other vending machine had ripped them off so they felt justified in stealing this candy, as if this vending machine was a close relative of the vending machine that ripped them off. Then the people called their friends to come and steal some candy, and the idea here is that if my friends steal the candy too then it is more socially acceptable. The MATRIX EXPERIMENTS- Social Norms They gave students a test and one student was hired to cheat. He completed the test in an impossible amount of time and gave himself a perfect score. The rest of the students saw him turn in his test and receive all the money and then go home without getting caught. The students learned that it was socially acceptable to cheat and the cheating went up. But when they did the same experiment and dressed the cheating student in an opposing schools sweatshirt, cheating went down. So it wasn’t about the probability of getting caught. It was about what is socially acceptable in our circle. Often, we justify our own lies by saying everyone is doing it, meaning its socially acceptable. But is it socially acceptable if you are a child of God? The MATRIX EXPERIMENTS- Conflicts of Interest Students were told to sit at a computer. Dots would be flashed on the left and the right sides of the screen and their task was to click on the side that had more dots and they would be paid however only for clicking on the right side regardless of whether that was the correct answer or not. So this set up a conflict of interest. They could choose either to get a correct answer or they could choose to click on the right, even when there weren’t more dots on the right and receive more money. Students did not start out lying out right, but if there were only a few more dots on the left than on the right they would click on the right. In any moral conflict there is usually always a line and you have to decide whether you are going to cross it or not. You kind of want to go to the other side but you know what the right side is. Here, its very easy to justify in your own mind that its OK to go to the other side, the wrong side, because you benefit in some way. BASELINE BRAIN RESPONSE: Once you lie, you are more likely to lie again, and lie bigger. What we find in the brain is that in the beginning, if you lie a little bit, there’s a huge response in regions involved in emotion, such as the amygdala and the insula. The 10th time you lie, even if you lie the same amount, the response is not that high. So, while lying goes up over time, the response in your brain goes down. Scientists think that the reason this happens is because of a very basic principle in the brain, which is the brain adapts. The brain codes everything according to what the baseline is. If the baseline is that you normally tell the truth, but then you lie, you get a big brain response. But if the baseline is that you often lie, then when you lie again there is little brain response. After a while, the negative value and feeling of lying is just not there anymore, which allows you to lie more and more and more. 1 Timothy 4:1–2 Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. 2 These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead. LITTLE BOY LIES One man tells the story of being a big liar when he was a boy. He told his family that he played basketball with Kareem Abdul Jabar at the local park and that he had won against him. Even though he was lying he recounts that to this day he can still feel himself playing that day and the ball going in the basket, he can see the texture of the basketball, and the praise of those he says were watching him win that day. He says in his head he knows its a lie but in his heart he can’t let it go. We can get to the place where we really do believe our own lies, were we really do believe our own justifications for lying. DISTANCE FROM THE CRIME: A study was done with 12,000 golf players. They were told to imagine the ball landing in the rough, but you wanted it to be 4 inches to the left. Would you pick it up and move it four inches? The golfers responded by saying, “Of course not.” What about kicking the ball, or moving it with your club, especially if you look up and move it without looking at the ball? They said, “No problem whatsoever.” The point here is, its easier to cheat if you can create some distance from the crime. FINANCIAL CRISIS OF 2008 Scientists believe that the major reason the financial crisis of 2008 happened is because of corruption where all of the elements that lend themselves to corruption were present, Politicians, regulators, investors, and bankers were all influenced by these factors: self-deception, social norms, distance from money, lying for the benefit of others, and of course conflict of interest. 10 COMMANDMENTS: Students were asked to recall the 10 commandments before being given the same tests. The result was that even if they were not successful at taking the test, nobody cheated. It wasn’t as if the people who remembered more of the 10 commandments, the people who were presumably more religious, cheated less and the people who remembered almost none of them cheated more. Nobody cheated. It didn’t matter what religion the participants had. They knew what the 10 commandments are about, they are about a moral code and proper behavior, and just being reminded of that decreased their dishonesty. Even when they took self-declared atheists and asked them to swear on the Bible, they stopped cheating. What scientists learned is that being reminded of your own moral fiber changes behavior but only for a little while. The British Government added one line to their tax form, “9 out of 10 people pay their tax on time.” It increased the payment rate from 30 to 35%. Just one line of text increased their revenue by hundreds of millions of pounds. Both honesty and dishonesty are contagious. So it comes down to how you see yourself. Does your Christianity, your faith, come to bear on the day to day decisions of your life? Are you in the word and in prayer on a day to day basis and then importing those reminders into the rest of your life? Maybe you just lie and cheat a little bit, but those lies add up over time and end up affecting much of what you do. WHO IS YOUR FATHER REALLY? John 8:44 44 For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies. Colossians 3:5–15 5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. 7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. 12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. LOVING RIGHTEOUSNESS: Because we are His children, we need to learn to love righteousness for righteouness’ sake. He should love to have high standards for ourselves that we live out in every context no matter what we stand to gain if we even lie or cheat a little bit. We must let the beauty of who we are in Jesus flow out into every area of our lives. Our CHILDREN: These little allowances we give ourselves to lie and cheat just a little bit, do you know who sees these things? Our children, our spouse, and our coworkers. So we discredit ourselves. We try to give them the Gospel but they already seeing that we are living a lie. In the days ahead we are going to emphasize and teach how to lead the people in your life to Jesus. Wouldn’t you like to see people in your life become new Christians? So, what’s required now is that you start living out your faith with integrity. Are you a liar? If you have been washed by the blood of the lamb then you have been forgiven. If we have been forgiven, then we must stop living like we haven’t. Finally, as far as all self-deception, that is lying to yourself, that you are a Christian when you really aren’t, this is one of the greatest most horrific lies you could ever tell yourself. James 1:21–27 21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. 22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. 26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. 27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. 1. What did we say the the essence of telling a lie? 2. Please read the following texts out loud: Ephesians 4:23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. 25 So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. Zechariah 8:16 But this is what you must do: Tell the truth to each other. Render verdicts in your courts that are just and that lead to peace. 17 Don’t scheme against each other. Stop your love of telling lies that you swear are the truth. I hate all these things, says the Lord.” According to the Zechariah passage, who hates it when we tell lies? 3. According to John 8:44, who loves to tell lies and loves it when we tell lies? 4. A fool utter all his mind and Jesus says there are many things I have to tell you but you cannot bear them yet. What are some situations where telling the whole truth might be damaging? 5. What are some situations when we might use this good reason for not telling the whole truth bluntly for justification for being cowardly or to mislead someone? 6. One of the justifications we use for allowing ourselves to lie is to tell ourselves it's socially acceptable to tell a certain lie as in "everybody's doing it." Where or when do you feel pressure to succumb to such a temptation?

The Honest Liar 06/26/2016

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