"What's the opposite of truth? Lies. Any lies in the world? Have you run across one? The last decade...
In John 8:44, Jesus says that Satan is the father of what? Lies. That lying is his native language, that all he's ever done is lie. When you and I lie, we're doing something demonic. And a lie is where we don't tell the truth, or we only tell part of the truth, but we don't tell the whole truth.
Satan is gonna lie to you. Satan is gonna lie to us. Satan lies to us all the time. And something need not be true to be powerful. You notice that? If I told you right now. Let's say you're absolutely healthy. If I told you, 'You have cancer. You have two weeks to live. You're gonna die.' True or False, that would affect the next two weeks of your life? 'It's not true!' It doesn't need to be true. I need to get you to believe that it's true. If I walk up to a woman and say, 'Ya know, your husband has a girlfriend. He's been unfaithful to you the entirety of your marriage.' And it's not true, but she believes it true. Does it affect their relationship? Yes. See Satan knows that something doesn't need to be true, it just needs to be believed. So he's gonna lie. He's gonna tell you lies. He's gonna send false teachers. He's gonna send bad counselors. He's gonna try and stack and pack your life with things that aren't true. And if you believe them...now he's responsible for lying, but you're responsible for believing. This could be lies about God. This could be lies about yourself. This could be lies about people in our church. This could be lies about leaders in our church. This could be lies about the Word of God. It doesn't really matter.
Some of you are really governed by lies. Satan has got a deep, deep, deep foothold in your life. Let me give you an assignment that I've been giving people now for 17 years at Mars Hill. People who believe lies and they struggle with lies, those lies lead into dark places and bondage. Jesus says you'll know the truth and the truth will what? Set you free. So the truth gets you out of your captivity. So here's what I tell people all the time:
Take a notebook and just write a line right down the middle. On the left, just write "Lies". One category.
On the other, "Truth". When you hear a lie, when you believe a lie...even as you look back on your life
and you understand lies that you believed about God or about yourself or about others, write those
down. And then go to the Word of God and find out what is the Truth. What is the Truth? And then your
life is really collecting: Satan's lies, God's Truth. Now you've got a decision to make. Will I live in light of
the lie? Or will I live in light of the Truth? I've see this absolutely deliver people and change their life.
'Well I thought that God didn't love me and I thought that what I had done was not forgivable. And I thought that I shouldn't be in Church because once people got to know me they would be ashamed of me...' Lie, lie, lie. What's the Truth? Live in light of that, because the Truth sets you free. I want you to use this as well as we counsel and comfort one another. You're talkin to somebody and you're like, 'No that's not true.' And people sometimes, that have been lied to, will say things like, 'I feel ...' Okay well there's your problem. You need to think. You need to think: 'Is this true or false? Is this right or wrong? Is this from God or Satan? Does this lead to captivity or does this lead to freedom?' And encourage those who are struggling with lies, they're believing lies. You need to recall them, you need to recount them, you need to record them. And then over time they will begin to lose their power. Because when you hear them, you'll be like, 'No, actually that's not true.' And your response time will be far shorter."
- Mark Driscoll
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