False Advertising (sermon excerpt)

[Rev. Dwayne L. Grant]

As I grow and progress in my walk with the Lord, I’ve have uncovered and discovered some startling news concerning the church... I have found there to be some inconsistencies in the body of Christ… I have found there to be some disparity in our walk… And in light of these various situations, I have found the church to be constantly on trial! We are constantly being analyzed, dissected, and thoroughly investigated…! And as the investigation grows bigger and the digging gets deeper, we find that many of the claims we make don’t seem to be true at all!

 

Contrary to what others may see, some of our lifestyles are quite contradictory to what we sing, pray, and preach about…! For when the world looks at us, they see the hostility and hatred that is often portrayed in the structure of God’s church. And as a result they begin to question our commitment and sincerity to Christ… They see us acting certain ways, on certain days, with various personalities. Therefore they feel that they indeed do have the right to put us under the scope of scrutiny and the eye of examination… And as they analyze the findings of their inquisition, they are discovering that the church is indeed guilty of a crime… The crime of false advertisement... But I hear the Spirit of the Lord telling us “you can’t deliver? then don’t advertise!”

 

 I have discovered that life comes down to one big advertisement. And whether we believe it or not, we tune in on advertisements. We tune in so much to the point that we learn the jingles without even realizing it… (example: sing-like a good neighbor...) Advertisements become so much a part of us that we remember them for years to come. Advertising is so big that the Federal Government established the Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission to monitor these advertisements. Therefore, when someone advertises something they can’t deliver, they have to take it off the air…! How many times have you saw something advertised in the newspaper and went to the store only to find out that they didn’t actually have what you were looking for…?  You found that they advertised, but they couldn’t deliver…! Yes… Life boils down to one big advertisement…Consequently; there are a whole lot of advertisers in the church…!

 But unfortunately many of them are falsely advertising, trying to fool everybody… They’re advertising one thing, and delivering another… But I want to let you know the Lord is saying in this text, “If you can’t deliver, then don’t advertise.."

 You see I’ve found out that there are some potential hazards in false advertisement… I’ve found out that there is a high risk of danger in false advertisement… When you false advertise, what you’re really doing is leading people astray… You are causing others to invest in (or take stock in) something that is not real… You’re selling ice cream cones in the middle of a blizzard… You’re offering oceans in the desert… You’re creating a façade… You’re perpetrating a fraud… , you’re ‘faking the funk…’ And because of false advertising, many are literally bringing embarrassment upon the body of Christ…! (Why is it so embarrassing…?) False advertising destroys your testimony… It kills your witness… And in effect, has the proclivity and the propensity of making our efforts of bringing others into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ null and void…