Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / The Sermon On The Mount

Raising The Bar By Being As Good Our Word 08/26/07

Message: ‘Raising the bar… by being as good as our word’

Text: Matthew 5:33-37

Introduction:

ILL: A wealthy businessman lay on his deathbed. His preacher came to visit and talked about God’s healing power and prayed for his parishioner. When the preacher was done, the businessman said, “Preacher, if God heals me, I’ll give the church a million dollars.” Miraculously, the businessman got better and within a few short weeks was out of the hospital. Several months later, the preacher bumped into this businessman on the sidewalk and said, “You know, when you were in the hospital dying, you promised to give the church a million dollars if you got well. We haven’t received it as of yet.” The businessman replied, “Did I say that? I guess that goes to show how sick I really was!” (Michael Luke)

ILL: Paul Harvey told a story of some young men who were late to class.They entered the classroom and solemnly told their teacher they were detained due to a flat tire. The sympathetic teacher smiled and told them it was too bad they were late because they had missed a test that morning. But she was willing to let them make it up. She gave them each a piece of paper and a pencil and sent them to four corners of the room. Then she told them they would pass if they could answer just one question: Which tire was flat? (Jeffrey Anselmi)

According to the book ‘The Day America Told the Truth’ thousands of people in America were interviewed and this is what the researchers found.

·       91% said they lie on a regular basis

·       86% say they lie to their parents…regularly

·       75% say they lie to their friends

·       69% say they lie to their spouses

But that’s the ‘world’ our non-Christian culture. How goes it among followers of Jesus Christ?

Doug Sherman and William Hendricks in their book called ‘Your Work Matters to God’ found that

·       almost as many Christians steal from work as non-Christians

·       and that Christians are just as likely to falsify their income taxes, give bribes to obtain a building permit, ignore construction specs, illegally copy computer programs, and  steal time from work as their non-Christian counterparts. (Michael Luke)

What happened to being ‘Salt and light?’ What happened to being different than our surrounding lost and sinful culture? What happened to truth, honesty and personal integrity? What has happened to the Christian?

Explanation: Integrity, integrity means uprightness of character; it means to be honest, authentic. It means being men and women of our word. But that’s hard to do when we’ve immersed ourselves so far into our lost and sinful culture that we expect people to lack integrity, to be dishonest…we expect people not to keep their word….even other Christians.

While we may view truth as an abstract value, we make no commitment to being truthful people. And that’s sad because unfortunately we’re included in that statement. Christians lie.

Yet, the Bible, God’s Holy Word of Truth says that we, followers of Jesus Christ, should be people of great integrity, honesty, truthfulness and authentiity.

Transition: In fact, Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount thought it so important that he speaks about truth and integrity in our text this morning. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 5:33 (pg. 740 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you). It’s here we’ll find that we raise the bar of spiritual expectations and actions in our lives by being as good as our word.

I. Matthew 5:33 The Law Described

Read: Matthew 5:33

An oath is an appeal to God made in public. A person would call upon God to witness a promise he was making to someone. The calling upon God makes it an oath and the person understood that God would punish him if he broke his promise or did not fulfill his oath. Oaths were intended to make sinful people honest in their relationships with others. Why? Because too many people were lying to each other by know keeping their promises.

God, in the Law, placed regulations on oaths so that they would not be abused…and he placed grave consequences on those who broke or didn’t keep their oath/vow. Jesus was reminding us here that the Law viewed an oath/vow as a serious matter and should never be made lightly.

Transition: But Jesus doesn’t stop there, he raises the bar, he sets a higher standard for his disciples to follow by explaining what the intent of the Law was.

II. Matthew 5:34-36   The Law Abused 

Read: Matthew 5:34-36

Some Christians say we shouldn’t make oaths/vows at all. But this is not what Jesus means because there are numerous examples of oaths in Scripture that godly people made. Here is what Jesus is concerned with…I believe.

·       Our selfish nature tends to lead us to distort the truth. While we recognize our need for a standard of truth, we don’t like following that standard especially when it interferes with our lives.

·       Our sinful nature is at war with God’s standard of righteousness which is absolute. So we try to find ways around God’s standard.

·       This is what the Pharisees did when they looked for loopholes in God’s standard of truthfulness by doing things like this…

-In the Law God says ‘You shall not swear falsely by My name.’ In other words don’t ask God to be a witness for a promise you don’t intend to keep.

-Eventually the Pharisee and religious

 leaders got around  this law by

 teaching that it was acceptable to

 swear falsely as long as you didn’t use

God’s name. So they began to swear by heaven, by earth, by Jerusalem and by their own head.

People wanted justification to lie…they wanted a loophole so that when they made an oath to keep a promise they wouldn’t be accountable to suffer God’s consequences for breaking it. By doing this they corrupted the truth and tried to evade the real issue.

Jesus told them that to swear by anything…they were still swearing by God because he is the creator of all things. God hears all and is in authority over all.

He holds us accountable for every word we say, and every promise we make. There are no loopholes.

We think… Bad religious leaders! Bad Pharisees! They should have known better…we would never be so bold as to do something like that.

OK.

·       Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.

·       Sorry, I had my fingers crossed.

·       I swear on a stack of Bibles

·       I swear on my mother’s grave.

·       I swear to God

Sound familiar? These are contemporary examples of what the Pharisees taught. We’re not that different. Let me ask you.

-Have you ever said yes to someone just to

 get them off your back but  you had no real

 intention of doing what you agreed to do?

-Have you ever made promises to your children only to renege time and time again because what you promised your children

 wasn’t as important to you as what you later

 wanted to do?

-Have you ever made promises to God or to

 the church only to break that commitment

because it became too inconvenient?

ILL: One Sunday morning a preacher told everyone to read Joshua 25 for next’s weeks sermon. When Sunday came the preached asked how many people read Joshua 25 and a bunchy of hands went up. He then told all those who did not raise their hand that they could go home because today’s sermon was about lying. He went on to inform the church that Joshua had only 24 chapters. (Jeffrey Anselmi)

Why do Christians lie? Why do they break their promises and not keep their word?

ILL: In a recent Barna Research Study it was found that only 32% of adults and 9% of teenagers believe there is such a thing as absolute moral truth … and here’s the kicker, this is by people who claimed they were ‘born again’ Christians. (Tom Wright)

If you don’t believe there is absolute moral truth….right and wrong that means there are not consequences for doing as you want…that means God is out of the picture….for Christians! We have become like those in the day of the Judges where everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

Listen closely to what Abraham Lincoln once said to parents ‘to train up a child in the way he/she should go, you must walk that way yourself.’ (Jeffrey Anselmi)

But that’s hard? No…it’s impossible.

Psalm 15:4 says that a righteous man/woman keeps his oath, even when it hurts. That’s God’s standard for the one who is a follower of his Son, Jesus Christ. And we are enabled to keep to God’s Standard by inviting the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen us.

Is that a tough standard? Yes! But it’s what it means to live above spiritual mediocrity.

ILL: Someone once said ‘The test of character comes when being truthful endangers what we want.’ (Ann Hibbard) Think about that for a moment.

Transition: So what does Jesus say is the answer to our problem.

III. Matthew 5:37       The Law Lived Out

Read: Matthew 5:37

Jesus is saying that you don’t need to swear an oath when you make a promise. If you say ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’. If you say ‘no’ mean ‘no’. Be as good as your word.

When you do your character will be marked with honesty,  integrity and authenticity…it’s what a godly person looks like.

Does this mean it’s a sin to change your mind? No. But it does mean that the reason for changing your mind shouldn’t come from selfish motives. Once again it’s a matter of the heart.

If your heart is far form God you’ll use oaths or swear to hide the possibility that you may break your promise…and that’s evil. That’s what Jesus is saying here. A pure heart considers the situation and says ‘if it’s in my power and if the Lord wills, I’ll do it.’ Or ‘Unless circumstances change and God so leads me, I can’t do it.

Yes or No.

Conclusion

ILL: A rather pompous looking Sunday school teacher was trying to impress upon a class of young boys the importance of living the Christian life. ‘Why do people call me a Christian?’ the man asked. After a moment’s pause one youngster said ‘Maybe it’s because they don’t know you.’ (Jefrrey Anselmi)

How can we avoid this?

1. Be true to your word by keeping your promises even when they seem insignificant.

·       When you start to justify a little dishonesty because you r promise seems trivial or insignificant, the line between insignificant and significant will become more and more fuzzy.

2. Be true to your word by keeping your promises even if you regret making them.

·       Perhaps when you made the promise you hoped you’d have more time, money, knowledge, energy, more whatever…but you don’t so you regret making the promise because it’s going to be harder to keep it than you thought.

How do we keep our promises…how do we become men and women of our word?

1. Admit your struggle

·       At one time or another we’ve all fudged the truth, exaggerated the truth or outright lied. Admit it, confess it to God. Ask for forgiveness.

2. Monitor your progress

·       Keep a journal, make mental notes of times you haven’t kept your word…what were the circumstances?

·       Praise God for times you have kept your word, especially when it was hard.

3. Examine your motives

·       Ask yourself why am I making this promise? Is it a selfish desire to get what I want or an opportunity to help someone?

4. Set your priorities

·       If God is important to you make sure that you don’t make a promise that will keep you from doing for God what you promised him.

Are you as good as your word? Are you someone others can count on? It’s one way we can be salt and light and influence others toward God.

It’s our living testimony to others…our spouses, our children, our co-workers or neighbors and classmates.

Jesus is challenging us from our text today to be as good as our word.