Matthew 5:31–37Scripture
We live in a time where there is not a shortage of word. You really we live in a time where there's an abundance of word. People are speaking everywhere and now we've given everyone a platform through internet and social media and blogs and po and podcasts and vodcasts and everyone has a platform.
The danger of that, it's good in some ways, but the danger of that is we have untrained men and women spewing things out into the world.
And
We know that from the beginning of time, we know that the problem and what we need saved from is not everything out there.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 0:43
What we need saved from is everything that emanates from in here. Right? Okay. So a lot of the times when we hear people speaking, we hear people villainizing those people, the government, the president, the people in church who perpetrated all kinds of horrible things about to us.
And the reality is we can excuse oursel from a lot of things. Let's just talk about the church for a second. Because I've been hurt by this church or that church, I give myself permission to behave a certain way. I've been harmed. God, save me from those kind of people. The problem with this kind of perspective is that it moves the issue of salvation away from you and you hope that they will be saved with an idea that you don't need saving.
But the problem is all of us have a sin issue, not just those people.
Introduction
And it's easy and I think
Part of the tactic of the enemy is to get you to be hurt by somebody else so that you will not do inward looking at the sin problem in you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 2:02
We come to church and we hear sermons. Oftentimes what we do is we say, "This would be a great sermon. I wish so and so was here to hear this.
We have a very difficult time applying God's word to our own life and letting it strike our hearts.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 2:25
We hear the word but we don't hear it for oursel. There is an abundance of hearing but not really hearing. Did you know that you can hear words that are coming out of my mouth but not apply to your heart? Jesus in Matthew more than three times throughout Matthew and we're going to hear him say it. He says this, "Those that have ears to hear, let them hear what I'm about to say." He's basically puts an exclamation point on what he's about to say.
And then he'll tear tell a parable. Those that have ears to hear, let them hear what I'm about to say. There was a time, and I'm going to get to Matthew 5:31-37. I'm sure you're super pumped. Those of you done pre-study, this is going to be the most exciting sermon you have ever heard, right? It's going to be troubling because the issue that he deals with really is an issue that's present in the church.
All the issues he's been dealing with as he preaches on the sermon on the mount is trying to get you to understand you're not worthy of salvation yet he saved you anyway.
He's trying to help you to move the that all of your life's problems are out there to realize that all of your problems emanate from in here.
You're the problem. And he's going through painstaking me he's taking painstaking measures to help you understand you are a problem. You're a problem. Now, one of my favorite verses, I think this sets up this whole section pretty well. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Amos 8:11. I love it. It says this, "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord."
Once again, there's not a shortage of words. There's a shortage of hearing.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 4:43
And I believe that the Lord does that. He not only did it in that culture then in the northern kingdom where the Jews were where they had turned their hearts to trusting in idols again. The northern kingdom there was trusting in idols. They were trusting in self.
They were they had become affluent in every way. They were winning battles. Every battle they fought they won. Their nation was strong. They were wealthy. They didn't have much need. They were wise in their own eyes. And they began to turn away from God. And God then says, which seems strange to me, he then turns off their hearing.
He doesn't stop speaking. He prevents them from hearing what he's saying. I feel like today, I don't feel like that's just for them. I think it was for them at that time. I think it was for that culture. It was for the northern kingdom. But I think this is God's character. And I think we're experiencing some of this today.
It was an it was a judgment on the people for denying truth. Listen to me. It was God's judgment on the northern kingdom for denying his truth. In other words, they create provisional space for them to hear truth but never do truth.
Today we live in a similar culture. In our churches, not only outside of our churches, but in our churches, we are preaching sermons and we are functioning in ways where we hear his truth and we deny him with our life.
And matter of fact, we try to find ways around doing what he says to do. He will clearly say something in the Bible and we will find ways to not do that and feel okay with oursel and be able to lay our head down at night and sleep.
How many conversations have you heard lately on the blog sphere out there on the web out there? How many conversations have you heard about people trying to excuse themselves, call themselves a Christian, say, "I'm a Christian. I'm a follower of Christ and I'm going to deny him with my life. And you can think of multitude of things that people excuse themselves for.
The conversation is rampant in our society. Listen, the northern kingdom, Israel was wealthy. They were secure. They were winning battles. They were religious. Listen, they were religious. They were churchy. The altars were busy. They weren't empty. The songs were loud. The worship lifted. The festivals were full. But it wasn't enough because they did all of that and they denied him with their life.
Do you know you can come to church every single week and you can walk out on Monday and deny him with your life?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:55
You can hear a truth in church and you can deny him before you get out the back doors. This was not spoken to a pagan nation. That's what's concerning. This was spoken to a covenant people.
The famine was not the absence of words. It was the absence of truth. Israel did not lack sermons. They lacked repentance.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:18
We live in a world with an abundance of sermons. With little repentance because we would rather blame somebody else for our problems.
They had the trappings of success, but their hearts were hollow.
Listen, they were wealthy, but they were spiritually bankrupt.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:52
Could it be that in some areas of our life, we are similar? Could it be? There is no famine of speech today. There's famine of truth. Let me tell you why there's a famine of truth in our culture. Because it's offensive.
I don't think we should just try to be offensive. I think there's a way to communicate truth in a loving way.
But no matter how loving you sandwich it will still offend
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:24
because truth is offensive.
Truth becomes buried under clever language. Truth then is diluted by technicalities. Truth is negotiated away by loopholes.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:38
How many people how many people you talk to that are trying to construct loopholes to do what God doesn't want them to do and say that God's okay with it? They find loopholes. Oftentimes when we read Scripture, particularly kind of like the one we're about to read, I'm just setting you up.
All right? It we try to find loopholes to get oursel out of it. Well, God's okay with this because I know it says don't do that, but God's okay with me doing it because of my situation was like this and God wouldn't want me to continue to.
And so, we create a loophole. He's He's okay with you doing it, just not everybody else on the planet doing it. Right. And we read God's word this way.
We want to please him. We just don't want to submit to him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:36
So then we really don't want to please him. And this is exactly what Jesus confronts in Matthew 5:31-37.
Now he has been going on from the very beginning. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. And then he breaks and he begins to talk about what salt and light is. And Christ came to fulfill the law. And now he goes in and he begins to talk about all the things that are markers in all of our lives.
Anger, lust. He says it you've heard it said you know do not murder but I say if you're even angry at your brother it's like you've murdered them.
So he begins to explain to them and particularly the Pharisees and he's speaking to the disciples but he's beginning to explain to them there's greater gravity to sin than you think.
Now, let me go ahead and just start this off before I read this. He actually says, "If you look at a woman, we've already if you look a woman with lustful eyes, you've already committed adultery in your heart.
If you look at a man with lustful eyes, you've already committed adultery in your heart." He You know what he's doing? And just don't miss this. He's going Here's what Jesus is saying. I'm going to break this down for you real easily. You have a problem. That's what he's trying to say. And you need to be saved from you.
Okay. So, the point of this is to help you begin to identify, I need a savior.
Not your brother next to you needs a savior. Not your friend needs a savior. Not that church needs a savior. You do.
The enemy wants you to get you looking out there. Because if you look out there, you'll never get saved.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:32
And guess what? You don't need just to get saved once.
He continually cleanses you and saves you from yourself.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:46
Amen. He sanctifies you day in and day out, making you more like him, more into his image. Praise God. Amen. Can I Praise God? He is still doing the work and still saving and still cleansing and still removing things out of my life that don't belong.
Amen. He does that work. Yes, I can't do that work. C can I agree? ARE YOU agreed? I have tried TO DO that work. I cannot do that work. I got problems. And so do you. So when we read this today, don't excuse yourself. Track with me here. Understand that God is a God who saves people from himself.
And when you feel convicted today, good. Just sit in that. Just sit there and hopefully in your conviction you will turn your gaze upward rather than outward because
An inward look makes you look upward.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 13:59
An outward look never makes you look upward. Okay? So the point here is not to think I'm holy because that makes you a Pharisee. That's exactly who Jesus is talking about. Or somebody else needs to hear this sermon. Or that person has the problem and their problem inflicted on me made me have problems so I'm excused with my problems.
Because when you excuse your problems, you don't call out to our savior.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:41
There's a war happening in this text and it's been happening for weeks and I'm troubled.
In trouble. Matthew 5. Okay, here we finally got there. That was the longest introduction ever. I promised I was coming to the Scripture, but here it goes. I'm out of breath. All right. 31. I have to come back here to read it because I have issues. It was also said, "Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce." We're going to talk about this.
Jesus is quoting Old Testament structure in Deuteronomy, right? We're going to talk about this. And he had given provisions for the people to divorce their wife as long as they had a certificate.
Why? Because they were sinful, not because he was now okay with divorce.
He creates provision in spite of our sinfulness.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:50
He creates he saves us in spite of our sinfulness. But our job is to understand and realize our sinfulness. All right. All right. Here we go. Some of you are going, "Okay, he gave permission as long as we have a certificate."
Be careful with that because that's not his heart. The religious leaders. Oh no, sorry. I was reading the Scripture. But I say to you, there's that giant butt, right? You can have a certificate in divorce. Jesus says, but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except on the grounds of sexual immorality makes her commit adultery.
And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Sit with that. Now, you need to know the percentages in the church as opposed to outside the church is pretty much the same regarding divorce. Just the way it is. And this is an uncomfortable thing to talk about in the church because I love you and God loves you and just you know, but it's pretty clear what's the point of this.
If you have been divorced, let that hit you.
It's okay for you to be convicted by that. As much as it's okay for an angry person to be convicted that they're angry and God compared that to murder. You were okay with that. Some of the divorced people in the house were like, "Get them. Get them, Jesus. All them angry people, right? Some of us in the house are okay who are divorced in the house.
Some of us were okay with those nasty people who look at women with lustful eyes. You adulterers, that's nasty. That's sinful. But this one, we don't want to make anybody uncomfortable in the house.
Jesus doesn't care. Matter of fact, he bears down harder. Why? Why? Because he is showing the difference between your sinfulness and his holiness.
So, does he just want us to feel bad about ourselves, Sean?
No. He wants you to get real about yourself.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:46
And we have a sin problem under underneath this is it's not just an issue of divorce. There is an issue of trying to get one over on God.
I it is denying his heart and making loopholes for us to function in a sinful way and get away with it.
It is the difference between a heart that wants to make excuses for themselves and a heart that wants to do what God wants.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:27
All right, I know I said I would read. Then he goes on, thank goodness we're moving to oaths. All those wordy, oathy people should get theirs. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, "You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.
You best do what you say you're going to do." Jesus bears down even further. For some of you, that's too hard. But he goes even further. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God. Listen to this. Don't take an oath by heaven. Why is he talking about this specifically?
Don't take an oath by heaven because it's the throne of God. Nor by earth, for it is the foottool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. I can attest I certainly cannot do that because I don't have none.
Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from the evil one. He says these four things, Jerusalem, your head, all that. He the earth. He says all these for a specific reason. We're going to get into it in a minute.
Point 1A culture that treats covenants as contracts
Point one, a culture that treats covenants as contracts. A covenant is not made between a man and a woman. A covenant is made in the presence of God. Matter of fact, it is God who orchestrates the covenant. It is God who designs the covenant. It's God who does it. Contracts are done between men. Man and a woman and a woman, man.
You know, you get what I'm saying? Man and a man. When I'm saying men, I'm saying mankind. We make contracts. For instance, if I were going to go purchase some land, and I've been looking for years to build on that land, if I'm going to go do that, I have to sign a contract with the bank saying that I will abide by the contract. If I'm not paying cash for that, I'm going to have a contract for that.
If I take extra money out from the bank to build on that, I'll have to do a contract. They will release money at a certain amount rate a time and then I will build something out per month, per quarter, whatever, per two months, whatever.
They release money. I spend at the end of that the contract comes to fruition and then I begin to pay the full amount for what I purchased and then I agree in that contract that every month I will pay this amount.
That's the contract. It's not done between me and God. That's done between man and man. And you can get out of those contracts. Some people get out of those contracts just by stop paying, right? They just quit paying until the contract is absolved, foreclosed or you're bankrupt or whatever. And those contracts are absolved.
But with God, when he makes a covenant, it's for eternity.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 23:06
Yes. He says it's forever. He's an eternal being. So his covenants are eternal. They line up with his nature. So there is no like temporal release from that contract. See we have this idea that if we function in relationship with one another that it is we f listen we are temporal beings.
So everything we do and the way we think is temporal meaning that there is a timeline to it and we forget that God is present.
So when we talk about marriage you need to know he establishes marriage and by his nature he's eternal. So that which then emanates from him in his structure and in his design is eternal as well.
That's important. It was also said, "Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce." Where does this come from? Jesus is actually here quoting Deuteronomy 24:1. He is exposing how it had been misused. See, the law in the Old Testament under Moses was given to restrain evil.
And then the Pharisees used it to excuse evil. Track with me here. Don't check out. Listen to what I'm saying.
The law was given to restrain evil. The Pharisees used it to excuse it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 24:42
Sound familiar? Divorce was permitted in Israel because of human sinfulness, not because God delights in broken covenants.
Matthew 19:8 says this. Because of your hardness of heart, Moses, listen to me, it gives explanation of this. Moses allowed you to divorce your wives. Notice it's because of hard hearts. Know this, God gives you a new heart. Softens it. Because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning it was not this way.
What is being said here? God is trying to help us understand it is not God's desire that if you get a certificate it's okay to divorce.
He's saying it's a problem in the eyes of God. This was not his intention. Can we just agree that's not his intention? Amen. The religious leaders turned a tragic, listen to me, this was the religious leaders that were excusing themselves as long as they had a certification, a certificate of divorce.
The religious leaders turned a tragic concession into a convenient exit.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:09
Marriage was no longer a covenant before God. It was just a contract between men. It became a contract that could be terminated as long as it as long as the right paperwork was drawn up. A man could say, "I followed the rules. I did what you said. I filled out the form.
I said the words. I signed on the dotted line. I get a pass." Jesus says, "Wrong.
My heart should be prioritized. My plan should be prioritized. My nature should be prioritized over your excuses and your loopholes.
But his heart was unfaithful.
This was not a famine of words. It was a famine of covenant faithfulness. They knew what God wanted and they did what they wanted.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:12
Point 2Jesus restores the weight of marriage
Number two, Jesus restores the weight of marriage. I love this and I think it's important. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except for the on the ground of sexual immorality makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Listen, this is a hard word, man. And it's meant to be.
In other words, Jesus doesn't soften the law for your feelings.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:50
He's fulfilling it. Marriage is not merely a social agreement. It is a sacred covenant before God. And here's where we're reminded of this because we think it's just a contract between men and God's not present. Matter of fact, we uninvite him from that because if he's present in that, then it's eternal. So, we uninvite him from our marriage.
Malachi says, Malachi 2:14, "The Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant."
God's present. This is covenant work, not contract work. And Jesus restores the weight of marriage.
Divorce is not just relational damage. It's theological rebellion.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:56
Jesus names one clear exception, sexual immorality. Now, this is not permission to discard. It is recognition that covenant betrayal has already occurred. Jesus is restoring seriousness to this union, not creating cruelty. He's saying this,
Words matter, promises matter, covenants matter, and when a culture treats vows lightly, people suffer deeply.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:23
So Sean, what am I to do? I'm guilty. I'm guilty of leaving somebody and I didn't have biblical grounds. I'm guilty. What do I do now? I remarried. I'm guilty. What do I what do I do now? Well, the Apostle Paul actually talks about that I and in this and as it's been coming up, there have been some people have been like, "What am I to do?"
You know what? I love this because this is a sign of somebody who in the midst of a new marriage wants to be in align with God.
In alignment with God. What do I do now? You know, the Apostle Paul actually says, don't go divorce again and go back.
But understand your marriage through the lens of truth, not loopholes.
That's a summary. You can look it up, but that's what he gives counsel on. Because in that day, as he brought the word, people began to get troubled. Because they had treated it like a contract, broke it, gotten married to somebody else, and was like, "What do I do now? Am I displeasing to God every day of my life?" Listen, if it wasn't for Jesus and you being hidden in him, you're all displeasing to God every day of your life.
That's just That's just Welcome to Echo Church, where we encourage you and make you feel awesome about yourself. You know what I mean? Why am I saying this?
Listen, we are all at level ground at the cross.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:34
Okay? Now, I know the religious Pharisees in the day would like to let you know that they stood on a higher ground at the cross, but they didn't.
We all have a sin problem. Listen today don't in the discomfort of conviction I've seen people in church just let me just talk to you. I've seen people in church fall under heavy conviction faithful members on the second row move to the third row and the fourth row and then skip three rows and go to the back row and then disappear out of the church because of conviction.
Conviction is evidence that he's drawing you. Conviction is evidence that you don't just hear words, but you hear truth.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:33
Okay, listen to me. There's a difference between hearing words and hearing the truth in the words. There are a lot of people inside and outside the church believe, you know, that are inside and outside the church who hear God's word, but they don't hear God's word.
What do you mean when you're saying that, Sean? They don't hear the truth there. If you hear truth, you feel conviction. I mean, I'll just be honest with you.
There should never be a Sunday where you come and you're not convicted.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:17
That should never happen. It just shouldn't happen. If we're preaching truth, his word pierces straight. It's like a sword, two-edged sword piercing, separating bone and marrow.
That's That's precise. That's precise. So when it's read, it cuts. It cuts uncutable things. It divides undividable things.
Point 3A people who swear to avoid truth
All right. Number three, a people who swear to avoid truth. It's kind of not a point, but it's I mean, I wrote my sermon, so I could do whatever I want. Okay. A people who swear to avoid truth. Have you ever met somebody that professth much? That's King James in case you're wondering. And talk about all the wonderful, glorious things they're going to do and then they say, "God said, you ever been there?
A people who swear on to avoid truth." Listen, they swear to avoid it.
Some people just swear because they want accolades in their declaration. And once they get accolades in their declaration, they don't actually have to do what they swear. So they'll get out of it because they got what they really wanted in the declaration. This is the most offensive thing to me and I believe it's the most offensive thing to God.
Do what you say you're going to do. And don't say something just because you want to at a boy.
Do it. Okay. Okay. People who swear to avoid truth. Now, specifically, people who swear to avoid truth. This is what the Pharisees were doing. They were swearing, doing oaths to avoid being truthful, living truthful lives.
Now, Jesus moves from marriage to speech. Thank goodness. Not because the topics are unrelated, but because they are inseparable.
Matthew 5:33 again you have heard it said that those days of he it was said to those of old you shall not swear falsely but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.
The Pharisees had built listen this is what you need to know. The Pharisees had built an entire system of verbal gymnastics. In other words, let me break down some of these for you. If you swore by heaven, it counted less because it wasn't by God. They wouldn't swear by God. That's and not do it. They wouldn't swear by God and not do it.
That's But they would swear by heaven and then they would get out of it. Matter of fact, they would swear by heaven in an attempt to not have to do it. That's what he's speaking to here. If you swore by earth, it was flexible because it's by earth. If you swore by Jerusalem, it was debatable. If you swore by God, then that mattered.
They stacked words to sound truthful while leaving rooms to lie.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:50
Right? So Jesus is attacking that specifically. You need to understand that. Otherwise, it just seems like a bunch of random words. Like, what is Jesus talking about Jesus is dismantling their entire system to prevent them from living a lie and holds them accountable to being truthful.
And then he goes on Matthew 5:34-36. But I say to you, he begins to attack these systems they built to provide a loophole for them to not be honest and follow through.
And he attacks each of these words. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all by heaven, which they didn't think was a big deal they could get out of it is a throne of God. Notice what he what they're saying IS god's present IN heaven. DUH. You won't swear BY GOD. You'll swear BY heaven in hopes that you can get OUT OF IT.
BUT god's in heaven. That's what Jesus is saying. Or by earth, for it's HIS foottool. It's HIS foottool. He's present. Or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. AND DO NOT take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. God even controls what comes out of that. In other words, you do not own heaven.
You do not control earth. You do not rule Jerusalem. You do not govern your own life. Notice they tried to remove God from their oath so they could break their oath and not be a God denier. It was a loophole to look spiritual, look committed, look GOD-fearing, BUT NOT BE.
THE problem IS NOT THE oath. THE problem IS THE verbal gymnastics they were creating.
Every word you speak is already spoken before God. There is no safe loophole.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:57
Now, just track with me here. I'm just going to go off script here for a second. The Pharisees moved God out of the picture and swore on stuff that they didn't think God was really present in so they could get out of it.
Here's what we do today in the church. It's worse. So for all you people here today that think I think listen I think man those Pharisees were the worst. Man, you're all the worst man. We're all the worst. Here's what we do today in the church. We swear on God. We don't even try to take God out of it.
Here's what here's how here's how it here's how it here's how we make oursel look extra spiritual today. We don't even care that we've done it on God. We intend to get out of it and not do what we say and we just step God on it and don't care. And here's how we say it. Here's the words we use.
God said, track with me today. It's worse than the Pharisees. In my opinion, and Jesus would say, "No, it's all bad and you're all guilty." But in my personal opinion, in the flesh, I think it's worse because it's just like the Pharisees trying to sound spiritual like you're God's first cousin and you got a direct line to him and you say, "God said, you know how many people, LET ME tell YOU know HOW many people GET A direct word from God and within a week deny him?"
Track with me. I have had so many people SAY, "GOD told me I need to go do this." And in a week they do the opposite. What is that? Two things. They never really thought God said it. And the lie is in the profession. Or they're God haters.
Because if you love God, you'll fear God. And if you fear God, you'll do what he says if he spoke from heaven.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 41:15
Because when God speaks from heaven, people fall in fear. You can call it reverence all you want, but I'm going holy fear.
And they do what he says when he speaks. It ain't like it's like, "Let me see." NO, they DO IT. You know what we have? You know what problem we have? We have a sin problem.
Everyone here has a sin problem. But you know what we also have? We have a savior solution.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 41:58
He's your solution. Oh man, how wonderful is that?
Did you know that hurt in your heart can't stay there long without turning to all kinds of sin?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 42:26
Yet we foster hurt. You know how we foster hurt? By looking outside of oursel and think that every all of our problems are because of what's been perpetrated against us.
And that's what the enemy wants because he makes you a prisoner. He incubates the hurt till it becomes an anger that you can't let go of that person who did that thing to you. Are you with me today? And you live in this anger and hurt and you incubate it and you love it and you are incapable of you get incapable of being able to see you're the problem.
Everybody else is not the problem. You have a problem. You can't control everybody else. Can I get an amen on that? You just can't control them. I tried control Brooke. It don't work. Don't work. Matter of fact, the joke around the house is kind of my current thing. Brooke will tell me to do something. She won't ask. She'll she'll tell me.
And she has earned that right in 27 years of marriage. We just celebrate our 27th. And I'm really excited about that your marriage. But she'll tell me, "Sean, grab the blah." And I was like, "Stop telling me how to live my life." That's kind of the funny thing around our house, which is not so funny, right?
It's not so funny. I think it's hilarious. The boys think it's hilarious. And now they're starting to say it. Let me tell you, be careful little mouth what you say because you have little people that pick that stuff up, right? They're not little. They're they're adults, but nonetheless, they think it's cute. And I say, "Stop telling me how to live my life." And but inside of there is a sin problem.
I want total autonomy to live how I please, to choose what I want, to say what I want, to live how I want, to act the way I want. This is a sin problem and it's innate in all of us.
If I don't want Brooke telling me what to do, I probably am a person who don't want God telling me what to do.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 44:47
I want autonomy. And freedom. But the Bible doesn't allow that. He says if you're his, you're a slave of his. You were a slave to sin. But when you realize you're a slave to sin, you want out of that. But here's the deal. You become a slave to holiness and to him. It's this or it's this. But when do I do what I want?
You don't. It's one or the other. First John says it's black or it's white. There is no gray. Doesn't mean we'll be perfect. Can I get an amen? But it does mean that we are his.
Point 4Truthful people do not need verbal armor
Last point and I'm done. Truthful people do not need verbal armor. You're either truthful or you're not. Matthew 5:37 says, "Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than this comes from the evil." Yeah. One, Jesus is not banning, let me tell you, let me tell you something because I don't think this is the point of the message.
Jesus is not banning courtroom oaths. It's not what he's saying. He is condemning deceptive speech. That's what he's dealing with here.
A truthful heart does not need extra language to sound credible.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 46:25
Matter of fact, Proverbs tells us this, and it's one of my favorite verses. And oftentimes when I have what is referred to as diarrhea of the mouth, sorry, not trying to be gross.
It just that's a phrase that I grew up hearing. When I have that, I'm reminded by this verse. When words are many, Proverbs 10:19, transgression or sin is not lacking. Amen. But whoever restrains his lips is prudent and wise. Some of us just talk too much.
Truthful people do not need verbal armor.
When truth reigns within, words carry weight. When truth dies within, words become weapons.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 47:18
This is the famine Amos warned about. Not silence, but speech without substance. Not ignorance, but intentional evasion. People who speak endlessly, but refuse to be bound by what they say. Listen, the famine is here. We are living in a famine.
Not of words, not of sermons, not of Bible translations, a famine of hearing the truth.
Marriages break because vows are hollow. Trust collapses because words are cheap.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 47:51
Faith erodess because truth is negotiated. But Jesus here is offering a better way.
A kingdom where promises are sacred. Where marriages reflect covenant faithfulness. Where speech flows from integrity.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 48:05
Where a yes is enough.
Where a no is enough. Where truth does not need decoration. The famine ends when hearts return to him. Not to religion, not to righteous, but to righteousness. Not to clever speech, but to truthful li lives. Let me I'm going to say these two things and I'm done. And it begins when we allow Jesus to weigh our words, our vows, and our hearts before a holy God.
I'll close with this statement, and I hope this strikes you as we close.
The most dangerous judgment is not when God stops speaking. It is when people stop listening while believing they still are.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 48:50
That's dangerous. I don't want to be like that.
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