Coffee Date Week 4

Follow Through… It Matters

Introduction

We are in week 4 of Coffee Date and I wanted to first recap what we have talked about so far…

Week was about how to have healthy relationships. We looked how in a relationship we should be:

Selfless not Selfish

Humble not prideful

Loving in the face of insecurity

Forgiving instead of resentful

Week 2 we spent time answering questions that you guys had about everything from life to theology to questions that made you learn a bit more about us. The goal of which was to hopefully create a culture where you can ask question and learn and grow together.

Last week I talked about Authority and how we are to respect the authoritative figures in our lives.

As we wrap up coffee date this year, I wanted to talk about something that we all have to deal with, follow through.

STORY of me meeting Michelle in the lobby before and after classes.

Follow through natters in our lives in work, school, sports, and especially in our faith.

Bible:

The gospel according to Matthew outlines the life and ministry of Jesus. In the first 4 chapters of the book we see the story of his birth, some of his early childhood, his baptism, the beginnings of his preaching and being tempted in the wilderness and pretty early on we start seeing Jesus establish who he is amongst the people in Israel.

We hit chapter 5 and begin a massive section in the book that we know as the sermon on the mount. The sermon on the mount is Jesus addressing questions probably not too different then what we did a couple of weeks ago.

He talks about how we are to live - We call them the beatitudes.

He establishes the role we play as light of the world and then how he came to fulfill the law then starts addressing all the ways that people are to follow the law set before them.

It’s important to establish this because you have to understand that Jesus’ audience only understands faith and who God is by the law that was given to them that most of them probably know front and back.

We then come to apart in the sermon where Jesus starts talking about oaths and that is where we are picking things up tonight.

Matthew 5:33–37 NIV

33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

In verse 33, Jesus is starting by again establishing what they have been practicing for years. He is actually quoting

Numbers 30:2 NIV

2 When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.

So the people in the crowd have been living this way.

This is radical. Jesus is telling them that they have it all wrong. It is not about keeping your oath, it is about not making an oath at all. Why would he tell them to make an oath?

He answers that…

Verse 37 says…

Simply say “yes or no”

Translation… your word should be enough. We shouldn’t require an oath to do the things that we say we are going to do.

People in this situation are breaking vows. They are using language that is considered sacred loosely and carelessly even though they know it is wrong.

Simple truthfulness is not common place in their society to the point where Jesus just says stop! Your vows and your oaths and the things that legally bind you don’t mean anything. Instead of using those things loosely simply let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.

And that’s not just common for them is it?

We see this today too.

How many times do you say “i’ll be there” and just not show up? Or how many times do you commit to something just to decommit to something.

Even in the legal since of the word, divorce rates are higher than they have ever been because the piece of paper is what determines the structure of our marriage and we are done, we can just be done.

There is no point in making a commitment you won’t keep, so why say yes at all?

Follow through on the things that you say you are going to do.

Imagine for a second if people just all lived life without staying true to their word. imagine if you worked and your boss didn’t process your payment that week… You would probably be upset.

Or if your parents just didn’t buy groceries or didn’t pay any of their bills.

Or maybe your friends say they have your back and then just don’t.

Or your date just doesn’t show up when they say they are going to and you are left there wondering what to do.

None of it sounds very fun does it?

Jesus is reminding people in Matthew that if we were all living our lives the way we were supposed to be, we shouldn’t need laws in place and agreements and oaths made putting in harms way the things we own or our faith. We should simply be people that stay true to our word.

Application:

Follow through with what we say we are going to do…

Follow through produces a couple of things.

First, it leads to trust.

You cannot trust someone if they never do what they they are going to do.

If you get a job and never show up or always call in sick, you’re going to get fired because they can’t trust you with producing what they need for their business.

If you play sports but are always flaking on practice, you won’t play because coach can’t trust you for practice why trust you for games.

If you sign up to volunteer on Sunday with kids ministry and are constantly denying requests or cancelling last minute or not taking seriously what time you are going to be there, it’s going to make it hard to trust you.

When we let our yes be yes and our no be no, it leads to trust.

The second thing is it produces character.

The things people say about you, your reputation gets tarnished if you don’t follow through.

If Jesus is the example and God is model…

WHAT IF GOD…

Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.

LETS PRAY