Words

Series: Sermon on the Mount

Title: The Kingdom is Available to You in Your Words

Author: Dave Carr

Key: Video Scripture Slides Personal Stories

INTRO.

[Sp note: Tell a story about finding a loophole. The point is that we love looking for and finding a way out of things that aren’t technically wrong.]

I want to start tonight by asking a question that might upset some of you. So I’m just giving you a warning ahead of time.

How many of you still have homework to do that’s due tomorrow?

When I was in school I would be right there with you. I always procrastinated doing my homework. In fact most often I would do my homework on the bus before school, but one day in particular I thought I would do my math homework on the bus, and then I started talking to a friend and didn’t want to stop. I said it’s fine, I’ll do it in my first period because I’ve got math at the end of the day. Then I didn’t have time in that class so I pushed it off till lunch. The only problem was is I forgot to do it during lunch. So when I get to math class I still hadn’t done my homework.

I just remember having this sinking feeling of having not done it, and deciding I’m doing it the moment I sit down and I might have to make up some answers. Well the funniest moment was then I got several questions right… listen when it comes to math you might think I don’t know ball, but I know ball.

You know what happened though? My teacher asked me to “show my work.” Oh come on, I don’t need to do that… but she was so stubborn about that, she took points off my grade because she knew I was really looking for a loophole to get out of doing my homework.

TENSION.

And if we’re honest, that’s not just a “homework” thing—that’s a human nature thing.

We love looking for loopholes. We love to find a way out.

It happens in our commitments with other people all the time. We’ll make plans a couple weeks out, but when the day comes it would be way more convenient to just chill on the couch and catch up on our show, so we cancel.

It happens in our commitments we make with ourselves. We decide we’re going to take care of our body and watch what we eat, until someone brings in a Nothing Bundt Cake for their birthday, and after all, it’s not even a whole cake, it’s a slice of a cake, and if I don’t, I’ll probably hurt their feelings because it’s for their birthday, so really I guess I sort of have to eat this cake. I don’t even want to…

It even happens in our commitments we make with God. We tell God we’re going to do something (or not do something) in a moment at CAMP, but once we get home and get back into our routine, we fall back into old habits and justify it by saying “it was just an emotional moment at CAMP, no one can actually live that way…”

There’s something about us that loves to look for a loophole. We love to find a way out.

And that brings us to the question that I want to wrestle with tonight: What do we do when we don’t want to follow through?

I ask it because all of us have moments where we don’t want to follow through. But I also ask it because I believe Jesus has an answer in the passage we’re going to look at tonight.

TRUTH.

As we open to Matthew 5, remember: this passage is part of one sermon—Jesus’ most famous sermon—the Sermon on the Mount. The whole thing has one main point, which Jesus introduces in Matthew 4:17:

17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

“Repent” is archery language. It means “re-aim.” Every one of us has a target we’re living for—our version of the “good life.” But Jesus says the real good life—the kingdom of heaven—is found in being in a right relationship with God that leads to a right relationship with everything and everyone else. And His invitation is this: if you’ll re-aim your life toward His target, you can actually experience that life here and now.

As we’ve moved through chapter 5, Jesus keeps taking that idea and applying it to real parts of life where we’re often aimed at the wrong target. He shows how the wrong target leads to brokenness, and how re-aiming at His target leads to life in the kingdom.

But today’s section (Matthew 5:31–37) feels a little tricky, because Jesus starts talking about divorce and oaths. And before we get into it, I want to make sure we’re on the same page about something – in this passage, divorce and oaths are EXAMPLES, they aren’t the point. This isn’t a passage that is primarily ABOUT divorce and oaths, it’s about what it looks like to live in the kingdom of heaven. Divorce and oaths just happen to be examples that Jesus uses to illustrate His point. In fact it was the same way with anger and lust the last few weeks. They were examples Jesus used to make his point. Make sense? Now that we’ve established that, let’s take a look at Jesus’ first example of divorce in verse 31:

31 “It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce., 32 But I tell you, everyone who divorces his wife, except in a case of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Jesus is referencing back to Deuteronomy 24:1, where a rule was set that a man could give his wife a certificate of divorce if he found “something indecent” about her. The rabbis (or spiritual teachers of that time) debated what that meant. One group said it only referred to being unfaithful in the marriage. Another said it could mean anything—even if she messed up dinner.

Over time, the second interpretation became the most common. That meant men were divorcing their wives for almost any reason, leaving women abandoned in a culture where they couldn’t survive on their own. You can see how that kind of “freedom” created a mess in relationships.

Then Jesus moves on to another example in v. 33:

33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to our ancestors, You must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord., 34 But I tell you, don’t take an oath at all: either by heaven, because it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, because it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King. 36 Do not swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black. 37 But let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ Anything more than this is from the evil one.

Then Jesus shifts to another example—oaths. In Deuteronomy 23, God commanded His people to keep their vows.

Vows and oaths were common practice during that time, especially in business deals. They were meant to build trust between two people that each would hold up their end of the deal. But over time, people developed loopholes. They’d swear by heaven, or earth, or Jerusalem—something that sounded holy—but then break their promise, claiming it wasn’t really to God and wasn’t binding. Again, what was supposed to build trust ended up breaking it.

At first glance, divorce and oaths seem totally different from each other and not very applicable to us. But Jesus is using them as examples of the same thing: a life aimed at the wrong target.

In marriage, vows were made to be faithful until death. But men were fighting to find a way out.

In business, oaths were made to seal trust. But people were fighting to find a way out.

The wrong target was a life that was free from commitments. The idea is that life is better when you keep your options open, not when you keep your commitments.

But Jesus flips that upside down. He shows that the good life isn’t found in getting out of a commitment. It’s found in being faithful to one. Because unfaithfulness breaks trust, hurts others, and distances us from God.

So what’s Jesus really saying?

The good life is found in being faithful, not in finding a way out.

APPLICATION.

So, hopefully we can start to see the connection between Jesus’ teaching on oaths and divorce and how they go together.

But what still feels little blurry is how it applies to us. Because, likely, none of us are married, and most of us probably haven’t made any shady business deals recently.

But all of us have a tendency to believe the lie that our life is better when we keep our options open, not when we keep our commitments.

Here’s why that matters to us:

Small loopholes build big habits.

Our daily decisions now, contribute to and build our character for later. If we are the kind of people now who routinely find a way out of small commitments, we will not magically change and become something entirely different when we step into big commitments later.

When we make plans with someone, knowing we’re going to cancel last minute, when we tell someone we’ll pay them back – hoping they’ll forget, those aren’t excusable just because everyone else does them. They become our character, and they will keep us from experiencing the kingdom of heaven as we destroy trust with everyone else.

Stop saying things you don’t intend to follow through on.

I find it fitting for us to talk about this on our night of worship because I believe worship is one of the places where we are most guilty of breaking Jesus’ teaching.

We routinely make promises to God in worship. We say things like “you are my everything,” “if my days tell a story, let it be of Your glory,” “I don’t want anyone else, I don’t need anything else,” all while routinely living without hardly thinking of Him during our day, while promoting ourselves and living for our own glory, and while having all kinds of side things.

I’ve heard a lot of people say worship is their favorite part of the service. Maybe that’s because we’ve turned it into the cheapest part of the service. I wonder if worship is one of the times where we break trust with God the most because we routinely make promises to Him that we do not intend to keep.

But…what if the kingdom of heaven could be available, even for those of us who are starting from there? What if we could ACTUALLY become the kind of people who are faithful to our commitments, even in little things? What if we became the kind of people who could be trusted because we actually did what we said we would do?

What if the church in our area became known for being the most trustworthy people on the planet?

The good news is that we CAN. Jesus has made a way.

And so, middle school, on that note, I’d love for you to go to groups and talk about these questions:

Where’s a place where you’re trying to find a way out?

What would it look like for you to fight to be faithful, even if it cost you?

[Middle School dismiss to groups, High School stays in room for “Messy Groups”]

High School/students still in the room questions

Where’s a place where you’re trying to find a way out?

What commitments are you having a hard time keeping with others? With God?

What needs to change for you to be faithful in your commitments?

[20 minutes of messy groups in the room, either play “Wednesdays Response Playlist” on Quips of have band quietly play over the room.

Student Pastor steps back up to transition into the next moment]

High school, we are going to stay in the room and have a moment to respond in worship. But, hopefully in a different way.

A right relationship with everything and everyone else ONLY flows from a right relationship with God. I’d love to use this next time of worship as a time to make amends between us and God – a time to rebuild trust for promises that we’ve made that we haven’t kept.

Here’s how we’re going to do that – the band is going to sing, and I want you to just listen – don’t sing with them yet.

As they sing, I want you to consider what you’d be committing to by singing this particular song. Think about what promises you’re making to God as you sing the lyrics. And then I want you to decide if that’s a promise you really do want to make to God and are willing to fight to be faithful to, even if it costs you, or not. And once you’re ready, if you decide, join in the band and worship with them.