Our Word!

Pledge

Passage:

16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’

17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?

18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’

19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it.

22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

ME:

Turn to your neighbor and say, .....

“Our Word Should Be Enough!”

This statement comes from the perspective of the recipient of this statement. Not from the Speaker! “MY WORD ...”

The value of our word should be a reflection of our character, morals, and reputation.

We are going to look at this thought this morning.

We are going to look at this thought this morning.

Title of the message is “Our Word!”

How many of you have done the “Pinky Swear?”

Made the statement, “Cross my heart and hope to die stick a needle in my eye.”

How many of you belong to a “Secret Club” when you were a kid?

You developed a secret OATH!

Thinking along this same line, how many of you said, “I swear”

...... but you had your fingers crossed?

Transition: Many of us can relate to this right?

You:

Let’s move it up to some adult situations .....

How many of us remember saying the pledge of allegiance?

How many of you have never pledged allegiance to something?

Gotcha!!!!!!

You just did it with the “Pledge to the Bible.”

I am sure there is many in this sanctuary who have taken an Oath during your lifetime ......

Military

Police

Firefighters

Doctors - Hippocratic Oath

Me bringing up these 2 things “OATHS and PLEDGES” ......

You might be wondering, whats the difference between Oath’s and Pledges?

Pledge: A solemn promise or undertaking

Example: “I Pledge my love to you!”

Oath: A solemn promise, often invoking a divine witness

Example: “I swear I will never do that again, so help me God!”

As we look at this idea of ....

“Our Word Being Enough!”

Stating an Oath doesn’t seem to have the same “UMPH” (Value) as it did years ago.

Saying “I promise” or “I Swear” isn’t good enough anymore.

If you don’t believe me go try to buy or build a house.

In 1982 my dad and I went to the bank to ask for a loan to build our house.

I remember this because I went with him.

We were in that bank for about 10 minutes.

The guy asked my dad, “How Much?” and “Who was the builder”

The guy left the office for a few minutes. Came back in with a check!

We stood up and my dad reached across the table and shook the bankers hand!

It was a done deal.

HIS WORD WAS GOOD ENOUGH!

The value of my dads word was a reflection of his character, morals, and reputation.

I wonder if in the day and time we live in today,

...... is it the credibility of a person that had gone down or is it the skepticism of mankind that has gone up, that we don’t see this anymore?

Or could it be because we have over used or DEVALUED the phrase “I swear” way too much anymore. (“I Swear”)

It starts to have the feel of a person saying “I swear” but having their fingers crossed behind their back.

“Our Word Should Be Enough!”

Transition: You know Jesus dealt with this while here on earth?

God:

We are looking at the 3rd WOE found in

If you remember the first 2 WOE’s they both started with “Woe to you , Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites.”

The 3rd one doesn’t! (you could actually be broken down into 3 sections.) all pertaining to the same thing!

(16) “Woe to you, blind guides.” Looking at the word “guides” we know he’s talking to them as leaders!

(17) “You blind fools.” The word fool is the Greek word (MORON)! He is addressing the education! (Smarts)

(19) “You blind men.” This is directed to them as men!” (Manhood)

Addressed to all three - Blind: unable to see spiritually. (Spiritual not physical)

Moving into verses 20-22 we see the reason Jesus is stating this ......

He point out the idea of swearing of oaths.

How wrong they got it! (They had it flipped)!

Studying scripture we come to understand that Jesus endorsed the idea of practicing and teaching this idea .....

“Our Word Should Be Enough!”

The value of our word was to be a reflection of our character, morals, and reputation.

If you think about it long enough .......

Understanding that once we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior ....

We are filled with the Holy Spirit.

So this being the case, Our Word is His word!

“Our Word Should Be Enough!”

Jesus concluded with the idea that the Temple, the gold, the altar, the gift, heaven, and the throne all point to God and remained equally sacred.

So looking through the eyes of Jesus, Oaths were altogether unnecessary:

- 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 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 take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

- 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 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 take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,

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 take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

“A Yes or No was good enough!

Transition: It’s not enough to just know this, we really need to embrace it and put it to practice.

“Our Word Should Be Enough!”

We should long for the value of our word to be a reflection of our character, morals, and reputation.

You:

Our word should be one of our most treasured commodities:

Def. of Commodity - A useful/valuable thing

Lets not live by the phrase:

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

..... Pinky Swear

..... “I Swear” with my fingers crossed behind our backs!

Let’s let our “YES’s” be yes and our “NO’s” be no!

Without having to make an OATH or a PLEDGE!

And let’s seal it with a HAND SHAKE!

We:

What if we take this week and practice making our “Yes’s” yes and our “No’s” no?

Jesus shows us THIS! This was Jesus!

How many of us would like for our spouse to see us this way?

(Our word meant something!)

I swore “I will take out the garbage,” and I did it!

I swore “I will love you till death do us part,” and I meant it!

I swore “I will be with you through better or worse,” and I lived it!

How many of us would like for our Kids to see us this way?

(Our word meant something!)

I swore “you were grounded” and I did it!

I swore “I will always love you,” and I meant it!

I swore “I will be there for you,” and I lived it!

I swore “ I would do all I can to help you succeed in life,” and I’m doing it!

How many of us would like for our family, and friends to see us this way?

(Our word meant something!)

I swore “I will be there,” and I was!

I swore “ I will value our friendship” and I did!

Many of you can relate to this and have practiced it all your life!

But maybe there are some here this morning who have fallen short!

Your word has been tainted by your Character, your morals, your reputation!

I have got some good news for you this morning, You can start a fresh and a new!

Confess and Repent.

This will allow the HOLY SPIRIT to enter into the situation and start helping you redevelop your character, your morals, your reputation.

What if we allow the Holy Spirit to develop my character, my morals, my reputation, my ethics to be able to reflect MY WORD!

What if we allow the Holy Spirit to develop my character, my morals, my character, my ethics to be able to reflect MY WORD!

I swear to be a better parent, son/daughter,

Let’s tell someone we are going to do this and allow them the right to hold us accountable.

I want to give us an opportunity to come and Confess and ask Christ to forgive us.

How do we change a “WOE to a “WOW?”

Let’s strive for our word to be enough!

I SWEAR! (Better spouse, Better Son/daughter, Better child of God, Read my Bible, become more active in serving, ......)

I want to give us an opportunity to come and Confess and ask Christ to forgive us.

To be honest with you, I still have a situation that bothers me today ......

I borrowed some money from my Papaw Kincaid years ago!

I swore I would pay him back!

He passed away before I could!

This would have been great if everyone who has come before us practiced this right?????

Living out the idea that their word was good enough!

“Our Word Should Be Enough!”

I want the value of my word to be a reflection of my character, morals, and reputation.

But unfortunately this has not been the case!

I want to give us an opportunity to come and Confess and ask Christ to forgive us.

It should matter to us the idea of “giving someone our word!”

Making a promise, making a pledge, saying an oath .... all of this should matter to us.

To be honest with you, I still have a situation that bothers me today ......

I borrowed some money from my Papaw Kincaid years ago!

I swore I would pay him back!

He passed away before I could!

Let’s strive for our word to be enough!

I SWEAR! (Better Husband, Better Son, Better man of God, Read my Bible, ......)

Based on our character, morals, and reputation as a person, lets make OUR WORD BE ENOUGH!