Sermon Tone Analysis

O Worship The King

WELCOME

Good morning family!

Hear the Word of the Lord...

Psalm 19:7-9—“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.”

In a world of lies, we gather to remind ourselves about the truth

In just a moment we’ll hear a reading from the text for today’s sermon in Matthew 5:33-37.

Turn there now.

While you’re turning there, pay attention to 3 important announcements...

1) A word about PBC.

We are servants.

In 15 years of ministry, I’ve repeatedly seen that those who are happiest and healthiest in the local church are those who are faithfully serving

Concerns about Covid-19 and serving

You get out of it what you put into it

One of the most important ways for you to serve is by your active involvement in our Members Meetings

4x a year

You’ll hear about areas to serve and people to serve

2) Members Meeting & Chili Cook-off

Tonight at 5

Bringing chili?

Arrive by 4:45

3) One of the items on the agenda for this evening is...

something our constitution requires us to announce at two worship services prior to a vote...

Tonight we’ll be voting on hiring Sam Garcia as Student Ministry Leader

You can read more in one of the MM Packets, available at the blue flag

Now look in your Bibles at Matthew 5:33 as Lynne Jones comes to read for us.

Scripture Reading (Matthew 5:33-37)

Prayer of Praise (God is glorious)

Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me

Come Thou Fount

Prayer of Confession (Jeremy Collins), unthankfulness

Come As You Are

PBC CATECHISM #

How important is the Word of God?

The Bible includes within it the only way of salvation and has its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

The Bible alone is our final authority for all doctrine and practice.

PASTORAL PRAYER (Mike Lindell)

SERMON

Thank Eli

Now let’s talk about lying...

When I was at the airport on my way to my brother’s wedding, I saw a man with a t-shirt that boasted, “Lying is 95% of what I do.”

Since I know that 73.6% of statistics are made up on the spot, I was skeptical that his shirt was really telling me the truth.

Besides, can you really trust a person who lies that much to honestly report how often he lies?

The truth is, lying is a bigger problem than most of us are willing to admit.

Researchers suggests we are lied to as many as 200 times a day.

[1]

A study conducted by the University of Massachusetts found, “60 percent of people lied at least once during a 10-minute conversation and told an average of two to three lies.”

[2]

Apparently lying isn’t a learned behavior either.

Researchers have discovered that babies begin deceiving as early as 6 months old, before they even learn how to talk.

[3]

But not everybody lies in the same way...

A recent study of Britons revealed that men tell an average of six times a day, while women lie an average of three times a day.

[4]

This is just a guess, but one reason for the difference may be that men don’t ask women, “does this outfit make me look fat?”

That same study found that the most common lie told by both men and women is “Nothing’s wrong, I’m fine.”

[5]

Just imagine what would happen if our pants really caught on fire every time we said that and it wasn’t really true?

We laugh about these things, but the truth is lying hurts.

It hurts those you lie to, sometimes tearing down trust that takes years to rebuild.

It hurts those you lie about, sometimes destroying reputations, careers, marriages, families, and more

It hurts the one telling the lie, as you slowly lose your grip on reality and constantly live with the fear of being found out.

Jesus cares.

Turn to Matthew 5:33

Jesus is preaching a sermon to His disciples about how to live rightly as citizens of the coming kingdom of heaven

He’s contrasting kingdom righteousness with the righteousness of the religious teachers

“You have heard that, but I say to you this”

1) vv.

21-26, Jesus looks beyond the prohibition of murder to the anger that drives it

2) vv.

27-30, Jesus looks beyond the prohibition of adultery to the lust that precedes it

3) vv.

31-32, Jesus looks beyond provisions for divorce to the Creator’s intent for marriage

In today’s text, Jesus looks beyond the common thinking about swearing oaths to God’s desire for His people to be truthful

Jesus cares about the truth because He cares about you.

In our text, we’ll see without a doubt that Jesus cares about the truth.

But one of the surprising reasons Jesus cares about the truth is because He cares about people.

Two Types of People Jesus Cares for:

Jesus Cares for VICTIMS of Lies

By victim of lies, I’m referring to those who are lied to and those who are lied about

If someone has ever lied to you or lied about you, I have good news for you.

Jesus cares for you.

It is Jesus’ care for victims of lies that motivates His teaching on this topic

5:33-36—“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.’

But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, 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.

To understand how these words are like medicine to the victims of lies, we need to understand the context...

6 Questions to understand the context:

What is an oath?

In an oath a person calls upon someone or something to bear witness to the truthfulness of what is said, while agreeing to certain penalties if the speaker isn’t truthful.

We actually talked about one oath a few weeks ago in Numbers 5. When a woman was suspected of adultery by her husband without any evidence, she would be brought to the priest and one of the things she would do is swear an oath that she had been faithful

Modern oaths:

“Cross my heart and hope to die”

Disney’s Robin Hood, Toby the turtle is told to swear an oath that he won’t tell anyone that Skippy the bunny is sneaking into the palace grounds to fetch his arrow.

The oath goes like this: “Spider, snakes and a lizard's head.

If I tattletale, I'll die till I'm dead.”

“I swear to God!”

Why is Jesus talking about oaths?

v. 33—“...you have heard that it was said to those of old...”

What follows is not a direct OT quote, indicating that again Jesus is dealing with a perversion of the law, not the law itself

What did the law say about oaths?

Leviticus 19:12—“You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.”

The law forbade irreverent oaths

Numbers 30:2—“If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word.

He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”