Pursue Holiness

Hook:

I want to share a story about my first job experience. As soon as I turned 16 and was able to drive, I began interviewing at several places and landed an interview at a local daycare that was attached to a church in my home town.

The interview process was great, they hired me after doing the proper vetting and background checks and all of those types of things.

I had some older friends who had worked there for some time now, and they had what the other teachers called “THE Class”. This was the specific class of kids that everyone was TERRIFIED to be over because of the behavioral issues that came with many of these kids. Do you wanna know what they did to me on my first day? THEY PUT ME IN CHARGE OF THAT CLASS!

On day one, I walk in there thinking they were going to shred me APART. What I learned that day, was that they really just wanted to test the waters. They would start with small things like picking on each other and things like that. It began to progress to more intense behavioral issues until finally by the end of the day we had to have a little pow-wow.

Those kids were trying to see how close they could get to the line without having to face the consequences for their actions. The same honestly can be said about us and our sin.

Sometimes we ask ourselves the wrong questions when it comes to our sin. Sometimes we ask “What can I do? What can I not do?” When the question we should be asking is “Lord… could you show me how to pursue holiness?”

This morning we are going to take a look at what I think is a very heavy passage. But while we are discussing some of the truths I want you to ask yourself this question.. How can I pursue holiness? Let’s read beginning in Matthew 5:27-32.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 5

You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery., 28 But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

DIVORCE PRACTICES CENSURED

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.

Would you pray with me? (Prayer)

We have been visiting the Sermon on the Mount for the past few weeks and it has been phenomenal. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is continuing to give us different standards of holiness that we are called to live.

With a passage like this one, there can be some uncomfortable things to discuss like Lust and Divorce. Nobody enjoys talking about these issues, but Jesus talked about them. I don’t know your whole story. Every person in this room has likely been impacted in some way by lust, adultery, and divorce. You either have experienced something in your lifetime or you know someone who has experienced something in their lifetime. But we can’t shy away from the truths found within God’s Word. I pray today that you don’t hear this message as a condemnation from me, but that you would be encouraged to simply pursue Holiness.

Within this text, there are three truths that I want us to walk away with as it relates to ways in which we sin. The first one is this:

Truth # 1 - We can have sinful thoughts. (v. 27 - 28)

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 5

27 “You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery., 28 But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart

That is a phrase you are going to hear a lot when Jesus is preaching. “You have heard it said… but I tell you...” He said this because Jesus challenged his disciples to surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Let’s look at verse 20:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 5

For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.

This was a shock! Those religious rulers appeared to be extremely righteous due to the fact that they were very concerned with perfecting their outward actions. The problem with that is we have a God who knows the desires of our hearts.

Jesus was simply clarifying the law. Just as last week we saw that Jesus taught how murder AND anger are sinful and worthy of judgement, now he is saying adultery AND lust are sinful and worthy of judgement.

As I was sharing earlier, we have to stop asking questions like “how far is too far?” In the world we live in, we have to be careful with the things indulge in that impact what we think about.

One of the deceiving things about sins that deal with our thoughts is that many times they can be held secret. We can have these lustful thoughts and have this idea that “nobody will ever know”. The problem here is that these types of sins are like a spiritual cancer.

If left uncheck, the lustful thoughts can have severe negative implications in our walk with the Lord, our relationships around us, and even our own emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

I have recently done research for a class on the effects that pornography has on a child, and that is because the first exposure rate is lowering and lowering. These sinful thoughts make us look at ourselves, other people, and what true love looks like in a very different way than God originally designed. We definitely stop looking at people the way God see’s them: image bearers.

And these sinful thoughts can lead to our 2nd truth...

Truth # 2 - We can have sinful actions. (v. 29-30)

The term adultery in Exodus 20:14 refers to a consensual relationship between a person and someone other than his or her spouse. We know that we can sin in many different ways with our actions, so what do we do about that? Let’s look at verse 29-30.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 5

29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Now… please don’t come back on Wednesday and everyone has only one hand and one eye. That would be very unfortunate and also, I don’t wanna get any calls from Pastor Daniel scolding me for have a bunch of hurt church members.

Some in the past in church history have taken these verses quite literally. Self-mutilation and amputations are not the most effective ways to overcome sin, because sin begins with a corrupt heart. However, Jesus here is showing the severity of sin and calls for extreme measures to prevent and eradicate sin. As people of God, we should be vigilant in avoiding sin, making every effort to remain pure.

In today’s context, what could that look like?

Adding Filters to block certain content on the internet that could lead you to sin.

Staying off social media to avoid engaging in non-edifying tweets or posts.

Ridding the technology that infiltrates the mind with filth.

We discussed earlier how lustful desires and sinful thoughts can be viewed as a spiritual cancer that effect other areas in our life that causes us to move toward sinful action. Instead of sitting around and making excuses to our sin in order to make ourselves feel better, maybe now is a good time to take our sin seriously.

We have to realize that we must make sacrifices that may interrupt our temporary desires in order to fulfil our eternal desires. We must do whatever possible to reject sin in our life and to turn back to God. How can this happen?

I want us to camp out here for a second because this is a problem that we need to understand has to addressed within the church. I think because these sexual sins are usually secretive and are usually attached with shame — our culture has this idea that we just have to suffer in silence.

I want you to know, we were NOT created to walk this walk of life alone. There are resources available out there to address some of these temptations, but it takes a willingness to understand the severity of the sin and be willing to do whatever it takes to over come it. And that leads me to our last truth which is this:

Truth # 2 - We can have sinful relationships (v. 31-32)

Jesus spent some time talking about divorce. Now I know that this is a heavy and sensitive topic for a lot of people, and so we going to take this conversation and be gentle and sensitive, yet also biblical and truthful.

Let’s look at what Jesus said in verses 31 and 32.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 5

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

Let’s pause for a second and remember what Jesus has said to bring us to the conversation of divorce:

Murder AND lust are sins against God and others

Adultery AND lust are sins against God and others.

Now he is saying that adultery AND divorce are sins against God and others.

If we are going to look into what divorce is, then we need to evaluate what marriage is. Let’s take a look at what Jesus shared with the Pharisees in Mark 10:6-9.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 10

But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female., 7 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother 8 and the two will become one flesh., So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

I understand that as a single person, I have to approach this conversation in a very specific way, and that is objectively and 100% biblically. According to scripture, there is a covenantal relationship within marriage.

I like what one pastor wrote when he said “At the heart of divorce is a broken covenant and a broken relationship that has been shattered by sin; sin brought about by one or more parties.”

Jesus says we must take the marriage covenant seriously. He says that sexual immorality is the only legitimate reason for a divorce.

Now.. I recognize again that there may be people who have been effected by the things of divorce, and I want to just say that my heart goes out to you. Usually when divorce takes place there is much hurt and there is much pain. Typically people don’t wake up one day in a happy relationship and say “I want my relationship with my partner to end”.

But we live in a broken world, and for that I want you to know that my heart truly hurts for those who’s lives have been effected by divorce.

Lean in and hear me for a minute: we are all sinners effected by sin. Your past does not dictate your future. Today is the day that you can begin, if you haven’t already, to seek restoration. This leads me to the bottom line from today’s passage which is this:

Bottom Line: Pursue Holiness.

Whether you have thoughts in your life that are sinful… now is the time to pursue holiness.

Whether you have actions in your life that are sinful … now is the time to pursue holiness.

Whether you have relational issues in your life that are sinful… now is the time to pursue holiness.

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As we discussed earlier, Time and time again we ask “What can I do? What can I not do?” When the question we should be asking is “Lord… could you show me how to pursue holiness?” So let me leave you with these questions to ponder moving forward:

1.) What sin in your life do you need to release? Jesus gave us a picture of the severity in which we need to take our sins. Now is the time to pursue holiness.

2.) What action steps are next for you in order to release your sin? We know that it is through the reliance of the Holy Spirit, so what are the things we need to add or take away from our life that would grow us in our walk with Christ?

Accountability?

More structured time with the Lord?

More time in prayer and engaging with spiritual disciplines?

How will you pursue holiness this week?

I will be here and others to pray with you, but I want you to take some time to really reflect and allow the Lord to search your heart. Let’s sing together. (Song)