Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of honoring marriage and our commitments, drawing from Matthew 5:31-37. He highlights the sanctity of marriage, warning against the casual approach to divorce and the need to uphold the marriage covenant. Bickle also addresses the significance of keeping one's word, urging believers to be truthful in their commitments and to acknowledge when they fall short. He stresses that integrity in both marriage and personal promises is crucial for the health of families and the body of Christ. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a return to valuing the sacredness of marriage and the seriousness of our commitments.

Turn to Matthew chapter 5 as we continue on our series on the Sermon on the Mount Father we come before you and we ask you for your strength to touch our spirit and Holy Spirit we acknowledge your presence We ask you to teach us Teach me Lord even as I'm speaking Teach us fresh call us in a new way to your heart We thank you in the name of Jesus Amen and amen Well in this session, we're going to look at two different Truths that Jesus highlighted in the Sermon on the Mount for those that are new with us paragraph a is a quick review in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is calling us to live out the eight beatitudes and in order to do that he highlights Six temptations that are common to all of us and he says you have to resist those six temptations But it's not enough to say no to the negative. We have to say yes to the positive Then he highlights five kingdom activities that we need to pursue So he tells us six things to resist five things to pursue So that those eight beatitudes grow in our heart like a flower and it comes to full blossom Paragraph B This session we're looking at two of the six negatives that we have to resist We've already looked at two of them in earlier sessions Anger or the spirit of murder we have to say no to Immorality we have to say no to those are the ones we've looked at now here we're going to look at the temptation to disregard the sanctity of marriage Which is very common in society or to minimize it or to see the marriage covenant and and to recognize it exists But not put the value on it that God says to put on it We'll take a little bit of time on that. I'll be brief on that point Then the second temptation Is to not keep our word is to make statements and not follow through on the statements that we make Now these two particular temptations that are common throughout the whole body of Christ They are very important Obviously all six of these temptations to resist them are important But the very health of society and the health of the body of Christ The health of family life is in the balance of God's people continually resisting This temptation to minimize the importance of these two subjects to uphold the truths that are behind What Jesus is calling us to here? Now this subject of the sanctity of marriage. It's not a Popular subject even in the body of Christ today. I mean Jesus is teaching is not popular But I have great zeal for it number one We trust his leadership He is the wisest and the most loving he knows the best for the body of Christ and for the nations of the earth and I want to stand with what he says whether it's popular or Not and I know that you agree So I have zeal to proclaim what he says With confidence that it's right But I also have zeal to to teach on what Jesus says about divorce and remarriage Because we want our 20 year olds To hear this and to form a picture in their mind of their future that Deeply values the sanctity of marriage in the marriage covenant Even if it might happen in years down the road, they don't actually like their spouse in the way they did in the early days But they so honor the covenant and they so value it But they that they live in faithfulness and an appropriate response to their spouse Now the goal is to like your spouse, but a lot of people don't years later in the body of Christ, it's truthful But there's a covenant that's bigger than how things are going in any given season of our life but another reason I have zeal to teach on this some of what Jesus says about marriage and Divorce and remarriage is because we we want Everybody to be trained to be able to counsel from a biblical perspective Maybe you say I'm not a young single person. I'm married. I'm happily married. I don't need to know this. Yes, you do everyone needs to be able to say what the Bible says because this issue is under such attack and there's Tremendous amount of compromise on this subject in the body of Christ and we want to be faithful witnesses to the truth Let's look at Roman numeral 2. Let's look at this first issue the sank disregarding the sanctity of marriage Let's read Matthew 5 verse 31 and 32 Furthermore it has been said whoever divorces his wife Let him give her a certificate of divorce But I say to you Whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality Causes her to commit adultery and then whoever marries her in essence is what he's saying that guy commits adultery as well That's a pretty strong statement Now it's important to know That Jesus gives an incomplete statement here He does not give all that the Bible has to say about this subject in this one verse He's aiming at two very specific things He's aiming at Showing the man who's initiating The divorce He's aiming at Showing him the peril that he's putting his soon-to-be ex-wife in and he's Actually talking to the Pharisees He's correcting the Pharisees in this teaching the religious leaders of the day who had a very casual Approach to divorce and remarriage and he's saying do you understand the peril you're putting this woman in? So he's actually rebuking men and then another thing that he's doing is he's showing of the Particular sanctity that the bond the physical bond that's created through Sexual intimacy together. He's showing how important and how sacred that bond is and that bond supersedes many other issues So he's not Pretending to give a complete statement on marriage on divorce and remarriage But he's pointing out these two issues very clearly And so we read the rest of the testimony of Scripture to get the fuller picture of what's going on So let's look at verse 31 again Jesus said furthermore it's been said now his typical approach in these presenting these six temptations is That first he says what the religious leaders were saying in that day, which was wrong There was always an element of truth in what the religious leader said the religious leader said but it always Minimized much more important truths. And so the sum total of it is they were teaching error So Jesus's approach is here's what the leaders say, but here's what the Bible says or here's what God says Now what the Pharisees were emphasizing is that whoever divorces his wife He has to give her a legal certificate of Divorce he has to fulfill the legal aspects and give her a certificate now Moses back in the Old Testament did command that he said when you go through a divorce You have to give her a certificate that was for her benefit well, they completely perverted what Moses said and Made the giving of their certificate the only thing that God was commanding I said you can divorce her for any reason you want but you have to obey God and give her a certificate and Jesus was saying this is so off the mark of what God was saying through his servants in the Old Testament So in essence The Pharisees were saying it's okay to be divorced. No problem as long as you go through the legal procedure Make sure you give her the certificate So they were not folk. They were focusing on the legality the process the legal process not the sanctity of the marriage covenant at all and Jesus says you've completely missed the issue and They were very casual in their approach to divorce and remarriage and It was putting the women in great jeopardy So Jesus was honoring the marriage covenant and he was actually fighting for the value of women in that society through this teaching paragraph C Just to sum it up real brief that through church history the biblical stance That most agree on not everybody But the the far majority throughout all of church history is there are two biblical reasons for divorce and remarriage the first one being adultery that one of the partners committed adultery and that breaks the physical bond the covenant that was established in their flesh and the second would be desertion Paul the Apostle pointed this out, but it's desertion because of the faith Because one of the fat of the couple became converted and the other one said that you either choose me or Jesus I'm out of here if you choose Jesus and he deserts her because she stays faithful to Jesus Paragraph D now again Jesus was not giving a comprehensive teaching on the subject of divorce and remarriage. It's important to know that So that you don't read verse 32 and say that's it You feel a little bit perplexed. Say that's that's all you have to say. He goes. No. No, that's an incomplete statement let the rest of Scripture fill in the gaps and I Want to point out here I have written here in paragraph D that there are pastoral issues many pastoral issues that Jesus is not addressing right here, but he has He has wisdom and he has heart for these issues Now the pastoral issues I acknowledge them. They're very sensitive the complex painful issues involved in the breaking of a marriage and we don't have a Casual or or kind of a well, that's just too bad. Just do what God says. No with tenderness. We approach the subject Understanding every situation is complex and diverse and cannot be easily understood by somebody observing from the outside But again what Jesus is pointing out here in verse 32 He's really focusing on two things the peril of the woman who is the victim in this situation because the man's initiating the divorce and there has been no unfaithfulness in the marriage he has a Trivial reason because that's what's happening in Jesus's day. The Pharisees were teaching for any reason you could leave her and he is Telling the man in essence. How dare you? how dare you subject her to this peril into this situation before God before man and Another thing Jesus is highlighting again I said it earlier but to say it again the sanctity of the physical bond of marriage that Mysterious union that God declared Back in Genesis chapter 2 verse 24 when he said the two become one flesh That's a mysterious reality That God declared back in Genesis 2 of which the New Testament Quotes that passage probably five or six different times Paragraph e now just to get a perspective of What is necessary for a marriage to be established And what is necessary for marriage to end in God's eyes? number one, there's the Spiritual dimension that has a legal aspect to it Meaning a holy covenant is made between one man and one woman That is witnessed by other people and it is sanctioned confirmed or authorized by the state Now in Romans 13 God gave the state the power to sanction this And see this is what the Pharisees were focused on the certificate Was speaking of the legal part of what the state would sanction you got to give her the legal release They were completely missing the point of what the scripture has to say about divorce and remarriage But the legal part is important Then there's a physical part. There's the consummation of two people becoming one flesh now sexual union outside of marriage to single people That does not constitute them being married because they have that physical union There needs to be the exchange of vows that are witnessed by others that are that is sanctioned or endorsed and confirmed authorized by the state that's how marriage from a biblical point of view is established and A way that marriage is ended in God's eyes takes both parts the legal and it takes the physical both dimensions The legal commitment must be ended. The certificate is given the legal process You go through it. There are again state Sanctioned laws God sanctions the state to make these laws That we uphold and we abide by But the problem with the Pharisees they ended it there and Jesus is oh it doesn't end there There's another dimension that creates a marriage not just the legal one there's the physical one and that physical bond has to be broken and it's only broken if One of the members is physically joined to another Through sexual involvement with them. In other words adultery has to be committed Now if adultery doesn't happen before the divorce both of them were faithful Jesus said the bond is not broken yet legally. It's broken, but not physically They're not divorced yet in God's eyes. They're divorced in the state, but that's not complete until These two one of them because in the marriage they did not they were not unfaithful physically. They got divorced for other reasons Jesus says you're still married and The first one that's involved sexually with another ten years later doesn't matter how long the gap is That's the one that commits adultery and actually finalizes the breaking of the marriage Now the Pharisees didn't like this. They wanted it tidy when the legal process was done They wanted it over and Jesus came and said no Do you understand the value of the sanctity of the physical bond in the marriage covenant? It's bigger than a legal process top of page two Well, Jesus is primary teaching On divorce and remarriage where he gives the most information not all the information, but the most is in Matthew chapter 19 and I listed a number of other passages in the Bible that are necessary to get the larger biblical testimony about divorce and remarriage and For a more complete presentation because I'm not gonna go a lot longer on this is That I gave a teaching on this that represents where our leadership team stands and I went through it with a Quite a bit of detail and that's on the website if you're interested in that It's called divorce and remarriage You go right to the website and see that if you want and I encourage you if you're not instructed on this subject to get Not just if you're about to get divorced and you're looking for your options That's not what not just for that reason But because you want to be a faithful witness of the truth to other people and you want to grasp it so you can speak up for it in a clear way Okay paragraph G Let's go to that passage and just a little portion of it in Matthew 19 where Jesus gives a lot more information than any other one place I'm just taking two verses out of a larger passage. He says in verse 8 Jesus speaking He goes I want you to know that marriage was never ever God's idea. I mean divorce was never ever God's ideal It was a concession God allowed it as a Lesser of evils. He didn't know what he wanted and when Moses allowed it back in the Old Testament He wasn't Commanding you to get a divorce. He was allowing you to get a divorce Because the Pharisees so perverted the teaching of Moses They said Moses commands us to give her give the lady a sir a certificate. We have to do it What option do I have? I want to obey God. Here's the certificate and Jesus said you've completely distorted the whole subject He said because of hardness of heart He allowed it God made a concession now the hardness of heart is 0.1. The one member that was unfaithful Sexually that's because of hardness of heart, but there's the hardness of heart has another dimension Let's say there's been unfaithfulness and now they want to try to reconcile the dynamics that have been created for trust to be established Are so difficult Jesus said because of the hardness of heart God permits the the marriage to end if there was physical unfaithfulness and the dynamics are such afterwards that you Cannot establish the trust again, and it's not just that the woman can't trust the man It's even the man's Defensive at the woman and then she's mad at his defensiveness and then he's evasive and then she's it goes on and on and it compounds there's many dynamics that are involved and wanting to reconcile a Relationship where the trust has been violated and all of these components are under this One word the hardness of heart the difficulty of the human heart to go forward is what he's talking about and then in verse 9 Jesus adds another dimension in verse 9 that he didn't say back in Matthew 5 verse 32 in the Sermon on the Mount Because in chapter 5 32 the passage we're looking at The point that Jesus focused on was the peril of the woman and how bad it was for a man to do this to his Going to be ex-wife and how cruel it was he was actually defending the woman But here he tells the man in verse 9 He goes you're not off the hook either She's not only in peril back in Matthew 5 32 You're in peril to you get rid of her and you get married you commit adultery too Now the idea is in this setting that neither of them up to that point in time have been unfaithful to each other physically Jesus only gave one reason for divorce immorality paragraph to H It's the only one reason Acts of immorality now some people say well You know he looks at pornography, and I'm gonna take this I mean we could go both positions I could talk about the woman being the the initiator and the one that caused the trouble and the man being the victim sometimes it Is that way but throughout this message? I'm going to just talk about the man being the the one that's Initiating the wrong thing and the woman being the victim in the process because that's how Jesus presents it every time the man's the initiator the woman's the victim There's more times than not that's what how it is not always but more times than not But a woman comes to me and asks me says well my husband He's you know addicted to pornography, but he hasn't actually walked out any physical acts of immorality And I say that is a grievous thing There's a defiling presence on your marriage and your family unquestioned and the difficulty I don't want to minimize it it is a huge difficulty, but it is not an act of immorality It has to be a physical act Paragraph I here's the principle The idea is that two couples I? mean two people a couple they have Irreconcilable differences for whatever reason and they separate they divorce, but there has been no physical immorality involved There has been no unfaithfulness before the divorce there both have been Faithful in that regard so though the legal bond is broken the physical one is not yet broken and The one that breaks the physical bond first by being involved sexually with another person That's when the adultery takes place from God's point of view Now there's many cases where you know couples. They've been divorced. They're now remarried years later They come into a place like this or other places and they hear teaching Really we didn't really know The church we were at when no one ever talked about it We just kind of it was the elephant in the room nobody ever addressed We just ignored it and the truth is we were divorced there was no unfaithfulness involved We got divorced. We didn't like each other plus a whole lot more We got divorced. There was no physical immorality and I married my present wife, and are you saying that on our wedding night? That's when the adultery took place, and I'm saying that's what Jesus teaches. Yes Ouch Now my goal isn't to take sides in a debate among men with each other my My commitment is to take a stand with Jesus, and here's what I tell him so I encourage you to Understand this what happened Now that doesn't mean you end your marriage and throw it all away That's not what's going on, but what I recommend people to do if that happens I say maybe you didn't know maybe you did know the all the theological Implications, but I would as a couple get before God and come before the Lord and acknowledge it and say Lord Whether we knew it or did not know it What we did and we acknowledge it to you in our personal life before you and we ask you to forgive us And we want to live in the gratitude of knowing you know what happened No, you know well what happened, and you have graciously forgiven us Whenever I've stepped over a line through the years of my spiritual life I don't want to try to trick God and kind of present it to God with Bible verses different than God knows That's just so Stupid it's really what it is There's a better way to say that but that's just ridiculous to try to trick God with Bible verses I Like to go before the Lord says I blew it I sinned here. I am I'm at your mercy. I love you. You love me I receive your forgiveness, and it becomes a part of my journey and a part of at least my internal story I know it maybe everybody else doesn't know it But I'll know it and it creates a gratitude and an awareness and it creates a caution So I encourage couples that if they've crossed that line And that's part of their new marriage that they acknowledge it before God They don't have to tell others about it if they don't want to now. There's two different camps in the body of Christ We're here on paragraph I these two camps One camp says that the first time that they're sexually involved with that new person That's when the adultery happened. It was an act a One act of adultery, but another camp which I don't agree with says no They had that one act they got married on their wedding night. They Consummated the the marriage their second marriage They're in a permanent state of adultery for the next 30 40 50 years and there are people that teach that And I don't believe that's the biblical That's the right biblical interpretation I believe the one act that broke the bond of the previous marriage That is a one-time deal and God gives mercy for it when it's acknowledged and we come before him in humility Let's look at paragraph J Now let's look at the verse again that we're considering whoever divorces his wife for any reason except for immorality Causes her to commit adultery number one and then the essence is whoever marries her commits adultery So did now the unspoken implication is this? First there was no unfaithfulness in the marriage and they got divorced The guy just didn't like her and it was a trivial reason and he sent her away so there was no unfaithfulness in the marriage that was broken that the divorce and then the Next unspoken point is that man has remained Uninvolved with any other in a sexual way and Then the day she gets married. It's years later hypothetically on that day She commits adultery, but she would say I was forced because of the economic Situation in that day back in the ancient world, which is true today in many places The lady couldn't just go out and get a normal job Things are very different than they are today. She's saying, you know, I have five children I've been cast out of my home. I can't get a job in no way possible and This guy wants to marry me truthfully. I don't even like him But he's gonna supply for my family. Jesus is describing. That's the scenario And he's telling that man who initiated this process for a trivial reason there was no unfaithfulness involved He's saying you got tired of your wife. Do you understand the peril you put her in? Do you understand the cruelty that you're involved in again? He's rebuking men in this verse Particularly the religious leaders because they were leading the pack on this Paragraph K now the second reason for divorce that's biblical and therefore remarriage when it wherever the Bible Permits divorce a biblical reason for divorce then remarriage is assumed as being permitted I believe that's a sound interpretation So here's the second reason desertion for the faith. And again, I've already described it Paul lays it out. It's years later Under the anointing of the Spirit Paul adds a second reason that Jesus did not address in his day Because Jesus was talking to the community of faith within Israel Paul was having Gentile converts across the Roman Empire that were idol worshippers. One of them gets saved the other one says Choose me or Jesus. I'm out of here If you choose Jesus and Paul says if they do that the Matt book that new believing spouse that's been abandoned by their Unbelieving spouse because of the faith they are free they are without any bondage in this regard In other words, they're free to be remarried let's go to top of page three, let's go now to the the fourth temptation the Disregarding the sanctity of marriage was the third temptation that of the six now, we're at the fourth one We're changing gears here. There is an overlap, but it is not exactly the same point And what I'm going to do is explain the context a bit So that when you read the whole passage you can understand it and make sense of the one key point Jesus is making he makes one central point But in order to understand the point you're going to need to read to grasp exactly what he's addressing and its context It starts off in verse 33 the same way as he does the other times what the leaders have been teaching which is wrong What you've heard it said to those of old what the religious leaders are saying and then he Quotes this statement You shall not swear falsely, but you shall perform your oaths to the Lord now at first glance That's a great statement Now there isn't any one Bible verse in the Old Testament that says that exactly But what is what's what Jesus is referring to is the Pharisees put together Five or six different passages that were all similar to each other and they all were about this idea They were not exactly the same but they were similar and they clustered these five or six together and I have in the notes all those verses there and so they summarized what those five or six verses said and the essence was Don't swear falsely, but perform your Oaths to the Lord, but here's what they did The one part was true undoubtedly like all the other things they taught there was a fragment an element of truth But the big point was neglected and minimized There's here's how they taught this the Bible teaches Don't swear don't lie when you make an oath if you make the oath to God But if you don't make it to God you can lie when you make an oath That's where Jesus is going. He's going No, they go. No. No, we're obeying what Moses said every time he said to God and we're obeying him We just don't make the oath to God anymore. We just make other oaths to other Created things like the temple or the gold in the temple or the city of Jerusalem We make oaths on those we appeal to those And Jesus is shaking his head. He goes you completely are perverting what God has said verse 34 He said let me tell you What God really wants you to do let me get to the heart of the issue Don't swear at all and and there's a in my opinion a wrong interpretation to this I'm gonna get that in a moment because in context it's important to see what he's talking about and we'll get there in a minute He goes don't swear by any of these created Things if you swear by heaven, he goes. Well God's over heaven If you swear by earth, he's over the earth You swear by Jerusalem. He's over Jerusalem if you swear By your own head. He's over your head He's over everything don't think you can swear to something created or swear Invoking something creative even something important some sacred object and somehow God is not listening and you're not involving God God's over all of these things So if you swear and appeal to them God's over them, you're still in his presence. He goes out foolish For you to approach it this way Then he goes on and makes the mountain the number one point verse 37 Let your yes BS and let your no be no Now I and he says anything more than this is of the evil one now I think this verse 37 is one of the most significant truths and issues in Bringing transformation to families to marriages to churches. Is this one issue right here? I believe of the six temptations This would be the one that is Violated the most If I had to rank them, I would put this number one I'd put anger as the second one most violated when I was teaching on anger I said anger surely is the one that's most pervasive but Looking at this again I go this is clearly the one this is not a small point here this one issue will Transform the body of Christ right here. It would transform lives and families It will transform relationships this one issue Well, let's look at what this means Paragraph B Now the Pharisees were distorting the application now of the five or six verses they summed up together When they said you should not swear falsely, but perform your oaths to the Lord The main verse that was at the center of the discussion Was the third commandment Now the third of the Ten Commandments the third commandment is Don't take the name of God in vain Now the idea is you could take your commitments in vain as long as you didn't put God's name associated to the commitment So they would read If you if you make an oath in God's name, you have to keep it If you make an oath in somebody else's name, you don't have to keep it and they distorted that passage Okay now Let's go all the way down to eat. Let's skip a few of the Other passages you can read that I'm saying the same thing in different ways that the Pharisees had a whole new system They had vows that were binding and vows that were not binding If you made a vow by something created it wasn't binding it had lesser or had greater degrees of sanctity So if you swore by the temple that was a big one you were gonna have to at least be 50% truthful If you swore by only the gold of the temple Maybe you only 75 only 25% truthful if you swore by your head only You could lie all you want And if the guy that you're swearing to doesn't get it. It's his problem. You didn't swear by God. You didn't violate the Bible So they created this whole new system and that's what Jesus is exposing and And I talked a little bit more about that in these paragraphs a paragraph II what the oath was for because the oath is Biblical in the Old and the New Testament the oath is biblical. You'll see this in a moment But the oaths were to be restricted to only very serious occasions because an oath was this an oath was Invoking the judgment of God if you were lying, that's what the point of an oath in the Bible was That you're in a legal situation You're in a very serious situation The people that you're talking to don't know you two strangers in a conflict in the court of law They don't know your history they don't know your truthfulness you don't know theirs and So they would invoke God that if we're lying he would judge us number one But number two the legal system would also bring penalty to us The legal system would bring a penalty to us it's called perjury Let's look at paragraph F now in the scripture Oaths are permitted Old and New Testament looks like Jesus has never do it again, but he's he's in context He's saying something a little different than you might see at first reading Oaths are permitted in scripture Old and New Testament, and they're actually necessary They're necessary as part of God's Plan to bring order in society again in the legal system The state that has been ordained by God given authority they have the right to punish a liar if they make if They tell a lie under oaths that creates order in society This is a necessary part of the Old and the New Testament teaching, but they're only to be used in formal legal settings What Jesus was? Forbidding was the using of oaths here it is in personal conversations in personal relationships Not in a legal setting you were still to take an oath on The day you were married. It's called a marriage vow. That's biblical. That's not Jesus was not against marriage vows Jesus was not against oaths in formal legal settings He was against the perversion Thank you, though he was against the perversion of the Pharisees who were taking this issue Outside of the seriousness of the legal and and these kind of settings and they were Bringing them into their own personal relationship so a guy would say I swear before God the hundred dollars I owe you may he curse me if I don't pay you Jesus said stop all of that You know that person you've been in a long-term relationship the oaths aren't for people in friendship the oaths are for people in a legal setting that don't know each other that commands or elicits a higher for I mean a believable form of truthfulness Paragraph G Jesus testified under oath to the Sanhedrin even after he taught the Sermon on the Mount Now when he did this he didn't violate the Sermon on the Mount Because in the Sermon on the Mount the teaching we're looking at here He was talking about personal conversations notice also in paragraph G Paul used oaths a number of times to call God as his witness whenever Paul said God is my witness. That's the concept of an oath or a vow He was saying I vowed before God what I'm saying is true. It is in essence what he was saying Okay, let's bring this to a conclusion and page four. Let's look at let's get real practical about our own personal lives Paragraph H. Jesus says Again, he's talking to the Pharisees who perverted the oath-taking to bring them into personal relationships For their everyday dealings with people that they knew he says don't even do it There's no point in using an oath if you know the people it's the ulcer for other settings He says and if you need an oath To get a person to believe you a person that knows you well, that means they've seen you break your word so many times and So now you're invoking God's Judgment on you and you're invoking God's name in a relationship. You know the person I swear by God I will be there tomorrow at 4 Jesus said that's evil He goes your track record is so bad. They won't believe your your simple word So now you invoke God you're taking God's name in vain because you're not gonna follow through anyway He goes you're doing it in order order to manipulate the person to believe you he says don't forget all of that look at paragraph I Hear now this is the the heart of the issue. He says let your let yes be yes This is the number one issue again. This issue will bring transformation to Relationships to marriages to churches to businesses this one issue But it is so often neglected this simple Sermon on the Mount principle He says let your yes be yes and no be no and he me he means everywhere But he's talking about most specifically in their everyday life Where they were violating their oaths in their everyday life because they were not even supposed to use oaths in their everyday life in their relationships with each other Their credibility their reputation of honesty was supposed to be good enough Now let's let's break this down. Jesus is calling for truthfulness and integrity in our commitments truthfulness we make Commitments that in our heart we fully intend to keep and Integrity that when we don't fulfill them we acknowledge them. That's where the integrity is See because of our weakness We will make commitments to people. I mean these commitments are big one are I mean very important ones, but they're very Very they're very incidental small ones Jesus is talking about the whole range of Anything that we say to another person, I mean it could be a big one I'll give you a hundred thousand dollars for this thing. This is the deal and to godly people they shake hands They've given their word and they don't even have to sign a piece of paper. I would go ahead and sign the paper, but My point being It's not just the big subjects it's little subjects I'll be there at four o'clock and we'll have pizza tomorrow The simplest subject whether formal or informal whether big or little Jesus says your word binds you if you say it do it no matter how little it is do it and If you don't do it Because as weak people we don't do it then go to the person you gave the you've made the simple statement I mean the simple utterance of your mouth and Acknowledge it to them. Just go say simple. I said I'd be here for I didn't make it yesterday. I Acknowledge it. I apologize and the guy goes. Yeah, no problem. I had more pizza for myself. I quite enjoyed it It's not a big deal, but we have to have the integrity to acknowledge it That's the point now paragraph J Now I'm gonna break it down kind of the the kind of the the negative That's really going on under the surface when people say yeah, I'm committed and they're not committed And they might even think they are in that minute But they don't mean it enough to follow through and they never ever acknowledge it and go to the person and again It's a one-sentence statement. Hey, I didn't do what I said. I Apologize or you can say forgive me and the person more times than not shrugs it off. This is okay So I'm not a big deal But you have to have the integrity to Follow up with what you say Now I remember That As we were raising our children our two boys Diana and I Luke and Paul They were five six seven eight nine ten all those years and today as well. They're in their 30s That we really enforced and or let's put this way. We greatly valued this rule and I told my sons this Anything I tell you the smallest thing I tell you I'll see you tomorrow for God We'll play Basketball tomorrow the simplest thing or a very important thing anything. I tell you that dad tells you that I do not do I Will come to you look you in the eye and acknowledge. I did not do it I won't need for you to come to me. I will come to you And I'll come to you quickly and I will ask you to forgive me and that happened a number of times Where I thought be home at three didn't get home till four But each time that I'd happen I would look them in the eyes and I would say to them I Did not keep my word. Would you forgive me and my sons? They you know five six seven eight and I think sure we don't care. We're having a great time I go I love that you have a great time but it's critical that I look at you in the eye and acknowledge what I did and give you the chance to respond and It's not only how dad operates It's how you two will operate as well This is the culture of our family This is what we'll do and any time in my relationship with my wife or a simple thing I'll be home at 7 and I'll do this for you and I don't get home at 7 I get home at 8 I look her in the eye and I say I acknowledge I did not come home when I said and I'm gonna go do that Or maybe you committed to give the neighbor kids something and you forgot and a month goes by and the neighbor kid comes here Hey, whatever happened to that ball you were going to give me oops You haven't lost integrity because you forgot but you do lack integrity If you don't look him in the eye and acknowledge it and then make up for it I'm talking about the simplest statements that you make all of them and I don't mean just in your family I mean in the workplace. I Mean if you go far away and you're in the hotel and you tell the lady down in the lobby something Do what you tell her say yeah I'll check this in and I'll do that make sure you follow through and if you don't call her on the phone later and say You know what? I really spaced out. I'm talking about following through on your word This is what Jesus puts the highest priority on this is not a small thing Now what happens in a lot of situations? Paragraph J is that people are promoting themselves in a false way by exaggerating their commitments Like on the front end they want to join the team they want to join the worship team They want to join the soccer team. They want to join the leadership team in the workplace. They want to join anything It doesn't matter if it's well What it is if it's something big or something little and so they cut they sell themselves They oversell themselves as highly committed. I'll do all the details that we agree to Then a few months go by Nobody's looking They don't do what they agreed to when they join the team They skip the practices. They skip the team meetings. They skip the training times They don't do the follow-through on the financial issues. I'm again. There's a thousand different analog illustrations of this It's a big subject it encompasses every area of our life Not just a ministry situation or a social situation or even a job on every situation of life our word binds us Jesus means this really means this well the logic is You know nobody Saw me not do what I agreed to when I first joined the team joined the ministry joined the job joined the marriage Moved in the neighborhood no matter what the subject is No one saw me violate what I said I would do No one's complaining. No one caught me. I guess it's over. The Holy Spirit says it's not over you said you do it Now do it or go acknowledge to the person you said it to acknowledge it to the person over you if they're your boss or your leader in some way of in society or Acknowledge it to the people under you if they're your children or the people that are under you in a team setting Whether again in the marketplace or in the church world or or the athletic world or the music world does it matter? Acknowledge it to the ones over you or the ones under you the ones that are affected by you not doing it now a lot Of folks say if I didn't get caught Nobody must care the Lord says I care cuz you said it you said oh, yeah, I'll do that. I'll be those meetings I'll be those practices sure. That's all you gotta do is say it once the Lord says you're bound Well, they didn't come and rebuke me the Lord says do they need to Jesus is the man who is the truth. He goes you are my representatives. Do you need to wait till they catch you and Rebuke you and then another group They're so evasive when they're caught and they spend the situation and they're deceptive and evasive So they can't fully get caught but they know they're caught Jesus said away with all of that away with all of that kind of a Manipulative way of lead of living life. He goes that's not the kingdom of God a Paragraph J people present themselves That's what's common to all of us They all show up and do the work You know again, they get hired for the job. They go. Yeah, I'll do this little task But as long as you're watching me, I'll do it or it says no, I'll attend the meeting. I'll go to the practice I'll go to the social event. You're not going say you're not going or at least don't say you are going but if you agree to join Any situation the formal and the informal agreements that are all understood you're bound by them If you say I can't live by them, then you can't join that group or that workplace or that ministry or that Social club or whatever it is You can't join it if you can't abide by but you can't agree to it and then just ignore the rules That's what Jesus is saying here Now what I'm telling you this for two reasons I've been a pastor for over 35 years and The first 10 years this really threw me off the subject because Nobody is better at this than gifted leaders at Selling themselves as committed then after giving three to six months and no one watching. They don't do what they said in the details That's why they're leaders. They're gifted communicators. They're good at it and Then you can trap them you get them in a position. They evade it. Anyway Many leaders, I'm not talking about just the church. I've done with the whole earth. I've done by humans. It's a human problem Not a Christian problem Well the first 10 years that threw me off one of my biggest challenges in leadership was getting leaders who were aggressive For three months and sold themselves, but I couldn't get them to do it unless I was watching them So I I got discouraged by that in my early days, but then when I understood that's how life is it doesn't offend me now It's grievous between them and God even though they may not know it, but it doesn't offend me now didn't throw me off It's everywhere in the body of Christ. We have plenty of it at IHOP Plenty of it outside of IHOP. It's how humans are So I'm telling you this so as a leader or potential leader. You're not offended You're not confused by this because leaders are the best at it But I'm also telling you for another reason That you determine I'm not gonna be a person like this, that's not how I'm gonna live I'm not gonna be a person that does what I say only if people catch me I will do it because it's right look at paragraph K Our word is our bond To exaggerate a commitment Yeah, I'll be there. I'll do it. I'll follow through. I'll do the little task. I'll solve the little problem and Not to do it, but to sell yourself as one that will do it is a lie It's a paragraph L. It's a part of an expression of a spirit of manipulation. We're promoting ourself in a way. That's not truthful We're portraying ourself as more committed than we actually are See a guy comes and he goes and interviews at the marketplace and the group they hear his story and they see his resume and They applaud him or her and they say hey, what an amazing guy, but after a few months he won't do the things he sold himself To that company to do they don't follow through they didn't present themselves in truth now again paragraph in If we acknowledge it here's where the integrity comes in the integrity you don't lose your integrity because you forget oh My goodness I told that neighborhood kid I would do this. Oh, I told my friend far away Oh, I forgot forgetting doesn't not constitute lacking integrity But when you remember or they tell you then you acknowledge it and then you follow through and ask them Ask them to forgive you or at least apologize either way you want to say it But if you remember before they bring it up get right on it get right on it You don't lack integrity if you're overwhelmed run late drop the ball But you lack integrity if you don't acknowledge it to the people over you or the people under you whichever is appropriate Now this really applies to marriage Again I've made this commitment to Diane we've been married 35 years I said what if I don't do the slightest thing I say and I don't acknowledge it. I beg you to tell me She says I will I don't know that's biblical. That's how we do our relationship You just whisper it just a hint. You know yesterday. You told me you would do this I go oops, and I have many times forgot it, but I'll say thank you because it's not okay with me to live that way I said I'll do it now or I can't do it now because I gotta go do this can't do it tomorrow Yeah, and but I need to own up that I do it so you again You don't lose the you don't lack the integrity if you forget or you space out or things happen You like the integrity if you don't follow through with it Now I've had people you know someone came to me I've heard these stories over the years, and you know the guy goes and he rents the room You know we got a lot of renters here. You know in our community So the guy rents the room for $300 to the landlord Then the last month he moves back home Because maybe the semester is over and I hop you And he gets home, and he goes hey, I got away with my last month's rent because she doesn't know where I live anyway I live far away, and then they ha ha ha they kind of brag about it, and the Lord's grieved by that No, no never do that never I mean if you have to go work double time when you go back home You call that lady on the phone and say I really messed up. I moved back I made a mess. I am gonna pay you plus some for that last 300 months I mean that the last $300 that last month or let's say you paid the last month I'm just making it. You know student level application here. That's so you can put big numbers on this to financially The guy says no I paid my last month $300 but the truth is I broke something But they didn't catch it And they won't even know it for a few months. I got away with it Lord says no You pay for what was broken Pay your last month's rent and pay for it for what was broken. That's biblical Don't get away with it because they're not caught and nobody confronted you because you love God you are an ambassador of truth You are a person of truth. Well. I'll give you a sneak preview on next week Next week isn't pay for it if you broke it next week is if you didn't break it And you find it and you live there pay for it anyway Come back next week for that one Jesus is ramping it up. I mean what a glorious thing. I mean this this is serious everywhere we go We should pay more and leave blessing and not try to cut corners and rip people off if you rent someplace You ought to leave the yard better and the house better than they gave it to you because you're a citizen of the kingdom of God That's what we do and the lady goes like oh, I remember years ago. There was a about 80 plus families all from the church that I pastor they can't say we all lived in a three or four block neighborhood over 80 families for about 10 years it was amazing and Here's what happened and I say this because I'm just so proud of it that I talked to the manager of it He was there the whole time. He said one thing about your people they came in and rented They're all bunch of duplexes and when they left my property was Significantly improved because your people lived here the yards were better the houses were better. They improved everything He said what kind of people are you anyway? And I was so proud of that testimony in my heart. I said yes, that's how our students should be That's how we should be everywhere we go Again, you go to a hotel room over in Europe on a ministry trip do something better for that hotel instead of rip them off Maybe just a little bit, but make every place you go a little better because you were there Let's end with paragraph Oh David says the same thing twice He says and you can read it on your own, but in verse 1 He he says who will abide in your presence who will dwell on your hill meaning who can experience your presence? That's what verse 1 means who can experience the presence of God Then he gives the answer the person who speaks truth in his heart now He's not talking about a person that is standing in a theological debate saying Jesus is the only way of salvation I speak truth of my heart. That's important, but that's not what he's talking about here He says they speak the truth and they back up they do the simple things. They said they would do That's the kind of person that enters into the presence of God Says verse 4 they swear to their own hurt meaning they make a deal and it goes bad that deal goes bad But it hurts them because it didn't work, right? But they'll keep their word. They won't back away and the guy says, hey, I'm sorry this went bad for you guys There's no I made us I gave my word it went bad. That's too bad. I'm not changing you can count on me I gave you my word. I'm talking about the simple things of life Psalm 24 he says the same thing in verse 3 who will ascend the hill who will stand in the holy place It means who can know who can experience his presence the same principle David says it over and over See, we can't lie to people even in this simple way by saying hey, I'll be there for Me tomorrow. Hey, I'll do the shuttles. Yeah, I'll be the usher. I'm making real simple little things Yeah, I'll come help with your children run next week at 2 o'clock and you don't do we can't lie in simple things And then go in the presence of God and say God take my words. Seriously. God says I know but you lie I watch you lie Come in my presence with truth Amen, and amen, let's stand