“Save the Man, Save The Fam!”

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said to those of old,^[c] ‘You shall not commit adultery.’^[d] 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell..

³¹ “Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’³² But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality^[e] causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. Matthew 5

They say that one of the hardest topics to preach on today is divorce.  Usually it is not divorce itself that is the issue, but whether a divorced person can remarry. Almost all polls show that the national average for divorce among Christians is almost identical to that of non-Christians.  About thirty-three percent of Christian marriages end up in divorce. Christian leaders must be faithful to teach what the Bible instructs about divorce; however, I suggest that we are not spending nearly enough time trying to prevent divorce from happening in the first place. The church today does not properly disciple believers. Discipleship is instructing and encouraging people to live out the teachings of Jesus. If the church turned its focus back to making disciples, the divorce rate among Christians would drop significantly.

When I graduated from Bible College, the preacher who gave the closing sermon was a pastor from New Orleans that had done a restorative work in the city by holding to a slogan “Save the man, save the fam!” The idea was if you get the man to step up and be a disciple, the family has a much better shot at making it. One area that men can step up in discipleship is in the area of lust. If divorce is one of the harder topics to talk about in church, lust is the one almost never talked about. Make no mistake about it, lust is a killer. You may dismiss how important your thought life is, but Jesus doesn’t. He says that it would be better to gouge our eyes out than to do what amounts to adultery in the heart. Lust at the very least leads to dissatisfaction with our wives. It can also lead to pornography addiction and/or adultery, both of which often  lead to the end of a marriage.   Men take your thoughts captive, honor your wives, and help save your marriage. 

Hindrance to Worship

Worship is a big deal. Worship is a big deal in a true biblical sense. God deserves and demands our minds attention and our hearts affection. Worship is also a big deal in another way. In today’s church, there is much conflict over worship. Quarreling over style of worship, such as whether to have traditional hymns or contemporary praise and worship, is common place in many churches. Even when style is agreed upon, people often feel the liberty to criticize those leading worship. It seems that if someone comes to church and does not feel the presence of the Lord during worship, it must be the worship team’s fault. After all, who is left to blame? If the worship at your church constantly falls short of your expectations, I would like to suggest that maybe it has nothing to do with the style of worship or the worship team. Maybe there is another problem much closer to home.

In Matthew 5, Jesus warns of the dangers of  the inner attitudes of the heart (i.e. anger). Even a slip of the tongue that leads us to say “you fool” to our brother, is enough to warrant eternity in hell according to Jesus (Matt 5:22).  It is in addressing this that Jesus says, “²³ Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”  Bringing a gift to the altar was an act of worship. Jesus says if you said something to offend your brother or even if you have anger in your heart toward your sister, deal with that before you come to worship God.  We often downplay how important our horizontal relationships are. God does not.  The Lord is saying, “Before you come and expect intimacy with Me in worship, get right with the people in your life.”

Let’s not enter into worship haphazardly. Many people get up on Sunday morning and do not even consider preparing their hearts to worship the Lord. Make it a practice to let the Lord examine your heart before you come to worship.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any sin that has not been confessed. And of course if you know of anyone that you have hurt, or any relationship that needs to be reconciled, do what you can to reconcile that relationship. In being obedient to God we are drawing near to God, and if we draw near to God He will draw near to us.

Why Should You Go To Heaven?

For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Matt 5:20

You are standing before God on Judgment Day. He asks you a question. “Why should I allow you into Heaven?” What is your answer? Take a second to think about that question. Most people will say that God should let them into heaven “because they are a good person.” If that is your answer, you may want to take some more time to think about it.  

Most people who think that they are good think so because they have their own standard for goodness. Jesus says unless your righteousness (or goodness) exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you are not going to heaven. That may not mean a lot to us, but the scribes and the Pharisees devoted their whole lives to trying to be good.  They devoted all their time and energy trying to do the “do’s” and not do the “don’ts”.  If you were part of Jesus’s original audience, His statement would have made your attempt at getting to heaven based on your own goodness seem futile.

So what or who is the standard for goodness? Jesus said that “No one is good but One, that is, God.” So the standard for goodness is not your neighbor, the sickos on the news, or even religious leaders, but the standard for good is God. Moral perfection is the standard you must meet. Even our lies, which most people dismiss because we all lie, are enough to damn us.  The Bible tells us that “all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone” (Rev 20:8) God is a God of truth, and in Him there is nothing false. Lying goes against God’s perfect moral character.

Who then can go to heaven? No one who trusts in their own goodness can go to heaven. If you want to go to heaven the first thing you have to do is realize that your own goodness will not get you there. The Good News is that God sent His own Son to Earth. Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and never sinned. He voluntarily laid down His own life on the cross to pay for the sins you have committed. The punishment you deserve for being a liar, a thief, a person filled with lust, or a person who hates their neighbor was paid for by Jesus on the cross.

God requires that you believe in Jesus’s work on the cross for you. The trust you once had placed in your own goodness to get you into heaven needs to be placed in Christ’s death and resurrection. Believe that the Son of God died in your place to pay for your sin. Turn from your life of sin. Turn towards God.  By this you will enter the kingdom of heaven.  

Somebody’s Watching You

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.  Matt 5

A few years ago a friend told me that they really respected my walk with the Lord. I say this not to boast, but to point out that if the person would not have told me, I never would have known they were paying attention. It seems they were evaluating my life and my walk with the Lord more closely then I realized. Many of you, at one point or another in your life, have heard the same thing from someone and you probably have been just as surprised. This could have even happened in a negative sense. Maybe you had stumbled a bit and someone told you that your actions let them down. Maybe your stumbling caused someone else to struggle with their faith. Most of us don’t like to think that we are being watched that closely, but like it or not, it is reality. We are all role models for somebody. Most of you can remember a time when you caught a young child mimicking your actions. You sat at the table with your arms folded on the table and noticed the child doing the same. When you moved one hand up under your chin, they did the same. It is just natural. People look to us and want an example to follow, or they look to us for inspiration.

Jesus tells His followers that they “are the salt of the earth” and that “they are the light of the world.”  As a follower of Jesus we have a chance to make a real impact on the world around us by living out His teachings. Living the way Jesus instructs us to live is winsome. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”  When we live out Jesus’s teachings, we become a living example of what God can do in a person’s life. When we love like Jesus commands to love, they see the love of God lived out in their world. Commit to living out Jesus’s teachings, and you will have an impact on your family, friends and coworkers. They are watching anyway, so you might as well show them Jesus.

Great is Your Reward

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,

    For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5

Persecution of Christians is not something that most people associate with America. There is a different type of persecution in America for those who follow Jesus. Christians in other countries can face imprisonment, and even death, for simply being associated with Christ. In America, persecution comes from following Jesus’s teachings.

Often in America the type of persecution we see is subtle. Teenagers get shunned from the “in” crowd for taking a moral stand for Jesus Christ.  Adults in the business world can be passed over for a promotion for taking an ethical stand for Jesus Christ. These examples may not sound subtle, but the persecutors rarely tell the persecutees that “we don’t want to be around you because you are following Christ’s teachings” or “we will not promote you because we need a liar to fill the position for our own financial gain.” They are just left out or passed over. In that way the persecution is subtle. 

The promise of Jesus is that He will more than make up for what we lose out on here on earth by rewarding us in heaven. (vs. 12) To a teenager, acceptance by their peers is everything, and social scorn is devastating. To a parent trying to provide for their family, the money that comes with a promotion could help meet the family’s needs. However, Jesus actually tells us to rejoice when persecuted, because great is our reward in heaven.  Most people do not realize that God actually rewards us in accordance with our faithfulness, but He does. Here in Matthew 5, Jesus says that our reward will be “great” (see also Matt 25:14-30, 1 Cor. 3:13-15).  Both the teenager that is left out now and the business man who loses out now will be rewarded in heaven, and that reward will last forever. That is great incentive when compared to the earthly treasure that does not last and never really satisfies anyway. 

There is a saying that you can’t out give God. God is the greatest giver there is. When you lose out on the American Dream, which is vanishing anyway because you are persecuted for following Jesus, rejoice because God has so much more in store for you!    

Don’t be a Troublemaker

Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9

Not too long ago I found myself teasing a relative of mine about a recent quarrel they had with another relative.  My intent was not malicious; I just thought it was fun to inject some levity into the situation. While I was still speaking, the Lord brought Matthew 5:9 to my mind, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”  My conscience would not allow me to continue on with my banter.  I abruptly stopped and offered an apology.  Perhaps what I saw as just a little playfulness with my relative, may have been stirring-up some hard feelings about another person, thus making strife not peace.  

Some people go way farther than injecting a little levity into a situation. Some people delight in stirring up trouble between people. Their relationships are in shambles, and in some weird way it makes them feel better if other’s relationships are a mess as well. They thrive off of the drama that is created in these moments. If you don’t believe me watch many of those pathetic reality shows on TV (on second thought don’t).

Jesus says that the peacemakers shall be called sons of God. When a person is a peacemaker he seeks to reconcile two parties. There is nothing closer to the heart of God than reconciliation. God sent His Son to the cross so that man could be reconciled to God.  Instead of stirring up trouble between two people, we should seek to reconcile them. When you do this you are acting in harmony with the character and nature of your Heavenly Father.

The ultimate job for the peacemaker comes not between man and man, but between man and God.  The Apostle Paul considered it his high calling to have a ministry of reconciliation. He stated “ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20  We too should be peacemakers, acting as God’s ambassador and pleading with those around us to be reconciled to Him. 

A Pure Heart

⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8

When I first got saved one of my goals was to keep my sins to a minimum or, better yet, get rid of them all together. Like you, I have a list of the ones that seem to plague me the most. Twenty years later, I have made advancement in the battle against these sins. As a matter of fact, if you told me twenty years ago about the progress I might make, I would have been pretty happy, maybe even proud.  However, twenty years later I know better.  You see my list of “don’ts” was all external. Do not do this. Do not do that. Do not act out on that impulse. But what I know twenty years later is that my heart can also defile me. I understood do not commit adultery, but Jesus says do not even think about it.  I know I should not murder and have never even come close, but Jesus says that if we are angry without cause we are in danger of judgment. Where does that leave me? Pretty hard to be proud when you have to look inward, not just outward. It makes me want to be like the Apostle Paul and shout “Who will save this wretched man!”

It is Jesus who saves this wretched man. The good news is that Jesus died to save those who are not pure in heart. That includes of us. No one is born with a pure heart. If you don’t believe me, read Romans 3. When we accept Jesus as our Savior we become more than just forgiven. We are born again.  The Bible says that we become new creatures in Christ. Just like the growth of a child born into this world we as Christians grow as well. We start off as babies and hopefully grow into mature Christians. This includes growing our character, victory over sin, and even the purification of our hearts. 

The question is how do we grow and allow our hearts to become purified. There are a lot of legitimate things we can do to grow as Christians and help purify our hearts, but I would like to explore just one area -- relationship. Christianity is not a religion; it is a relationship with God. Spending time with God purifies our hearts. If you sit in God’s presence it will change you; furthermore, we become like whom spend time with. Spend time in prayer, as David prayed “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” (Ps. 51:10). Spend time reading His Word. Spend time with His body (the church). Spending time with God in these will purify your heart.

When we spend time looking inward it can be a pretty scary thing. Thanks be to God who gives us the grace to change not only what we look like outwardly, but who we are inwardly.